ESPN College BBall 2K5

[HOYAPLAYA]

Just got it for Christmas and we're off to a 3-1 start. I lost to Temple, but it was a lot closer than the real matchup. The game basically went in to cheat mode with about 5 minutes left as I was up by 10 at that point and couldn't hit a basket to save my life. I guess the game must have thought that Esh was still coaching.

Either way, the game play is probably the best game that I've played yet as for realism. Double pump shots rarely fall, out of control drives end in charges and wide open 3 pointers are about the only ones that you can knock down on a consistent basis. It's been a year and a half since I bought my last PS2 game and for $19.99 (that's how much my brother-in-law spent), I think it's worth it. Anyone else have a PS2 and willing to get together for some online gaming with the hoyas. Maybe we can team up and beat the hell out of some Cuse fans.

[JimmyHoya]

Yeah, the game rules.

I blew the game to Temple, then was upset by Davidson

gut have come back strong with big wins over Maryland (107-69!) and a close loss to Illonois. I'm playing the chapionship of the "Paradise" Classis versus USC next.

And because of stamina issues, I run 8-9 people off the bench, on a rotating basis based on who's hot.

Guibunda, Hibbs, and Green are all big contributers to the team.

[HOYAPLAYA]

Dizdarevic has made it into my rotation when I get into foul trouble and Guibunda sees time instead of AKD.

Dizdarevic is hitting on abou t 70% of his threes so far so I try not to shoot to much with him. It just seems that he is always wide open.

I tell you I love the way the zone defense is played by the computer controlled players. Most games the players run around without a purpose, but this game has them moving pretty much as they should.

[JimmyHoya]

Yeah, and the lead pass thing is great. Helps a lot for those oh so beautiful backdoor cuts.

And AKD, Kenny Izzo, Beal and Wallace of essentially been benched. Everytime Wallace comes in, he plays like the real life Ray Reed, while VG-Reed plays to his potentional.

[HOYAPLAYA]

I've kept Wallace in my starting lineup, but he is clearly the worst of my starters right now (shooting about 30%). Bowman has been surprisingly consistent and Hibbs is a rebounding machine (although he gets exhausted after about 4 minutes of play).

[HOYAPLAYA]

JimmyHoya said:

Yeah, the game rules.

I blew the game to Temple, then was upset by Davidson

gut have come back strong with big wins over Maryland (107-69!) and a close loss to Illonois. I'm playing the chapionship of the "Paradise" Classis versus USC next.

How good is Illinois in the game? I've got them up next and don't have a good feeling about pulling off the upset.

[Cambridge]

Illinois is out of control good. I got blown out by about 15. Ouch. Anyways, I love the playbooks and the recruiting. Jeff Green is beast in the game. In fact, so is Hibbert.

[HoyaFanNY]

i got the ea sports ncaa hoops game for xmas. does anyone have both that and the espn game to compare? i think the ea sports game is greatly improved over previous years. i am beginning my dynasty shortly. i had to rename and number the hoyas players.

[HOYAPLAYA]

HoyaFanNY said:

i got the ea sports ncaa hoops game for xmas. does anyone have both that and the espn game to compare? i think the ea sports game is greatly improved over previous years. i am beginning my dynasty shortly. i had to rename and number the hoyas players.

No need to re-number the Hoyas in the ESPN game as all of the numbers are right. They even did their research on the little guys as I checked the Brown Univ. basketball team and not only were the numbers right, but they knew which players were good also. I was even more impressed when I went to rename the Hoyas and found that there is a database of first and last names that includes every combination of the real names in college bball today. The last name Kilkenny-Diaw, Dizdarevic and Guibunda are just not common enough for me to believe that they included them for no reason. It makes it that much easier to name your team, when you only have to put in the first few letters of the last name and can then select it from a list. I have to believe there is some code out there that will allow you to get all the names on the players for every team without keying in a thing. It may be going overboard, but it's hell of a lot easier to know who to guard tight when you recognize the names. I may just name the Big East teams and take it from there. I've heard that the ESPN game got better reviews than the EA sports but I have to admit that it has been a long time since I purchased/played an EA sports basketball game. When I was playing with the Lakers against the Sixers a few years back and Iverson blocked Shaq, I decided that it wasn't worth my time to play that crap if they weren't going to take the time to make it more realistic.

[jerseyhoya34]

Any chance they make these games for PCs rather than gaming systems?

[HOYAPLAYA]

JerseyHoya34 said:

Any chance they make these games for PCs rather than gaming systems?

For some reason, they typically only make the pro games available on the PC. I'm not sure why this is the case.

[JimmyHoya]

The PC market for those games is already small, and since college games are really only an american taste, it's not worth making them for only a sale of maybe 15-20,000 units.

[HoyaFanNY]

i played my first dynasty game last night and won at colgate 93-84. i had a TON of fouls called on me, mostly on inside play from the devastating colgate front line. both bowman and owens fouled out. after the game i noticed the settings were set very high for user fouling. the 'gate killed me on the boards and in the paint. i think i have to tweak the gameplay settings some more. i had a ton of block s and steals. also, i had to create wallace and i think i made him too good.......20 pts 9 asts 7 stls!!!!!

overall, i think the game is an improvement over the garbage EA disguised as a college hoops game before. since the espn game is so cheap, i'll probably just buy that one too.

[HOYAPLAYA]

I shook up the world with an upset of Illinois (71-68) last night and then followed that up with a blowout loss to Oral Roberts (81-63). Bowman came up big against Illinois with a 18 and 11 while Owens dropped in 15. Against ORU, PG #1 (Ken Tutt) dropped 42 on me and was unstoppable. I even tried the Box and 1 and he just torched me from the inside, outside and had my guards in foul trouble all game.

I had to get one more game in after the loss and blew out Norfolk St. by 34.

[hoyatables]

My brother got it for XBox and we've been playing it quite a bit on the break. I used some better teams while I adjusted to a somewhat steep learning curve, but now I'm trying to make it work with the Hoyas.

Hibbert is a beast. He's also maddeningly inconsistent. When he's good, he's very very good, but when he's bad, it is traumatic to watch.

I need to just figure out which offensive strategies work best with this team...I can't seem to put together anything consistent with the Hoyas.

[CTHoyaParanoya]

HOYAPLAYA said:

No need to re-number the Hoyas in the ESPN game as all of the numbers are right. They even did their research on the little guys as I checked the Brown Univ. basketball team and not only were the numbers right, but they knew which players were good also. I was even more impressed when I went to rename the Hoyas and found that there is a database of first and last names that includes every combination of the real names in college bball today. The last name Kilkenny-Diaw, Dizdarevic and Guibunda are just not common enough for me to believe that they included them for no reason. It makes it that much easier to name your team, when you only have to put in the first few letters of the last name and can then select it from a list. I have to believe there is some code out there that will allow you to get all the names on the players for every team without keying in a thing. It may be going overboard, but it's hell of a lot easier to know who to guard tight when you recognize the names. I may just name the Big East teams and take it from there. I've heard that the ESPN game got better reviews than the EA sports but I have to admit that it has been a long time since I purchased/played an EA sports basketball game. When I was playing with the Lakers against the Sixers a few years back and Iverson blocked Shaq, I decided that it wasn't worth my time to play that crap if they weren't going to take the time to make it more realistic.

Hey If you go on Ebay and look for Espn College Hoops Rosters there will be people selling the rosters on a memory card. I purchased one for under 5 bucks, sent, him my memory card and a week later got it back and had all the names in the game.

[HOYAPLAYA]

CTHoyaParanoya said:

Hey If you go on Ebay and look for Espn College Hoops Rosters there will be people selling the rosters on a memory card. I purchased one for under 5 bucks, sent, him my memory card and a week later got it back and had all the names in the game.

Do you know if anyone is selling the memory card along with the names? I don't really want to send my memory card to someone only to get it right back.

[CTHoyaParanoya]

HOYAPLAYA said:

Do you know if anyone is selling the memory card along with the names? I don't really want to send my memory card to someone only to get it right back.

Usually the people have downloaded the rosters and they end up putting them on YOUR memory card if you send it to them.... Though there are also people who have the rosters already on a memory card and you can purchase the memory card with the rosters for usually around 20 bucks... check ebay!

[HOYAPLAYA]

CTHoyaParanoya said:

Usually the people have downloaded the rosters and they end up putting them on YOUR memory card if you send it to them.... Though there are also people who have the rosters already on a memory card and you can purchase the memory card with the rosters for usually around 20 bucks... check ebay!

Thanks for the info. I just purchased one for 19.95 (plus $5 shipping and handling).

[CTHoyaParanoya]

HOYAPLAYA said:

Thanks for the info. I just purchased one for 19.95 (plus $5 shipping and handling).

Sounds good man. If you have any other interests about the game I don't know if you know about www.operationsports.com their forums/message boards have tons of info and insight on this game and many more.