Xbox User Reviews

Has to be one of the best sports video games of all time, beautiful broadcast presentation, fun gameplay, fun but challenging simulation, features that we still don't even see in modern football games. Still fun to just pick up and play.

This is THE perfect NFL simulation. Nothing before or since has really even come close to the feel of playing in an NFL football game. This is elden ring if madden was assassins creed. Its just on another level. The game play never gets old, even 20 years later. There is no better feeling than reading a defense, calling an audible, adjusting your routes and easily performing pre-snap motions. Madden has been bad lately because there is no competition. Madden was at its peak in 2004 because of this game. To me, this is the only place to turn when I crave NFL football. Being able to emulate this on steam deck is another huge bonus. Playing this on the train is exactly what you think it is.. DANGEROUS! they will steal your deck in minutes. Anyway this is the greatest NFL football game of all time. I pray for one day having a new 2K NFL football game in my hand.

Best football game ever

Simply THE Best NFL Videogame Ever Made! For $20 (or less if you buy a used copy like I did) you get sooo much content and fun that it absolutely stomps all over the awful sports games of today that cost 10 times as much! Create-A-Player, Team Creator, The Crib, the fantastic Career mode, highly accurate physics, superb graphics, excellent controls, loads of fun extras including an awesome SportsCenter Halftime show, and so much more await you in this gem of a sports game that's still getting fanmade roster updates almost a full 20 years later! For those tired of the greedy asinine modern Madden titles, dig out and/or buy an old OG Xbox and play through this spectacular masterpiece to get your American Football fix!

The premier sim football game even after nearly 20 years. Unlike Madden, where the meta is to run backwards 20 yards and throw it to deep crosser routes, the gameplay and presentation of NFL 2K5 actually resemble football. Modders still regularly update the game with current rosters/uniforms/stadiums/face scans.

Coming from the trashy modern madden games, this game plays amazing!!! The presentation, gameplay, depth, its absolutely amazing! I am only 14 and once I was able to get my hands on this game I fell in love with it. Absolutely fantastic. The ability to play a version of yourself, and also the updated rosters sums it up for me. Perfect score all round.

This game could be the best sports video game of all time with amazing presentation and gameplay an incredibly deep and addictive franchise mode along with the crib and vip profiles this game also has the best ai ever in a sports game heck with your vip profile you can play yourself or friends if theirs was saved on yours that’s right you could play your friends even if they weren’t there

This is the best football game of all time, period. The game is so much more immersive than any Madden you'd get nowadays, the presentation, the AI, the animations, everything. Any flaws the game has is easily overshadowed by the extreme highs. It's a timeless classic.

A fantastic NFL game! Played this game for years. Still a beloved game and one that has high praise from most everyone who played it. High quality mechanics for the time. Realistic gameplay for the time.

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This is the best football game there is. Hands down. No game is without flaws but this is the closest thing to perfect we have at the moment.

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After all of these years, this game is still so much fun to play. It's a shame they don't get to make football games anymore. This game is superior to any Madden that has been made since.

The fact this game to this day, made nearly 16 years later still holds up to the day when it comes to both game play and presentation show something. First, that how behind EA is when Madden but also how ahead of it's time 2K was with this football title. Translation? It's still the GOAT of football titles.

This game is the greatest football game ever created enough Said!!! Madden 20 is trash next to 2k5 I still update the rosters manually every yr for 2k5 and I enjoy it everytime

I only recently purchased this game due to the praise surrounding it, I've heard plenty of people calling it the best football game of all time, I repurchased an Xbox 360, and got a hard drive for it, just to play this one game, I had to find out if it was as good as everyone said. After playing the game for a good 6 hours now I think it's safe to say they were right, this is the definitive football game for any fan of the sport. There's a lot of things to talk about, but a main part of the praise is the presentation of the game, it has the best ESPN presentation I've ever seen in a football game, from the moments with Chris Berman on the halftime shows and Sportscenters after weeks are finished in Franchise mode, which, on the topic of that, is so very in depth and just really, really fun to play. But they even have many good presentation aspects in the middle of games when talking about in game stats and everything like that. You can hear players on field insulting some of the top stars on the other team, which I think is a very nice touch for getting the player immersed. Not to mention the graphics, top notch, at least for the Xbox era, they were pretty much the best you could get, top that all of with the easy to learn controls and all around great gameplay, you have a very fun, very well made Football game that will forever be compared to the next madden games coming out for years to come. Like I said, it is the definitive football game for any fan, and easily deserves a 10/10.

Still the best football game to date. To think that this came out 9 years ago for only 20 dollars... wow. Graphics were ahead of its time. Gameplay wasn't the best, but for 2005, it was fantastic. CPU AI and teammate AI was more intelligent than any Madden. ESPN presentation, pregame-halftime and postgame show, player interviews and Sportscenter weekly wrap ups still = the best presentation in a sports game. Even though the announcers are fictional, they are still great. The "Crib" is still one of the coolest features in a sports game... if only 2K would add that to NBA 2K... All in all, the greatest football (and maybe sports) game ever.

This has got to be the greatest football to todays date. Amazing graphics for its time. gameplay is fast and in a good way unpredictable. running the ball and shoulder charging ppl is so satisfying.

Even after all these years, this stands the time as one of the best football games ever made. The presentation is unparalleled and the game is so packed with features that it still has life nearly 7 years after its initial release. ESPN NFL 2K5 is our generation's Tecmo Bowl.

Just to let everyone know,I'm Job A. but that was the other version of metacritic.Here we are at 2-11 and I will stick to what I said in my other review,this game knocks the shxx out of every madden including Madden 11 when it comes to straight up game play.2K was WAY ahead of there time with football,all of there past football titles were top notch but ESPN NFL 2K5 just blew the doors off of what was or is expected in a football game.Please after you read this play this game on your original xbox and you will see really how amazing it is!10 10 10 10 10.