I bought ESPN 2K5 the other day, and while it is good, Madden is still better. The looks and presentation of 2k5 are superior, but the game play is not. The controls and movements are shoddy, and it selects players when you switch poorly.
The playbooks aren't as good, and the QB misses his target on wide open receivers up the middle by a wide margen quite a bit...and it's not because the QB is bad, it was McNabb missing Owens up the middle with 10 yards of open space around him in every direction. I thought they just made McNabb's accuracy poor, but then I tried with other QB's, I.E. Farve, Manning, Bledsoe...same s***.
The franchise mode is basically the same, but harder to use. Trades are a b**** as far as navigation, but the counter offer is nice.
One thing I love about it though is that when you challenge, you can choose what you want to challenge. In Madden, (04 at least) you didn't get to choose what you want to challenge and sometimes got screwed on that.
Another thing I noticed is that I've been called for intentional grounding SEVERAL times when I am one step away from the sidelines. Is there a new rule?
I give 2K5 an 8.