This could possibly be the final year for the MVP baseball series. Since Take Two signed a deal that effectively prevents other third party publishers from using real MLB players, we might not see another MVP Baseball again. So how will EA respond in light of this crippling maneuver by Take Two?
Last year's installment was fun, but resoundingly disappointing as it was filled with several bugs and gameplay gaffs. So I can't help but wonder whether this year's version should have been the game I played last year.
New Features
Some of the biggest features implemented in MVP Baseball 2005 are meant to aid the hitter. When I first heard about this I thought, "why help the batter?" Then I realized that on higher difficulty levels, it's really a guessing game as to what type of pitch is thrown. This is all normalized using the hitter's eye feature. The hitter's eye feature colors the ball as the pitcher releases it to indicate what type of pitch it is. There's also a slight tail to indicate direction the pitch is heading. The visibility of the colored pitch is dependant upon the skill level of the hitter and how well the pitcher hides the ball in his windup. It's a great way to simulate a hitter's ability to read pitches, and gives batters more of an identity.
Another feature intended to help batters is the ability to take a step in or away from the plate. This allows you to adjust your hot and cold zones depending on where the pitcher is throwing the ball. The biggest problem with this feature is that it doesn't move a full zone over; instead it only moves a half zone over. So if you can make your pitches really precise (or even just a little), you can still hit that corner cold zone, even if the batter adjusts his batting stance.
Owner mode is by far the biggest disappointment of MVP Baseball 2005. It's a good idea to try and implement a Madden-style owner mode for a baseball game because it's a lot more fun to have your revenues affect your ability to sign talent instead of just going filling out your salary cap each year. Besides creating your own quirky ballpark is something that really could lead to some great replay value. However, this feature is very underwhelming. First, if you enter owner mode you have to create a new ballpark from scratch. Other games will simply allow you to work with a current ballpark. I really don't like the fact that they force you to do this. But to keep from rambling, we'll assume that a significant population would like to create their own ballpark anyway. However, the create-a-ballpark interface is horribly simplistic. There are only 3 or 4 outfield shapes to choose from. This means that you can't make minor adjustments to different parts of the outfield. You can't make you're own quirky Minute Maid field. There are about 8 other categories that each have between 2 and 5 different configurations. But these aspects do not affect the gameplay as much as the outfield wall. You can alter the dirt, turf, mowing style, seat color, batter's box style and logo behind the plate, but that's really it. It's really a useless feature, which is a shame given that a Madden-style owner mode would at least give some competition to the other baseball games this year. Instead, MVP Baseball 2005's owner mode is definitely second rate to 989's MLB game from last year.
Another new feature of the game is the new minigames. These minigames let you either take batting practice in a field littered with ramps, walls, vortexes, tractors and junked cars beyond the fence. Your score is based on the distance your hit travels and augmented by your ability to hit the ball a particular direction and whether it hits a moving tractor or junked vehicle. The pitching game is kind of like a Tetris style puzzle game. Your objective is to throw a particular style pitch into a small zone. The zones are colored based on the type of pitch you're supposed to throw. Overall these minigames are nice, but they don't have much lasting value.
This is the first MVP Baseball game to have Xbox Live support. However, the actually content in the online portion is rather disappointing. You have your basic quick match, optimatch, and challenges when it comes to finding opponents to play. There's also your basic leaderboard, roster downloads, and server news. There is nothing new or revolutionary here in terms of online play. The actual gameplay online can be a little laggy, which can affect the pitching meter and delay your swing a little. Still, I find that most experienced players will end up playing many pitchers’ duels.
Gameplay
The gameplay in MVP Baseball 2005 has been cleaned up quite a bit. The biggest fix that veterans of last year's game will notice is that EA fixed the ball physics bug where lefty batters always hit the ball with topspin and right-handed batters always hit the ball with backspin. This would result in a lack of power for lefties, and a power surge for right-handed batters. The at-bat physics have also been tweaked quite a bit. Now there are plenty of foul balls that seem to occur during logical situations. In addition, pitches can fly much further out of the strike zone, allowing for more frequent wild pitches. Despite all that, the interfaces for which veterans of the series are used to, all return. The pitching meter is back, however there is now a thin embedded green zone that allows for a more precise pitch. If you hit the yellow zone, you won't tip off your pitch, but rather it just won't be as accurate. I liked this modification because it allows for pitches not to be as exact all the time and you can use the sliders to adjust the accuracy of each yellow zone pitch.
The computer really reacts more intelligently in the batter/pitcher interface this year. The pitcher not only will throw more balls out of the strike zone, but he'll also try to hit the corners more often as well as try to throw the ball in your cold zones. This is a tremendous improvement because no longer is the pitcher throwing the ball into random zones, but he's also pitching more logically but also not in predictable patterns. Similarly, when the CPU is at bat, he'll take advantage of pitches in his hot zones more often and really punish you for bad mistakes like tipped pitches. Also, the CPU will use the pitch history to try and hone in on your own pitching habits. If you like to throw that first pitch fastball in one particular zone, you should correct that habit because the CPU will pick up on it by the time that same batter strolls to the plate again. I really have to admire the AI put into this interface to really make it seem like you're playing another human player.
Fielding is improved quite a bit as well. No longer will you assume that when a fielder dives he'll catch the ball. Also there are many new fielding animations that will slow down the fielder when attempting to dig the ball out of the dirt. MVP Baseball 2005 has retained some annoying aspects to the fielding as well. It still has that silly throw meter and even worse that right analog stick controlling the different dives and wall-climbs. I also find it annoying that when you're using manual fielding control, if the ball rolls away from the outfielder you're controlling, the other CPU-controlled outfielder will watch it roll by him instead of taking the initiative to pick it up.
The core of the baserunning remains relatively untouched from last year. You still have many of the same animations, and controls that existed in previous years. There is one new feature that was implemented horribly. When a runner takes a lead off the base, you can now manually control his return to the bag. However, this feature is pretty is essentially useless because of some other new features they implemented. First, if the pitcher makes one pickoff throw, he might make another one a split second after it returns to the pitcher/batter screen. This does not allow you enough reaction time to return to the bag, and you'll get picked off guaranteed. An even stupider decision on the part of the developers is after the runner returns from a pickoff throw, he'll automatically resume the same lead he took. Combine that with the quick pickoff throw and it really adds some pointless and unauthentic risk-taking on the part of managing runners on base. Having to manually control your baserunners is a great feature, but it was implemented in such a horrible way that you'll never want to turn the feature on.
In summary, I didn't mention many of the gripes I would normal have with some of the gameplay aspects because there are now a lot more sliders that can control anything from pitcher fatigue to foul ball frequency to baserunning speed (finally!). I can't really think of a slider that they missed. While MVP Baseball 2005 has tremendous balance out of the box, these sliders really allow you to authenticate the experience as tailored to your abilities.
Controls
The controls remain largely the same as MVP Baseball 2004. As I migrate from the PS2 version to the Xbox version, I just want to make a couple points. First, the sensitivity remains the same from each version. Transferring the control scheme from each version is pretty clean given the different controller configurations and the problems I ran into going from the PS2 to Xbox version of Madden 2005. The only exception to this is the black button. We'll ignore the white button for now since it isn't used for any actions that require precise timing. However the black button can be a little tough to get used to. The responsiveness when used for certain pitches can be a little tricky as well as using the button for a dynamic cutoff play. Frequently my thumb would brush over it and have the action not register. It's not serious, but it is worth pointing out.
Graphics
The graphics have been something that EA Sports has struggled with for a long time for all its games. Its saving grace is that with simpler more "cartoony" player models, it leaves room for smoother framerates and thus smoother gameplay. Baseball is the one sport where this counts the most because of the requirement of hitting a baseball. No baseball game since the era of Baseball Stars and the original World Series Baseball has been able to make a pitch seem as realistic looking as the MVP Baseball series. And it is this almost this alone (combined with the name recognition of EA Sports) that has carried this fledgling series to the heights it now enjoys. The animations are all top notch whereby the player reacts appropriately for each given situation. Are you swinging away for a high and tight pitch? Well, then your batter will flinch after he's through swinging the bat. If you are trying to pull a pitch low and away; then prepare to have your batter’s swing look silly.
While the animations are great, I do have some complaints about other aspects of the graphics. There are very few collisions on the field. When I fielder is attempting to catch a fly ball in the middle of the base path, the runner will move sideways in an awkward looking translation, rather than avoid him or simply run him over. This looks even worse on weakly hit balls up the first baseline where collisions frequently take place. Another complaint I have is with the crowd animations. The general rendering of the crowd is less than spectacular, but that isn't such a big deal as the previous gripe.
Sound
While I typically do not penalize many sports games for having bad sound, I'll have to make an exception this year. MVP Baseball 2005 did very little to improve the aural experience. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow are back with the commentary, and while they are better than Vin Scully in MLB 2005, I have found myself saying "Shut up meat!" to the TV screen on various occasions. Even worse is the stadium atmosphere lacks realism. You have the same hecklers from last year who say the same things. The cheers really seem subdued during big hits or celebrations. During the final inning of a no hitter, there was just no buzz. In real life, the crowd will even cheer on the visiting pitcher if he’s about to pitch a no hitter. The soundtrack has the same brand of music you heard from the last two games. This time it's the Dropkick Murphys and 8 other bands that I haven't heard of that make up the rest of the soundtrack.
Replay Value
Replay value in a baseball game cannot be summed up with the line: "There are 162 games in a season, so there's plenty of baseball to be played." I guarantee you that even the best baseball games can get boring if the mechanics aren't great. That being said, there is a lot that will keep you interested. The gameplay is probably the best aspect of the game. The pitchers, even on the pro difficulty level will keep you guessing all game long. No game will play out the same (until you figure out how to pitch well, and even then the sliders can offset that success), which is a good sign of balance for a sports game and the key to high replay value. The dynasty mode, while for the most part the same mechanically as last year, will still provide a decent realm in which to play several games. Dynasty mode does add in single-A minor league teams to add depth to your organization, but that doesn't allow MVP Baseball 2005's dynasty mode to compete with other career modes. So while the game doesn't have endless reasons to play, the foundation is strong enough to support itself for a long time.
In all, MVP Baseball 2005 will not appeal to everyone. Fans of organizational level management will feel short-changed in terms of realism and depth, while others will groan about MVP Baseball 2005’s base running and fielding interface. However, for the people who really enjoy the breakdown of the pitcher-batter match up, this is the only game I've seen so far since the High Heat franchise that has really captures this realism. So like many of EA's other games, the vast majority of the gaming population will either love it or hate it. And while I buy baseball games mostly for the battle between the pitcher and batter, I can certainly understand why many would pass this game up.
