- Game controls, especially,
pitching and fielding, and A.I. are extremely intuitive and
well-done
- Solid online gameplay on Xbox Live
- Overwhelming amount of fantasy league-style features in both
Dynasty and Owner’s modes
- Learning to hit takes a lot of
practice
- Mundane presentation values, at best: graphics are average,
announcers are below average
- Where’s Barry Bonds?
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MVP
Baseball 2005
Score: 9.0 / 10
After its Triple Play franchise proved to
be a mediocre basement dweller in the league of baseball video gaming,
EA has had a lot of success becoming a serious contender for the best
baseball game around with its MVP Baseball game. And this year, MVP
Baseball 2005 continues EA’s baseball game resurrection with a solid
baseball title that not only plays well, but is packed with a ridiculous
amount of fantasy league-type features and has the added bonus of
competitive, problem-free online gaming through Xbox Live.
The most important aspect of any sports game is if it plays as a true
representation of the particular sport. And MVP Baseball 2005 plays
extremely close to realistic. Pitching is by far easier to master in MVP
Baseball 2005, although without a good spring training’s worth of
practice time, you won’t be challenging for the virtual Cy
Young Award. Pitching uses a similar meter
as EA’s Madden football uses for kicking. You must first select the
pitch, then aim where you would like the ball to go in the batter’s box.
Then a meter moves, and you must stop it in a “sweet” spot that decides
the quality of the particular pitch by hitting the corresponding button
related to the pitch you selected, such as a curve ball. You must stop
the meter a second time to control the
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location. If you just dive into exhibition games without practicing your
pitching prowess, expect to get lit up on the mound and see your E.R.A.
hit double digits.
To help out learning how to pitch and hit, the game has a mini-game mode
that allows players to hone their skills. The pitching mini-game is a
twist on Tetris, where you knock out colored blocks in connecting
patterns that match up with specific pitches. For hitting there’s a
mini-game that develops your swing timing along with directional
hitting. You’ll learn to hit to opposite fields and pull the ball. The
home run derby is another good way to pick up hitting skills. But even
with tons of batting practice, learning the art of becoming a top-flight
hitting machine takes a lot more development time than learning to hurl
the ball.
Fielding the ball requires some practice, but the fielding controls in
MVP Baseball 2005 are so intuitive, you’ll be a Gold Glover in no time.
You can jump up to catch balls (particularly beneficial for outfielders
trying to rob homers headed for the seats right over the fence) or dive
(useful for ball hit in the infield that a diving shortstop or third
baseman can turn from a sure hit to a spectacular out.) Even the throw
is controlled by your actions. You can lob an easy throw when you have
plenty of time to get a base runner, or rifle the ball trying to turn
the twin killing or catch a speedy runner, but with the risk of an
errant throw if the throw meter goes into the “red” zone.
Even base running is handled with ease by the game’s A.I. You don’t have
to worry about handling two or three runners on the bases at the same
time. The game’s A.I. automatically controls runners, properly gauging
when to send runners to the next base or hold their ground. You can take
control of any particular runner on the base paths, but why would you
when the A.I. is the perfect third base coach guiding your players
around the sacks?
Where no baseball game can touch MVP Baseball 2005 is in the fantasy
league elements the game contains. Just like every EA Sports title, MVP
Baseball 2005 goes overboard (in a good way) with the fantasy league
options. There are two modes in MVP Baseball 2005 for fantasy leaguers:
Owner Mode, where you’ll play the role as team owner for 30 seasons.
You’re in control of everything: stadium, concessions, tickets, and
salaries…literally everything on a day-to-day basis. That pales in
comparison to the Dynasty Mode, where you run your favorite team for 120
seasons. Yes, 1-2-0. That’s just unbelievable.
Not only do you control the major league squad, you also handle the AAA,
AA, and even the A minor league teams. All the Major Leaguer players are
in the game as far as I can tell, except one notable slugger: the
abrasive mega-ego himself, Barry Bonds. (MVP Baseball 2005 doesn’t
shortchange Giants gamers though: in the game, Bonds is known as Joe
Dowd, a big slugger himself.)
You can promote, demote, trade, sign free agents; do everything required
of a Major League general manager. In fact, the only one downside here:
with so much focus required on running your team, you won’t actually be
playing too many actual games. You’ll need to simulate almost every
single game, especially since you have to deal with the minor league
individual games too.
Online play via Xbox Live comes to bat this year, and is an exceptional
addition. It’s easy finding games to play, and while games only go five
innings, you’ll find low-scoring but competitive games, requiring
strategic pitching and hitting. I’ve yet to have any problem with lag or
interruptions of gameplay, proving EA’s put in the extra effort to use
Xbox Live the right way for enjoyable, problem-free online gaming.
One mostly average aspect of MVP Baseball 2005 are its graphics. While
the visuals are not disappointing, they clearly are not taking advantage
of the Xbox’s rendering power. By far the worst visuals are the stadium
crowds, especially when viewed up-close-and-personal, where they’re
nothing more than virtual cardboard cutouts. The players and ballparks
are done well, but don’t overly impress. Much better are the player
animations, especially all the dives, jumps, and slides defensive
players make on the field. Offensively, running the bases and sliding a
player going into a base also are animated realistically.
Sound elements include a really rather weak announcer tandem of Dwayne
Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who in reality work for the San Francisco Giants
announcing crew. I hope they announce a game much, much better for the
Giants fans than they do for MVP Baseball 2005, because they’re just
awful. You’ll hear too many repeated comments, even on back-to-back
pitches. Their attempts at humor are lame, they miss calls (like talking
about a “ball dropping in for a hit” that the outfielder proceeds to
catch for an out) and add nothing to MVP Baseball 2005 but rambling
enough to cause your ears to hurt. At least the crowd cheering (that
increases if the home team does something good) and sounds of vendors
selling their wares in the stands adds a helping of authenticity (I
thought it was a nice touch to have stadium-specific vendor cries. In my
hometown of Philadelphia, you’ll hear vendors selling Philly
Cheesesteaks. It had me wanting to call out “Yeah, pass one of them down
here, Mr. Vendor, but hold the onions!”)
The boys of summer are once again playing as Major League Baseball has
just settled into its steroid-tainted 2005 season, and EA’s MVP Baseball
2005 gives an all-star quality showing for baseball gaming fans. With an
outrageous plethora of fantasy league-style features, nobody comes close
to capturing the authenticity of fantasy leaguing better than EA, who
once again prove their not kidding with their “if it’s in the game, it’s
in the game” claim. Solid online play via Xbox Live, great controls, and
a tough-as-nails challenge from the game’s A.I. raise the pennant of
winning baseball gaming for MVP Baseball 2005.
