PC | Gamecube | DS | Wii | PlayStation 2 | PlayStation 3 | PSP | Xbox | Xbox 360

News | Reviews | Previews | Features | Classics | Goodies | Anime | Forums

MLB 2004

Score: 6.4 / 10

The MLB series has been noticeably absent from the PlayStation 2 console, despite being Sony’s first-party baseball franchise. The series had a decent run on the PlayStation platform, combining above-average visuals, credible commentary from noted baseball personalities Vin Scully and Dave Campbell, and a decent gameplay engine. However, the current competition versus the general lack of competition during the series’ PlayStation days makes it hard to succeed with the “same old thing” yet, that’s exactly what 989 Sports tries to do with MLB 2004.

Truth be told, it’s not exactly the same old thing, but for players who have tried any of the older PlayStation incarnations of 989’s MLB franchise, you know what to expect, and MLB 2004 delivers little more than that. Yes, the visuals are better (as they should be on a more powerful system), and yes, there are a few new things like lines of commentary and updated rosters, but that’s about it. In fact, MLB 2004 feels like a PlayStation MLB game with better visuals, and that’s more disappointing that anything else.

 

- Playstation 2 Game Reviews - Sports Game Reviews - Reviews of Games from Sony Computer Entertainment

Some good news comes by way of the game’s presentation style. While it’s not as TV-oriented as Sega’s World Series Baseball 2K3, it holds its own. There are a good number of stat overlays and available stats for each player. Vin Scully and Dave Campbell return for another year of commentary, and there seems to be more casual lines this year that come out every once in a while instead of canned commentary. Campbell will make decent observations every so often during half-inning breaks, and Vin Scully 

Advertisement

sounds as good here as he ever has in the booth. There are some replays of the action, but the replay angles aren’t really all that cinematic and just show the previous play exactly how it was seen by the player. Sega’s World Series Baseball 2K3 and EA Sports’ MVP Baseball both do a much better job with replays.

The basic pitching and batting engines are the same as they’ve always been, which is either good or bad, depending on how well you liked them. Pitching is spotted by a cursor and the speed is determined by how long the pitch button is held down. There aren’t as many pitch types as there are in, say, Acclaim’s All-Star Baseball or 3DO’s High Heat Baseball, but the pitches break and react more than most other baseball games. Batting can be done either by cursor or by simple timing, but the speed of incoming pitches will force players to rework any timing that they might be used to. Expect a lot of foul balls and whiffs until you adjust to the speed. There are options to guess pitch types and locations to increase the possibility of solid contact, but this is nothing to new to the series. Baserunning and fielding are fine, too, and 989 has added a “picture-in-picture” system to keep a better eye on baserunners. There’s not really a lot to complain about, per se, as far as the overall gameplay, but 989 hasn’t really added anything major to the gameplay that this series has had for about four or five years now, and it feels stale.

MLB 2004 sports the usual gameplay modes, including single-game exhibitions, a home run derby, a respectable franchise mode, and a unique Spring Training mode that challenges players to create a player and earn that player’s way into his team’s regular season lineup. Spring Training mode is probably MLB 2004’s biggest draw, as it becomes just as important for players to play their created player to perfection, as it is to play and manage their team to victory. This gameplay wrinkle is one addition that this year’s competition does not have, but it’s certainly questionable as to whether or not this feature alone is worth purchasing MLB 2004 ahead of any of the other PS2 baseball games this year.

Visually, the stadiums are nice and the player models are pretty good. There’s definitely some accurate facial models on these players — more accurate, in fact, than most other baseball games out there on the PS2 this season. There are a couple of new camera angles that come into use during particularly long fly balls, and there are a few new player reactions, but a lot of what’s here just basically been tweaked from the PlayStation version of the game and is displayed with a much smoother frame rate than the PlayStation could handle. There are accurate scoreboards, which is also a nice touch. As with the gameplay, it’s not that there’s anything necessarily bad here to speak of in the graphics department, but it’s not overly exciting or new, either.

MLB 2004’s sounds consist mostly of Vin Scully and Dave Campbell’s commentary, complemented by some decent sound effects. The sound of the bat meeting the ball varies, depending on the level of contact, and it’s as easy to get excited when you hear that “crack” of the bat as it is to grimace in disgust when you hear the dull “thud” of an early or late swing. The crowd sounds are serviceable here, with appropriate reactions to momentum changes within the game. There’s not a lot of music to speak of, and the licensed music is gone, leaving some original stuff that’s sporadic in quality and the usual organ cheer music.

Unlike 3DO’s High Heat Baseball 2004, MLB 2004 just doesn’t have the reputation to be able to count on its gameplay to carry it this year, and with new entries from quality competition like Sega and EA Sports, it’s hard to recommend a game that does the same old thing, even if it is slightly better.

Perhaps it’s time for 989 to re-evaluate where their MLB series is, and perhaps give it a much-needed overhaul like EA did this year by trashing their Triple Play franchise and creating MVP Baseball from nearly scratch. It’s very possible for 989 to break out at any time, but it’s got to come from taking a few chances and going back to the drawing board instead of trying to get by with the same thing year after year. If this was last year, the score might have been higher and even a recommendation might have been in the cards; however, the competition this year is far too talented and the upper tier of baseball games on the PS2 this year relegates MLB 2004 to a last-place finish.

- Peter J. Skerritt, Jr.

(March 29, 2003)

Digg this Article!  | del.icio.us

Advertise | Site Map | Staff | RSS Feed

Affiliates:

- BDGamers -   - CnC Den -   - CivFanatics-   - Creative Uncut -   - Darkstation -   - DarkZero -   Devil May Cry   - Dreamstation.cc -   

- Fable 2 -    - GameZone -   - Gaming World X -   - Mario-Kart.net -   - PS2 Fantasy- 

- PS3 : Playstation Universe -   -TalkXbox -   - Zelda Dungeon -

All articles ©2000 - 2008 The Armchair Empire.

All game and anime imagery is the property of their respective owners.

Privacy Statement - Disclaimer