Russ' 2005 Baseball Game Preview

Actually, and I'll beat Nick to the punch here, it's looking like I might have underestimated EA's release. I like it more and more after spending a few more days with it. There's still not a lot that's *new* strictly speaking, but it does its thing very well.

Still think MLB will be the game, but I'm waiting for the final build with all the bug fixes to find out. What a great year for baseball games, though.

I am shocked to see that there's really no graphic improvement to the game this year. When you're getting lapped by 989, someone needs a kick in the ass. But man, I do really like the fielding animations, and the overall tuning of MVP is looking better and better.

MVP is amazing. Thank you.

I was kinda hoping to hear more about the francise/dynasty modes. I really like playing them, but i was really disappointed by MVP's one last year with the giant progression bug that made playing more than three years impossible. ESPN looks like it has a very detailed minors system, but how is the rest? And how much has MVP fixed it dysnasty problems?

I blind bought last years MVP and enjoyed it even though it was full of glitches in the graphics. I'm all about the newly improved franchise mode.

a very nice review/preview. mlb2k5 is looking like the baseball game to have this spring. even if captain intangibles is going to be the cover boy.

Meh.

I bought MVP last year and I was pretty unimpressed. Yes it has glitches and yes it's just more of the same. My brother bought mlb 2k4 and I ended up playing that a ton more than mvp, which I paid out the ass for. I'm no mathmagician, but paying MORE for a WORSE game doesn't make sense to me. EA's coasting on their name but they're not putting out good stuff, plain and simple.

MLB 2k5 on the other looks good and from what I can tell from the preview videos, will probably play very nicely asl well. i like the features, the improvements and i'm assuming i'll like the price (because it CAN'T be as expensive as MVP). All in all I've cast my vote for 2k5 this year. MVP didn't raise the bar too high but lucky for us it looks like mlb 2k5 decided to jump way over it anyhow.

Apologies if I got that metaphor wrong- i think you guys know what I mean.

yesyesyes. i like the way you put words together carl cunningham. it's because of EA's seeming boredom with the genre that i really enjoyed ESPN last year and am seriously looking forward to the release of its next of kin, mbl 2k5. take two gets a lot of credit for trying new things and making them work.

MVP last year, the franchise mode just felt like a toy. It never really had the atmosphere. I played a few games with the Red Sox, but it just didn't feel right. (For the record, no, I wasn't going for an easy win. Everyone was dumped into the drafting pool.)

Hoping to get a review copy of the ESPN title. Find it hard to justify buying a baseball game when I only got MVP about six months back.

Heres a question that may have been answered long long ago based on how long its been since I've played a baseball video game, but here goes... have they fixed pitching?

In just about every baseball sim I've played through WSB2K2 on the Dreamcast, computer batters could—seemingly whenever the game felt like it—hit a homer to any part of the field. The ball could be three feet away and there was still this chance (and I'm not talking minute either, I'm talking multiple times during a game) that the computer could pull it out of the park, even if the batter was a punch and judy hitter or a pitcher for that matter. Pitching just seemed random, it never felt like the computer was reacting to me, more like there were preset reactions (kind of like playing the computer in Tecmo Bowl).

Maybe I'm asking for too much, but this stuff just urked me to no end. Well, that and the fact that hitting in general is never hard enough (regardless of the difficulty setting).

I know the behaviour you mean. Triple Play 2000 was notorious for that IMO.

MVP 2004, the only newish baseball game I've played, doesn't seem to pull any cheap plays like that. The MVP series (maybe others, not played them, hope they do) have sliders to adjust every aspect of how the game plays, so if you want to kill the AI's ability to homer, you can.

Well, I wouldn't want to kill it, just make it seem like it's hitting mistakes rather than deciding that it will hit a homerun on the next pitch regardless of what I do.

I suppose the new pitching systems that require you to actually do more than set speed and location can add a quality variable that the computer can react to, but I keep waiting for some fundamental change and I never see it.

NOT A JOKE: I'm looking forward to Mario Baseball the most. I know what to expect from all these other games, and Mario sports titles are usually very good.

I really wish Nintendo would release some details on Pennant Chance Baseball. I'm definitely picking up WSB 2K5, but if Pennant offers a fun arcade experience, I might still give it a rent.

My guess is that it would be a proper sim, since none of the Sega Sports games seem to actually come out for the GameCube and they've already got their arcade game in Mario Baseball. Does anybody know why they don't support the Cube again? Is it just a cost cutting measure? I suppose that would make sense since those games are heavily entrenched in Nintendo's weakest market, but I still find it surprising none the less.

ah yes, i'm all to familiar with that pitching problem. always makes me want to break my controller in two and then toss my x-box out the window. very very frustrating.

obviously i haven't played it yet, but mlb 2k5 is supposed to have all new pitching that gives the player more control. from what I read in ign's latest review, the pitching is fairly intuative and player control is quite good. i dunno if it's ever going to be perfect, but from what I'm reading, mlb 2k5 comes as close as anyone's gotten thus far. that plus the new baserunning feature and a few other li'l goodies have me very excited to try this game.

At the very least it should keep me from throwing my x-box out the window...

I won't be giving EA any of my dollars so i'll be looking closely at the other two (leaning towards 2k5 at the moment) and this was a great read.

after doing a little homework on the games i went from pretty interested to pretty excited for MLB2k5. nice to see take two really moving onward and upward with this title.

Me too. I linked to the CHUD preview on the website I work for, and then stumbled on an awesome preview on Next Level Gaming that made me practically "fill the cup" (God bless Jay and Silent Bob). MLB is the one to go for I think. It's looking better by the day. Plus it's coming out at the bargain price again!

Fuck you Electronic Arts.

The way I see it, if you're going to have psuedo TV presentation, you need a REAL TV network logo on screen. On top of that, you've got ESPN's commentary team... That ROCKS!

Just as well baseball is the only sport I'm really interested in that EA cover. Except soccer. And I have Winning Eleven for that.

Gee, this boycotting EA thing is easy

EA and Take 2 hate each other and for once, we win: EA snuck MVP Baseball onto shelves this week (it shipped today), and EBGames lists MLB 2K5 as shipping tomorrow. Hawt!

Just picked up MLB 2K5 during lunch.. EB sold out of MVP while I was there and looked to be running low on MLB.

By the way, the clown behind the counter tried to tack on their $3.00 warranty without asking, in fact he didn't even mention it until I questioned the price. Has anyone else experienced this at EB or is it just the Union Square NY store that is doing something of dubious legality?

Is there any info out there (outside of the press release) on Nintendo's Pennant Chase Baseball?

There are a couple of screenshots, it looks very pretty actually.. no idea how it plays yet though.

http://forums.nintendo.com/nintendo/...sage.id=559632

I bought MVP 2005 yesterday. It's nice. It plays just the same as 2004, although I think the computer managerial AI is better. In two games there were two double switches compare to none in any I played with MVP 2004.

Owner mode is interesting. The financial decisions seem a little intimidating, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. The draft aspect is pretty cool. I thought I was doing well, getting a team of superstars. Then I got the bill. Their salaries are so high that I could barely afford to make upgrades to my stadium.

Dynasty mode is the same as last year, with the exception that a Single A club is now part of your organization. Other than that, everything looks the same. I didn't notice the Hitter's Eye feature, and didn't argue any calls. The pitching seems a little better this year. It seems if you miss a little, you miss a little in the zone your were aiming for. If you miss a lot, good luck. Fielding seemed a little easier. For some reason, I had major problems throwing to a relay man in 2004, but it seems easier in 2005.

Overall, I'm happy. I got it mainly for the dynasty/owner modes, but I like the gameplay. Both games played in dynasty mode were fairly realistic (5-2, 6-3 scores, computer AI made good managerial decisions like bunting, basestealing, and double switching).

Those screenshots actually looks pretty darn solid, and I always did like World Series Baseball, just enough for me to hold out on MVP until I get more from the Nintendo front.

I'll chime in on MLB 2K5, though after only about 20 innings. It is *seriously* revamped from last year, nearly a Triple Play/MVP type overhaul. So far, what I appreciate is that despite being Kush's first crack at a baseball game, it doesn't feel like a "save it for next year" attempt to just get a functional baseball game out. They really seem to have added as many bells and whistles as possible. Hell, you can rip a song to the hard drive, clip it and attach it to an individual player's at-bat. Or like 20 different stadium events.

I like the K-Zone pitching and it really makes a difference when your pitcher is gassed. So far I even kind of dig the SlamZone meatball pitches, it definitely adds an "oh, shit" factor to a bad pitch and doesn't happen often unless your pitcher is exhausted. But you can turn it off anyway.

Baserunning is wicked complicated, jury's out on whether it will eventually offer unparalleled control or just uses too many damn buttons. Stealing is awesome though.

You can roll nearly everything back to 2K4 settings by the way, if that's your bag for whatever silly reason.

It's got presentation up the wazoo--great sound, lively crowd, nice commentary from what I've heard. And there are approximately three jillion options, you can probably tune a game to Baseball on the Moon if you wanted.

Haven't tried Live yet, but I hear it runs perfectly.

I bought MLB 2k5 for XBox today and I LOVE IT!!

LOVE IT!!! So friggin well made it is uncanny.

I am going to check out MVP at my friend's house.

But so far, I am confident I wisely selected the right game.

I'm also going to get in on the MLB 2K5 love. I've only played for about 30 minutes (long enough to start my franchise and play about half a game), but I really like it so far. The pitching is different than anything I've played before, and I think it's great. Gives more room for error than the EA pitching system did, IMO. Haven't quite tackled the batting yet...I'm still just swinging away at most everything. I'm hoping that the hitting will come with time. I almost bought EA's game, but I decided in the end that for $20, I couldn't lose. The 2K5 series hasn't let me down yet, and I really didn't want to buy an EA game, despite how much I loved the 2004 iteration. I'm happy with my decision.


One more thing--Baseball is f'n great.

i also picked up 2k5 because the store was sold out of MVP but i am having a helluva time making consistent contact. the pitching seems a bit easy but maybe i will bump up the difficulty. any advice on hitting the ball. i am usually pretty good at figuring out the best way to make contact in these games but this one is eluding me and its frustrating. i will be goin out to buy MVP today anyway. Baseball is awesome

Ok, here's my first complaint so far with 2K5: If you're running after a ball hit on the ground in the infield and it goes past the dirt into the outfield, it immediatly switches you to the closest outfielder, making him run in the same direction as the infielder was (which usually ends up being away from the ball). This happned to me two or three times in one game, causing me to lose the game. Very frustrating.

You can turn automatic fielder switch off in the options. There are glitches though.. something with the rosters (which I haven't played around with yet) and it seems the CPU can't handle pressure situations and throws wild pitches way too often.

getting the cheats to work

is anyone else having trouble making the cheats work? I'm talking about the ones you can 'buy' in the skybox. i bought a couple, and then went back and changed my profile to allow those cheats and selected 'save and use.', but when i do that and then play a game they don't show up. and when i go back to my profile, it's set back at default again. anyone else having better luck? maybe i'm doing something wrong.

My cheats are saved but they did disappear the first time i bought one; I think the game is a little unclear about what it is saving and loading. Just make sure you specifically save everything separately (profile, settings, season etc.) and then load everything. I especially noticed that you need to re-load your profile when you load your season otherwise the control settings don't stick.

By the way, that wild pitch glitch can be fixed by setting AI errors to 50.

Just spent about a week with MVP 2005. DEEP, DEEP game. It pisses me off royally that this will be the last year of it with real players and teams. I was a huge fan of the Sega series of games until that first one with Giambi on the cover for XBOX, that game sucked so bad, and Triple play for PS2 sucked worse. Thnakfully MVP came out and saved the day for me, this is easily the best baseball series ive ever played, you can tweak the settings in so many ways it never gets boring and all the unlockables and extra modes are hugely entertaining. The new mini games are fucking awesome. I've played a ton of rounds of the Batting one, there's just something incredibly enjoyable about trying to hit busted down cars with a baseball. I could go on for hours about this game, if you hated last year's, you probably won't fine enough in this one to like it, though just about everything has been upgraded. I still need to rent 2K5, as I want to see if its gotten better after the last 2 years, as I'd love to come back to that series.

Which reminds me, shouldn't people be boycotting Sega's MLB series?

Was that their choice, or all they could get because they weren't EA? It sure looks like the same tactic to me, not sure why it should be applauded by the same people that bitched about EA.

Or is EA being punished for striking the better deal, lord knows the intent of both deals are the same, rather than "compete" they're simply locking competitors out through exclusive licensing. Is that something we should be rooting for?

How is cutting EA out of the MLB market not an attempt to cut out competition?

Also, does this mean Sega will even release their MLB line on the GameCube, or have they just forced every Cube owner into purchasing Nintendo's nebulous Pennant Chase Baseball.

I fail to see how what Sega did was in any way a Good Thing for consumers.

See, this is what I don't understand, people rooting for these corporations. Why do people care if Sega (Take Two, what have you) one ups EA if they're hurting consumers in the process?

In Sega's case, it's not really bad for consumers. Just looking at the sports lineup, Sega has, for the most part, put out a consistently good product that has improvements over previous iterations. EA has taken advantage (in a bad way) of the fact that Madden will sell a ton of copies regardless of quality and put out basically the same football game for the last few years, as Carl pointed out. The moment that EA sees that someone else has been able to not only put out a better product than them, but price it at $20 versus $50, EA buys up all the football liscensing so they can keep with their current trend without losing money. THAT is bad for consumers. Very bad.

But Carl's right. The anti-EA sentiments have been going on for a while. First with the neglect of it's employees, then the NFL liscense issue, then the attempted hostile takeover of Ubi Soft. EA has done a lot of things that are bad for gamers and the gaming industry, and they deserve every bit of what Take Two did with the MLB. Sometimes, in order to succeed, you have to get in the dirt with your enemies, and that's just what Take Two did. I, for one, applaud them for it.

So, what you're saying is, as long as we like the company its not only ok for them to lock out competition, its preferable? Just making sure is all.

As Carl stated above, Take Two's MLB deal allows for other third party developers to to make MLB games. Their actions were clearly in response to how EA handled the NFL liscensing situation, as a way to try to "get back" at EA while at the same time, keep them from buying up the MLB liscense first. There had already been rumors of EA talking to MLB about exclusivity, so I'm glad that Take Two got there first. The last thing we need is for EA to monolopize (though not in a legal sense) another sports category.

There are reasons why we don't like one company and like another. I mean, if you wanna bring context and mitigating factors into it. But what fun are those?

First, I'm not treating them as exactly the same, I'm just wondering why nobodies even criticized Take Two for taking part in similar tactics.

Again, the deal is still removing a competitor from the market through the use of exclusive licensing. There may be degrees of "evil" when talking about the two deals, but the deals are still inherently Evil. This is what I'm curious about, people aren't even treating this move as if it were a necessary evil, merely that its great to see EA get screwed even if it screws US, the consumers, in the process.

It is not a good thing that a year from now, instead of being able to choose between MLB, MVP and whatever other choices I have available to me, I'll only have MLB (and on the Cube, not even that as far as I know) and whatever first party choice is available.

It is also not a good thing that a year from now, instead of being able to choose between the assortment of NFL licensed games, I'll only be able to purchase EA's NFL title (Playmakers and other unlicensed titles are duly noted). Obviously what EA did was worse, but we're talking about degrees here, not an entirely different tactic... and since we're talking degrees, my problem from the start has been that I have yet to see anyone respond even remotely negative to Take Two's anti-competitive practices.

If you want to disregard the moral aspect of the Take Two deal and look at it strictly as a business tactic, thats fine by me, it's how I look at both deals to tell the truth... but the same people that call it Evil when EA tries to buy themselves out of legitimate competition, seem to turn a blind eye to the moral ramifications of the Take Two deal and look at it as strictly a financial move. This, to me, seems rather disengenuous.