2005: What's the Best Baseball Videogame This Year?

[digitalpress]

Last year I got into MVP and I thought it was head and shoulders above the rest. This year with the ESPN "rebuilt" MLB 2005 at just $19.99 it looks like there's another very serious contender, if not a flat out winner.

Who's playing, what have you played, and what is your assessment?

[GobopopRevisited]

I'm not much of a sports game player, last traditional one I bought was on Saturn. But I'm kind of looking forward to Nintendo's Baseball game (...and Mario Baseball :P ) thats being developed by the people who did WSB 2k3. Its being called more of an arcadey game so thats deffinately a plus... I guess you'll have to wait till May to hear my answer

[Lady Jaye]

I'm so torn about baseball games this year that it's not funny. Do I sit out the new games and refuse to touch them (out of respect for the loss of my team) and play the 3 modern baseball games I own (especially MVP 2004) or do I nevertheless bite the bullet and just refuse to call my team by its new name (and somehow pretend that they're wearing blue instead of red)?

Tough call. Heck, my heart was torn yesterday morning when I saw the images from the first spring training game (the Expos won 5-3 against the Mets) followed by images of Rick Mahler as a Montreal Expo in 1991, who just passed away 2 days ago, in the subway (2 stations now have giant TV screens set on a local news channel).

Anyway, can either MVP 2005 or ESPN 2k5 be played online via the PS2?

[SoulBlazer]

I was wondering this same question.

Which baseball game is the better one this year? I've seen both in stores and they LOOK snazzy, but I'm interested in gameplay, realsim, and franchise mode.

[Lady Jaye]

Realism? When they'll start making the players look like themselves, when they'll make sure to capture properly each stadium as it really is (instead of an approximation with tons of erroneous details), then it'll be a factor to consider. Until then, it's laughable.

[Lothars]

I took the plung and picked up MVP baseball 2005
and when i find a use copy of ESPN MLB 2k5 I will pick that up.

but I heard for singleplayer MVP is better
and for online I heard ESPN is better

[Lothars]

hey here's a link for on ign comparing MVP baseball and ESPN MLB 2k5
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/592/592537p1.html

[Simply Dave]

Hell, I'll probably just play through yet another season of High Heat 2004.

[shai hulud]

Hell, I'll probably just play through yet another season of High Heat 2004.

i loved High Heat, it seems to be the only game with just the right amount of simplicity and complexity


this year i like MVP better and the Owner mode is pretty cool if you are into the simulation aspect at all. I still dont think i will ever play an entire 162 game season

[GarrettCRW]

Apparently, buying 2K5 is a vote for the Evil Empire.

[Rogmeister]

Since I loved MVP 2004 so much, I chose MVP again this year...especially since it's the last year for MVP. MVP is priced at $29.95 this year so it's only $10 more than the ESPN game for what that's worth. I'm enjoying MVP a lot...not a lot of differences from last year except for the owner's mode. You do control 4 teams now...your major league team and 3 minor league teams (MVP 2004 had you control 2 minor league teams). I can't comment on online play with the PS2 since I bought the XBox version, however.

[goatdan]

After having had MLB 2K5 for a while now, I've finally decided to weigh in...

I haven't played MVP 2005, so I'm not comparing the two. Just making a few statements on MLB 2K5. Basically...

It's a very solid game, but it has some serious problems too. Once in a while, there will be a high fly ball hit just past the infield. Easily, an infielder could walk back a few steps and catch it, but on occasion the computer will give you control of an outfielder that has no chance of getting to the ball in time. Other times, the game will switch which player you are controlling mid-play. The ball is hit to the gap between center and right field. You get the right fielder and run quickly to get the ball. It bounces -- suddenly, you're the centerfielder running in the wrong direction.

It's very annoying, and rather disappointing to say the least.

The graphics are great at times and laughable at others. When you are batting or fielding, it looks great. Whenever they cut away though, all of the players look horrid. Like badly drawn cartoon characters, at best. I keep laughing whenever I see players like that.

The animations are rather odd sometimes too. When the computer is fielding in the outfield, high pop flies usually get the outfielder to walk... run... walk... run... walk to where they are going in a strange display. The end of the innings is odd too, as the player usually flips the ball into the stands and immediately is running home with no animation to show the change to the running position. Also, some animations seem to be missing. Umpires and base running coaches do nearly nothing for instance.

The gameplay is good, but I don't feel it is stellar. In the 10 or so games I've played so far, I haven't walked anyone. And the computer has never walked me. Granted, I'm playing on easy right now and perhaps it is harder to pitch later on, but it seems to be tough to miss the strike zone. While this makes the games go by pretty fast, it isn't exactly realistic.

The graphics of the non-players are pretty nice, but aren't accurate. Miller Park (the home of the Milwaukee Brewers) has rotating banners near the large screen in center field. Those are all permanent, not rotating. Also, with all retractable roof stadiums, they are either opened or closed. Miller Park is especially odd - the roof is open, but the back 'windows' are closed in a configuration that they would never do in real life. (The windows can be opened or closed depending on how cool it is outside when the roof is closed... but they are always open when the roof is open.)

The commentary is great, but doesn't always make sense. I have a pitcher on my team that somehow managed to get three hits in a game. EVERY time he got a hit, the announcer would say, "Wow! Look at that! That is his first major league hit ever! Good for him!" or something. And to top all of this off, he had gotten his first hit in an earlier game. Why I needed to hear that three more times was goofy and annoying.

Lastly, baserunning -- which they tout as you having perfect control over -- is very tough to control. Pressing the left trigger makes your runner move to the next base. Pressing the right trigger makes your runner stop or go back bases. This is all great... while you have one runner. If you have two runners and you get a soft hit, it can be nearly impossible to tell them all to go to the right place. The computer AI doesn't exactly help either. More than once, a great rally inning has been ended by me sending three guys to second at the same time, or making the wrong guy run off the bag. I like the concept of total runner control, but I wish that they would've given you the option of having the computer do a little so you couldn't end up with three guys racing to second without the computer complaining.

After all of these gripes... I can't stop playing the damn game. I don't know what it is, but I haven't enjoyed playing a baseball game like this one since World Series Baseball for the Saturn. It might be the fact that it is well balanced, it might be the INSANELY nice presentation, the fact I can listen to my own music while playing, the great commentary or whatever, but I just can't put it down. So far, I've managed to play 11 games on it as well as taking about 100 swings through the Home Run Derby. I can't wait to play it again.

It's odd. Something about it, even with all the problems, is really really fun. I was thinking about picking up MVP after the first game, but now I can't imagine I would play it even if all the other things were fixed. The balance just is there, and I am having a LOT of fun with it.

So take it for what you will -- a game with a ton of problems, but one which I think outshines all of them.

[SoulBlazer]

Well, as I said in another thread, I got both games, but I have'nt been able to get near my XBox due to my roomnmates using it.

I'll post my notes later.

[digitalpress]

Well, as I said in another thread, I got both games, but I have'nt been able to get near my XBox due to my roomnmates using it.

I'll post my notes later.

Now that I've played them both for a few nights, I'm ready to share my opinion. I did not play either game online, so these impressions are based on the single-player mode.

I bought MVP first, based on a) having enjoyed last year's version and b) having read the ign.com comparison where it squeaked out the win over ESPN.

My impressions: they didn't change the game at all, really. I wasn't thrilled with the fantasy draft process last year and this year is exactly the same. You can't sort by any of the fields, so if you need a speedy role-player or a home-run hitting 3B you have to scan through the list. It's especially difficult when you don't care about position because the list of "all batters" or "all pitchers" is huge. The process isn't much fun beyond the first ten or so players who you just know.

The gameplay is much like last year as well. There's a new "batters' eye" feature which is pretty cool and adds a bit of an edge back to the batting screen. The pitcher-batter is terrific with hot and cold zones.

The player animations are outstanding. Guys stumble as they round bases, throw from their knees, climb up the wall to catch balls, etc etc etc. It looks great.

HOWEVER.

After renting ESPN the other night, I haven't been able to put it down. The fantasy draft is a DREAM, you can sort by attributes or last years' stats on any position or all positions at once. You draft extra players, who are assigned to the minors. ESPN has a farm system but it's not as deep as MVP. That's fine by me - I'd prefer watching ten top minor league prospects than having to oversee three leagues worth of guys.

The player animations in ESPN are not nearly as good as MVP, but they're adequate. Player faces generally don't look so hot either.

The presentation of ESPN blows away MVP, though. Like all of the ESPN titles of late, it really looks like you're watching the game on TV, with accurate in-game graphics, on-the-fly stats, and commentary.

The pitcher-batter screen is every bit as good as MVP, and there are some features I like better on ESPN. The piitching AND the batting feel more natural here, and I like both the control system for the pitcher and the guessing system for the batter.

Winner by a large margin is ESPN in my opinion, and that doesn't even include the $10 you save by buying ESPN instead. It's very well done, perfect for those who are really into fantasy stats style gaming.

[Rogmeister]

Uh oh...with such a high recommendation from the big guy, I may actually have to pick up ESPN as well...and I was only going to buy one baseball title this year.

[norkusa]

I dunno, I'm really torn here. I know I said I wouldn't buy another *new* EA game for as long as I live, but I loved last years MVP and am tempted to buy it again. I bought MVP because I played the 2k4 demo and thought the control and gameplay felt very sloppy. After reading Joe's review though, I'm going with ESPN this year. Sounds like they fixed allot of things from last year and with a few exceptions, MVP sounds basically the same as last years version.

FYI, Circuit City has ESPN 2k5 on sale this week for $14.99

[boatofcar]

$14.99? Wow. Hoever, I got All-Star Baseball 2004 for the PS2, and the only thing that keeps me from just playing that again is the awful baserunning, which is a lot like goatdan described. It's so frustrating to have a great inning ruined by not being able to control the runners correctly. Joe and everyone else, can you please weigh in on how you feel about the baserunning in MLB 2k5?

[digitalpress]

Sorry John, I haven't played MLB 2005, or ASB 2004 or 2005.

[Lothars]

Well since dp recommended getting ESPN 2k5 on thursday im going to go and pick it up,

I picked up MVP and really enjoy it mostly the ign head to head was what made me choose mvp but now i also want MLB 2k5 so i might as well get it to.

thanks for the post dp.

[Chunky]

i was all about Allstar 2005 lst year, but again don't forget they named it 2005 last year for this title, they are always a year ahead in names, don't get screwed.


i picked up espn for my neighbor and I and i honestly love this game, its equal to ASB in having it look like a real game playing, it just lacks a little on the graphics but what a wonderful $20 title.

Online play is great we pick each other out and play away. comentary is not repetitively boring like ASB and the little crowd heckling/ stadium announcements/ and organ in sourround sound make it great.