Foul Ball
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GameCube | 7.00 | 9.00 | 7.00 | 5.00 | 9.00 | 8.00 | 7.70 |
| General Information |
| This review is written from the perspective of someone who played MVP Baseball 2004 and is for anyone else who has. If not, the game has more value and is better reviewed from someone else like that. |
| Gameplay Description |
| MVP Baseball 2005 is the sequel to MVP Baseball 2004. It's a baseball sim to the core and is not for someone looking for an arcade experience. |
| Dedication Meter | 100.00 |
| Unless you're willing to put ungodly hours (hundreds) into this game, it's not going to show its worth. Whether by choice or simply because there's no alternative, the seasons are long and there's no two ways about it. There's simply no quick way to get much out of it other than playing exhibition games. | |
| Presentation | 7.00 |
| EA had a chance to address what concerns there were with '04's installment. Those being, a choppy framerate with runners on depending on the stadium, and parts of the crowd being animated polygons and the rest being horribly blurred 2D images. In both regards, the game actually goes backwards. The frame rate, while rarely choppy at bat and never as bad as the Colorado stadium in '04, every single stadium with runners on has framerate issues while pitching (with one of, if not the worst, offender is your custom stadium in Owner Mode). As for the crowd, now even fewer characters are polygon to the point of dismission. The 2D crowd looks better than in the first game, though, but I'd rather have no crowd at all than frame rate issues. The game from a simply visual standpoint is a bit improved, mainly with regards to textures. | |
| Controls | 9.00 |
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MVP Baseball '05 employs a meter system for all throwing in the game. Pitching, you hold down a button to wind up and press it trying to land in the green zone for a perfect pitch; slightly off and you're pitch will be a bit off, further off and the pitch will hang. Fielding is simplified in that you hold down for more power, but if you go into the red zone (variable on fielder ability) you may commit an error. The batting system is also unique to the series in that you don't swing based on location, but on how you want to hit the ball; up for fly ball, left to hit to the left side, and so forth. Of course, just like in actual baseball, if you try to pull an outside pitch, you're not going to be very successful. The marked improvement in MVP '05 is the control system. Although it's entirely the same in structure to '04, the problems have all been addressed. Firstly, the fielder selection woes are gone. The game makes excellent selections for which character you should use. The bug where it randomly switches outfielders is also removed. The other concern was that pitching was too easy when it came to hitting your spots; this is also improved. And, of course, the infamous lefty glitch has been rectified. |
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| Variety | 7.00 |
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There were issues in variety that should have been addressed and were foregone for a subpar "Owner Mode". You can still only play a complete 162 game season with every game being nine innings in length. All-star Baseball 2000 -- that's right 2000 -- had options for 28 and 81 game seasons with games being of any length you wished. You still can't save a fantasy draft outside of a season, dynasty or owner mode season, so you can't reuse a particular team or use a draft team in an exhibition game with friends (again, done in ASB 2000). While MVP '05 has pitching and hitting mini-games, can anyone explain the blatant absence of the Home Run Derby? Even in a season you can play the all-star game and not the Home Run Derby. All that said, there's still plenty of content here. All the stadiums, even more unlockable past greats (including a couple managers), a ton of customizable options for how the game works for tweaking and the season modes are very in-depth. The big new addition for this year is hte aforementioned "Owner Mode" in which you play the role of the owner and try to make money off your team. An interesting inclusion is the ability to argue a call, complete with a intensity meter for how intense the argument should be. This can give your team a boost if done at the right time or decrease in stats for the game by making a dumb argument or getting thrown out when it wasn't worth it. More than once though, I accidentally hit B and triggered an argument on an obvious call, which automatically gets you thrown out regardless of intensity. Another new addition is the "Batter's Eye" in which pitch types (fastball, breaking ball, changeup, etc) are marked by colours as they come to the plate. It isn't as bad as I had thought in terms of making it easier to hit, but it has a big flaw. The problem with the batter's eye is that some pitchers wind-up in a way that shows you the colour before they throw the ball--now THAT makes it easier. While the Owner Mode good in theory, the way in which the crowd works is absolutely frustrating. Making it to the playoffs with by far the best record in baseball, I raised prices for the playoffs by $10 (above the default ticket pricing of the game itself) and failed to sell-out a 20,000 seat stadium (upon lowering the prices back, I managed to sell out the rest of the games). But wait, there's more; after winning the World Series, I play my home opener the next-year to a massive 12,000 fans. My only explanation for this is my trade of Albert Pujols as a (necessary) salary dump. While moderately fair for there to be a little drop-off in attendance, the amount was ridiculous, and it was a necessary move in part based on the design of the game itself. In the off-season, you have no way to see your team salary aside from going into payroll and adding up every single salary from all four of your teams at each level of the game. Kind of an important piece of information. Another big difficulty, is that ironically, the actual batter's eye (the area behind the pitcher so the batter can see the ball well) is horrendous at home; you cannot see the ball from an overhand delivery. Also, your custom park isn't all that customizable--any changes are entirely cosmetic and not the distinction. |
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| Audio | 5.00 |
| Having played a lot of MVP Baseball, I've well had it with the audio. The announcers are annoying, particularly talking while the pitch is being delivered. There's still the moronic glitch of the announcer suggesting a bunt with noone on, 2 out. And the most egregiously of all, the sound that you can't turn off, the organ music at home games that plays in key situations while you're batting that I lovingly call the "home field disadvantage". | |
| Depth | 9.00 |
| You're still controlling tons in the season modes. Now in Owner Mode you control ticket prices, merchandise prices, can buy assets, and control every level of your organization. Still, there's no salary arbitration. It's nice to see that the game works in real monetary values now instead of the points system. Negotiating with players is still frustrating as offering a 4 year contract instead of a 2 year contract can suddenly "anger" them and screw your chances of getting any sort of deal besides giving them everything they want. | |
| Value & Fun | 8.00 |
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On its own, MVP Baseball 2005 is a better game than it's predecessor -- when making incremental adjustments, it's hard not to be. But this is not on its own; I played 2004 and having done so, I have played much of 2005. There are definite things that needed to be addressed and weren't, and the game suffers because of it. When something is fresh like my take on last year's game, it's easy to give some slack in areas because what's there is so much fun. But when that freshness is no longer there, the game needs more substance. There are problems with both hitting and pitching, but I'll address hitting first. The problem with batting is not that the players have too much power, that the pitches are too easy to hit or aren't fast enough, or that it's too easy to make good contact -- those are all adjustable -- the problem is that there's no adjustment for how smart the pitchers are. Aside from throwing a pitch in the same spot that you chased one previously in the at bat, there's nothing smart about the pitchers at all. More importantly, though, there are too many pitches that are easy to crush. You're bound to get at least three change-ups up and in during the game; just like in real baseball, that's not a good pitch, no matter who you're facing. When playing I can see what pitches I have problems with and how the game could go about doing a good job of quiting my bats (that hit 400+ home runs during a season), but instead I get a four-seam fastball middle-in. Injuries are also strangely handled. Injuries are very disproportionally common on a runner breaking up a double play--it almost seems like a 25% chance of injury. Meanwhile liners off the pitchers rarely have any effect (I've only seen it injure once in 200+ games played). It makes breaking up double plays not worth it over the course of the season. Onto pitching, it's just too easy once again. While there's a definite improvement in hitting your spots, it could still use a bit of tinkering, and frankly the hitters just aren't good enough. The problem with the slider system is that I don't know what the problem is. The good hitters get hits, but most others don't. My season ERA, although with an excellent staff, was 1.68; that's absurd for even one pitcher let alone the average. A create-a-player (of reasonable stats, not ridiculous ones) had a season of an ERA of ~0.80 going 27-0. There's something wrong here. The problem seems to be that while I hit the bad pitches, the AI doesn't. The only time there's seem to be a threat of scoring is when runners are on; not because of the runners being on, but because the frame rate drops and it's harder to hit my spots. |
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| Overall | 7.70 |
| While All-star Baseball was never difficult enough for me and MVP manages to be just difficult enough to remain fun, I definitely miss how thoroughly the important areas were covered. ASB '02 may have been a misstep, but '04 rectified everything. MVP '05 does nothing of the sort. There's a lot of problems here when it comes to the game if you've played last year's game. It's a good option now to fans as you can pick it up cheaply, but my suggestion is to just ignore the owner mode. | |
Posted by Ellyoda Sun, 22 Oct 2006 00:00:00
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
In a multi-player game with my wife, because she knows even more about baseball than I our games always go extra innings because our pitcher AI is off-the charts. But in single player mode, the advantage goes to the hitter.
I played this game last weekend, it's such a high quality game. I usually go back to it because it includes ALL minor league teams down to AAA (so I can play as my local team).
Along with World Series 98 (Saturn) and the latest MLB The Show, MVP 05 is among the greatest Sim Baseball games of all time.