MVP Baseball 2003

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• XBOX
• Video Game
• Sports
• Baseball
• MVP

Product Details

• ASIN: B000088KHC
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 11, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,319 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

In baseball, if a pitcher starts losing control the manager yanks him. It’s a smart thing to do because baseball tends to flow in streaks. This is why EA Sports came out to the mound and pulled the ailing Triple Playseries. Never a critical favorite, it was too arcade and not enough simulation. Triple Play just wasn't performing, and fans were beginning to notice what the other baseball sims were doing better (almost everything). So rookie MVP 2003 trots out to the mound for its day in the sun. It’s a step in the right direction.

MVP looks great. The field, players, and animations are all smooth and realistic looking. Instead of placing the camera directly behind the batter in the default view, they’ve gone for a slightly tilted camera that better simulates a batter’s view of the ball screaming in. The only graphical glitch is that the batting box is too small visually. Curves don’t break correctly, change-ups don’t drop enough, and this just plain looks weird. However, the mini-diamond that shows the situation (including how much of a lead the opposing team's runners take) is just about perfect.

Rather than simply demanding you keep your eye on the ball, MVP has a batting box that predicts where the ball will go. This makes hitting too easy and pitching a bit too hard. A pitcher has too little time to get the ball icon within the strike zone. Other sims do it better. The other problem is with fielding. You have decent control (they avoided World Series Baseball’s rookie error) but changing players is neither quick nor easy and the game forces your player to dive when you don’t want to. Tossing it back to base isn’t as intuitive or smooth as it should be either. You’ll get used to it but, again, other games do it much better.

MVP is a strong debut but it just isn’t a contender for the Hall of Fame.--Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• Great graphics
• Realistic baseball action
• Franchise mode

Cons:

• Pitches don’t "break" correctly
• Fielding system is out of whack
• Franchise mode lacks initial draft

Product Description

MVP Baseball 2003 This is a whole new ballgame! Knock the dirt off your cleats in the first season of MVP BASEBALL, the all-new, re-engineered baseball franchise from EA SPORTS. MVP BASEBALL 2003 incorporates a new pitcher-batter interface-giving players the opportunity to be more strategic with their pitching and batting-and an all-new, picture-in-picture, on-base view, to create added dimension and strategy for base running. Realistic stadiums and highly detailed player models and animations bring the baseball action to life like never before. Knock it out of the park with MVP BASEBALL 2003, the most authentic baseball experience on the field!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars different name same game...sorry EA Sports, March 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: MVP Baseball 2003 (Video Game)

So this year Triple Play becomes MVP Baseball. I admit I wanted this one to be good and graphically it is, but sadly I've learned that's the only good thing going for it. What happened to EA Sports ?... It added "funky" throwing meters that make playing it pretty akward. Franchise mode is limited to 10 seasons. In my opinion, the best baseball game on the market right now is World Series Baseball 2k3 , but High Heat MLB 2004 also got some good reviews...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Baseball Game In Ages, October 20, 2003

By 

WhiteRecluse (Cali-friggin-fornia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MVP Baseball 2003 (Video Game)

But, people are leaving out major, dumb things EA messed up on.

First off, the fielding. You can play with manual fielding, but you CANNOT manually dive for balls or climb the fence to rob homeruns. To me, that is flat-out pitiful. I get the feeling, they will change that for the next version. Also, as someone mentioned, the ball hardly ever goes into the fielder's glove, yet you still make the catch. Graphically, that's a downside. It really looks ridiculous when it hits their head & such. Also, many times that happens when the computer robs you of a home run. Which pisses me off as well. The fact that the computer has no problem climbing fences & robbing home runs.... not to mention diving for balls, wtf!

Also, you will not be able to stop sacrifice flies. Your throw meter doesn't come up until you have the ball in your glove. But, on double plays, you can do 'future' throws. Like before the ball gets to your turnover player, you can press which base you want him to throw to & how hard you want him to throw it, before he catches the ball. They should have installed that for sac-flies too. & also, double plays look horrible graphically, because the base runner does not disrupt the throw at all, he slides right on through your turnover player.

Now, for the people/morons who said it's impossible to hit home runs, walk, & steal bases..... They have no idea how stupid they are.

To hit a home run, simply press UP & the direction you want to hit it. If it's on all-star or pro, you will have to pick up the pitch quickly & if it's coming inside, pull it. If it's going over the outside, go opposite field. You can pull pitches on the outside, but you're less likely to hit it out. It's better to slap it opposite field. On rookie, timing is really all that matters. I hit home runs on pitches out of the zone when I played on rookie.

On all-star, the computer will throw balls much more often to try to get you to chase bad pitches. & if you can lay off those & work the count, you will get walks much more often. And, it will help you get good pitches to drive. Hey! That's like, realistic!

Stealing being difficult is semi-understandable. When I first started playing I did feet-first slides every time & stole 1 base out of like, 20 attempts, no joke. But, then I read the book & found out to press 'up' along with 'a' to do a head-first slide & now my steal rate is about 75%.... at least with my fast guys. A minor qualm I have is only being able to take 2 lead-off steps. But, that is enough. Make sure you take those 2 steps or you will not get the steal. If your player has a 70 speed or less, more than likely you won't be able to steal anyway.

I have absolutely NO qualms with the pitching. It's sick! & the first baseball game EVER MADE in my opinion where pitching is FUN & doesn't make me sick close to turning the game off.

A couple things they could add, like someone said, is better batting animations. Like, Sammy's hop, or Soriano's bat flip, etc. I remember the Triple Play series had players staring down home runs & I loved that.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Loads Of Fun, May 12, 2003

By 

Wayne A. Edwards (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MVP Baseball 2003 (Video Game)

There were two reasons why i bought an Xbox: 1.I was tired of fooling with the computer and the computer games. Instead of spending [the money] to upgrade my computer, I bought an Xbox which is as close to computer a game console will get. 2.I wanted to buy a quality Baseball game. I am happily satisfied with my Xbox and MVP Baseball 2003.
This game is lots of fun. It has great graphics and sound. The gameplay is exciting and engaging. Best of all, no batting cursors! The batter/pitcher interface is unique and the true highlight of this game. You can control location, break and speed of your pitches. The pitching gauge lets you know how effective your pitch will be and how tired your picher is also. Batting is all about timing and location. The Franchise mode is engaging as you manage your players and your budget. My only gripes are the exclusion of features i liked in Triple Play (Showing pitch counts, bullpen warmup, homerun animations and showing pitch locations). I've rented WSB2K3,HHB 2004 and ASB2K4. I was impressed with all of the extra features in all of these games ..but they just weren't as FUN as MVP Baseball 2003.
I hope next year's has all the best additions that the other games have but still retain the exciting game play included in this game.