Customer Reviews

MVP Baseball 2004

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Welp, spring is upon us and whereas its freezing in NY, the heat being generated by MVP Baseball 2004 is incredible.

Graphically, this game is impressive. Every patch, stitch and wrinkle in the players uniforms is visible. The sky is gorgeous during the day and filled with stars at night. The grass looks great and every stadium is meticulously detailed down to the little things, like running fountains in KC. The player animations, which looked awesome in 2003, have been completely upgraded. I've played approximately 30 games and I still see new animations for fielders taking hops or scooping a bum throw. EA has included crowd animations for the "lower bowl" section of the stadiums, so it truly seems that they get up and cheer when they are expected to.

The gameplay on the field is much the same as 2003, and this year All-Star actually seems to be a difficult setting. I stopped playing 2003 as it became too easy on the hardest setting. I can tell that I'll be playing a full 162 this year. On the field, the players play pretty kmuch the same, with throw meters and so forth. Nothing has changed. Fantastically, EA has added gameplay sliders to increase or decrease the game play abilities in nearly every facet. It seems that EA took a cue from High Heat. The slider will have to be played with and adjusted to your liking. The outfielders run and throw a bit weakly on the default settings, so its common to give up 4 or 5 triples a game. Playing with the sliders has increased thew realism dramatically.

Pitching is exactly the same. Pick your spot, throw your pitch and hit both spots on the meter or its gone. The selection of pitches seems to be realistic and they break the way they're meant to break, so it looks really nice.

Hitting is much the same as last year. Use the left analog to control the direction of the hit, and be patient. The CPU throws alot of offspeed stuff and striking out is very much a big reality, at least to me. Ive learned to lay off the bad stuff, but it took some timing. If the CPU throws a ball thats way out of the way, the yellow X comes up. If they botch a pitch in them zone, the pink or blue circle comes up, just blast it to where it has to go. Sometimes you get a bunch of bad pitches in the game, sometimes you dont. The opposing pitcher really does make a difference if it's an ace of a staff or some nobody just called up from thje minors.

Speaking of minors, this is a really cool aspect. Every team has its AAA and AA affiliate available to use. You can control the minor league teams as part of your dynasty. Call up a rocket starter, or send down a poor perfomance reliever if need be, and the greatest thing is, many of the players in the minors are the actual players in the organizations farm team. Guys like Brandon Claussen from the Reds, Erik Almonte from the Yankees and Miguel Acensio from the Royals are involved in the minor league doings.

The major league rosters are updated as of 1/2004, so don't expect A-Rod on the Yanks, just simply trade him over and save it as your roster. Also, I believe EA will supporting an updated roster download via the internet connection once the season begins.

As for the online play, the servers are very out of whack. Id go into details, but EA has stated that they will be fixed by the time the season begins, so hopefully it'll be a non-issue. If it isnt, there will be some angry people out there.

Other added features to this years release have helped the realism. The CPU can actually tag you deep this season. Last year, in 65 games my entire team had given up 3 home runs. Its nice to play against the Twins and know that Tori Hunter is actually able to blast you if you screw up a pitch. Injuries are back and play a big part in your day to day lineup, and new this season are suspensions.

If you get beaned with a pitch you have an option to charge the mound, resulting in a bench clearing brawl. Your player will be ejected, and possibly injured or suspended, so dont charge just for the fun of charging, unless youre just playing around.

One issue everyone has, and it ISN'T EA's fault is....there's no Barry Bonds. He is not a member of the MLBPA and it's illegal to add him to any video game. Luckily the SF Giants have a very powerful, very good outfielder named John Dowd. Simply edit his name and b-day and you've got Bonds in the game.

Overall, EA has always impessed me with graphics and short term fun. This product looks like they've answered the calls of many fans and created a game which will have long term playability.

I really enjoyed playing this game the first time I got it, but...there still are some annoying things in here. I own MVP Baseball 2003 which was a big improvement from the Triple Play Series, but that doesn't really mean that the game was good itself. Now MVP 2004 has gotten rid of the majority of the glitches and whatnot, to make this a truly great game with almost flawless gameplay.

The thing that really bothered this game from being perfect is that;(1). First whenever you take a swing at a high heater or a slow changeup or whatever it shows you a replay EVERY single time of you swinging and missing in a little box on the bottem right corner. And the thing is that you cannot turn that off so you just have to live with it. (2). Slow outfielders. They had this same problem on the '03 game but they didn't bother to fix it. The game has slow outfielders so if a hitter hits it into the gap, which in real life would only be a fair double but the majority of the times it will turn into a triple. Or if theres a ball hit into foul territory, and your in the outfield, chances are you probably won't catch up to the ball. Which is very unrealistic because outfielders can usually catch up to a foul ball very quickly. (3). Easy Pitching. I believe in my own opinion that this game has too easy pitching. The strike zone is too large so that a pitch up and away or down and in would be easily called a strike. (4). Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow (game annoucners) gets repettitive once you play the game for awhile.

Now since I got the cons out of the way, here are the Pro's; (1). A much deeper franchise/dynasty mode which you can now have a minor league system with all of the original rosters and teams. (2). More awards like the Gold Glove Award™, Rookie of the Year Award, etc. (3). Breath taking Graphic. (4). Flawless Gameplay (5). Unlockable Historic Jerseys, Stadiums, Players, etc. from getting MVP Points. (6). Now to cover for the bad announcers, the fans and stadium music are just PERFECT. It really feels like you're in the Stadium with the crowd. EA Sports did a very good job in that category.

So in my final thoughts, if you're a Hardcore Baseball Fan, get this, if you're not I still think you should get this but if you think you might waste your money thinking its not exactly what you wanted, then go ahead to your local video/game store and rent it for $5 and then make up your mind.

Welp, spring is upon us and whereas its freezing in NY, the heat being generated by MVP Baseball 2004 is incredible.

Graphically, this game is impressive. Every patch, stitch and wrinkle in the players uniforms is visible. The sky is gorgeous during the day and filled with stars at night. The grass looks great and every stadium is meticulously detailed down to the little things, like running fountains in KC. The player animations, which looked awesome in 2003, have been completely upgraded. I've played approximately 30 games and I still see new animations for fielders taking hops or scooping a bum throw. EA has included crowd animations for the "lower bowl" section of the stadiums, so it truly seems that they get up and cheer when they are expected to.

The gameplay on the field is much the same as 2003, and this year All-Star actually seems to be a difficult setting. I stopped playing 2003 as it became too easy on the hardest setting. I can tell that I'll be playing a full 162 this year. On the field, the players play pretty kmuch the same, with throw meters and so forth. Nothing has changed. Fantastically, EA has added gameplay sliders to increase or decrease the game play abilities in nearly every facet. It seems that EA took a cue from High Heat. The slider will have to be played with and adjusted to your liking. The outfielders run and throw a bit weakly on the default settings, so its common to give up 4 or 5 triples a game. Playing with the sliders has increased thew realism dramatically.

Pitching is exactly the same. Pick your spot, throw your pitch and hit both spots on the meter or its gone. The selection of pitches seems to be realistic and they break the way they're meant to break, so it looks really nice.

Hitting is much the same as last year. Use the left analog to control the direction of the hit, and be patient. The CPU throws alot of offspeed stuff and striking out is very much a big reality, at least to me. Ive learned to lay off the bad stuff, but it took some timing. If the CPU throws a ball thats way out of the way, the yellow X comes up. If they botch a pitch in them zone, the pink or blue circle comes up, just blast it to where it has to go. Sometimes you get a bunch of bad pitches in the game, sometimes you dont. The opposing pitcher really does make a difference if it's an ace of a staff or some nobody just called up from thje minors.

Speaking of minors, this is a really cool aspect. Every team has its AAA and AA affiliate available to use. You can control the minor league teams as part of your dynasty. Call up a rocket starter, or send down a poor perfomance reliever if need be, and the greatest thing is, many of the players in the minors are the actual players in the organizations farm team. Guys like Brandon Claussen from the Reds, Erik Almonte from the Yankees and Miguel Acensio from the Royals are involved in the minor league doings.

The major league rosters are updated as of 1/2004, so don't expect A-Rod on the Yanks, just simply trade him over and save it as your roster. Also, I believe EA will supporting an updated roster download via the internet connection once the season begins.

As for the online play, the servers are very out of whack. Id go into details, but EA has stated that they will be fixed by the time the season begins, so hopefully it'll be a non-issue. If it isnt, there will be some angry people out there.

Other added features to this years release have helped the realism. The CPU can actually tag you deep this season. Last year, in 65 games my entire team had given up 3 home runs. Its nice to play against the Twins and know that Tori Hunter is actually able to blast you if you screw up a pitch. Injuries are back and play a big part in your day to day lineup, and new this season are suspensions.

If you get beaned with a pitch you have an option to charge the mound, resulting in a bench clearing brawl. Your player will be ejected, and possibly injured or suspended, so dont charge just for the fun of charging, unless youre just playing around.

One issue everyone has, and it ISN'T EA's fault is....there's no Barry Bonds. He is not a member of the MLBPA and it's illegal to add him to any video game. Luckily the SF Giants have a very powerful, very good outfielder named John Dowd. Simply edit his name and b-day and you've got Bonds in the game.

Overall, EA has always impessed me with graphics and short term fun. This product looks like they've answered the calls of many fans and created a game which will have long term playability.

This is the most entertaining sports game I have ever played. It is amazingly deep and true to the sport. The baseball gaming market is always a tough decision. In 2002 I bought All Star Baseball because it was the best baseball game on the market that year. Then in 2003 I tried High Heat (Uggghhh) and then traded it in for World Series 2K3. This year I have played a demo for ESPN Baseball 2K4 and was not impressed enough with any significant changes to buy the game. One of my friends told me MVP Baseball 2003 was a good game and had a pretty cool pitcher/batter interface. I laughed knowing that Triple Play and EA Sports just plain Stunk. Then one day I decided to go to Best Buy and played a demo for MVP 2004. I WAS COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY and in love !!! I bought the game and have been playing it for a week and a half now. I wanted to give it time before I reviewed it. Here is what I have experienced so far in my first dynasty season: I am the New York Mets sitting at a respectable 11-8 with 78 runs scored and 79 runs allowed. Most of my games have been 5-3, 4-2 but I did get blown out 10-0 once. My minor league teams are AAA(12-9) and AA(9-10) I have some good prospects at both levels (even though only players that have been registered with the MLBPA are real due to licensing fees) and there are only 3 minor league ballparks. Okay here is my review.
GRAPHICS:
Not as crisp as ESPN 2K4 but very impressive detailed stadiums and the players are fairly close to their counterparts even though the animation looks kind of cartoonish sometimes. The ball travels as it sounds when it is hit. Loud cracks usually mean your outfielders are going to be running to the wall. Check swings are reviewed with help of the umpire with a little box in the lower corner showing a replay of the swing to kill your doubts if you did swing through the zone. Player attributes are fair and each player is graded in many attribute categories on a 1-100 scale (some scrub AA players are at 5-35 in contact and power but build up over each successfully completed season at AA and AAA more on that later.) Overall the graphics are nice but could use a little refining. 9.0
CONTROLS:
Very simple and easy to control player movements and swings. Takes time to get used to the right analog stick for dives, leaps, and sliding into bases but once you do it truly adds to the realism of the sport. Every button is used in the field and swinging is more based on timing and is really a one button process (I prefer that over the cursor chasing swing of ESPN 2K4.) Running the bases is performed with the D-Pad and to change a player in the field or on the bases to control, simply hit the L1 or L button. Fluidity of the controls adds to the feeling that you are on the field. 9.5
REPLAY VALUE:
This is the meat and potatoes of my review. This game is so FREAKING REAL !!! You would swear you are speeding up time or climbing into Doc's Delorean. I decided to take a new dynasty and simulate across 5 seasons and see what would happen with my Mets organization. Players are evaluated at the end of the year and depending on their performances in the level(s) they played in the previous year, that is what affects their player ratings and attributes to go up or down. Career minor leaguers at 26 retire and players that have excelled at AA and AAA are rated overall high enough to be promoted (IF THEY HAD A GOOD YEAR THE YEAR BEFORE IN THE LOWER LEVEL.) If not its another season of riding the bus in the minors. You draft either 10 or 11 players in the draft and some of the guys that go in the first round may have higher attributes than most of your AA players so its possible to throw them into AAA right after you draft them. Free agency is just like Madden. A player will CONSIDER your offer and evaluate other offers. Here is an example of what I did: I offered Nomar Garciaparra a 4 year contract for a little more than what he was asking for. The next week he told me he was considering it. I was then outbid by Los Angeles and tried to give him more than what they offered him....but...he still turned me down to play in LA for less money. Hey folks, if that isnt realism than I dont know what is. This game is addictive and life ruining LOL. 10.0
EXTRACURRICULARS:
Legendary players, classic stadiums, 60 retro uniforms (they picked some really good ones in this game) are gained when you gather MVP points by accomplishing in game and in dynasty feats or during home run derby and pitching showdown. The commentary is a little corny and very inconsistent and might be the only negative thing I have with this game but you cant beat those hecklers and the crowd reacting at the right time to the RIGHT TEAM !!! (no more shots at High Heat...PROMISE!!!) Trust me the corny commentating is definitely overcame by the realism of the DEEEEEEP dynasty mode. And unlike WSB2K3, each season that you play in the dynasty mode, your team gets a new schedule (In the aforementioned game you play the same EXACT schedule every year alternating home and road games but never getting to play all of the interleague teams). 9.0
IN RETROSPECT:
This is a solid game that has caused my wife to not talk to me because I CANT PUT IT DOWN, Ive tried to turn it off and watch the Mens basketball tournament but it is too exciting and real for me and even more fun than watching sports on T.V. Im not saying this is the best game out this year because I havent played ASB05 or MLB2005, but I do think that every baseball fan that owns a PS2, XBox or GC should AT THE VERY LEAST rent this game or play at a friend's house. I would pay 100 dollars for this game if I had to...it really is that good. 9.4 out of 10.0

The biggest changes: Deep Minor Leagues, and from what I can tell, the real players exist (AAA Oklahoma Redhawks have Erasmo Ramirez... and he's in the Texas Rangers org). Jumping/diving are now included as are 4 (yes - 4!) sliding options, which is very, very cool. Gone are the phantom, nonsense tags as well! Bullpens, bullpens, bullpens!!!! You now need to warm up pitchers before bringing them in. You can also do mound visits to help kill time while the relievers get warm. Another big change is more along the SIM line, and its pretty cool. You now have mood faces, or levels of happiness (not sure what they call it) which can impact the players level of play.

Overall, this is an excellent game.

On the downside (always a downside, right?)... the game play can be a bit jittery. It doesn't seem as smooth as MVP 2003, but its manageable. It's not that difficult to deal with.

From a graphics point of view, the one stadium I've seen (Safeco) is beautiful. And it includes the sound of the train.

The Announcers are not annoying.

Overall (can you tell, I need to go?), I really like this game and can't wait to get home to play it.

Just got the game today, but I've been checking it out for the last few hours. The presentation is superb. The minors leagues are better than I expected. You can edit your players, or create a player and start him in AA and work your way up into the majors.

The dynasty mode is excellent. You get 120 years to play through and you can play the AA, AAA and major league games for each and every day--that's about 57,000 dynasty games. Or you can run a quick sim. Or you can manage the game (which is the coolest feature). You're shown the diamond with who's up, and you can choose things like pitch around, walk, hit the batter, or sacrifice fly, hit and run, etc., etc.

The games plays great, too. The batting is very nice, although a little too hyped-up for all its simplicity. "Pure Swing" is a little misleading. Anyway, it's a little tougher than previous baseball games, but you have more control as well. The fielding is all about you. So much control it's hard to believe. Not a flaw there. And the baserunning is incredible with the new slide and steal controls. And with a simple click of L2, a visual of your bullpen and/or your dugout appears and you can make defensive or pitching changes on the fly.

Easter eggs are nice, too, though hard to come by. You have to gain points by accomplishing feats in the games you play, and then you can buy a massive amount of retro jerseys, a bunch of old stadiums and almost every retired superstar that ever played.

That said, there are a couple of problems I have with the game. EA's usual graphic flaws are present (compared to the ESPN games at least). The sprites have that too-bright edge. Just not very crisp or distinct from the background. EA needs to work on its lighting and shadows for all its games. Also, when creating a player you only get 15 faces to choose from. 5 white, 5 black & 5 hispanic/oriental. I couldn't find 1 of the 5 that even came close to resembling me. And lastly, the edit player feature is deep but also very slow. It would take much longer than necessary to edit in the real minor league players if you wanted to do that. That's about it for the complaints.

All in all, this game appears to have the replay value of a champ. So much to do and so little time to do it before next year's release. I'm still going to check out the ESPN game for their superior graphics and first person baseball, but this will tide me over until the end of the month, or the end of the decade. And if you can only afford one baseball game this year, there is no question that this one will more than suffice. Up to now, it's the best baseball video game ever produced.

My first choice this year was MVP Baseball 2004 by EA Sports. The hype for this game got to me. After reading several extremely positive previews/reviews, I went out and purchased it at Best Buy.

Graphics/Presentation
The game looks great. The stadiums look good. Some of the players look similiar to their real faces. There are many objects that the ball actually bounces off of, including glass panels and the mountain area at the Angel's stadium. In addition, players swings are the some of the best I've seen. However, there are a few glitches. Players don't bump into each other; they go through each other. When a player slides to second head first and the shortstop puts his glove down for the tag, his glove goes through his head, down his spine and through his legs. Also, MVP offers a side batting view camera when a player swings and misses the ball. The ball is supposed to go into the catcher's glove, however, it goes through it and through the catcher most of the time.

Gameplay
Gameplay in MVP baseball is good and bad. There are several aspects of the game that are great. However, there a many large bugs that can destroy your gaming experience.

First, I will begin with the good. The MVP Pitching interface is my favorite pitching interface in any baseball game I've played so far. The pitching controls allow you to pin-point an exact location and you'll hit it depending on your accuracy. Your accuracy is judged by your pitching meter. When I pitch in MVP, I feel like I have complete control over every aspect of my pitch. Batting in MVP Baseball is dependent on timing and location. If you swing below the pitch, you will hit it straight up in the air. If you hit it dead on, but you're a little slow swinging the bat, you'll probably hit it foul somewhere. Many people complain about not being able to hit a homerun at all. These people, in fact, don't know how to hit the ball and there isn't anything wrong with homerun hitting in MVP. (well, kind of. Read on) Big Play Control is another great feature in MVP Baseball. Big Play Control allows you to slide into a base in a specific way and allows you to throw a ball soft or hard. For example, whenever you throw the ball to a base, you can hold it in longer for a harder throw, however it could affect the accuracy of the throw.

There are a lot of positive aspects of MVP Baseball, but there are a few negative aspects as well. The listing below lists some of the "bugs" I can confirm.

- The "Lefty" bug - It is extremely difficult to hit for power with a left handed hitter. You'll notice that your right handed hitters will hit a lot more home runs than your left handed hitters.
- Random Error bug - On occasion, a hit will be ruled as an error against the other team. I haven't figured out when/why this happens, but I'll look into it.
- CPU Doesn't Steal - While playing a MLB game, the CPU will never steal and they won't play hit-and-run ball either. This isn't the case for minor league games, though.
- Outfielders run too slow - By default, the outfielders run way too slow. This increases extra base hits in the game, including the "inside the park homerun". You can tweak this by adjusting the game's sliders.
- Players out perform their abilities - You'll find that many marginal hitters will hit 2-3 homeruns in game sometimes. Of course, they will be right-handed hitters, though.

I'm sure most of you know that B. Bonds is not included in the game....BUT, you can EDIT the player named J. Dowd on the Giants. Go to espn's website for Bonds' info, and change his appearance, give him some shin/elbow guards, some wristbands, long pants, and you have a 98% match of Bonds. The announcer even says "Bonds" when he comes to bat!! Make sure you do this before you start a Dynasty, so you can use him during the Dynasty, and not have to worry about that dude Dowd.
This game, by the way, rocks...everything about it. The teams with losing records, their stadiums have low attendance, and it sounds like no one's in it with the surround sound on. You have to check out Dontrelle Willis' windup!!! It's EXACT..from his herky-jerky leg kick to his follow-through.
If you're deciding on a game to get, make sure you pass the other "losers" and pick up this "winner"!!

This is the best baseball game ever. The graphics are incredible and the game is so realistic. If your pitcher isn't doing well, you can send your manager out to talk to him. If the pitcher isn't happy about you coming out, his performance level goes down and vice versa. The pure swing system isn't too hard once you get used to it.

The realism is incredible. I got hit by a pitch. On the screen it flashes "To charge mound, press triangle." I charged the mound and the benches cleared and several players got ejected. If that happens in Dynasty Mode your players might get suspended.

Dynasty mode is great. There is every single AA and AAA team and you can play their games. There are rainouts (which result in doubleheaders later in the season),suspensions etc. You even have an "email" system where the players,staff and media send you messages. Players might email you complaining about their contract or playing time. The Front Office might email you that you're about to lose your job. The media emails you about injury updates, trades and more.

This game is great!

I don't like baseball very much. Give me the NFL and NBA anyday. However, this game is so brilliant it inspires me to give baseball a chance again.
EA Canada, with the exception of the NBA Street games, has generally always been second fiddle to the EA Tiburon Development team. With this effort they have made the best baseball game ever and a game that is impossible to put down. It's similar to Tiger Woods 2004 in that it's a sport most gamers don't really follow but it is crafted so brilliantly that you want to learn more about the real game if you to dare put down the controller and stop playing.
EA Canada has taken the big improvements they made in MVP 2003 and upgraded considerably. The hitting and pitching interface IS BASEBALL!! It can be difficult on the default Pro level, but after time it becomes intuitive and is extremely rewarding. Besides a successfull baseball player averages a hit 3 out of 10 at bats... so it's realistic. The fielding has been dramatically improved and getting a jump on the ball is easier and key to making a play. The pitching is basically identical to last year, with the exception of mound visits that can effect the confidence of the pitcher.
The graphics remind me of NBA Live 2004. The big time players do look like their real self (albiet with a kind of cartoony look), and the secondary players can look a little more generic. Sega Sports generally beats EA in this field every year and this probably won't be any different this year.
The sound is wonderful. The commentary is top notch, even better than NCAA Football 2004, and the crowd interaction is the best I've ever heard. I have surround sound speakers and I hear something new every game. You hear vendors, crowd specific chants and various fans shouting out support or reactions directed toward specific players. Wow.
Also included are eight classic stadiums, all the AAA and AA minor league teams (but with only 3 minor league stadiums), retro uniforms and 52 Legends. I'd personally like more legends and stadiums but with licensing that is not realistic and shouldn't be held against the developers.
Sega's baseball game hasn't come out yet and it may be better. Sega makes great sports games so it's possible. But I honestly cannot imagine Sega making a game better than this. I can see them making a game equal to this, but it's going to be tough.
If you love MLB you should own this game. Great job EA Canada.

P.S.- Fans don't blame EA for not having Barry Bonds in the game. Barry took over his own licensing from the MLBPA so he will not be appearing in any games.