Customer Reviews

MVP Baseball 2005

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

MVP Baseball 2005 is the closest game currently on the market to give you the most in-depth baseball experience possible. In my opinion, the only people not liking some aspects of this game will be New York Yankees fans. It's not only Manny on the cover, but also the intro video, cracks and comments throughout the games and even a song praising Boston's first title in 86 years. Well, all I can say is, if you can't overlook those things, you're missing one fantastic game. Let's break it down:

Owner Mode:
New this year is Owner Mode where you begin with picking a stadium (not one of the existing ballparks, but a starter stadium) and making a few upgrades (seating, lights, whatever you can afford before opening day). You can add a restaurant, set ticket prices, make promotional days and on and on.

You have a financial advisor for the season, budget reports, player contracts, etc. One note: Yes, you can be the owner and play the game just like you would in Dynasty Mode. You can sim, play individual games, manage the game or sit in your luxury box and watch it all take place. There is so much to this mode that I couldn't possibly fit it into this review.

Dynasty Mode:
This mode is essentially the same as last year. Keep the owner happy, the players, do contracts and play the games. It's been updated and tweaked for more user friendly experience. And I can't leave out that this year, you even have single-A teams in addition to AA, AAA, and MLB.

Mini Games:
Instead of just a Home Run Derby, EA has included a variety of features that can teach you different aspects of the game. There is batting practice, pitching practice and also a scenario editor. To me, I found it to be an enjoyable experience especially when hitting the cars and busses over the outfield wall. This seems like a throw back to Triple-Play 2000 when you had target practice.

Graphics:
Simply amazing. Need I say more? The players faces and stances are mirrored to their real-life counterparts. Cutscenes, and animations are gorgeous. The only thing I found a proble with was the crowd...even in 2005, they are still wooden-looking. That's a sacrifice you have to make and it doesn't detract from the game experience.

Gameplay:
What a shift from last year! Pitching is now a lot more realistic with the way you use the meter. Instead on the old meter where you set power and tried to hit right spot, they have upgraded it to you having to stop it and exactly the right moment, if not, you risk and early or late breaking pitch. In rookie mode, it's not as big of a deal as it is in MVP mode. Make some mistake pitches in the higher levels and you're asking for trouble.

Batting is great! When you foul off a pitch, a little screen comes up and shows you how you hit it. Fouling off a pitch is a mistimed swing, same as a swing through. Gone is the animation where you swung, missed the ball and it popped up the crazy box to show you missing it. Instead, this year, they have the popup box, yet include the ball trail so you see how you missed it.

Fielding & baserunning is comparable to last years version with some great upgrades to visuals. There are plenty of dives, showboating grabs, wall jumps, and take-out slides.

Ok, I could go on & on with this review because, like I said, this is the most in-depth baseball game I have ever seen. If you want the best out there, MVP Baseball 2005 hits a Home Run.

Unfortunately, it may also be the last version due to TakeTwo's contract with MLB.

Anyway, this is a great addition to EA's collection of sports titles. Some cons include: Commentators have new things to say, in addition to the old things, but they still get dull rather quickly. You can only control one team at a time. I like to play NCAA football and Madden while "playing" one team and "playing owner, gm, etc." for another.

Pros:

1) Graphics: So much smoother in this version. The outfield characters are leaner and better looking. The stadiums look great and even when you create a ballpark, it still looks good.

2) Gameplay: It is tougher to field, hit, etc. but I consider this a good thing. Fielding is tougher because when you're tracking a fly ball you don't automatically stop on the circle. You actually have to pay attention once you get "close". Hitting is tougher, I think, and I actually have had to lower my level of gameplay to make myself more competitive. Baserunning is also more of a challenge. The pitchers are better at picking your runners off, and while you can modify the "gameplay tuning" it doesn't make winning automatic. Additionally, they fixed a "bug" from the 2004 version that made it harder for left-handers to hit homeruns.

3) Game modes:
a. Dynasty: Great. Same as before. 120 years to build a dynasty and see what you can do.

b. Owner mode: Wow! Only 30 years, but still long enough. You create your own stadium from pre-set options (This could be improved). You buy food stands to sell food to the fans. You buy batting cages, souvenir stands, order fireworks night, order magnetic schedules, etc. This is to get the fans to come, keep them interested while they're there, and hopefully make more money. You start off with a stadium of 20,000 and can work your way up to 65,000 (I think). Everything you buy costs money, but in the long run, you'll hopefully be able to turn a profit. This is hard. So far, I'm 30 games in and $5 million in the whole.

c. Mini-games. The pitching mini-game is HARD! Wow! It's not an automatic win. Of course, I could be losing because I'm using the Pirates. You have a "strike-zone" and you have to pitch the ball to certain locations in the strike-zone. THere is a timed game and an un-timed game. The batting mini-game is actually relatively easy, but definitely good for honing your directional hitting skills. You can also play these mini-games in your "season" games during spring training. It allows you to improve, or negate, your players' ratings.

d. Home-run Derby. Same as before.

One thing I really like that I didn't notice in the previous version is that when you do the different mini-games and homerun derby, the computer actually tells you how many points you got based on the level of difficulty. If you put it on higher settings (of difficulty) you get more points, but it's so much harder the higher you go.

I only became a baseball fan a few years ago, but these games have really helped me understand the game a bit better, learn more about the players, and boggled my mind with the number of things we can do with technology.

Great Game. Try www.easports.com first because they're currently offering free shipping.

Last years MVP Baseball 2004 was praised for many reasons but had one significant flaw. The dynasty mode in MVP Baseball 2004 had a nasty bug that made it impossible for computer-generated players to evolve into A-list superstars unless you actually played at least 95 percent of your team's games. This is fixed in the 2005 release. The dyanasty/franchise mode goes for 120 years and there is a whole lot you can do in it and it is probably the best multiseason/franchise mode in any baseball game ever.

Along with the Dynasty mode is the owner mode which tracks stats for 30 years and also includes you having to buy concessions and stores and setting the pricing for your shops and you can make your own stadium with all the funds you make and you can upgrade the capacity, the HR celebrations, the adverts on the walls, and all the nesscary fundamentals including adding things like an arcade, or a baseball history museum, or lots of other things that make for a very deep mode that can keep you busy for a long time.

The game also includes fun pitching batting minigames. And a home run showdown to see who can get the most amount of feet the fastest but gone from MVP Baseball 2004 is the pitcher showdown which was a fun opposite of the home run showdown when you had to see who could get the most strikeouts the fastest.

Overall,MVP Baseball 2005 represents a significant improvement on its predecessor, and it's a fantastic baseball game overall. If you are looking to buy one baseball game until EA gets it's MLB Lisence in 2012, this is the one to get.

I love baseball, and I really love sim games. This game is a good combination of the two. You can play baseball, any MLB team in exhibition mode and have two types of sims, Dynasty and Owner Mode to play whole seasons.

The game can be tweaked enough to get you winning fairly soon. That's a great help when you want to learn at you own pace. You can learn the batting and pitching first and when you are more comfortable, go on to the fielding and base running.

The sim is fine. Although not the caliber of some online and computer games, it does the job. My main problem with it is the difficulty to find out who is on whose team as you trade and cut players and sign others. Trading is a bit hard to figure out too. But that may be because I'm an old dude and not always up on all these computer gadgets.

But still, it's great for all those would be baseball stars and couch potatoes. You can even be a cyber star on the field. Just create a player and give yourself a chance.

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone..."

Those song lyrics very succinctly sum up my feelings about this gem of a baseball video game. Ever since the mid-1990s, football fans have had the Madden franchise to turn to for great sports gaming, and (with only a few exceptions) it has never let them down. For baseball fans, however, it has been a "whole new ballgame".

The problem is this: It is incredibly difficult to make a truly great baseball simulation. Usually the culprit is a difficulty level that is much too high (e.g. too hard to hit against good pitchers), or a presentation containing shoddy graphics and/or clunky movements. In all honesty, my baseball sim of choice until I discovered this franchise for the Gamecube was Tony LaRussa Baseball II (1994) for the PC. Remember DOS? If you are under 23 years of old or so I doubt it, but that was the PC platform that Tony II ran on. Sure, the All-Star Baseball series had a decent installment in 2001, but none of the graphic-based sims of the video game consoles could match the stats-based editions (like Tony 2) of yesteryear. That is, until the MVP series.

I started playing the MVP Baseball video game series in 2003 with the PC installment, but the '05 version is superior to all others. It had everything a baseball fan could ask for: great graphics (beyond what the Nintendo Wii produces, for example), incredibly fun minigames (like Home Run Derby and Pitching Squares), a perfectly balanced difficulty level (easy to pick up, tough to master), and the ability to tinker with new players (my brother and I updated the teams by creating new players through 2007 from the '04 rosters!). Nostalgia for Tony II aside, this was the premiere baseball simulation game of all-time, and it looked to only be getting better.

Of course, as so often happens, the whole issue of "MLB players rights" ruined the greatest baseball game ever and instead jumped to the "2K9" franchise, which has now succeeded in completely sucking the life out of baseball sims with its terrible game quality. Unfortunately, the MVP line was reduced to doing two college baseball-based games, which predictably failed, and now the series is defunct for all time.

Although I have currently "moved on" to the XBOX 360 gaming system, I still look back on games like these with fond memories of playing epic games with family and friends. Eventually, another franchise will come along to restore baseball's dignity in the gaming world, but until then fans of the National Pastime can still tinker with these "oldies but goodies". The rosters may be filled with players that you can hardly remember, or are on so many different teams now that it makes your head spin, but the quality of the gaming experience is just so much better.

This is a great game. It is very easy to play, but it can attract experts too. You can play all the teams, including the all-stars and the minor league teams. The graphics are really nice on everything except the players faces and the crowd. When a player comes up to bat they show a real life picture of him on the side. Sometimes the animated players look like that. Sometimes it leaves you thinking "Did thay make a picture screw up?" The crowd is awful. They look like 2-D paper cut outs. Seriously, they even lean back like they were just put there. This sounds like a little thing, but it really detracts from the reality factor of the game. Which, correct me if I'm wrong, is what EA is going for. The gameplay is really nice, and the batting and fielding controls feel smooth. (A tip. Press up on the Direction Stick while swinging to hit the ball high and hopefully out.) The commentary and game sounds are VERY realstic and feel like they are real. The problem is, the commentary soon gets repetitive. How many times can we hear the same home run call? EA should have put in multiple calls for each play. Another problem is the fact that sending the manager out of the dugout to argue is worthless. The umpire always seems to go on the opponents side. The pitching system is pretty easy to learn. You have to be semi- prescice to be good at it though. The replay's of the game are nice. It shows you the plays up close and personal. Just what the game needs.

The Conclusion:
The game is a good buy. It has its flaws, but it is a great title for anyones collection.

THIS IS THE GREATEST BASEBALL GAME EVER! ESPECIALLY DYNASTY MODE YOU COULD TURN FAIR TRADES OFF AND DO RIP OFF TRADES!! U ALSO COULD TURN THAT ANNOYING SALARY CAP OFF SO YOU WON'T HAVE TO PAY YOUR PLAYERS SO MUCH! ALSO THE DEFENCE WHEN YOU PLAY A GAME IS SO GOOD AND THE CONTROLS ARE VERY EASY TO LEARN. ALSO U CAN MAKE YOUR FAVORITE PLAYER SO GOOD! WHEN YOU PLAY A GAME AND YOU GET A HOMERUN FIREWORKS START LIKE IN REAL BASEBALL. THE GAME IS REALLY REALISTIC. THE GRAPHICS ARE AWESOME AND THE I BOUGHT THIS GAME FOR ONLY 39.99 CANADIAN. IF YOU BUY MARIO KART DOUBLE DASH FOR 69.99 U WOULD JUST WASTE YOUR MONEY BUT FOR THIS GAME EVERY DOLLAR IS WORTH IT.

This game is the greatest game of all time! You can do so much in it! You can just play, be a manager of the team, own a ballpark and create it, make your own player (which I was a little disappointed about because you could make your guy the besst and he still wouldn't hit good), make people free agents and get all the best guys on one team, and have mini- games of homerun derbies, pitching practice, and batting practice. Once you finish a challenge you get these things called MVP points. If you earn a certain amount you can unlock legandary players and ballparks from the past. The only downsides to this is your memory card runs out fast and you need a big one to save your rosters and they don't have KEVIN MILLAR for the Red Sox which is one of the reasons I bought this game. To solve a problem like mine just create a player. Also, the teams are very current including rosters from as late as January 1st, 2005! Overall, like it or not this game is ecellent. I hope my review was helpful to you!

I am a first time buyer of the MVP Baseball series, as I used to buy the All-Star Baseball games, which no longer come out. I was in dyer need of a baseball game, so I finally got this about a month ago. Now, to the review:

One very good thing about this game is the graphics, they are not steller, but very good, unlike All-Star Baseball. The stadium detail is unbelievable though. Still, no EA has yet to have actual fans, and not paper thin fans that move the same. Maybe next year (Although Madden does have fan reactions, just not the whole stadium).

The soundtrack to the game is also amazing. Now, its all rock music, not my favorite genre, but I like every song on here. There is only one song I usually skip (Let It Dive, because its a slower song), and classic songs like Dropkick Murphy's "Tessie", "Finding Out True Love Is Blind", "Pressure Point" and many more. One thng I don't like about the selection for the songs while in the menus is that you can only scroll up, and not down.

The controls are easy to learn, and playability is pretty difficult. I learned batting and fielding quickly, but havn't tried to learn the pitching, just get by with that. Pitching is difficlt though.

Owners Mode is a lot of fun, but when you start out, you better hope you start with home games so that you can add things to your stadium. Its fun though. I havn't gone too far in Dynasty Mode, but its more challenging than Owner Mode and like the MVP-Checklist in a whole season. I love the AAA, AA and A teams, which make the season a lot longer than it already is. Mini Games sorta suck, but are good for chalking up your pitching and batting skills.

So, compared to All-Star Baseball, this is a breath of fresh-air, as it is MUCH more realistic. All-Star Baseball is also way too easy. Can't wait for next year's game!!

One of my favorite games. MVP 2005 is like a collectors item because they stopped making them. EA Sports need to start making MVP games again! For any baseball fan that loves video games this is a must have. BUY IT