Customer Reviews

Major League Baseball 2K5

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The springs here and that means the Baseball game Rivarly by MLB 2K5 and MVP 2005. Since MLB locked up MVP there will be no rivarly till 2012. Last year's winner was MVP. But this year's winner can be different

Graphics

MVP: Good faces, good animations, but arcadic player details. Stadiums are good, grass look realistic. But those photocopied crowds took away the credability- 4/5
MLB: Phenomenal Face graphics, good animations but not better than MVP. Stadium looks good!! Best things are crowds. Polygonal Crowds. They even have cutscenes too!! And guess what.. Day Progression! Play on the sunny places and compare the shadows in the 1st inning to 4th inning- 4.5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Commentary

MVP: Er.. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow speaks like talking to grandson about memory of war. Sometimes they get out of the topic and boring- 3.5/5
MLB: Phenomenal commentaries by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan!! Fantastic!- 5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Musics

MVP: Err.. those soundtracks are bad as hell, especially 'Tessie'.- 3/5
MLB: Good musics for sports and CUSTOM SOUNDTRACKS! Made by ASB and improved by MLB- 4.5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Sound Effects

MVP: Nice crowd noise, nice umpire calls, nice bat sounds, period- 4.75/5
MLB: All of them all nice, but bat sounds are too lound- 4.25/5
Winner: MVP 2005

Pitching

MVP: New Precision bar is here with fussier and harder!! It's hard to make pitch accurate, there's no other options- 3.75/5
MLB: K-Zone is simpler and more accurate than Precision bar. If you don't like it, you can choose more!! K-ZONE 2, Power Pitching, Cursor- 4.75/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Baserunning

MVP: Erm, no change. A lot of errors on it- 2.5/5 !!!!
MLB: New On Command Baserunning feature is good and made baserunning simpler. You can experience yourself by using baseburner mode (actually that really fascinated me)- 4.5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Batting

MVP: The new Hitter's Eye feature made your batting simple. Just like bad foul swings, colors on the ball (red, green, white), and the ability to move around the box. And boy, I do love it- 4.75/5
MLB: Same as last year with Contact Swing and Power Swing (I call it 'Steroid Swing'). But new *** feature 'Slam Zone' took away the credability. It has no meaning- 3/5
Winner: MVP 2005

Fielding

MVP: The Big Play Control is back! I enjoyed it last year, but robbing and sliding is hard as a hell. Double play is simple though- 4.25/5
MLB: New thing called 'Maximum Fielding' is here and it's easier to rob homer!! Double play is simple and I could do triple play too if possible!- 4.5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Glitches:

MVP: No Lefty Glitches! I'm real happy about that, and no fielding glitches whatsoever!- 5/5
MLB: Erm, the game is good except for several glitches on Wild Pitches, and CPU roster arrangement glitches- 3/5
Winner: MVP 2005

Player Accuracy

MVP: No Sosa in O's, that means Ordonez is in FA still, no Iguchi. The player ratings are messed up too!! Manny Ramirez is Overrated. Carl Pavano, Big Unit, Beltre, and Aramis Ramirez were SO underrated. That's the one of those major problems- 2.75/5
MLB: No Sosa in O's Again... that means you-know-what. But player ratings were not messed up. Good!- 4/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Online

MVP: New EA Online!! But it's slow and ONLY 5 innings? EA's got long and winding road to go- 3.5/5
MLB: There's online as usual. It's faster and you can play 9 innings and home run derby as well!- 4/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Franchise

MVP: The Owner Mode rocks! It's even better than MLB 2005 (SONY)owner mode! It's completely good! There's Dynasty mode too!!- 4.75/5
MLB: Okay, there's enhanced GM Mode, Franchise and Tournament, but face it, they are not good enough to catch up Owner Mode. But you can be fired, or get more money in GM Mode- 4/5
Winner: MVP 2005

Extras

MVP: They got Mini Games which just really fascinates me, but nothing else-4/5
MLB: The Skybox is AWESOME as The Crib. In the face mode is good too! It's the game that you can disable the opponent's ability by earning the point!- 4.5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Price

MVP: 29.99. - 4.5/5
MLB: 19.99, a steal! - 5/5
Winner: MLB 2K5

Average:

MVP: 3.93/5 = 78.56%
MLB: 4.25/5 = 85%

Overall

MVP: 86
MLB: 93
Winner: MLB 2K5

This year's winner is MLB 2K5. But, hey MVP was good too. They just had last effort that looks just like last years, but badly.

P.S.: I hope this comparison review was helpful. But you can try both and compare it. Just try it.

Why?

- Better graphics
- Better controls (sometimes less is more)
- Much better production values. You feel like your at a real game.

Well worth $19.99!..............

Sega Sports is gone, so now we have Visual Concepts (their old sports devloper) working with "2K Games and developer Kush." Visual Concepts can just focus on baseball thanks to E.A. swiping their greedy hands on the NFL license. But hold on to yourselves, this will be the only baseball game on XBOX for years. Unless Microsoft decides to step back on to the bandwagon, with no more E.A. MVP Baseball after this year, I think they should consider it.

Anyway, now we got Visual Concepts and Kush games with the hold of the MLB license and E.A. will have no more baseball. Sega Sports is gone, but we still got baseball from Visual Concepts. MLB 2K5 is Visual Concepts first game without Sega by their side. I have to say, as a whole, this game is whole heartedly worth spending 20 dollars on but I'll say to you it's not the best baseball game this year. MLB 2006 on the PS2 I feel is the best game this year. MVP is a close 2nd and here we have 2K5 in a close 3rd. I think 2K5 plays so much better as an online experience as Visual Concepts has proved year after year so keep that in mind when buying.

What to expect:
The big change this year is the batting and pitching aspect. No longer is the "aim and pitch routine". The game now requires you to line up 2 cursors, much like a free throw routine in the old NBA Live Series. You have to line up 2 targets in a cross hair, the closer you are, the more accurate the pitch. As a pitcher gets tired, the cursors move faster, thus making it harder to launch and accurate pitch. It works well, and feels great, and is a good fresh change from the norm. If you don't like it, I believe it can be toggled off in the options screen so you can play it the old way. Batting still has a cursor, but before the pitch, the batter "on a bad pitch" has the ability to guess the location of the throw. If you guess the diretion, you'll douse the pitcher with a hit or even a home run. The guessing game feature is quite simplistic, but freshens up the game in my opinion.

Custom soundtracks, while not as important to some, is a welcome addition for baseball. Not only can you apply your custom music to the stadium atmopshere, whether it'd be playing between pitches, between innings, after a big hit or great catch, you and customize a music tune for each of your players as they come to bat. How cool is that? Get your big gun guys pumped up with a flurry of AC/DC or Eminem or what ever trips your trigger! I wouldn't reccommend playing the barney theme song though, might not pump you up as much. But the custom soundtracks is a big plus considering E.A. still refuses to offer it in their sports games.

The graphics look good in 2k5,but I think MVP and MLB 2006 has it beat overall. Animations are choppy at times and I thought even last year the animations looked a bit more fluid and smooth. I just didnt' have as much fielding,it felt, well not as fun as MVP. I still wish the other baseball games would take after E.A. and use that throwing meter, I like the ability to control the power of my throws, but you don't have that option in 2K5. But great looking players, batting stances, and (potentially) fluid gameplay is doused by average animations while fielding. But it's not to the point where it's bad and hurts the game, it's just not as good as MVP and I expect more from Visual Concepts. One fresh I feature added is the "control the runner" behind the base. When you have a batter up and a man on base, you can take control of the runner and let the batter work on his own. It really gives the game from freshness. It really makes you feel in control of your baserunner and I felt it easier to steal bases.

The players faces look better in MVP, but 2K5 still gets the job done. Batting is still a blast. I really think it's fun to go up against a pitcher and it feels like baseball. Some people don't like the 2 button interface for batting, there is normal, and power swings. Some like it, some don't. I like the ability to slam one out every time, but I think it balances it out because if you use the powerswing too much, it's much easier to strike out when you're using your power swing.

Visual Concept added the "Slam Zone this year". This allows your batter to have a chance to guess where the ball might go after the pitcher chooses his target. The screen goes into a closeup battle between pitcher and batter and the game goes into a Matrixesque mode and slows down into slow motion and zooms in on the ball from the pitchers hand. During this short 5 second outing, the batter and pitcher have to tap at the button continuously during the slam mode as fast as they can to gain power for both the batter and pitcher, when the ball reaches the plate, take your shot. Whoever wins the battle will have a better chance at having a positive and if you tap out the pitcher enough, expect a big hit. Sounds confusing, but it's quite easy to get into and can be toggled on or off in the option screen. It usually will only happen when the pitcher disrupts a pitch or throws wildly, so don't expect it much.

Fielding seems to work fine with the exception of the breakups in animations. It still is a great playing game and I really love baseball, so for 19.99, really, what is not to like?

Custom soundtracks, good graphics, (including sweet looking stadiums, great player models and faces), good sound, good gameplay and good game overall is a bit put down by average animations that should have been better. If you only want to spend 20 smacks, 2k5 is the way to go. Online is great too, so keep that in mind when you pick one or "both" baseball games this year. Both are great in their own right.

I got MLB and MVP both. I liked them both at first, I played more, and I finalized that MLB was better than MVP. Since Take 2 got the MLB license, and locked MVP up for 7 years, they could have been better, but best this year.

PROS:
Better Graphics than MVP
Great Animation (Don't ever listen to IGN.COM)
Commentary at best (added Joe Morgan)
Good player ratings.
Day Progression (Play the game in Shea or Yankee Stadium and check out the difference between 1st inning to 5th inning)
Better Gameplays
Two Modes to play (Pure Baseball or Videogame)
Best Franchise Mode this year by GM Career mode
Enhanced Minor League
Customized Soundtrack!!! (All Star had it last year and MLB 2K5 enhanced it!!)
Unlockable Classic Legendary TEAMS (Not only players)
K-Zone Pitching is VERY accurate
Accurate batting stances (Sosa, A-Rod, Manny, and More) and Pitching styles (Never saw Livan Hernandez pitching style accurate than Ever!)

CONS:
Slam Zone (I don't know how they got that idea)
Too much fielding errors (however I can go over with that)
Batting looks good but hard
Gameplay could have been better
Few commentary errors

I loved it, and I recommend you guys to buy it and you'll probably like it. Save your 10bucks

This year's competition's winner is MLB 2k5. But don't get me wrong. Here's why.
I also bought MVP too, but it was trash compared to MLB. MLB had good graphics, good faces like Tejada, Sosa, Kevin Brown, you name it! I don't know why people are crying for gameplays. It seems fluent and easy. GM Career is cool. You can see potential of players and promote and demote easily! Skybox was the coolest! You can post the image, unlock things, play darts, air hockey and watch TV! And the price 19.99,,, you can't beat that!
Save your precious 10bucks for MLB and don't buy toxic MVP!

I was so dissapointed at ESPN MLB last year, that there were bunch of dust at the ESPN MLB cd case... . Well this year, they lowered the price, so I thought I might try it. And.... I. T. W. A. S. A. W. E. S. O. M. E. !!! I never know they really got upgraded from last year!!! Like their ad. 'Not Enhanced, Not Adjusted, Not Tweaked'. It's completely new game!! The features were just great! Skybox, where you can adjust pictures, unlock things, play darts and rest! There are deeeeeepened ESPN Presentation too! That knocks out MVP! But the coolest thing is the Graphics and Animation. There are LOADS of Crowd Cutscenes, Best Face Graphics (Loads better than MVP), and good animations!! Don't buy MVP... it just waste your 10 bucks! Buy MLB and you won't be dissapointed!

PS: I also just heard Take 2 (the company of MLB 2K5) took away the MLBPA License for 7 years!! No more MVP!! Well I feel bittersweet anyway

Having bought all of the 2K5 sports series, I was eager to purchase MLB 2K5. With Spring Training starting in a few days and an estimated street date of March 2 for MLB 2K5 I didn't know if I could wait. But it's in already and even before spring training started. I am very pleased with this game. The graphics are great, batting is perfect, and the best improvement for any baseball video game ever is the pitching. For only twenty bucks I highly recommend this game. After reading the so-so reviews for MVP if you're deciding which game to purchase this should be a no-brainer

Go Twins!!

*You won't be hearing MVP Baseball Baseball anymore(2k gets the the first party license fr the next seven years) which means you will be seeing much more of the MLB 2k series. In this year, there some great elements to keep eveyone(even players that dispise sports) playing. There many new features and game modes including, Face Mode. In this mode, you have challenges set up and the first to get to that challenge gets to disable on your opponent ability( like bunting or diving etc).

Also, the GM Mode is pretty nice but it isn't as in depth as MVP basball 2005* (at top)but it still is pretty good. In Gm Mode or in any actual game you earn tokens, from which you can spend on cheats, unifroms, ballparks,etc.

The player soundtrack is pretty cool additiion but it is pretty much wasted. They overate it and all it is 15 seconds of a clip of a song(when a player step into the batter's box) and it made me wonder, how can that really be cool? But it's not bad just really a wasted experience.

Now, how do I talk about the baserunning? It's hard at times to control. You to stop the runner at third and the runner at second goes to third and you start cussing at the TV at that moment. While, it's not that bad, it is annoying after time but you just get used to and the basruuning mistakes go away by them selves.

Now how can go on without mentiong SLAMZONE? Slamzone is great. It's where the pitcher throws a mistake pitch and you pay him back for it. You then press the A button as fast you can and he does the same. If you get it high enough and you swing when it says to press B, you just got your self a big fly, if not then it's abck to the drawing board.

The last thing I wasnt to touch one is the basestealing. I absolutely love it! When you have a fast runner on first or on second, you come into the basestealing zone. You would press the l button to dive back in case of a pick off attempt, R to steal, and left thumbstick to lead off. The reason it's loved by so many is because it's easy to do . And to gaet to bases quicker( in baserunning, and stealing) you just press A as quick as you can to beat out an infield single or to stretch out a single into a double.

Another aspect of the game that shines ( and the best) is the commentary. Never before have you said,"Wow, that actually sounded like it was it was televised" They make it sound genuine by keeping the voices ESPN baseball( none other than Hall of Famer Joe Morgam and Jon Miller) so the game is is all reall sounding.

There are some minor flaws at times when running(as I said before) but at the price this game is at, they are almost invisible. In fact, I would buy this even if it wasn't just $19.00. Now let's compare that to MVP 2005( which is $49.95), so it's a no-brainer for me and it should be for you to. It's 2k games first stab at it and it's a Homerun!!

This game( if you are a baseball fan) should be a definite>< OH yea It's Only $!19.00!!!! And you can even expect a price drop to $14.88 soon. GO BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graphics>9/10- Great looking faces, players, ballparks. Everything looks pretty nice
Replay<>9.5/10-many things to do at all times, including the GM career, Franchise Mode,homerunderby, and more than ever!!
Depth<>8.75/10- It's good but for example: in franchise mode it's not as in depth as MVP
Overall<>9/10-. A solid score and even the mild baseball fan should add this title to their game collection.

I purchased this game because of the amazing quality of the ESPN NFL 2K4 and 2K5 games that I own. I figured that the 2K5 Baseball title would live up to the "2K5" name. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a terrible game by any means. However, in the few days I've played I have already gotten sick of some of the glitches and mostly of the terrible stats.
I've only played the game in Franchise mode, but pretty much all the player/pitcher stats are useless. After playing 3 games, it listed 2 of my players as having played 5. It also had just plain wrong stats for batters such as how many home runs, RBI's etc. My pitcher ERA's were also hit and miss (I pitched a complete game which was a shutout and my ERA jumped to something like 4.00).
If you are really big into baseball stats in games (like Baseball Mogul for the PC), you will be VERY dissapointed! I haven't played MVP so I can't say how this compares.
The gameplay of 2K5 is actually okay for me overall. The new pitching interface is ok, but I set it to classic mode instead (you can choose between 4 pitching interfaces I think and 2 batting interfaces). Batting is easy enough and, except for the unrealistic sound the bat makes, it feels good enough.
People have raved about the graphics, and they're pretty good but not amazing.
The announcers tend to get out of sync with the action pretty bad sometimes which is pretty annoying. It certainly doesn't flow like NFL 2K5 does in that regard.
Another annoying thing is that the computer seems to throw a lot of wild pitches past the catcher... I'm talking 1-4 times per game on average for me.
The controls are as good as any other sports game although I'm not sure I like the base running controls too much (I guess that's just a personal thing). I tend to make my runners all advance or go back at the same time instead of being able to choose only 1 easily. Oh well.

I haven't played the other game modes or Xbox Live so I'm not sure if they would improve my opinion of this game... I like Franchise modes in sports games mostly so stats are very important to me more than the other features. So while playing 1-on-1 baseball on Xbox Live would surely be a blast, the horrible stats engine keeps this at 3 stars for me.

Overall I'm dissapointed. Like I said, I thought I would get the same enjoyment with Baseball 2K5 like I have with NFL 2K5. This isn't in the same league.

As far as value, for $20 I think it's appropriately priced. I think the developers threw the stats engine together quickly and it shows. I did notice you can pick up MVP for $20 here on Amazon (at least when I purchased 2K5 it was the same price). Maybe I'll pick that up and give it a go.

This game is great. Greatest even Madden cannot beat it.

Gameplay: K-Zone is the best pitching system ever. It's most accurate, simulating and best pitching system ever. It was dissapointing last year because there were not many controls to pitch. Good pitching system influences good batting system too. They have Power Swing, Contact swing and sometimes it's fun to guess pitches too in MLB 2K5. Baserunning is amazing. The brand new Baseburner mode lets you control baserunner and lets CPU to control the hitter. Trust me, you'll love it. MLB did incredible job to mimick the true baseball gameplay. On the online, if you have good connection, you'll be good. I had some problems though.

Graphics: Remember last year that almost everyone's face was generic in ESPN MLB? Well it's different this year. The silky face textures and great looking stadiums are here in MLB 2K5. The uniforms are really noticable too. Because they look better than ever! It looks like you are watching real game. Kush did incredible job to polish the player faces and making them to real-life-like. The grass, are great. Even you are seeing it at the oversky camera. Dirt effect is better than last year which was best. I mean, all I can say is MLB 2K5 is the best looking baseball game better than MVP, better than Madden (which is not a baseball game but has good graphics) and better than EVER. Rock on Kush! Rock on! The crowds are polygonal! For the first time in the baseball games. There are loads of crowd cutscenes!

Audio: Jon Miller and Joe Morgan gives you the best play-by-play commentary ever. They do perfect partners on broadcasting. You can choose the music when the batter comes up to the bat. You can pick the musics for certain events like, single, double, triple, homerun, Grand Slam, and more. In-game effects are good. From bat noises to umpire calls, that's what is unbelievable. Because that's what I see out there when I go to the Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium, PERIOD.

Controls: The controls are best. Basic and good. Because is easy to master and responsive. That will make you to go into the true baseball experience. If you played last year's you shouldn't have no problem at all to getting hang on it. Some things, I've experienced before just like K-Zone. Are best. I'm happy about controls.

Game Modes: In this part, I say, MLB 2K5 really shines. With GM Career mode, Franchise mode, Exbihition mode, In Your Face mode. You can use up your playing time with these. You WON'T get bored. You WON'T get bored after you play season after season.

Price: 19.99? 19.99, yep. The best price for the best game.

Overall: This is one helluva game. From the graphics to gameplays, everything is well polished and .. it's just great! Yes it's a whole new game. The price of 19.99$ is just a steal. It's the best 20 bucks that I've spent in 2005. With ESPN presentation and realistic moves. It's best video baseball game ever created since Sega Genesis. Buy it and enjoy it guys and girls. Rock on Kush (again)!! Rock on!!