Publisher: EA Sports Developer: EA Canada Genre: Sports ESRB: Everyone Online?: Yes Release: February 23, 2005 Price: 29.99 Boxart:

MVP Baseball 2005

- Posted by admin

at Feb 24, 2005

- 76 views

Baseball season is back and a week earlier than expected, I might add.

Although there is no All Star Baseball this year we still have 3 great series, MVP Baseball from EA Sports, ESPN MLB from Take-Two Interactive and MLB from Sony. Last year MVP Baseball 2004 was voted sports game of the year from PAX Gamers and was rated as the highest baseball game of the year by Game Rankings. So has MVP Baseball 2005 continued it's dominance and regained it's title as the best baseball game of the year?

Last years offering, graphically, was solid. The main complaints were some "akward" looking animations and some sub-par stadiums. In this years offering both things have been fixed...for the most part. Many, many animations were added this year and they look absolutely silky smooth. The stadiums also look better and are more accurately portrayed. Also new graphically are new, better looking menus and overlays (like every year) and several "Spring Training" stadiums. They look good from the normal person but upon researching the spring training stadiums it's staggering how close they look to there real-life counterpart. So yes, graphically, MVP 2005 looks great but the player models still have a small arcade look to them as does the whole game.

Sound wise, once again, MVP is average. There is new lines for the commentary and they don't have as many commentary bugs as last year, such as a few lines being really quiet or them just repeating a line twice in a row, but some of the commentary is still very boring. The biggest reason is still on homeruns when they give away if it's gone or not almost immediately after being hit. Music wise the game is much better and had some songs that I liked and as always EA Trax has songs from different genre's.

For those reading this that played MVP 2004 I am happy to say all gameplay glitches have been fixed. Progression in franchise mode, lefty HR's (not hitting as many and not hitting them far), stolen bases and everything you can think of. Also for those complaining about the pitching meter, that has been fixed also making it much tougher than last year. The newest addition however is owner mode. It's a lot like Madden's owner mode but is much deeper, for example it has a stadium creator and is also a lot harder to become a success. I'd recommend starting in franchise mode and after a year or two of practicing in the front office, try out owner mode. And to be real brief, the Hitters Eye is a good feature and not a gimmick. The best part of it is that you will only see the color for half a second when facing a pitcher such as Randy Johnson but you may see it (color of the ball) even in his wind up when facing someone like Brandon Claussen.

Before I wrap up this review I just want to say the new mini-games are definately a welcome addition. Although the pitching one is very tough, it is still fun and the batting one is also a challenge. But I was dissapointed that you couldn't play them online. Talking about online, it is very good this year, almost totally lag-free and if you can find someone that enjoys actually playing the sport of baseball, instead of hitting your batters every time, then you will have a blast.

Overall MVP 2005 is a definate step forward and has fixed all the problems of last year. Of course there is minor gripes such as some of the lack-luster faces, arcadish-looking player models and no mini-games online, but for the closing of a series and of a legacy, it was a great way to go out.

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