2004 Baseball Game Thread! (1 Viewer)

[Doug Miller]

Hey Everybody --

Thought I would get the baseball game thread rolling now that I received my copy (and had a chance to play) MVP 2004. Just bought a 43in DLP and couldn't wait to give it a spin. I didn't buy MVP 2003, generally the 1st generation of a new game is OK but not as strong as a more established crop. Now that it had a year under its belt and EA was offering me $15 off, I took the plunge.

I've owned the last 2 All Star Baseball editions on the Xbox (and countless others before). I played World Series last year and tried Xbox's exclusive title Inside Pitch. The only main title I've never got around to trying was High Heat (I know a lot of you swear by it). That all said, here's my breakdown of MVP 2004:

- I love the pitching interface. One thing that always got kind of boring about All Star was that the pitching engine was pretty easy to manipulate, I wasn't striking out 20 or anything, but it's easy to tell when a pitcher was tiring and throwing down and to the right, so you'd overcorrect to get more mileage out of him. MVP's pitching is really fun, I don't feel like I'm sleepwalking through the defensive side of the ball anymore. I'm getting the hang of fielding (still waiting to turn my first double play,) but again, I like the power and accuracy meters that they use. A lot of fun.

- Hitting is taking me some getting used to. I'm striking out... a lot. I know I'll get the hang of batting after a game or two. Unfortunately, I think I might get too much of a hang of it. The batting feels like it could get really easy, really fast (like Xbox's Inside Pitch). I'm in the group of people that like the cursor style batting that All Star has.

- Graphics are solid. Smooth but with good faces, a little more arcade looking than All Star (which is fine). Parks look similar to Inside Pitch.

- Game speed is smooth and easy, haven't noticed any bog downs or anything.

- Extras are cool. I'm looking forward to playing AA and AAA, good assortment of extra ballparks to earn, and good legends players.

1st game to the market, looks good and feels good. I'll give some of the other games a spin. I think Inside Pitch has good potential this year, I think All Star will be better this year (but still a pretty standard and sometimes dull game). I'll be curious to see how ESPN comes out, the graphics look pretty "thick" on the players -- I'm sure all the steroid talk will come through on this game. (BTW, isn't ESPN just World Series renamed?)

Batter up!
Doug

 

[Ken Ingram]

Yes World Series is renamed ESPN.
Question: are you running MVP in 720 scan?

 

[James T]

My first impression of MVP 2004 was that it was a good game that worked out the bugs from 2003. After playing a few more games, the game has become very frustrating.

The ball physics off the bat seems okay. A lot of detail went into the batting as you can close your shoulders for inside pitchers or reach out for away pitches. But once it leaves the bat, the ball becomes very, very dead. Balls don't bounce off the wall, they just lay there, which translates into a lot of extra bases. I also don't like the manual fielding. It seems I have dumbasses on my team. You can only control one player at a time, but if the ball passes you and your not quick enough to take control of the player that the ball is coming towards, it'll pass right through them(sometimes literally). There's also no such thing as player interference as I've been called out on plays because a player was standing in the basepath waiting to catch the ball. I also don't think there's any collisions in this game. I can feel the gamepad rumble as you run to first and brush up against the first baseman, but when running home with no chance of being safe if you slide, and only hope the catcher drops the ball, you run right through him.

What I liked about the game is the pitching. It's great. Last year, I was able to get 20Ks a game on Pro level after about 2-3 games. This time, it's a bit more realistic as it's a struggle to strike out guys. The animation is also really good, but there's no way that half of the game's catches are made by leaping/diving or shoestring catches.

It's a nice appetite, but I can't wait for the main course that is ESPN. Does anyone know why the game is coming out weeks after EA Sports'? It seems that they could be loosing customers just want one baseball game, MVP would be the only choice.

 

[Frank_M]

Anyone know of a good place to download roster updates for the PS2? My PS2 is not hooked up online, but I do have the sharkport so I can get them that way.

Thanks

 

[Damien]

Looks like ESPN won't be coming until April 15. Time to switch to MVP.

 

[James T]

Where'd you get the date from? EB as well as ESPNvideogames.com both still have a March date.

 

[RudyN]

I've been playing the Xbox version of MVP since Thursday and I'm having a blast. Found some sliders and updated rosters over at the Operation Sports forums. I'll be buying ESPN also when it comes out.

 

[James T]

Okay, I did some browsing on the ESPN forums and found the admin post that it's been moved to April 15th. I'm not a fan of that. No one in the forum knows why the delay. It better be worth it, because at this point, I'm leaning towards just keep ing MVP or moving on to other games.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Does anyone have MVP 2004 for GameCube? I'm having trouble with the baserunning controls and I'm lookin for help.


Bryan

 

[Manuel]

Guys,

Over at Operation Sports there is a huge discussion on a major game killer for MVP. If you are into franchise and dynasty modes, people are finding out that players in the minors never progress beyond the first year. In short, there are never any upcoming superstars to replace the aging superstars. After a bunch of years, all you have left is everyone being mediocre with basically the same attributes for the players. I was all over this game (manager mode rules) but that has really killed the game for me. Too bad because everything else is great. It is even in widescreen mode and the graphics look awesome. I loved WSB last year and I might have to go back to that if this is not fixed somehow.

 

[Sean_avnut]

MVP baseball 2004 is the best game since High Heat in its prime. A great 2 player game. There are a few bugs but what baseball game hasn't? It does so many things right I can overlook these and enjoy a great game.

 

[Danny Beck]

Yeah, i've had this game for a week now as well and i'm loving it too!


First a few technical details for those who are wondering.

The Xbox version is the only one that offers widescreen support. However, this widescreen option is only available when the 720P option is turned on. Therefore, if your tv doesn't support 720P signals you can forget about widescreen and the ultra high resolution visuals. Yes, the games looks very nice in 720P widescreen and I was impressed the first time I saw it. There is a small drawback though. :frowning: The framerate gets a little jumpy when you're in 720P. Not bad at all but you'll notice a little framerate twitch here and there when the camera pans across the screen quickly. Otherwise it's phenomenal graphically.


Gameplay is quite stellar. I have almost no complaints to speak of. Yes, your fielders are a little slow and you must play this game with manual fielding or you are a girl. But, what people are forgetting to mention is that you can tweak every part of the gameplay to your liking. Meaning, I just went into the menus and turned up the "user fielding speed" and it's now perfect! So, nothing to complain about there.

Overall this game just offers it all. It's honestly the best baseball game i've ever played in my 18 years of gaming. Buy it without hesitation, you won't be dissapointed. There is zero chance that the competition will beat this game. The gameplay is simply flawless in MVP and that is the most important part of any game. When you factor in the graphics and details it's a done deal. MVP 2004 wins the baseball battle this year.

 

[MikeFR]

Ugg that really sucks, and I thought the lack of career statistics and no fatigue were game killers.

So much for buying MVP. I guess I will have to stick with OOTP again this year unless ESPN puts out a decent game.

 

[Scott_W]

The PC version may be fine for MVP, at least new roster sets may help avoid the bugs for career mode. To early to tell though, and I haven't checked back lately.

MVP is a lot of fun to play, but does have some issues. I can't imagine any baseball game that you controll like MVP or ESPN ever matching OOTP for accuracy though.

 

[Damien]

95% of people who buy the game won't make it to the end of a full-length season to begin with.

 

[MikeFR]

I would be happy with a High Heat level of accuracy. I mean whats the point in playing a franchise if your prospects never get significantly better?

Not only that, it seems that the CPU roster management is horrible. Teams will only have one pinch hitter on the bench and most will not have a backup catcher .

 

[Doug Miller]

Has anyone here hit a homerun in an actual game yet? I can't hit for power to save my life.

Doug

 

[RudyN]

So far I'm only playing Exhibition games until an Opening Day roster is available, but using the A's, I've hit about 15 HRs in about 20-25 games. You really have to wait for a good pitch. Work the count.

 

[Peter Loan]

Doug, it helps to get a pitch up in the strike zone. Not only do you have to time your swing well, I'm fairly certain that the only way to get the ball up into the air for a homer is pushing the stick up while you take your hack.

In the Pro difficulty level, I noticed a lack of homers for both the computer and myself so I raised the gameplay slider up to +20 for power and that seems to work well. The game has a steep learning curve but it's the best baseball game I have ever played.

 

[Danny Beck]

Yeah, you have to adjust the sliders a little. I turned the user contact up to 5 and i'm hitting a normal amount of homeruns. I'd say I average 1 or 2 a game.


I also turned up the hitting power to 3 and the user fielder speed to 10. That is a requirement for the fielders to work properly.