xbox baseball (1 Viewer)

[EricW]

has anyone tried either of this years new baseball games?

i hear MVP 2005 is similar to last year's. my question is:

1) have they changed the pitching interface? i remember last year's golf-like scale and it was great, but it made pitching EASIER as the innings passed, when it should have been harder (this was because even though the motion might have been a bit faster later in the game, it was more than compensated by the player's improved sense of timing as the innings passed). also, as soon as someone gets on base, the "golf-scale" goes like twice as fast! that's not realistic (especially for left handed pitchers, who probably don't mind as much when a runner's on first.

2) have they done an "auto-asign" for team positioning? in 2k4 i was going to start with my own custom team at AA level, then after so many games i would promote the entire team to AAA, then the majors. the problem was everytime i switched levels, the game made me assign the demoted team's positions too, and that was a hassle.

also, how's MLB 2k5?

thanks in advance

 

[James T]

I'm probably going to rent MVP and buy ESPN on the first day.

I read the back of the MVP box and they improved the owner mode so you can control prices. There's also a 'A' level. The AAA from last year wasn't that great, so I'm not too keen on the single A addition. There's also a new feature about the hitter's eye. That might be a bit interesting, but then again, it might be like ESPN's "in the helmet" POV.

I've been buying ESPN baseball games for the past 3 years, and I don't think that's changing this year. The trailers for the game look great.

 

[RudyN]

It's not as easy to pitch in MVP this year. They even have a slider to make it harder. The reason for the pitching meter to speed up like it did when someone was on base was because the pitcher was pitching out of the stretch position and not doing his full windup. You'll notice it also on some pitchers who don't have a full windup, it's like that with people on base or not.

I haven't messed with the minors much yet so I'm not able to answer that question for you, sorry. Maybe someone else can chime in on that.

They also fixed the framerate problems with 720P, so if your TV supports it, it looks awesome.

 

[Marc Bax]

Might wanna go with MLB 2K5. From the reviews I've read the games are neck and neck. However MLB's online play is far better then MVP's which is why I'll be getting MLB. Also MVP isn't coming back next year due to the exclusive MLB rights aquired by TT so you might as well get used to MLB now as it's gonna be your only 3rd party option in the foreseeable future.

 

[RudyN]

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/592/592534p1.html

Ign has a comparison between MVP 2005 and MLB 2K5.

They picked MVP as the better game.

 

[James T]

I don't know if I'll agree with that (I'm on my way out to pick up MLB 2K5 now). I wasn't thrille with MVP 2005, and if some of the stuff that IGN says are better, then I guess I should worry. But just from the video previews, the graphics and animations on MLB look a lot better.

 

[James T]

Having played a handful of games in both MVP and MLB, I can say that I personally like MLB 2K5 a LOT better. There are a few minor bugs in both games, but nothing (so far) that makes me want to throw my controller into my tv.

The addition of controlling baserunners in MLB is run. They also changed the camera views of runners. It's quite neat actually. So if you hit a light grounder to the shortstop, the camera stays and follows the hitter as he makes a dash to first. The view of the baserunners on the corner of the screen....I wasn't too keen of that when I saw the video preivews, but it is a great addition to the game.

The pitching system is also similar to MVP where you can control the velocity/location of the ball based on how good your reaction skills are. Where MVP is like Tiger Woods, MLB is like NBA Live in pinpointing the location.

Animation, I'll agree with IGN and give the edge to MVP. There are a few minor things that VC seemed to forget, like a basic tag motion when you try to tag a runner while standing in the basepath. Instead, they just run through you.

 

[EricW]

i got MVP and have played a handful of games, i'll probably get MLB shortly. MVP's pretty nice, a one thing i don't like is there's not alot of stats for stats freaks. i can't see vs.L and vs.R stuff, or go back and see past games box scores, or even season stats when the player's at bat. i think they're there when he's walking up to the box in his first atbat, but that's it once he's in, they're gone.
the xbox has a hard drive, can't you take advantage of that?!?!?

 

[RudyN]

You can see season stats during at bats. Hold down the white button and it will show batting stats, batting attributes, fielding/running attributes, and batting charts(hot/cold zones and spray chart).

 

[Craig S]

I've never played a modern console baseball game, but when I saw MLB 2K5 at Fry's last night for $15 (!) I couldn't resist.

After finally figuring out how to pitch I'm having a lot of fun with it. Remember, I'm a newbie at this - my first game I played the 'Stros vs the Bosox and I just couldn't figure out how to pitch based on the description in the manual - Clemons kept throwing up meatballs and after 2 I was down 30+ runs on about 20 dingers. Records were being broken. :b So I bailed and found a training video in the Extras menu, which did a very good job of explaining pitching. Back for another game, this time against the Rockies, and after being tagged for a 3-run homer in the first I settled down and got 11 K's out of Clemons, and another 5 or 6 out of Qualls in relief. So I've got pitching down, now I just need to work on hitting & fielding (lost that 2nd game 6-3).

Graphics are pretty good even though it's not 720p. They really captured the flavor of Minute Maid park, with Tal's Hill, the late afternoon shadows from the retractable roof, and even the home-run train w/ fireworks. Player likenesses & actions seem pretty good - they've got Bagwell's goofy stance down pat.

Only bad/weird thing is the 7th inning stretch - they show the fans slowly weaving side-to-side and I had to bust out laughing as it looked like something straight out of Shaun Of The Dead!!

So for about the cost of an afternoon movie with popcorn & coke this game has already given me several hours of fun and I know I will be playing a lot more in coming weeks. I don't know how this one will hold up for the hard-core b-ball gamer, but if you're a casual player like me I can't imagine a better way to spend $15 - $20.

 

[Evan S]

I have a question and I hope this is an isolated occurance. I picked up ESPN 2K5 last week at Circuit City for $15. Just got around to playing a couple games on franchise mode (using the A's)...well in the first game I played, I got killed 17-1. Zito got hammered as did my two relievers (Calero and Mays). Anyway, when the game ended the box score had all weird stats...it appeared as if Calero and Mays never pitched and that Nick Swisher and some no name (offensive players) came in and pitched. It messed up my entire season stats as well in the ESPN.com section. Is this a glitch or are other people seeing this? Because if this thing can't track franchise stats, what good is it? I live for the stats tracking ability in these new games. I noticed my previous version of this game three years ago (World Series Baseball) had the same issues, although much more minor than this. Thanks.

 

[James T]

I'm a stats freak myself, and I've honestly never seen something like that(I'm assuming you have it on Xbox).

Weird.

 

[Evan S]

Yeah, I have it for Xbox..I'll play a few more games and see if it keeps reoccuring.

 

[EricW]

i've been playing espn 2k5 and i think i like it more than mvp. for one thing, the batter AI seems a bit more realistic in that when you're pitching and you got the batter at 0-2, he will swing at outside pitches, whereas in MVP the CPU acts like, well, a computer
i like the cursor hitting as it seems more realistic than the auto-bat-aim of mvp. it takes a while to get used to (so many K's) but it's worth it. though i wish there's a way to make the cursor invisible as that would let me see the pitch better.
if there's one issue it's that the pitching may be too easy... if you can manage to get the pitching meter hit the white section on each pitch, the pitcher pretty much cruises along, no matter what the difficulty level. i presently have the batter AI contact at 100% and reduced the "let strikes pass" as well as "swing at balls"... maybe i should reduce the my pitcher's ratings, but that would mean restarting a season, which i don't want to do.

i wish replays would allow for in-game replays, not exterior camera shots. that way you could rewatch the path of a pitch the way it is in the game, not from some outside angle where the ump gets in the way

it's pretty cool how in day games the shadows creep onto the field

i STILL don't like how in MVP, as soon as someone gets on base, the pitching gets that much faster. maybe in ESPN they could make the meters go faster to make the pitching harder...

 

[James T]

MVP did that because they wanted real time movement for pitching. So if someone's on first, the pitcher will get rid of the ball a lot faster, which in the game will translate to a higher chance for error.

I think next year, ESPN will make it a bit faster. They probably just found out that after a few games, players are becoming experts with the meter.