MLB 2K5 ESPN
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After another heart-breaking season, Visual Concepts gave struggling developer Blue Shift the Steinbrenner surprise (a swift kick of the boot and phone numbers to a handful of scouts in Japan). Rather than playing the free agent game, Visual Concepts turned to its own bankroll to fill this starting role. Making like Bo Jackson, Kush Games, which has proven to be skilled in both professional hockey and college basketball, is stepping onto the diamond and adding a third sport to its impressive resumé.
Fitting right in like it had been releasing baseball games for years, Kush knew exactly what players would want. The company's approach to pitching is reminiscent of a Charlie Hough knuckleball. It's wildly inventive and loaded with twists and turns that you wouldn't expect. Through brilliantly conceived timing-based and pressure-sensitive meters, player skills are put to the test with each and every pitch. In other words, it's the perfect solution to the mechanics in MVP.
Interestingly, there's more to batting than just taking a cut. Honing in on the mind game that occurs between the pitcher and batter, you can guess where the hurler may throw the ball. I absolutely adore this element. Guess correctly and you'll get the chance to jack it out of the park. To much surprise, Major League Baseball captures the war between the batter and pitcher even better than MVP's excellent approach.
Kush has also made base running an integral part of the game. No longer limited to a tiny picture-in-picture display, players can now transition from the batter's box to the runner on base. As you take your lead, you can tell the batter to swing away, bunt, or be conservative. Another nice touch is how you have to jam on the button to make your player run faster.
Fielding is the area where this game isn't playing at an all-star level. From clunky R-stick moves to strange transition animations, it feels like you have Jose Canseco playing every position for you. This area definitely needs some work.
In the front office, GM Career does a good job of tracking the day to day business. Fictional minor league teams are now included for AA and AAA levels, but you won't have any control over them as the CPU plays the games and manages the rosters for you.
Without question, Kush did a phenomenal job in its first year on the mound. Questionable fielding holds it back from capturing the Golden Glove. MVP still holds this honor, but Major League's innovative techniques make it this year's most exciting baseball game.
Concept:
A complete turnaround for the series that showcases a handful of innovative features
Graphics:
Little details like shadows creeping across the field as the game progresses are in great abundance
Sound:
John Miller and Joe Morgan should get an Emmy for their remarkable commentary
Playability:
Ripe with innovative techniques, but the fielding needs serious help
Entertainment:
Online leagues, tons of unlockables, and the most realistic pitching/batting battle to date
Replay:
High
Rated: 8.5 out of 10
Editor: Andrew Reiner
Issue: March 2005
2nd Opinion:
Even though this game incorporates some of the key components from last year's hit EA series, MVP, it hasn't entirely caught up to the rival franchise. The new pitching is hot, and I really liked having control over all aspects of base running. However the game's defense still lags behind with its less than smooth execution of Rstick moves, AI, and animations. I'm also not impressed by the Slam Zone hitting, and batter's seeming inability to make contact with balls outside of the strike zone. Improved but not outstanding.
Rated: 7.75 out of 10
Editor: Matthew Kato
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From the Manufacturer
Not enhanced, not adjusted, not tweaked, and not updated. Major League Baseball 2K5 is all new and sets the standard for baseball video games. Dominate the diamond with innovative pitching and batting controls, all-new Maximum Fielding and On Command baserunning featuring active picture-in-picture display, quick select controls, and a plethora of slide options. Indulge in the true MLB atmosphere as a brand-new graphics engine brings stadiums, player models, animations, weather effects, and cut-scenes to life in breathtaking detail. With an exclusive ESPN presentation system featuring expert commentary from Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, and Karl Ravech in-studio, Major League Baseball 2K5 is your ticket to the Big Leagues.
Features:
Customer Reviews
MLB 2K5 vs. MVP 2005: Which is better?
The big question for me this year was which baseball game to purchase: MLB 2K5 (to be referred to as MLB) and MVP 2005. Sure, I could have shelled out $50 for both games, but that didn't seem to be a good solution when I don't have the free time to dedicate to two seperate baseball games. Here is my own take on the matchup.
Presentation: I give MLB 2K5 a slight edge here for a number of reasons. First, the commentary is better, hands down. The real-life commentators from ESPN blow EA's fakers out of the water. There is an issue with the booth guys calling every hit a rookie makes his first hit of his career, but that's not nearly as bad as the repetitive banter of the MVP guys, which is just rehashed from previous years' games. The ESPN presentation in general is just awesome and every game feels like a real ESPN broadcast. MVP's got its own good points. I really like the ability to check out previous at-bats to see how the pitcher is handling your hitter. Both do pretty well with the accessibility of pinch hitters, the bullpen, etc.
Graphics: Again, I gotta go with MLB here, but only by a little. I like the style of the graphics in MLB better. MVP seems to be more cartoonish. Both have issues with players diving through walls or missing the bases, but such things are rare. MLB has some awesome animations for dives.
Sound: The sound in both games is good enough for me. MLB is much better in terms of commentary, as mentioned before, but both are good with ambiant sounds. MVP has the advantage in terms of menu music, though it does not have very many songs, so it can get repetitive quickly. However, MLB's constantly looping Baseball Tonight tune gets quite annoying, especially since changes screens causes it to restart from the beginning.
Gameplay (in game): Gameplay is really a toss-up and I'm afraid I'll have to declare it a push. MVP gets the edge with the hitter's eye, which comes in fairly handy, but I do like MLB's pitch-guessing. Slam Zone for MLB is kinda cool, though it can be unbalancing in gameplay and the computer is very difficult to beat in button mashing, at least for me. MVP's arguing calls feature is a neat little add-on, but not something I would have to have in a game I bought. As a veteran of MVP games, the K-Zone in MLB is a nice change-of-pace pitching mechanism, and the option of being able to use an MVP knock off pitching style is nice.
Gameplay (franchise/dynasty/career): For me, this is the most important factor in a baseball game. I'm a hard-core sim fan, and I want realistic stats from my franchises. This one was hard to call, but in the end all the little nuances of MLB won out over the extra features of MVP. For those who have played previous installments of MVP, I'll address some of the new additions, and then compare with MLB.
MVP has added position player fatigue, which means that your guys in the field will tire the more games they play in a row. However, it did not appear that the computer would sub in bench players to give your every day starters a break. MLB, on the other hand, lets you set up depth charts with percentages of playing time for each player at that position. For instance, you can give your start 85% of the starts, and his backup(s) 15%. The computer will then actually make these substitutions in simmed games. One drawback to the depth charts, though, is that you cannot assign a backup to more than one position. However, you can get around this by setting your starters, and then telling the computer to auto-generate the depth chart, which leaves your starters in there but inserts your bench players into the chart as backups to every position the player is pretty well rated in.
This leads me to another difference between the two. MLB actually has fielding ratings for every player at every position, whereas MVP only has a primary and (sometimes) a secondary position for players.
Speaking of ratings, MLB has a very nice potential rating for players, indicating how good the player will become (at least, in the opinion of your scout). MLB's overall rating is also very nice since it is an actual number rather than a red bar that makes it difficult to compare players.
Both games are pretty similar in terms of including injuries and suspensions, and neither game lets you have a pitching rotation of less than five players. If you want to pitch your rested #1 instead of your #5 (or even #4), you have to manually plug him into that spot and move the rest of your staff accordingly. Both games let you plug in a pitcher or spot start when going through game by game, but neither will then change who is scheduled to pitch the next game.
When going through game by game, MVP is at the advantage. Its manager mode is a really robust way to go through games quickly, yet maintain some control over the performance of your team. MLB has Gamecast, which is similar but has far fewer options.
MVP has brought back its Franchise mode, in much the same form as last year, but has added owner mode. This is a cool feature that lets you run the business side of a ballclub, but it has a big drawback in that it REQUIRES you create a stadium to start. This stadium is much smaller than any other in baseball, and does not really have all that many options for personalizing it, at least not at first. This seems to put your team at a disadvantage. MLB has two options for going through multiple seasons as well. One is very similar to MVP's Franchise mode, with team goals to reach, etc. The GM Career mode, however, is the one that I really like. You play as a GM (or up to 4, unlike MVP, which limits you to 1 in both modes), trying to take your team to the World Series while pleasing the team's owner at the same time. Your owner will give you certain objectives to complete, and if you fail, his mood will sour and you may find yourself on the chopping block. Succeed, however, and you'll find a lucrative contract extension in your future. If you build a powerhouse with your first team, or if you fail miserably, you can sign a contract with another club.
Both games include an in-game e-mail system, neither of which is particularly dynamic. You'll find yourself receiving the same reports over and over, but in MVP at least you can change the filters to get rid of the seemingly endless stream of injury reports coming from other teams.
Both games include minor league systems, though MVP is much ore robust in this aspect. MLB has AAA and AA, but you cannot play games. MVP has all three levels, 90 teams in all, and you can play games for all three. However, it can become rather tedious setting four lineups each for your three minor league teams. You can let the CPU do it, but who knows how well it can be trusted? MLB has fewer minor leaguers (which may or may not be a good thing), with handy arrows that tell you if the player is improving or suffering at their current level. This makes managing your own minor league rosters in MLB much less tedious.
Stat-wise, both games are pretty robust. They have most of your basic baseball stats, but none of the in-depth splits. There is no way to know how Jeff Bagwell is hitting against lefties at night, in domes, on the second Tuesday of the month. However, all the most important stats are there and are kept for past seasons. MVP's season-by-season stats only go back five years, but the career totals are accurate. MLB keeps track of a players stats for as long as they have played.
Both games also have a number of post-season awards to hand out, from the Cy Young and MVPs to Reliever of the Year and Rookie of the Year. MLB also has a hall of fame, which is very cool.
In terms of menu layout and accessibility, MVP is the clear winner. It has brighter, cleaner menus that load without the lag time that MLB has. MVP also makes every bit of info about a player available every place you find that player. In MLB, you have to move constantly between menus to find out different info about your players. MLB does have a player card for every player, but this is not all-inclusive. For instance, it will tell you that your player has a C+ range, but does not say what positions (other than his primary) he is able to play well.
Winner: MLB 2K5
I hope that you have found this long and rambling review at least moderately helpful. Thanks for reading!
Not a bad baseball experience
Ok, so I've played both MVP 05 and ESPN 2K5. Im about 30 games in on my MVP season and its so freakin easy. Im palying on the hardest level and my record is 21-4 with the Mets (if that only were true). The game is pretty much the same as last year, only that hitting homeruns is alot tougher. I cant even get on out of the park with Carlos Beltran. The announcers are kind of boring. They seem to care more about the way the grass is cut than how many homers a guy has. The rosters are pretty up to date. If you go online and download the updated rosters you'll be all set. All in all I give it a 4 out of 5.
As for ESPN 2K5, I feel its a more reralistic baseball experience. First John Miller & Joe Morgan are awesome, I feel like its Sunday Night Baseball every night. The stadium graphics are top notch and the way it tracks your stats in numero uno. The drawbacks are the bad player movement and pitching is pretty easy. Im averaging about 11-12 strikeouts a game.
If your looking for a game thats gonna give you the full baseball experience I would go with ESPN 2K5.
Lookin foward to taking a shot at 989's MLB 2006.....
A Great Suprise
I bought this game for two reasons. One was the fact that I wanted a baseball game for my PS2 and the other is that it was only $20 compared to the two other new MLB games which are $40-$50. I thought that for the price the game would be okay for me (a brand new baseball fan *cough* *cough* NATIONALS)and it would be a good beginner. It was that and so much more. First of all let me say that the gameplay is amazing. There are some flaws with the baserunning (I have messed up sometimes because it is rather confusing) but overall the gameplay is great. The AI is rather intelligent but acts human at the same time because it is programmed to make mistakes sometimes. The game offers many different game modes including: franchise, gm career, home run derby, in your face, etc. These different modes will keep you going for hours. The commentary of the game with Joe Morgan is rather usual (which isn't bad) and it makes you feel like you are playing in a real baseball game. Overall for the price of the game, the great concepts and new features the game gets an A.
Price: $36.98
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