MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

[CKrenzel]

Until last year I hadn't bought a baseball video game since 1997 or so, at that point I had decided there was simply no hope for an accurate video game of my favorite sport.

A friend however turned me on to World Series Baseball 2K3, and I really enjoyed playing that. So when the sequel came out (ESPN Baseball 2K4) I bought it up. Other than the graphics being a bit weak I thought it was a very good baseball game, it's everything I wanted in a baseball game. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough that it didn't feel like I was playing "arcade mode."

I was planning on buying MLB 2K5 but I've read lots of disparaging words about it. I'm not looking for info from MVP fans, I just want to know how the people here who liked ESPN Baseball feel about MLB 2K5.

If MLB 2K5 is a better than or equal update to ESPN 2K4 I'll buy it, if not I'd like to keep my money. I'll play ESPN 2K4 until something better comes along, I have no problem enjoying a 5 year old game if I have to.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

The only thing that I am still up for concern about is whether or not MLB 2K5's True Aim hitting is actually like last year's or not. Even if it's not, I'm treating it as it is. The rest of the game, other than hit variation (which last year's game lacked also), is MUCH improved.


Just imagine, if this year's graphics were anti-aliased and ran at a smooth 60 FPS...

[baa7]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

Just imagine, if this year's graphics were anti-aliased

What’s that, and why didn’t they do that – whatever it is? Is that why it’s so fuzzy in comparison to 2K3?

Recommending this title to anyone is impossible. People will like it or hate it. The only thing to do is rent. Me, I’ll never go back to 2K3 (I returned 2K4 the day after I made the mistake of purchasing it). If anything, this 2K game has raised the presentation bar yet again – even though part of THAT aspect of the game is also flawed and broken. Regardless, that combined with what I think is decent game play (with the proper edits) make this a keeper until next year. I’m really happy I bought it (wasn’t going to after reading all the reviews here the first week).

[jim416]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

I thought last years version played a real good game of ball. It completely lacked personality and got old with me real fast. It was like playing the same game over and over again. It was, however, fairly glitch free. Everything seemed to work OK.

This years version will absolutely frustrate you out of the box. I still run myself out of innings at times because of the "new" baserunning setup (that should be dumped). The game does take tweaks and, unfortunately, you can't just jump in and use someone elses tweaks as it might not fit your ability. You have to get your comfort zone and, quite frankly, I'm still not there.

I'm back to High Heat 2k4 right now. Even figured out how to get the announcers to say "Washington" instead of "Montreal". That said, I am drawn back to MLB2k5 and do enjoy the heck out of the presentation.

[baa7]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

I'm back to High Heat 2k4 right now. Even figured out how to get the announcers to say "Washington" instead of "Montreal".

More importantly, can you get the game to load “RFK” and not “Olymp-ugh Stadium”? I'm in the National League, and it's SO nice not having to play in that thing this time around.

[Briman123]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

The only thing that I am still up for concern about is whether or not MLB 2K5's True Aim hitting is actually like last year's or not. Even if it's not, I'm treating it as it is. The rest of the game, other than hit variation (which last year's game lacked also), is MUCH improved.


Just imagine, if this year's graphics were anti-aliased and ran at a smooth 60 FPS...

Well why doesn't T2 make games on PC...? You can do that with MVP 2005 on PC. Next year aslong as they introduce MUCH better animations, fix all the the bugs and for god sake make ports on PC, then I would have best graphics possible... Plus I would have alot higher FPS then 60 with my Geforce 6800 256mb. The mods would also be very nice. If that happened then I wouldn't care about no more MVP but guess what unlike EA, T2 has something against releasing games on a much more advanced platform of that being PC.

[jim416]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

More importantly, can you get the game to load “RFK” and not “Olymp-ugh Stadium”?

There's a guy working on fantasy stadiums for the Phils and Nats. Don't know their status yet.

I even have the Nats logos and photos so that when you watch the game it, at least shows the big "W" and the players in their new unis.

I play their home games in a fantasy Metrodome.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

What’s that, and why didn’t they do that – whatever it is? Is that why it’s so fuzzy in comparison to 2K3?

Here's an explanation of what anti-aliasing does.

Aliasing is the well-known effect on computer screens, in fact on all pixel devices, where diagonal and curved lines are displayed as a series of little zigzag horizontal and vertical lines.


Well, let's take an example.

An image that's unaliased (left), and one with anti-aliasing (right):




The one with anti-aliasing is actually tricking you though, because it has the jagged lines, but it has more than that. If you zoom in 3x closer to these two images:




The one on the left is the one without this remedy of shading, and look at the one on the right. We can see what is happening, and that is that the analysis of the image at higher resolution shows how pixel shading removes unsightly "jaggies", and restores missing parts of the image.


In a game, you see what are usually called "jaggies", and those are the games that don't feature anti-aliasing. So, if we were to take a look at ESPN NFL 2K5 with AA and without AA, you will see the differences, and then you can compare and contrast.


So here's one without AA:




And here's one with AA:






You can easily see it in the stadium structure, but the sheen on the jerseys helps hide it a little more in the first pic, even though it's still there.

Now, I don't really have two pictures of different MLB 2K games to compare (I'll look around), I just used that game because I know of its new system with Triple Pass Rendering that it's using, but really, if it did have jaggies or anti-aliasing, you would know it from what I told you.

[baa7]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

Thanks Blzer ;-)

[acarrero]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

WS2K3 is/was 10x better than either 2K4 or 2K5 IMO. That game was more challenging, less flawed, and felt much better than either of the past two versions. Check overall ratings based on reviews for all three games and this will be confirmed - when 2K3 came out it was considered a great game immediately, with no real weaknesses.

This year's version has a lot of potential, and feels fresh compared to 2K4. However, bad AI for CPU hitting makes the game less competitive and the pitching has gone downhill since 2K3. There are several options as far as pitching modes, and ton of sliders, but none work as well as the default modes in MVP or MLB 2006. The batting is also worse than before. Gone is the batting cursor, which was a staple of the 2K series and which I still consider the best batting mode ever. The pitch guessing is not implemented very well either.

MLB 06 really suprised me this year, it's got much better gameplay than 2K5, but 2K5 has better online mode, roster management, and the baseburner which I like a lot. For $20, you can't lose by giving it a try, but check out MLB 06 and MVP for more solid titles.

[catcatch22]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

I think MLB 2K5 is the best sports presentation there is to date, but has the worst game play in my opinion.

ESPN MLB 2K4 is a better game in terms of just pure gameplay. However the graphics in that game were sub-par and the presentation was just... meh.

Between MLB 2k5 and ESPN 2K4 I choose ESPN 2K4. I playeed 2k4 for months and practically the whole basball season, while with MLB 2k5 I barely played one game!

[Pared]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

WS2K3 is/was 10x better than either 2K4 or 2K5 IMO. That game was more challenging, less flawed, and felt much better than either of the past two versions. Check overall ratings based on reviews for all three games and this will be confirmed - when 2K3 came out it was considered a great game immediately, with no real weaknesses.

This year's version has a lot of potential, and feels fresh compared to 2K4. However, bad AI for CPU hitting makes the game less competitive and the pitching has gone downhill since 2K3. There are several options as far as pitching modes, and ton of sliders, but none work as well as the default modes in MVP or MLB 2006. The batting is also worse than before. Gone is the batting cursor, which was a staple of the 2K series and which I still consider the best batting mode ever. The pitch guessing is not implemented very well either.

MLB 06 really suprised me this year, it's got much better gameplay than 2K5, but 2K5 has better online mode, roster management, and the baseburner which I like a lot. For $20, you can't lose by giving it a try, but check out MLB 06 and MVP for more solid titles.

Completely agreed. IIRC, 2k3 only had an issue with catchers arms at the time, as they were too easy to steal off of, or too strong.

[LIGHTNING]

Re: MLB 2K5 v. ESPN Baseball 2K4

ESPN MLB 2K4 is better than MLB 2K5 and MVP 2005. It is the best baseball game for the XBOX since High Heat 2004 IMHO.