Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

[RaychelSnr]

It is a new week here at Operation Sports and we are creeping up on the release of the two major baseball titles. This week we have four staff members checking into the fact or fiction roundtable and answering some important questions for this week. Is MVP 05 the best baseball game ever or will MLB 09: The Show surpass it this year? Is EA or Take Two going to be bought out in 2009's weak economy? Check out their thoughts on these issues and a few more in this week's fact or fiction.

Read more - Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

[nemesis04]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

It is interesting, with the MVP series being pretty much dated now there are still some components of the game that Sony and 2k are still trying to perfect. Most notably being the fielding, bat on ball physics (hit variety) and use of right stick innovation. It would have been cool to see if EA was still in the mix of making baseball games, what the baseball video game landscape would look like.

As we are here today it looks like we have two very viable choices for 09. With each company giving their own interpretation of the game. I am very happy that each game has some individuality to it and would never want the two offerings copying each other for the sake of just having a particular feature.

A little over a week and we are playing ball guys! Enjoy it!

[Azamien]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

Christian McLeod - Fiction. While MLB 09: The Show will be a fantastic baseball game, it will still pale in comparison to MVP 05. MVP 05 is still superior in the areas of ball physics, fielding, throwing and baserunning, at least based on my time with the MLB 09 demo.

Wait, what? MVP 05 had to be modded to achieve anything close to realism in any of the areas he mentioned.

I think people are putting MVP on a pedastal that it doesn't quite deserve. Was it good? Yes. Was it the best baseball game at the time? Yes. But come on, it played terribly out of the box, so to say that it's "still superior", especially in those areas (ball physics were a complete joke!), is revisionist history.

What made MVP 05 great was the ability to mod it. Otherwise it was an average title.

[NAFBUC]

MLB '09: The Show will be the best baseball game ever made.

I would say based on the demo and expecting the release version to be much more polished, yes. The one thing that The Show or 2k baseball titles can improve on is to allow user modding.

User Modding is what allowed High Heat and MVP to keep the game fresh. The Show has started to go that way with the face feature, sliders, roster vault and sound editor. That should be just the starting point. The next step would be to add real time advertising signage, a datafile that can edited on a PC format and the ability to replace player photos.

[boomhauertjs]

The greatest baseball game ever? High Heat (either 2002 or 2003).

[rudyjuly2]

I really enjoyed MVP '05 and that game got me back into buying baseball games every year. But when the Show came out, MVP '05 was quickly relegated to backup status.

I liked the fielding in MVP and really liked the franchise setup with easy depth charts and morale. But MVP (on the PS2 at least) was really flawed in the batter vs. pitcher battle and that is the heart of baseball games. You could never pull any pitch with power on the outer part of the zone. You ALWAYS had to go with pitches and pull inside pitches which isn't realistic. You couldn't get hits on balls out of the zone despite the fact it happens quite often. Pitch speed had zero relevance against the cpu! A 98 mph fastball was no more effective than an 88 mph fastball (makes no sense) and you could paint corners all day in MVP.

MVP '05 was a breath of fresh air for me but I think it's really overrated in terms of its lasting greatness. Just my two cents.

[e0820]

I for one enjoy the next gen consoles' crop of baseball games. I also thought MVP 05 was great at the time. Im puzzled as to why people dont suggest EA to bring out a fully customizable next gen version of MVP like they do with 2k's APF.

[N51_rob]

Caley Roark - Fiction. After watching how EA has handled Madden's transition to the current-generation consoles, I do not have too much confidence in what MVP would have become. I loved MVP 05 (and still play it occasionally), but I imagine that the features that made that game great would have been dropped and then touted as new features later on.

I think that was spot on. EA has struggled bringing games to next gen. They are finally getting there but it has taken 4 years.

[vernond]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

I'd have to say mvp was the best game to date. I think the show this year will take it over though. I played a lot of Ken Griffey jr on the 64 and All Star Baseball 02 as well. I played a ton of 2k7 but the amount of hr's and hr's robbed at the wall became too much.

[ehh]

I agree with vernond, though I'm not quite as confident after playing the '09 demo. I thought it was a slam dunk that '09 would take the crown but I need to play the retail version, the hitting system in the demo still really frustrates me and seems the same from '08.

It's just so hard to go to another baseball game after the perfect bat/ball interaction that MVP '05 had. We will see what the '09 retail has in store.

[Full_Collapse]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

MVP 05, in terms of gameplay, was pretty much perfect (as close to perfect as you can get with a sports game - true perfection is virtually impossible). The MLB franchise plays nearly as well and if it has a few adjustments for 09, on top of the franchise mode which will blow MVP 05's franchise mode away, it has a real shot to be better. It's a tall order to top MVP 05 though, it still hasn't been done in my opinion.

Either way, we know we're getting a winner with The Show 09. MVP is gone but we still have a quality baseball game on PS3.

[Azamien]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

MVP 05, in terms of gameplay, was pretty much perfect

OK, comments like this are starting to make me wonder if there was a massive difference between the PC version and the console version. I have the PC version, and while it was a good game, it was nowhere near perfect.

[theaub]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

Console MVP '05 gameplay was perfect if you liked to never walk hitters or hit 3-4 HR per game.

[Artman22]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

I agree with vernond, though I'm not quite as confident after playing the '09 demo. I thought it was a slam dunk that '09 would take the crown but I need to play the retail version, the hitting system in the demo still really frustrates me and seems the same from '08.

It's just so hard to go to another baseball game after the perfect bat/ball interaction that MVP '05 had. We will see what the '09 retail has in store.

I kinda feel the same way. I still think MVP 05 is best. That's my opinion. I still think the ball physics and hit variety are way better then the show. The show has great things as well. Graphics and presentation are great in the show. MVP's fielding was the best imo.

[Knight165]

Re: Fact or Fiction: Baseball Games Cometh Edition

OK, comments like this are starting to make me wonder if there was a massive difference between the PC version and the console version. I have the PC version, and while it was a good game, it was nowhere near perfect.

You weren't wearing these!...
Oh...there is also a High Heat version...
...and a version for EVERY sports game out there.

M.K.
Knight165