<B><font size="3">MVP Baseball vs. MLB Baseball (PSP)</b></font>
Now that I have played both games on the PSP, I can try to give the negatives and positives of both games. Please, if anyone wants to add to this list that would be great. I hope that this helps people that are swaying towards one or the other.
<b><font size="3">MVP</b></font>
<u><b>Positives:</b></u>
-Edit/Create Player, Roster Management: Trades, Free Agency, Save/Load Rosters (you are allowed to setup the rosters before entering season mode and saving them for distribution).
-Graphics: the graphics department for EA could be a toss up. Players look more cartoony which some may like and others may not. Player faces have been faithfully recreated, but not nowhere near as close as what MLB offers.
-TV Style Presentation: this will help sell MVP over MLB for those that are looking for a game with presentation. There are stat overlays, batter walk ups w/stats, replays, cut scenes, pitchers warming up, and pictures of players faces.
-Hot/Cold Zones: it’s nice that the hot and cold zones light up now when the ball is placed over them for the pitches. It helps.
-Homerun Derby: A nice distraction when you get bored of Season mode. It is a very challenging mode with no split screen ability. Be prepared to hit a lot of foul balls.
-Unlockables: You can unlock extra jerseys, stadiums, and players.
-Mid game save: yes, finally someone has added a mid game save that works as advertised.
-Load Times: Loading is anywhere from 10-20 seconds.
-Sliders Galore: there are sliders galor in this game that helps alleviate some of the gameplay issues that many of us have experienced, especially with the offensive minded game.
<b><u>Negatives:</b></u>
-Replay Hiccups: it takes 1-2 seconds for replays to load.
-Glitch 1: So far I have noticed 1 glitch with my batter. His hair disappeared for a few seconds and then came back.
-Commentary: MVP has both the full color and play-by-play of its console/PC sister, but it feels very dry and silent at times unlike MLB’s awesome commentary.
-Hot/Cold Zones: even though I have a positive about this, there is a negative. The entire hot/cold zone box just doesn’t seem to be proportioned properly on screen. I feel this makes it harder to hit the ball.
-EA Pocket Trax: a feature that EA hypes as being cool, but I think it’s a waste of disc space. Let us import our own tunes. Or get rid of the whole thing and add more to the rosters.
-Misleading Cover box: when many of us saw the cover box with the Minor Leagues logo, we thought that there might be minor league players. They are nowhere to be located as this is something that shouldn’t have been included.
-AdHoc Play Only: no online mode here.
-Outdated rosters as of 1/15/2005.
-$50.00 price tag is too much when the competition is $10.00 cheaper and the console versions are selling anywhere from as low as $19.99-$29.99 when on sale.
<b><u>The X-Factor:</b></u>
-Offensive Minded: like every MVP, this game still feels like it has offense in mind. Jacking homers out of the park is not that hard. Trying to get a descent amount of strikeouts in this game just doesn’t appear to be accurate.
-MVP 2004 for $50: This has to be the biggest X-Factor on this game. Many people are mad because EA is charging $50 for the PSP version of MVP which is based off of the MVP 2004 engine. I couldn’t place this in one or the other categories as I prefer the 2004 engine over 2005. I had more fun with last year’s MVP than this year’s on XBOX. This is also a negative in other’s eyes.
<font size="3"><B>MLB</b></font>
<b><u>Positives:</b></u>
-Graphics: smooth animations, accurate player models (reflective helmets, textures, faces), ball bats look amazing, stadiums have been perfectly recreated to the tee.
-Commentary: wow. I just love the progressive commentary throughout the game. Commentary is constant and I haven’t noticed too much repetitiveness. For what MLB lacks in presentation, the commentary helps pull everything together.
-Hitting Variety: one reason that this game is so cool is that there is a variety of hit balls.
-Pitching: 989 took MVP’s pitching interface one step further and improved upon it. The pitcher-batter duel is a thrill.
-Online mode: there is an online mode, but I hear that it’s laggy and no stat tracking.
-Guess Pitch: guess pitch makes it’s return from the PS2 version. GP works quite well on the PSP.
-PS2 MLB Bugs: I can say that this version of MLB doesn’t freeze unlike the awesome PS2 counterpart. There are just a few minor issues below.
-Updated rosters as of Februrary 2005.
<b><u>Negatives:</b></u>
-TV Style Presentation: this is the biggest area that hurts MLB. There are no stat overlays, batter walk ups w/stats, replays, and cut scenes.
-Glitches: not much here like it’s PS2 sister. There are cases where there are too many wild pitches thrown, the ball will just pass under the infielders legs,
-CAP: there is no create a player which is a big no, no. You can’t create missing players or minor leaguers.
-Fielding: There is something about the fielding that I can’t place on my finger that I don’t like. This is one area where I feel like is not as smooth as MVP.
-Baserunning: I had a hell of a time trying to get this figured out. Check the manual as this is pretty confusing and the hard part to get down pat. Trying to steal bases can be a game all within it’s self. The competition does a better job in this dept.
-No Umpire: There is no umpire behind the plate which makes the game feel a bit unreleastic.
-No Roster Management: with no roster management it makes it rather hard to keep this game up to date.
<b><u>The X-Factor:</b></u>
-Defensive Minded: I found it harder to hit homers out of the park in MLB as it should be. I felt that it was a bit easier to get strikeouts in MLB, but better than MVP. This is how a game like baseball should be made for fun factor.
<b><font size="3">Conclusion:</b></font>
I hope that this helps everyone that is trying to figure out which game to buy. I enjoy the gameplay and graphics of MLB. I think that 989 studios has come a long way with the wonderful port job that was done to the PSP. 989 took EA’s formula for gameplay and improved upon their system which molded into MLB. The only thing that is killing MLB is that there is no TV style presentation which hurt the overall package. This is where EA takes charge with MVP baseball. If you are someone that enjoys seeing stats on screen, batter walk ups, homerun celebrations, amongst other extra features of this kind than MVP is your cup of tea. I never had a problem with the controls of MLB when switching from both games back and forth. Since I’m a long time MVP player, I feel like controls are very similar for both games. MVP offers a simplistic but detailed Roster Management option that MLB doesn’t and this could be another negative for those that love to tinker with the rosters; especially when EA’s are as of 1/15/2005 which is a poor excuse due to all of the delays. That is another upsetting negative towards EA. This game was so delayed, couldn’t they fix the rosters.
It is a toss up between both games. There are many factors that come into play here for both as it not only comes down to features, gameplay, and graphics, but there is a price issue.
Now that I have played both games on the PSP, I can try to give the negatives and positives of both games. Please, if anyone wants to add to this list that would be great. I hope that this helps people that are swaying towards one or the other.
<b><font size="3">MVP</b></font>
<u><b>Positives:</b></u>
-Edit/Create Player, Roster Management: Trades, Free Agency, Save/Load Rosters (you are allowed to setup the rosters before entering season mode and saving them for distribution).
-Graphics: the graphics department for EA could be a toss up. Players look more cartoony which some may like and others may not. Player faces have been faithfully recreated, but not nowhere near as close as what MLB offers.
-TV Style Presentation: this will help sell MVP over MLB for those that are looking for a game with presentation. There are stat overlays, batter walk ups w/stats, replays, cut scenes, pitchers warming up, and pictures of players faces.
-Hot/Cold Zones: it’s nice that the hot and cold zones light up now when the ball is placed over them for the pitches. It helps.
-Homerun Derby: A nice distraction when you get bored of Season mode. It is a very challenging mode with no split screen ability. Be prepared to hit a lot of foul balls.
-Unlockables: You can unlock extra jerseys, stadiums, and players.
-Mid game save: yes, finally someone has added a mid game save that works as advertised.
-Load Times: Loading is anywhere from 10-20 seconds.
-Sliders Galore: there are sliders galor in this game that helps alleviate some of the gameplay issues that many of us have experienced, especially with the offensive minded game.
<b><u>Negatives:</b></u>
-Replay Hiccups: it takes 1-2 seconds for replays to load.
-Glitch 1: So far I have noticed 1 glitch with my batter. His hair disappeared for a few seconds and then came back.
-Commentary: MVP has both the full color and play-by-play of its console/PC sister, but it feels very dry and silent at times unlike MLB’s awesome commentary.
-Hot/Cold Zones: even though I have a positive about this, there is a negative. The entire hot/cold zone box just doesn’t seem to be proportioned properly on screen. I feel this makes it harder to hit the ball.
-EA Pocket Trax: a feature that EA hypes as being cool, but I think it’s a waste of disc space. Let us import our own tunes. Or get rid of the whole thing and add more to the rosters.
-Misleading Cover box: when many of us saw the cover box with the Minor Leagues logo, we thought that there might be minor league players. They are nowhere to be located as this is something that shouldn’t have been included.
-AdHoc Play Only: no online mode here.
-Outdated rosters as of 1/15/2005.
-$50.00 price tag is too much when the competition is $10.00 cheaper and the console versions are selling anywhere from as low as $19.99-$29.99 when on sale.
<b><u>The X-Factor:</b></u>
-Offensive Minded: like every MVP, this game still feels like it has offense in mind. Jacking homers out of the park is not that hard. Trying to get a descent amount of strikeouts in this game just doesn’t appear to be accurate.
-MVP 2004 for $50: This has to be the biggest X-Factor on this game. Many people are mad because EA is charging $50 for the PSP version of MVP which is based off of the MVP 2004 engine. I couldn’t place this in one or the other categories as I prefer the 2004 engine over 2005. I had more fun with last year’s MVP than this year’s on XBOX. This is also a negative in other’s eyes.
<font size="3"><B>MLB</b></font>
<b><u>Positives:</b></u>
-Graphics: smooth animations, accurate player models (reflective helmets, textures, faces), ball bats look amazing, stadiums have been perfectly recreated to the tee.
-Commentary: wow. I just love the progressive commentary throughout the game. Commentary is constant and I haven’t noticed too much repetitiveness. For what MLB lacks in presentation, the commentary helps pull everything together.
-Hitting Variety: one reason that this game is so cool is that there is a variety of hit balls.
-Pitching: 989 took MVP’s pitching interface one step further and improved upon it. The pitcher-batter duel is a thrill.
-Online mode: there is an online mode, but I hear that it’s laggy and no stat tracking.
-Guess Pitch: guess pitch makes it’s return from the PS2 version. GP works quite well on the PSP.
-PS2 MLB Bugs: I can say that this version of MLB doesn’t freeze unlike the awesome PS2 counterpart. There are just a few minor issues below.
-Updated rosters as of Februrary 2005.
<b><u>Negatives:</b></u>
-TV Style Presentation: this is the biggest area that hurts MLB. There are no stat overlays, batter walk ups w/stats, replays, and cut scenes.
-Glitches: not much here like it’s PS2 sister. There are cases where there are too many wild pitches thrown, the ball will just pass under the infielders legs,
-CAP: there is no create a player which is a big no, no. You can’t create missing players or minor leaguers.
-Fielding: There is something about the fielding that I can’t place on my finger that I don’t like. This is one area where I feel like is not as smooth as MVP.
-Baserunning: I had a hell of a time trying to get this figured out. Check the manual as this is pretty confusing and the hard part to get down pat. Trying to steal bases can be a game all within it’s self. The competition does a better job in this dept.
-No Umpire: There is no umpire behind the plate which makes the game feel a bit unreleastic.
-No Roster Management: with no roster management it makes it rather hard to keep this game up to date.
<b><u>The X-Factor:</b></u>
-Defensive Minded: I found it harder to hit homers out of the park in MLB as it should be. I felt that it was a bit easier to get strikeouts in MLB, but better than MVP. This is how a game like baseball should be made for fun factor.
<b><font size="3">Conclusion:</b></font>
I hope that this helps everyone that is trying to figure out which game to buy. I enjoy the gameplay and graphics of MLB. I think that 989 studios has come a long way with the wonderful port job that was done to the PSP. 989 took EA’s formula for gameplay and improved upon their system which molded into MLB. The only thing that is killing MLB is that there is no TV style presentation which hurt the overall package. This is where EA takes charge with MVP baseball. If you are someone that enjoys seeing stats on screen, batter walk ups, homerun celebrations, amongst other extra features of this kind than MVP is your cup of tea. I never had a problem with the controls of MLB when switching from both games back and forth. Since I’m a long time MVP player, I feel like controls are very similar for both games. MVP offers a simplistic but detailed Roster Management option that MLB doesn’t and this could be another negative for those that love to tinker with the rosters; especially when EA’s are as of 1/15/2005 which is a poor excuse due to all of the delays. That is another upsetting negative towards EA. This game was so delayed, couldn’t they fix the rosters.
It is a toss up between both games. There are many factors that come into play here for both as it not only comes down to features, gameplay, and graphics, but there is a price issue.
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