MLB 2005

"MLB 2005 not the greatest but better then expected"

Another year has gone by and still 989 has put out there second MLB game for the PS2 and this has been there best offering ever! It's nowhere near as good gameplay wise as EA's MVP 2004 or as pretty but I guess it's somewhere trailing EA's offerning? MLB 2005 lets you set ticket,merchandise & food prices plus you get to set what your team gives away on your home games which I think is something more games should offer! You even get to decide who's advertising on you stadium billboards and as to which player you want to apper in ads for your team. You get paid for selling the billboard space in your stadium and get more fans coming out to see your player in the ads which in MLB 2005 means alot considering that you'll end up spending alot of cash on traning room upgrades and eveything else not to mention players! You can kinda check out the headlines around the league and in that reguard the game shines but then we move on to gameplay. If not for EA's MVP 2004 spoiling me I would say MLB's gameplay was well done but after playing MVP 2004 I just see way too many problems! For example pitches seem to float to the plate until they cross it then it's like the guy threw 110MPH and it's not only on fastballs that it happens on because thats also the case with breaking balls! You can learn to hit even with that going on in the game but it just seems a little messed up! Fielding still kinda has the magic glove trick where balls curve into your glove and almost all players had dead on cannon arms but enough about the bad! There are times that the gamplay can be fun and no one can discount the frontend part but for some reason I still feel like 989 is kinda a wanna be great game never getting to that point! The spring traning mode is still in the game and from what I hear better then ever because now you get to truly step into the shoes of the rookie you create and even get to try to get youself and nice contract but honestly I have yet to try it out so I'm just going by what I hear because I perfere using the franchise type modes in sports games. MLB 2005 not a bad game but it's just nothing that great and if your not going to buy MVP 2004 then by all means give MLB 2005 a try!

Graphics:
Not up to par with EA's and still a long way off but better the ESPN,All-Star this year!

Sound:
989 actually has a good soundtrack this year with a ton of cool songs by some well know artist! Ballpark sounds are done nice with the things you should be hearing at a game.

Gameplay:
Could have been the best but then again 989 was in charge so for some reason once again sub par.

Replay:
Hey it's a sports game with franchise and season play that you could play for a few years I guess if you wanted too? So it's high

Overall:
I gave the game a 7 mostly due to the frontend because it's the best there is at that but sad to say the game did not get many points from me besides that so maybe 2 for the game and the rest for frontend! Ya I have bashed the game a bit but I still own my copy because of the frontend and I can see through the other bad parts because of the frontend so if you wanna know what it's like to own a real MLB team then you might like this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/04