Major League Baseball 2K5

"Great game minus the bugs and a few issues."

Don't get me wrong, MLB 2K5 is a good game. However, it just lacks that little bit of extra work from the guys at Visual Concepts to actually say "We are serious about baseball."

First off, rosters. The rosters are in DESPERATE need of updates. There are guys wearing the wrong jersey number, guys not on the right teams. The guys at Visual Concepts can't even bother to get the rosters as updated as possible before they push this game out to shelves. I blame ESPN in part for that too because they are, of course, part of the development of the game.

Secondly, graphics. Overall, in the big picture, the graphics look GREAT. The stadiums and fans are pretty darn detailed, and the loading time is nowhere near as long as MVP Baseball 2005. The individual players, however, I have a gripe with. It's obvious that Visual Concepts really didn't bother to go that extra mile with the player models. Their face looks like polygons instead of what I'd see on TV - something that MVP and MLB 2006 are both better at by a heck lot. Batting stances - yeah sure, who would notice that right? But like I said, it all goes into those fine details and effort that Visual Concepts just failed to cough up. The same few batting stances seem to always circulate around. Some guys like Eckstein and Sheffield have unique batting stances, and I'm not sure that MLB 2k5 is very exceptional at it.

Sound is EXCELLENT. This is one aspect that Visual Concepts did great, largely thanks to the ESPN commentator team, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. It almost feels like I'm actually watching a baseball game on ESPN (except the graphics... but let's not go there again). At-bat music is there, which is great. Maybe the only small problem I have is the overwhelming ESPN theme songs, which I could really live without.

User Interaction, let's see here. I find that it's quite inconvenient to jam everything under the L2 button. MVP Baseball did a much better job here in that they also have that L2 Quick Access Menu, but you can use the L/R directionals to scroll between a menu of well-organized functions. The Bullpen option I feel that MVP also did a better job, because for MLB 2k5, you need to mash quite a few buttons to warm the pitcher and send him in the game.

Gameplay: well, it's fair, I would say. MLB 2006 probably has the most realistic baseball sim of the 3 major titles this year. It seems to me that you hit a LOT of line drives or base hits or whatever lined in the same spot all of the time. MLB 2006 did a great job with their ball interaction with the surroundings, something which 2k5 can learn off of. Pitching is a bit different, because along with the meter-pitching system, there's also this "crosshair" system where you time your horizontal and vertical positions to land the ball. Great idea, except that I feel it gives WAY too much control over the pitch - making pitching too easy. I'd go with the pitch meter (which 2k5 has, fortunately). As for fielding, WHERE is the auto-fielding option? The other two games have it. Why not 2k5? I mean, fielding is fun, but people like baseball rookies may have a hard time converting quickly from pitching to fielding the ball. The "smart throw", which is designed to make the best possible choice as to where the fielder should throw to, isn't always too smart. For example, the CPU has a guy on 2nd, 2 outs, and the hitter grounds one to 1st base. Sometimes, "smart throw" decides to try and throw out the guy at 3rd base when he could've perfectly stepped on the bag. Not cool when you have runners at 1st+3rd and you could've ended the inning.

Kudos to 2k5 though, for its new baserunning system. I really admire that new innovation. MVP Baseball has PIP baserunning, but it's all CLUSTERED. It's really distracting trying to steal when I bat because my focus ends up being shifted to the top left all the time (or when I'm pitching to see if the runner will steal). The PIP windows in 2k5 grows and shrinks according to the situation, which is great because I can micromanage batting and stealing much more easily. The runner control aspect is a good one, but ESPN could smooth it over a bit. You take the CPU's place in running the bases, and they get your job of batting. Pretty good, except that the CPU doesn't exactly try very hard to hit. I generally avoid this feature, unfortunately... hopefully that can be ratified.

As for CPU AI, I find that batters seem to swing way too much. They chase practically everything, which could be ratified with the sliders, but I'd hope that by default, the AI gets a bit smarter and takes a few pitches to portray the game more accurately. Sometimes, fielders seem to make the most improbable outfield plays look extremely easy... another problem.

OVerall, ESPN MLB 2k5 is good, except for some bugs, graphical issues, and just simply, the lack of effort put in by Visual Concepts. You can tell that EA Sports and 989 Sports are serious when they put their finished product on the shelves, and it shows in their caring of the big picture and the minute details. Visual Concepts need to take that work ethic and put it into their game. I'd give it a 7 as a result.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/05