Major League Baseball 2K5

"Possibly the Best Baseball Game there is."

Major League Baseball 2K5 is 2K's baseball video game, and it is just too great. I didn't think a game could be too good. But this is. It takes baseball to the next level, and by next level, I mean a couple of levels up. You can do many things. You can be the greatest GM in baseball history. You can lead a franchise and win the World Series, or you could just play a normal baseball game. Whatever you do, you will find this game to be the best baseball game ever.

The game play is by far state of the art. When batting, you just swing, rather than aiming. If you are playing on video game settings, you could press R then aim at where the ball is in the strike zone. If you do it right, you go into the slamezone. If you tap A repeatedly, then swing, you will hit a home run! When you hit the ball, you control how fast the runner runs. The faster you tap A, the faster he runs. That, of course, is better than just telling the person to go to second. It shows good of a player you are. It also helps preventing the double play and helps get to first safe rather than out. Then if you get on base, you can switch to the runner. You can steal and take a bigger lead. But, you can also Tell the batter what to do. You can tell him to bunt, swing, be selective(swing at strikes) or don't swing. Pitching is great too. You select the pitch, select where to throw it, then it goes into this system where two circle go to where you selected to where you wanted to throw, one by one. If you get them both in the circle that shows you where selected. If the batter guessed there, you go into slamzone, if you are video game settings. Tap A faster, then the batter will just pop it up. The fielding is great, too. B is to throw to first, Y to second, X to third, and A to home plate. When you are fielding, you can hold down R to activate your speed burst, and you will run faster. The speed burst isn't too long, but it helps a lot. You can also dive to prevent doubles, or to get the person out at first. You can rob home runs, you dive for a catch, anything as a fielder. Then there are challenges for you to complete, so you can get tokens for your profile, so you can get older teams, different uniforms, or cheats. The cheats are fun. You can get big heads, super bounce, hurricane winds, all of them being funny.

The graphics are great. The players faces matches a lot like their actual faces, the fans look real, and everything is very realistic. The sound is good too. It is all right on cue. When you hit the ball, it sounds like someone crushed a home run, or bunted, or whatever the person did to hit it. The commentators are good, but they could be better. They don't say the right things sometimes. For example, someone hits a grounder to third, one of them might say "And he hits it back to the mound" when he clearly didn't. If you try to go to home, but go back to third, one of them might say, " And he is safe at home." But other wise, they are great. Nice for an Xbox game.

Overall, this game is just great. Great for any baseball fan. In fact, even if you aren't, give this game a try. This game is probably the best there is. A solid 10/10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/01/08

Game Release: Major League Baseball 2K5 (US, 02/23/05)