Hitting
Continued from page 1Batting has also been well thought out and perfectly implemented. Rather than using cursors where you have to quickly place your batting cursor over the pitch cursor, MVP 2005 is more straightforward and relies simply on timing. Your batter will automatically swing high or low or wherever they need to in order to make contact and it is up to you to swing the bat at the right time in order to actually hit the ball. Swing at something far inside or outside and you won’t get the best results, obviously. Likewise, swinging too late or too early will end up in a pop up or foul ball or lazy grounder. You have more control than just pressing a button to swing the bat, though. You can press left or right as you swing to hit it to the left or right of the diamond and you can press down do hit a grounder or up for a fly ball. This lets you put the ball right where it needs to be to give your baserunners the best chance of advancing. Another nifty feature is the “hitters eye”. The ball will flash different colors as it leaves the pitchers hand which tells you what type of pitch it is. This helps you time your swing a little better. All in all, hitting is simple, but it is arguably more fun this way.
Fielding and Baserunning
Baserunning is also very easy and is controlled by the same four face buttons as fielding. Each base has a little window in the corner of the screen so you can see what your runners are doing at all times. You can have runners steal or retreat as well as try to stretch an extra base hit or tag up after a fly ball with the press of a button. It is simple and clean and works great.
There are also special controls for baserunning and fielding that use the right analog stick. This “big play stick” lets you dive at fly balls, climb the outfield fence to snatch a potential home run, or perform a few different types of slides when you’re running the bases. A great idea that was well implemented.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, MVP 2005 looks gorgeous. The player models are incredibly detailed and everyone looks just like they do in real life. Most impressive of all is the animation. Each and every player uses their real life batting stance and all of their mannerisms have been recreated perfectly. Also, there are dozens of animations for every type of play you can imagine and even catching a routine fly ball has tons and tons of different variations. You can play dozens of games and not see the same two plays twice. Very impressive. The stadiums are also very detailed and look great. The game also features a 720p mode and it looks phenomenal. It is seriously easier to play because the graphics are that much clearer and better looking.The sound is also really well done. The crack of the bat and the slap of the ball hitting a glove are clear and perfect. Stadium sounds such as different cheers from the crowd, noise from outside the stadium, players yelling advice to each other, and much more all make the game sound really authentic. The commentary team of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow do a good job as well.
Bottom Line
