|
MVP
Baseball 2004
 For
the past few years I have been lamenting the demise of the
late, great Hardball series from Accolade. Ever since the company was bought
out, I have been looking for something to fill the void left
by the absence of Hardball
7. Playing the final entry in the series, Hardball
6 could only satisfy me up to a point. Sierra’s Baseball
Pro ’98 gave me some
accurate game play and stats that Hardball sometimes couldn’t. The one thing that was missing from
both titles were throwback uniforms, classic stadiums and
old-time players with which to play.
That
is until EA Sports MVP
Baseball 2004 hit the market and gave me a window to the
past.
 MVP
Baseball
manages to capture the nuances of the game like no other game
did before. The duel between pitcher and batter takes on new
importance since one mistake can mean the difference between a
big inning and being shut down entirely. The pitching
interface works like the
kickers interface in Madden, only here it’s a bit more sensitive. The red and blue
zones which display the batters hot and cold zones are back
from last year’s version. This should give you a leg up in
figuring out how  to
pitch to Barry Bonds, who by the way is called “Jim Dowd”
in the game since Barry refused to sign off on allowing his
name in the game (he apparently has his own game coming out
later).
The
hitting interface gives you a couple of options for when you
are
up to bat. You can either face the pitcher, or have the camera
shoot from center field to give you a realistic TV broadcast.
But this can take some getting used to so when starting out,
facing the pitcher will give you better results. Batting
becomes a guessing game as you wait for that one  pitch
to crush. It is actually better to take a few pitches before
trying to go ‘yahd, as you can get a count in your favor and
force the pitcher to deal a fat pitch.
The
dynasty mode gives you a lot to juggle as you have to over see
three teams at the Major League, AAA and AA level. You have to
figure out how to keep your players happy, and get to the
playoffs and World Series. As a GM you are given goals to
attain within a 1-3 year period, and are rewarded accordingly.
 One
of the really neat aspects of the game is that you can unlock
throwback uniforms, great players, classic stadiums and a
couple of teams for the all-time greats to play on. You do
this by earning points for each task you can perform on a
checklist which enables you to unlock certain features. If you
want to take a shortcut then it is as easy as guiding a team
to the playoffs in dynasty mode, saving the dynasty and then
starting the playoff which will give you a ton of points you
can use to unlock some of the fun stuff.
And
believe me, this stuff is fun! The throwback unis are straight
from the Cooperstown Collection, and range from the early
1900’s to the mid 1980’s. The classic stadiums are also a
kick. Finally getting to play a game in the Polo Grounds or
Forbes Field is a real treat for anyone who appreciates
baseball’s long and rich history. There are also 50 great
players from yesteryear that can be unlocked, but that’s one
of my gripes that I have about the game. Only 50? And why did
they choose the players that they did. Sure you get to unlock
Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan and Ty Cobb, but where are Hank Aaron,
Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays?
The
good news is that the roster editor in MVP
BB will allow you to create any players that the producers
may have missed and put  them
in the game. The bad news is that you are limited to creating
25 per roster file. But the game does provide you players in
the game that can be edited to your liking. This is a lesson
that the folks over at Madden have hopefully paid attention to. In MVP BB you can even give your players the number 0, something you
could never do in Madden.
But
along with all the eye candy goes some not-so-good stuff about
the game. The first thing you’ll notice are the ESPN-SportsCenter
Top 10 Highlight Nominee catches the outfielders seem to make.
No matter how much you try to bloop the ball into the outfield
they will always come up with a circus catch to keep you off
base. The
solution is to go into the options screen and reduce the CPU
OF’s Speed to -15. Yes I said -15, apparently the sliders
can be set to a negative number in this game. The other glitch
is that it is practically impossible to steal a base in this
game! Unless the catcher drops the ball or throws it away you
are dead as soon as you break for Second. Not even increasing
the runners speed rating slider seems to help.
Right
now until Microsoft decides to do something with High
Heat or  some
other developers come to their senses, this is what we are
stuck with on the PC. It may have a few tweaks and some
faults, but all in all it is still a good baseball game. And
if you play the Home Run hitting contest like I have, it can
be extremely addictive.
On
a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), MVP
Baseball 2004 gets a 7.5.
|
