MVP Baseball 2003 (PC)

[PoPPeR]

Wow... this game is light years ahead of what Triple Play was. FYI, EA Sports decided to change their baseball series from the very dismal Triple Play and renamed it MVP Baseball. Superb graphics, great pitching interface, batting isn't the easiest thing to do, and neither is striking players out, but when you get the hang of it and can strike out 8-10 batters in a 9 inning game, its very very fun. Its still more arcade style then sim style, but for some people that's not a bad thing. Overall I love this game right now, hitting is really hard to get the timing down, and the first 10 games of the franchise season I played with the Braves I got shut out 3 times. Now i have it down though, and I'm hitting a lot of homers with my power guys.

Get this game

 

[Sid59]

sounds good. I once played High Heat on the PC, and it totally sucked donkey nuts. Then i orderd WSB2k3 for X-BOx and haven''t looked back.

 

[murphy55d]

High Heat is(was?) probably the most realistic of all the baseball games. 3do has gone downhill lately, though.

 

[Hartford]

the atari baseball will always hold a special place in my heart

 

[murphy55d]

We all know Earl Weaver baseball WAS the best.
Heck, there are still people who ONLY play EWB.

 

[Ynog]

I will definately agree that MVP Baseball is hundred if not a thousand times better than Triple Play baseball. And EA decision to just drop
triple play was a good move. However I think WSB2k3 is better than MVP Baseball, though I think MVP Baseball has potential to
be better than WSB in the future. The pitching meter is great, but I do wish you could turn it off when you just don't want to use it.

For PC its hands down the best baseball game.

 

[mpitts]

I just picked this game up for Xbox and I absolutely love it.

I think they really did a good job tweaking the batting interface, which was always my biggest gripe with baseball games.

 

[manly]

I like it so far, but it does have some irritating realism flaws:

• Too difficult to hit for power against the computer. You pretty much have to be a power hitter, and yoke a "mistake" pitch. It's unheard of for any of the role players to smack homers. Hitting non-mistake pitches out of the park is relatively rare too for good players. I don't want slug-fests, but a realistic proportion of homers. Maybe I need to learn directional hitting better, because I don't think timing is an issue (team batting average over .300).
• Pitching needs to be more balanced. You can paint the corners all day long and do well, but in reality, few pitchers should have Maddux-like control. Pitching should be less accurate, but at the same time, the AI batters need to swing out of the zone more. It's ridiculous that most of them don't "protect the plate" with 2 strike counts. With 2 strikes, they'll regularly watch balls that miss the zone by just a hairline. I don't really want more Ks (although a little more for star pitchers would be appropriate). I want better balance.
• I don't know about in general, but my middle infielders play like they're Gold Glovers. They should be a bit more erratic, allowing for more scoring, although this would probably irritate me more. Partly due to defensive brilliance, at the PRO level, my staff averages a 2.0 ERA, which is unheard of in modern baseball. The Oakland A's aren't that good.
• Stealing bases is impossible. Even with the extra 2-step lead, speedy players don't get a good jump, and hardly ever succeed at base-stealing. Base-running is also relatively tricky to execute on a per player basis.

Those are the major problems. In addition, player models are too short and while the announcers are quite good, they still repeat phrases over and over. But I can overlook those issues if the simulation quality is there. It's funny that I'm complaining an EA Sports title is too defensive; most I've played in the past were completely arcadish and scoring was wildly ridiculous. Overall, I think it's fun and recommended. Not sure yet if it's good enough to play in franchise mode for a while...

Over in the software forum, Furor preferred HH2004 over MVP Baseball 2003:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=1012389

 

[dabuddha]

Reggie Jackson Baseball for the Sega Master System baby!!!