Feature: PS2 Baseball Roundup

The boys of summer are back! With around 50% less steroids, if we're lucky!

This is the last year Electronic Arts can put out a licensed baseball game. That brings a smile to many faces, my own included. Monopolies are bad for the consumer, but after EA went all out and swiped not just the NFL, but ESPN as well, it was nice to see another company score a victory, however small. The fact is, with Take Two's deal, the 989 Sports baseball title will still be around, meaning the PS2 will still have two baseball games driving each other, and we, as consumers, will benefit from the mutual competition

So, of the three efforts this year, which plays the better ballgame?

Having obtained all three baseball titles for the PS2, I set to work on playing them and figuring out which one I preferred. Note: Nothing was tweaked in the slider options in any title. This was a test to see how well the game played out of the box, without the player having to mess around tweaking it for half an hour before a decent ballgame ensued. Aside from turning gamepad vibration off, because it makes me sick (literally), and tweaking audio settings, and turning stupid nonsense like the challenges in ESPN?s title off, everything is how the game will be when you fire it up for the first time.

First, we have EA?s MVP 2005. MVP 2004 was an okay baseball game, but I didn?t play it much. It never really hooked me. It never made me think ?Yes, I fancy playing a game of baseball!? I approached 2005 with some trepidation. Especially when I?d seen fans say it was essentially 2004 with a couple of bug fixes, and updated rosters. Of the three titles, I liked this one the least. This is not because it?s an EA title. It?s just because I didn?t enjoy it at all.

The first thing that annoyed me was the slightly oversized player heads. Most games have, for reasons I?ve never been able to fathom, a Big Head cheat mode. Sadly, it seems MVP starts with one out of the box. You want a laugh? Unlock the legendary teams, and check out Joe Morgan, who you probably know from ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. He looks like a walking bobblehead! That kills a fair chunk of realism right there. The graphics may look nice, never a problem in EA titles admittedly, but with the big, giant heads staring at me, it just doesn?t feel right, and delivers a pretty hefty deathblow for a realistic baseball experience right there, when the player I?m pitching too looks like his head will explode if I bean him.

Then there?s the way the game plays out of the box. It feels more like pinball than baseball. I played this a couple more times until I managed to find the Take Two and 989 titles, then relegated MVP to the dark depths of my game box, where it belonged. One feature I WILL miss is the way the game highlights the top 100 prospects. A nice touch. Too bad everything else about title just annoyed me.

The title I was expecting to be the best of the three was the ESPN title. Of course, since ESPN have signed with EA, Take Two didn?t want to give them free publicity, and dumped them from the title of the game. However, for the sake of clarity, I will call the title ESPN, because regardless of what Take Two would have you believe, that?s what the game is, through and through.

The presentation in ESPN is, unsurprisingly, top notch. You have the stations graphics, the announcers? In short, it feels like an ESPN telecast. It?s light years ahead of the other two. The only complaint in the presentation department is the intro. It uses real footage, but it?s taken not just from ESPN, but other networks too, meaning a blurred logo at the top of the screen, which looks hideously unprofessional. They should have letterboxed the intro instead.

Of the three games, I liked the pitching in ESPN the best. The title offers you five different pitching methods. K-Zone is an interesting twist, and deliberately screwing it up throws some interesting pitches. While 989 and EA have gone the metered route, which is a great system, the K-Zone is a new, and fun way of pitching. I can?t say the same about the hitting or the fielding. There is just something missing. It?s hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I just don?t find anything beyond pitching in the ESPN title that much fun. It was also the only one of the three titles where I had a nasty fielding glitch. A ball was hit into the corner right near the foul pole, and my outfielders animation got stuck and looped, with him running on the spot about five times before he picked up the ball. Not good. Saw the same glitch in MVP 2004, but it never appeared in 2005 in my testing.

One area I did feel let ESPN down were the faces of the players. To refresh my memory today, I recreated the opening game from Sunday, between the Sox and the Yankees. When I saw Johnny Damon?s face, who if you know baseball, you will know he looks like Billy Ray Cyrus, (or even Jesus according to some people), the face is just all wrong. You really couldn?t tell who it was supposed to be without looking at the caption.

The second problem I found was the way it played. There seems to be some vital fun factor missing in single player. I?m quite sure that, for two players, ESPN is the best title. The presentation, the audio. All perfect, and the game is fantastic as a two player experience. In fact I?ll be keeping it around purely for that. It?s just as a single player experience, it seems lacking. Take Two seem to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. Some of it works. (K-Zone). Some of it doesn?t. (Ability to play the baserunner.)

One final problem: Regardless of how many times I set the options to turn OFF the challenges screen etc? It still appeared. Every damn game. Very annoying.

Which brings us to the 989 title. MLB 2006. I?ve already made fun of it for it?s numbering scheme, so let?s get on with the game, shall we?

All I can say is slap my ass, and call me Judy. This was the most fun I had with the three titles, right out of the box. Which surprised me, as I figured this would be the worst of the three, given 989?s previous efforts. While the much hyped battle between EA and Take Two continued, 989 simply went about their business and, for my money, churned out the best baseball game of the year!

The first thing that hit me was pitch counts. Over nine innings, pitch counts seem to be, for the most part, realistic. Something I couldn?t claim about the other two titles. The amount of balls and strikes seems realistic. There?s also a good number of fouls. In short, it seems most like what you?d see in the real world. The pitching uses the meter system that EA started, which is a good, solid pitching method.

Now what about the hitting? Of the three, I enjoyed hitting in MLB 2006 the most