The '2005' edition of EA Sports annual pro baseball offering takes to the field with a few minor changes designed to enhance gameplay in a major-league way. The MVP Baseball 2005 pitching meter may be a bit more forgiving than the previous year's version, but its smaller green zone makes it more challenging to throw a spot-on 'perfect pitch.'

The soundtrack (sans a couple of tracks) from the MVP Baseball 2005 video game. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. Apr 11, 2019  Product description. MVP Baseball 2005 offers serious baseball fans an unprecedented level of control and variety. Whether you want total control of your at-bat, read the pitch, or try your skill sas an owner, it's all here. Make your run for the pennant in a fully featured Spring Training mode, playing in unbelievable 3D stadiums.

At the plate, batters can now move around in the box, and the new 'Hitter's Eye' option is designed to mimic an experienced sluggers' split-second intuitions by causing a pitched ball to briefly flash with a color that hints at its spin and trajectory - white for a fastball, red for a curve, and so on. Not all changes aid the offense, however, as adjustments have also been made to the speed and artificial intelligence of fielders, allowing them to react more quickly and perform more accurately as a team. For gamers who like to run their clubs from the front office, the game's new Ownership Mode is intended to let players truly take charge of their MLB organizations, adding business-sim aspects to the game that call on virtual team owners to design, develop, and manage their own ballparks.

Online multiplayer gaming in in MVP Baseball 2005 is supported for Internet connected computer gamers, through the EA Sports Online service.Say what you will about the 2004-2005 sports season, but one thing cannot be denied: it was definitely full of competition, dramatic moments and controversy. Curiously, the same could be said for its video game counterpart, with EA's acquisition of the NFL license, followed by Take Two's response by taking MLB off the sports table. This battle of league rights left plenty of franchises in the lurch, the latest of which was EA's excellent (and recently retooled) baseball series, MVP Baseball. So while the recently released game will be the last one released for almost ten years, it's certainly going out with a great bang. Let's head out to the ballpark with MVP Baseball 2005.Like previous sports games, MVP 2005 features a number of improvements to this year's installment to make the game more realistic than older baseball games. Perhaps the biggest change made to this year's title is the inclusion of what's called the 'Hitter's Eye.'

It's well known that professional players have split seconds to react to an incoming pitch and swing accordingly. The 'Hitter's Eye' is a visual aid to batters at the plate that provides a specific color and trail to a pitch that's thrown.

For instance, breaking balls are red, sinking pitches are purple and so on. Thanks to this, gamers will be able to pick up the kind of ball that might be approaching the plate and decide if they want to take a chance at swinging for the fences.This is especially important considering that batters can attempt to throw off opposing pitchers by moving around in the batter's box. It's become a well-established feature of baseball games to have hot and cold zones for every hitter that steps up to the plate. Not only does it give pitchers an additional target to aim for, but it also provides a visual idea of each player's strengths and weaknesses, making pitching and hitting a more strategic feature of the game.

The ability to move inside the box actually throws these hot and cold zones off-center, making it harder for a pitcher to place a throw in a bad location. Of course, this also means that the umpires can potentially make a bad call, calling an apparent ball a strike and vice versa. Fortunately, MVP 2005 now gives players the ability to argue calls with a new Manager Argument feature. On bum calls or replays of pitches, you can send your manager out of the bullpen to yell about the decision, even going so far as kicking dirt on official's shoes. This can jazz your team up and provide them with a definite boost to their play, although if you take it too far, your manager will get ejected.While pitchers weren't completely redone for MVP 2005, there was some retooling made towards the pitching meter and other facets of throwing in the game. Previous games in the series essentially redesigned the pitch meter, providing a better sense of power, accuracy and speed when the ball is released. However, these games also suffered when players were even the slightest bit outside of the 'optimal' green zone for pitching release.

In MVP 2005, this meter has been given a larger amount of leeway than before, meaning that gamers can release a pitch in the green and even the yellow zones of the meter while still receiving an adequate throw. Obviously, balls hurled in the green area will be much more accurate, but it definitely decreases the number of wild throws.Similarly, fielders and runners find themselves governed by what's known as 'Big Play Control,' a system that provides more realistic plays in the game. First of all, fielders have the option to make difficult plays by stretching out for balls, leaping for flies over their head or climbing walls to rob batters of home runs. Regardless of how successful that initial play is, these fielders can then attempt to whip the ball towards a base with as much strength as they want.

If properly timed, these throws can quickly get a ball to a baseman to make a play; if it isn't, however, the ball will most likely be overthrown, missing cutoff men entirely along with its target. Runners also have a chance to combat these defensive moves, particularly by choosing a side of the bag to slide into, along with how they choose to slide.

Whether it's stealing a base or outrunning a pick-off attempt, runners can perform headfirst, pop-up or hook slides, which can potentially give you an advantage in beating a throw.As far as modes go, MVP 2005 features the standard exhibition mode for quick play, as well as a scenario mode for any/all baseball moments in history. Simulation lovers have the chance to play any game in Manager mode, where commands control every aspect of a match. Home run derby has returned, along with two new mini-games. The batting mini-game works on a player's ball placement ability, placing them in a field with a number of obstacles, ramps and black holes (among other things). Accurately directing fly balls in specific directions, as well as hitting objects nets you points. The pitching mini-game, by contrast, is sort of a strike zone-meets Tetris, where each one of the pitcher's balls corresponding to a color on the screen.

Hitting a color with the matching pitch clears all of the blocks associated with that area of the strike zone, making blocks fall and scoring points as well.Outside of that, there's the customary season play, which has been distilled into two separate modes. The first is Dynasty mode, which gives you the option to play up to 120 seasons with a franchise and its multiple farm clubs, attempting to continually fulfill one year and three-year goals. The second, and more encompassing feature is the Owner mode, which packs every single aspect of Dynasty mode with the additional challenges of creating new ballparks, setting stadium prices and handling fan expectations.

While Owner mode is limited to 30 years only, you're in complete control of every facet of your team. Often times, this is somewhat tempered with the new addition of single A teams, making you responsible for four separate clubs during your Owner mode.

If you've played Madden in the past two years, you'll be right at home with this option.Graphically, MVP 2005 is perhaps the sharpest baseball title that EA's ever turned out. The character models look exactly like their real counterparts, right down to their faces and physical dimensions. This bolsters the numerous animations that capture everything from batter rituals to run robbing catches. In fact, the fluidity of every single move in the game, from pitching to double plays runs even smoother than it ever has, making gameplay the most realistic it's ever been. This is particularly highlighted with the camera angles, which seem pulled directly from broadcasts of real games, including shots from the bases and cameras that are glued to the action of each play.Sound feels appropriate and accurate to every ballgame, down to the echo from a bat connecting to a ball and the rising cheer of the fans during a developing play.

You'll be able to notice the difference in sound levels when certain games are played as well, such as taking on a league rival. The commentary for each game, headed by Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, is perhaps some of the best and most natural dialogue presented in game to call play-by-play. Their statements are interesting, non-repetitive and more than not accurate to everything that's going on in the game. It's just a shame that the soundtrack can't support it. There's only about nine or ten songs, which becomes extremely repetitive.Although this is one of the greatest baseball titles ever made, there are a couple of hiccups that trip up the game.

First of all, the number of choices for the create-a-ballpark feature in Owner mode are incredibly shallow. In fact, considering that there are only a few options for each section of the stadium, you'll probably find yourself constantly recreating the same kind of ballpark. Super paper mario walkthrough 5-4. There are other features with this mode, such as the lack of control of advertising space, changing different kinds of park attractions, and other facets of creating this park that seem so confined that purchasing upgrades seems much more like an afterthought than an actual plan.

You can also find that you can skip your way through numerous years of both Dynasty and Owner mode without there truly being any repercussions affecting your teams or your park itself. For example, you'll get up to around 34 or 36 emails in your box, sometimes on extremely busy days (like trade deadlines around the league), and if new or more pressing info comes up, like demoting players or dealing with injuries, you'll be alerted to it, but you're not necessarily in trouble if you choose not to do anything about it.

This is completely unrealistic in the multi-million dollar boardrooms of these organizations, and either you'd lose your fan support entirely or you'd probably have to sell the team to repay your debts.Overall though, MVP Baseball 2005 sends EA's baseball franchise out in a blaze of home run glory. With an extremely realistic presentation, augmented control system, and additional attention paid to the overall gameplay, MVP 2005 could be one of those games baseball fans keep returning to in the upcoming years of exclusive sports games.People who downloaded MVP Baseball 2005 have also downloaded:,©2020 San Pedro Software Inc. Contact:, done in 0.003 seconds.

MVP Baseball was a baseballgame series published by EA Sports, running from 2003 to 2007 with five games produced. In 2003, MVP became the official successor to EA's long-running Triple Play Baseball series, and it simulated Major League Baseball from 2003 to 2005. However, an exclusive licensing deal between Major League Baseball and Take-Two Interactive in 2005 prohibited EA Sports from making another MLB game until 2012. In response, EA made NCAAcollege baseball games in 2006 and 2007, but discontinued the series in 2008 because of poor sales.

History[edit]

MVP Baseball 2003[edit]

MVP Baseball 2003 was released in 2003 as the successor to EA's Triple Play games, though it bore little more than a graphical similarity to its predecessors, which had been heavily maligned by critics in the series' final years.^[1]

Introducing an innovative pitch meter and zone-based hitting system (see below), MVP 2003 was well received by critics, most of whom considered the game's overhaul to be a major improvement over Triple Play′s last entry.^[2] At the review-aggregation site Metacritic, MVP 2003 was given a score of 81/100 for the PlayStation 2^[3] and 82/100 for the Xbox.^[4]

Ancient jewels 3 cleopatra's treasures. Randy Johnson and Miguel Tejada were the cover players.

The 2003 game is the last game that uses a points system for player's salary, starting with the 2004 game an actual dollar amount is used for salaries. The 2003 game does not penalize a user for releasing a player during the season in franchise mode, whereas the 2004 and 2005 games invoke a salary penalty for releasing a player under contract.

MVP Baseball 2004 & 2005[edit]

Building on MVP 2003's surprisingly successful rookie effort, the 2004 edition made major refinements to both the game's control scheme and its dynasty mode. In a baseball gaming first, MVP 2004 was licensed by both the MLB and Minor League Baseball, featuring real minor-league teams at the Class AA & AAA levels. These improvements netted the PS2 and Xbox versions of MVP 2004 twin scores of 90/100 at Metacritic,^[5] far outpacing the competing All-Star Baseball 2005^[6] and ESPN Major League Baseball.^[7]

Albert Pujols was the cover player for the 2004 installment of the series.

MVP Baseball 2005 brought subtle changes to the MVP 2004 formula, including a 'hitter's eye' system with color codes that helped players identify pitch types out of the pitcher's hand, as well as an owner mode, the addition of Class A minor-league teams to dynasty mode, and spring training minigames. Reviewers continued to rate MVP highly, with Metacritic scores of 86 and 87 for the Xbox and PS2 versions, respectively,^[8][9] though MVP 2005′s marks were slightly lower than those of its predecessor. Even so, the game still edged out 2k Sports' Major League Baseball 2K5 among critics.^[10]

Reigning World Series MVPManny Ramirez was featured on the cover of the 2005 installment of the series.

In 2005, MVP Baseball released for PlayStation Portable.

Exclusive licensing deal[edit]

In 2005, in response to EA Sports' exclusive license with the National Football League and ESPN, Take-Two Interactive signed an exclusive third-party licensing contract with Major League Baseball (MLB), MLBPA and MLBAM to produce MLB games in its 2K Sports series, making MVP Baseball 2005 the last MLB game in the series. The agreement, which ran from Spring 2006 to 2012, allowed only Take-Two Interactive and the console manufacturers Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to produce MLB titles for their respective platforms, but barred other third party developers such as EA Sports from continuing or developing their own MLB games.

MVP Baseball 2005 was the last official MLB release from EA Sports, also official support for the game ended. Despite that, a very active modding community exists for the PC version of the game, who kept the game up-to-date the last decade.^[11][12][13] Modders have added much to the game, including roster updates, uniforms, players, and stadiums, as well as total conversions for foreign and classic teams.

MVP: NCAA Baseball[edit]

Barred from making MLB games, EA Sports made college baseball games for 2006 and 2007. Both editions of MVP: NCAA Baseball were officially licensed by the NCAA and released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The games featured actual NCAA teams and stadiums, though there were no real players.^[14]

A new 'load and fire' batting system was integrated in 2006, to be followed by the addition of a 'rock and fire' pitching system in 2007, both features that would later be emulated by MLB 11: The Show and Major League Baseball 2K11 on seventh-generation consoles. The 2007 installment also featured online integration with ESPN, including commentary from Mike Patrick and former StanfordAll-AmericanKyle Peterson. Former University of Texas star David Maroul was featured on the cover of MVP 06, while MVP 07′s cover athlete was former Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver.

MVP Baseball Online[edit]

In South Korea, EA has released 3 games called MVP Baseball Online 2012–2014.^[15]

Possible revival[edit]

In March 2011, EA Sports released an MLB-licensed game for Facebook called World Series Superstars, which simulates team management,^[16] leading to speculation that MVP Baseball would return to consoles after the 2K Sports licensing deal expired in 2012.^[17]

In June 2013, EA Sports executive vice president Andrew Wilson told video game blog Polygon 'there is an inherent passion for baseball inside EA Sports,' but that there were three barriers to EA's willingness to develop a new MLB title: the need for a modern game engine to power the game; EA's focus on other sports titles like NBA Live; and that the status of MLB's licensing agreement with 2K Sports was unclear to them.^[18] In April 2015, an EA Sports spokesman told Grantland that Wilson's comments were 'still 'the most accurate reflection' of the company’s position on getting back into baseball: Maybe later, but not now.'^[19]

Features[edit]

Players[edit]

Until 2005, the game featured all players in the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), as well as fictionalized counterparts for players who are not in the union. Barry Bonds, while an MLBPA member, did not sign the common MLBPA licensing agreement and was replaced by the fictional Jon Dowd. Some players who are not members of the MLBPA were omitted completely. For example, Kevin Millar, who is not a member of the MLBPA, was omitted completely from the 2004 edition, with David Ortiz leaving his real-life Designated hitter spot and filling at first base for the Boston Red Sox. In MVP Baseball 2005, he was replaced by the fictional Anthony Friese.

MVP Baseball 2004 featured a unique addition to any baseball game, allowing users to play as the Minor League affiliations of Major League teams, a feature that was expanded in the following year. Various editions of the game have featured Randy Johnson, Miguel Tejada, Albert Pujols, and Manny Ramírez on its cover. Of those four, Tejada and Pujols have won Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards during their careers, and the other two have been named MVPs of the World series. Randy Johnson has also won the Cy Young Award five times.

Innovations[edit]

Upon its release in 2003, one of the game's most inventive aspects was its pitch/throw meter. Until then, most baseball games' pitching schemes required players simply to press the button corresponding to the pitch they wanted to throw, and hold the button down for a certain length of time to determine how hard the pitch was thrown. In MVP Baseball, the player first holds down the pitch button (or throw button) to judge the power; once the desired power level is attained, the player must release the button and attempt to tap the same button within a target area. The closer the player gets to the target area, the more accurate the pitch or throw will be. While innovative within the field of baseball games, EA in fact adapted this feature from golf games, which often feature a moving meter to determine the power and accuracy of shots (golf games largely abandoned shot meters around the time that MVP Baseball introduced it).

The game also incorporated a strike zone divided into nine areas of the plate designed as 'hot and cold zones'. The feature uses color-coding with the colors red, white, and blue to represent the player's ability to hit pitches in the given area; red, white, and blue indicate whether the player hits well, neutrally, or poorly, respectively, in the given segment of the strike zone.

Soundtracks[edit]

Like all recent EA Sports games, the soundtrack to each MVP Baseball title contains licensed songs, called EA Trax. The MVP Baseball series typically featured alternative rock, ranging from mainstream artists like Sum 41 to indie acts like stellastarr*. The games featured several minor hits before they became popular such as 'C'mon C'mon' by The Von Bondies which is also used as the theme song for the TV show Rescue Me.

2003 Soundtrack:

• The All-American Rejects – Swing, Swing
• Boy Sets Fire – Handful of Redemption
• The Donnas – Who Invited You
• The Exies – Without
• Hed PE – Blackout
• Revis – Caught in the Rain
• Burning Brides – Arctic Snow
• OK Go – Don't Ask Me
• Pacifier – Bulletproof
• Shinedown – Fly From the Inside
• socialburn – Everyone
• Soundtrack of Our Lives – Sister Surround
• Sum 41 – All Messed Up
• Taproot – Poem

2004 Soundtrack:

• Chronic Future – Time and Time Again
• Hoodoo Gurus – Bittersweet
• Lucky Boys Confusion – Hey Driver
• Maxeen – Please
• Seven Wiser – Take Me As I Am
• Snow Patrol – Spitting Games
• stellastarr – My Coco
• Steriogram – Walkie Talkie Man
• To My Surprise – Get It to Go
• Trust Company – Surfacing
• The Von Bondies – C'mon C'mon
• Jonny Lives! – Get Steady
• Home Town Hero – Robbers

2005 Soundtrack:

• ..And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (Called '..Trail of Dead' in the game) – Let It Dive
• The Bravery – An Honest Mistake
• Donots – We Got the Noise
• Dropkick Murphys – Tessie
• The High Speed Scene – The IROC-Z Song
• Hot Hot Heat – You Owe Me an IOU
• Louis XIV – Finding Out True Love Is Blind
• Rock n Roll Soldiers – Funny Little Feeling
• The Zutons – Pressure Point

2006 Soundtrack:

• Action Action: Paper Cliche
• Aiden: Die Romantic
• Bayside: Devotion And Desire
• Hawthorne Heights: This Is Who We Are
• Silverstein: Smile In Your Sleep
• The Forecast: These Lights
• The Audition: Approach The Bench
• The Black Maria: Organs
• The Junior Varsity: Get Comfortable
• Waterdown: Repeater

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Triple Play 2002 (PlayStation 2)'. IGN.
2. ^Robinson, Jon (11 March 2003). 'MVP Baseball 2003'.
3. ^'MVP Baseball 2003'. Metacritic.
4. ^'MVP Baseball 2003'. Metacritic.
5. ^'MVP Baseball 2004'. Metacritic.
6. ^'All-Star Baseball 2005'. Metacritic.
7. ^'ESPN Major League Baseball'. Metacritic.
8. ^'MVP Baseball 2005'. Metacritic.
9. ^'MVP Baseball 2005'. Metacritic.
10. ^'Major League Baseball 2K5'. Metacritic.
11. ^Nine Years Later, Latin America's Leagues Keep MVP Baseball Alive on Kotaku by Owen Good (12/22/13)
12. ^Lindbergh, Ben (April 14, 2015). ''MVP Baseball … 2015'? How the Best Baseball Video Game Ever Has Refused to Retire for 10 Years'. Grantland.com. Another factor in MVP’s favor: The game allows greater access to its innards than most titles. [..] 2K’s failure to match MVP’s approval rating despite several years of running unopposed on the PC market, made MVP the go-to game for modders even as it lost its looks relative to 2K and The Show. The community’s support peaked from 2005 through the first PC edition of 2K in 2009, tailed off for a time, and then ramped up again once Take-Two abandoned the PC market in 2013 and canceled 2K entirely last year. A decade of EA development made MVP the best baseball game on the PC market in 2005, and a decade of amateur development has helped it keep that title in 2015.
13. ^Open-Source-Breathes-New-Life-Into-MVP-Baseball-2005-Video-Game on protecode.com by Sara Purdon (on Sep 15, 2015)
14. ^Westmoreland, Sam. 'NBA 2K11 and The 50 Greatest Sports Games Ever Made'.
15. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2013-07-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
16. ^'Now at the Facebook plate: EA Sports' 'World Series Superstars' video game'.
17. ^'Video Games – EA Sports jumping back into baseball? – ESPN'. ESPN.com.
18. ^Sarkar, Samit (21 June 2013). 'EA faces barriers to entry for a baseball franchise, says EA Sports chief Andrew Wilson'. Polygon.
19. ^Lindbergh, Ben (14 April 2015). ''MVP Baseball … 2015'? How the Best Baseball Video Game Ever Has Refused to Retire for 10 Years'.