MVP Baseball 2005

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MVP Baseball 2005
Developer(s) EA Canada
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
PlayStation Portable
Xbox
GameCube
PC
Release date February 22, 2005
Genre(s) Sports game
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: Everyone

MVP Baseball 2005 is a baseball video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It features Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramírez on its game cover. It is available for the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, GameCube, the PlayStation Portable and the PC. The main new feature in the 2005 game is the "Hitter's Eye" system, which turns the baseball different colors in the pitcher's hand (remains white for fastball, turns red for breaking pitches like a curveball or slider, green for off-speed pitches such as changeups, orange for knuckleballs, etc.) and leaves a trail as the ball flies through the air toward the plate to aid in hitting, which game developers said had been too difficult in previous versions.

The game boasts full Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, and Major League Baseball Players Association licenses. It was also widely regarded to have the best graphics and gameplay of any baseball video game on the market as of 2005. It is also the most well received MVP Baseball game, holding the 98th spot on IGN's reader's choice top 100 games ever as of 2006. As with previous versions of the game, the announcers are Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, real life announcers for the San Francisco Giants.

The game has been revered as one of the best baseball video games of all time. PC versions of the game are extremely rare and expensive.

Contents

[edit] Additional features

In addition to the advent of the Hitter's Eye, an Owner Mode feature and pitching and hitting Mini Games were added. Other minor features include the ability for the managers to argue with the umpires at any time (automatic ejection for arguing balls and strikes) and a slow motion overhead view of the plate that can be accessed after each and every pitch (pitch/swing analysis) to see pitch location or the batter's timing. Games can also be rained out, forcing a player to play a doubleheader. Minor league teams from the California, Carolina, and Florida State Leagues (High A) were added to their respected teams. MVP Baseball 2005 also supports online play.

[edit] Dynasty Mode

MVP Baseball 2005 also boasts a "Dynasty Mode", where players can select any of Major League Baseball's 30 teams and manage and/or play as them for up to 120 seasons. Games can be simulated along the way to speed up the game. Also in Dynasty Mode, gamers can trade players, negotiate contracts, call up and send down players to and from the minor leagues, and scout new talent, among many other activities.

[edit] Owner Mode

MVP Baseball 2005, in addition to having Dynasty Mode, features a new game mode called Owner Mode. Owner Mode is similar to Dynasty Mode, however instead of acting as a team's manager, you act as their owner and control all their finances. A common criticism is that you have to build a new stadium with minor league capacity at the start with no variations. Another is the simple fact that Total Conversion Mods mess up owner mode cash. The user has the ability to purchase upgrades for their user-created ballpark to improve the cash brought in by games. All other features are the same as Dynasty Mode.


[edit] Awards

MVP Baseball 2005 also received the award for best sports video game of 2005 from X-Play. It is still widely heralded as one of the best baseball video games ever made. There are talks among fans that a "2009 Version" will be created with identical features, just new players and statistics, updated for the upcoming '09 season.

[edit] Upgrades

Due to a late 2005 contract with Major League Baseball, MVP Baseball 2005 was the last addition to the MVP/Triple Play EA Sports baseball franchise. Because of the lack of an MLB baseball game for the PC, many modifications, including a MVP 07 mod, which completely upgrades the game, have been created and released at various sites, most notably EAmods and MVP mods

With Microsoft's November 2007 update for the Xbox 360, the entire MVP series on Xbox was made backwards compatible with the 360, however MVP Baseball 2005, despite being listed as backwards compatible, does not function correctly as of yet.

As of January 17, 2008 MVP Baseball 2005 was taken off of Xbox's backwards compatible list. No word on whether or not the game will return.

[edit] Original soundtrack

[edit] See also

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