Summary

MLB 2005 Review In the past, 989’s MLB series had some very nice features, but overall the quality of 989 games had deteriorated to the point few gamers took them seriously. I was never a huge fan of the developer but I enjoyed a few of their titles. In particular, MLB 2001 was a pretty good PS1 game. There were some issues. It was nothing compared to High Heat, but on vacation or working out of town, I could bring my Playstation and enjoy a good game of baseball. Well, 989 beefed up their MLB development staff, promised loads and loads and loads of improvements and the staff delivered. The passion of the developers could be seen in the game. The developers spent time in forums like Operation Sports, answering questions and generating interest in the game. It helped me to try out this game. Believe it or not, 989 is back on the radar!!! First off, let's discuss gameplay. The first thing you notice is the game is easy to pick up. One thing I like was the developer’s decision to have the defense play the same no matter what level you play at. Only the pitching/batting is affected by the change of difficulty. This is a quite welcome change. Frequently with sports games developers make the CPU AI either mind-numbingly dumb, ridiculously slow or error prone. With MLB 2005 that is not the case. You still are challenged to make wise decisions on the lower levels. Batting uses three systems. First, on Rookie setting, you choose from 4 zones, aim & swing. Veteran uses 9 zones & your chances for good contact decrease, but the fun increases. Finally my favorite, there is the Total Control Zone Batting system. First, you guess the pitch. You can guess the location. If you are correct with either decision, you receive up to a 10% power boost each. If wrong, a 10% drop. Theoretically, I guess you could negate the effect if you guess right & wrong. Finally, you aim your swing and on the amount of contact, the ball acts with pretty nice physics. You will see plenty of grounders, choppers, line drives, towering home runs, and foul balls. The right analog stick can be moved up or down to influence the swing for grounders or in the air. All this makes for a rather enjoyable experience. However, there are no check swings this year. And the CPU pitcher will rarely throw ball four. You can walk but unless that pitch is well out of the strike zone, you will frequently be caught looking for a called third strike. Pitching has a lot of depth, also. You pick the pitch, location and effort. The location is not exact, however. You use the cursor to decide where the pitch should break. Using the pressure sensitive Dual Shock Controller buttons, you decide the effect of the break. For instance, when throwing a sinker ball, if you aim at the bottom of the strike zone, the pitch will almost always drop out of the strike zone. Sometimes your pitch will not break if you are tired or don’t hold the button down long. It is a very nice system. What makes this system work is the pace. The pitcher takes his time getting ready. He steps around on the mound, then gets feet set on the rubber, and stares you down before the pitch as if he is getting his concentration ready. All the time you are thinking, “Curveball? Fastball? Inside? Outside?” Trust me, if you like realism and enjoyed High Heat, this pace is the most like real baseball I have ever seen. I don’t even mind when a game takes up to 40-45 minutes to play sometimes. Of course, you can speed through a few of the animations if you are ready. But with a close game in the late innings, this pace really adds to the tension and real life feel. The AI plays a nice game of ball. The defense makes the right decisions for the most part. Occasionally, the CPU manager will leave his starter in too long, which until the real baseball season started, I thought was unrealistic. However, this year I have seen several pitchers give up 7 or more runs as the real life manager waited too long. I was happy with some late game decisions for pinch hitting & running, relief pitching and defensive adjustments. Some decisions were quirky, but like I said, I wonder sometimes why managers make some decisions in real life. There are some glitches. There are rarely off line throws. There are rarely overthrows and never to first base. The errors are usually balls through the defenders legs and continue rolling. You don’t see bobbles and drops often if at all. On the few overthrows to third I experienced, the ball rolled by and none of my players went after it and no runners advanced. They all just stopped and waited for the next play to start. Base running is slightly a mixed bag. My first complaint is the lack of steals. There are some but nowhere near enough. The players make the right decision. Overriding that decision could lead to getting thrown out. But sometimes it is hard to send just one runner back. Both start going back and you lose a run or both get thrown out at the respective base. Sometimes your players won’t advance on manual control when it is obvious they should. The speed of the players though is noticeable. My fast guys will almost catch the slower ones on plays to the plate. 989 gives you a load of cut scenes and animations. And they are great. Homerun celebrations are fantastic. In San Diego, my franchise, there are fireworks every time I hit a home run. Other parks have their signature celebrations. The players sometimes watch their blasts and strut up the sideline. There are cut scenes with the base coaches encouraging the runner and giving signals to someone. Some of the hand slaps after home runs are fantastic. You won’t believe they did it and will look forward to it again. 989 also included windows for the runners like MVP added last year.

Sound

see above

Gameplay

Despite this, there are some animation glitches. When the batter hits a single to the outfield he runs through first base as if he is beating out an infield hit. He will round the bag if it is going to be caught. Opposing players will morph together when standing on the same base. These aren’t game killers, but need to be fixed by next year. The franchise is mega, mega, mega deep. You have a mode similar to EASports Madden Football owner mode, but deeper. This mode is very well done and adds an enjoyment and replay value. Your decisions affect fan & corporate interest and player opinions. But you have to be careful not to run out of funds for general operation of your franchise. As GM you have a six year contract with a variety of goals to complete. Career mode is very nice also. You start by creating your player. You have the option of putting your face in the game with the Eye-Toy. I don’t have it but all indications are that it works quite well. After you are satisfied with your appearance, you allocate some points to your players’ ability. Then you try out for a team of your choice in spring training. More ability points are given for achieving milestones during your play. It’s sort of an RPG for sports games. You have no control over the goings on of the franchise. The team can decide to offer you a contract or tell you. “Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out..” You can be traded, benched, whatever. You can request playing time, trades or decide to retire. But when you are given your shot, you better perform. Results are all that matter. I created an SP and play only my games. All my attributes are going to stamina and my pitching powers. In the American League I don’t need any hitting attributes. I hope I don’t get traded to the National League. Graphically, the game shines. Stadiums look awesome, the fields great & the player animations, though limited, are realistic looking. The game runs smoothly. There are a lot of nice touches that really add to the presentation & feel. Sound is nice, but nothing stands out as being unbearably bad or wonderfully spectacular. The announcers, Vin Scully, do a nice job. At times their comments help you regain your focus & get an inning back on track. I usually don't like the music track in some sports games, Madden 2004 being the worst. But MLB 2005 puts the music more to the background keeping playing the game of foremost importance to the gamer not how much a song is irritating me. What you will see with MLB 2005, is a game that does everything well. Nothing, aside from the Career Mode, is earth shaking. But I have never played a game that played this well out of the box. Since the developers did not include sliders this was vital for its success. There is room for improvement in the already solid gameplay, (most notably more steals, walks & off-line throws), next year I see 989 adding some bells & whistles to satisfy the casual gamers.