MVP baseball 2005
 

hopefully i'll be getting it this afternoon after school. i've heard they fixed a lot of things wrong with the last version and that it's by far the best, deepest, and most realistic baseball game on the market. i've even heard it will take a couple of hours to get used to not striking out all the time; timing and a feature called "the hitter's eye" are absolutely essential to hitting now.

wow. just got it. first impression: INCREDIBLY realistic game. they involve many little things of the game, and everything is important. awesome first impression. can't wait to start a yankees franchise once i get the hang of the gameplay.

Should I buy it if I own 2004?

AH MY GOOD LORD.

THIS IS THE BEST SPORTS GAME OF ALL-TIME. i started a yankees dynasty. first game of the season, i'll paint the picture.

i nick schilling for three hits and a run in the first inning. johnson appears to be dominating until renteria ties it with a solo shot in the 2nd. it stays 1-1 for awhile. schilling starts dominating me. he's only allowed one hit since that first inning, and we've played seven. just when i think "man this game is hard," jorge posada destroys schilling for a homer. i get an insurance run to go up 3-1. now, this homerun ruled because this game has incredible crowd interaction. they had been dead for six innings as schilling plowed through my lineup, but when posada hit that bomb, the crowd went fucking nuts. got me right back into winning.

so i bring in rivera in the 9th. strikes out the first batter, then gives up two runs to blow the save. boston ties it in the 9th. i'm really pissed off.

bottom of the ninth, they bring in keith foulke to pitch to bernie williams. second pitch is demolished 435 feet into left-center for a walk-off homerun. crowd going crazy, fireworks, flash cameras, yankees win.

and this is just the beginning.

Yankees suck

Got an adapter? If so, I'll start a league with a few other players.

And if you have an adapter, I would seriously recommend waiting for a roster update. Sosa on the Cubs, Cruz on the D-Rays, and a few other big ones I can't think of.

I hear Owner mode will suck your first few years. Creating a ballpark and getting some sort of profit should be difficult. I'm going to start my franchise (with the A's) once the rosters come out and I find realistic sliders. I also have to update non-MLBPA players (Bonds [Not really non-MLBPA but still], Millar, Lidle etc).

Soundtrack sucks makor ass this year. Last year's was terrible. This years is ten times worse. I only recognize two songs. The rest are annoying and I don't think I'll ever catch on.

Some more minor complaints...Bank One Ballpark is missing the dirt run-off from the pitcher's mound to the plate. There is some problem with the White Sox left feild wall (too far back or something. I can't recall.) And other little details in other stadiums. It might not seem huge, but these little things are important to me. They've had a few years to fix them, I wish would have sooner.

Also, I hope it won't take forever to gett all the points neede to unlock items. I played about 120 games last year and I still didn't get enough points to unlock everything.

Commentary seems bland. I like Kruko and Kupier (can't spell), but it's still pretty boring.

But still, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up liking this game.

<font color=goldenrod>Just got the game today, and have only done one full game (on rookie mode, just because I heard the system was hard as hell at first)

I was the Mets @ Shea vs. the Yanks (same first game I do every time I get a new baseball game). I put Jaret Wright as the Yanks starter just because I didn't feel like getting raped by Unit, Pavano, or Mussina on my first try.

I got a decent amount of hits the whole game, but only managed to drive in one run.

Luckily, since pitching is still the same as last game, I ruled at defense. I had a perfect game w/ Pedro after 6.2 innings until A-Rod got a double. But that was the only hit they'd get as I'd hold onto the 1 hit shutout to win 1-0.

Was mad nervous that last inning, since Pedro was pretty winded but I had a 1 hitter going. I just had a feeling I was gonna blow it, but I pulled through. :cool:

Gonna progress up to Pro tomorrow, and probably start making some roster updates before starting my Mets dynasty. I'm loving this game. :cool:

And on another note, those new Spring Training mini games are mad addictive, and the HR Showdowns are actually fun now that you can use lefties and hit HRs.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Haven't had much time to update the rosters, but I've done a few moves:

-Changed Jon Dowd to Barry Bonds and Alan Friese to Kevin Millar

-Traded Sammy Sosa to the O's for Hairston

-Released some guy from the Marlins AAA team and signed Carlos Delgado there, then sent some 3rd string catcher on the MLB team to AAA in exchange for him and reordered the lineups accordingly

-Released the starting CF for the Tigers' AAA team and signed Magglio there, then sent some guy named Nook Logan to AAA for him and reordered the lineups

-Released Ricky Bottalico and Vic Darensbourg from the Mets' AAA team and signed Roberto Hernandez and Todd Van Poppel in their stead

Suppose I'll release Pedro Feliciano from the Mets as well (though he'd still be a free agent even though his contract was sold to some Japanese team IRL)</font>

My first game was Red Sox vs. Yankees.

It was a BAD ASS game. Don't remember too much of it though, It was just basically Schilling and Johnson constantly striking people out. Except for Ramirez, he was like, 3 for 4 with 2 HRs and a double.

Anyways, game went to 17 innings and I lost because of fucking A-Rod. Fucker just BARELY beat my throw home and won it 3-4 for the Yanks.

Bastards.

No one answered my question.

ARE THE NATIONALS IN THE GAME BECAUSE THEY ARE THE BEST ALL TIME TEAM

Yes, they are.

Haha, you got pissed on.

I have 2004 and I went out to get 2005 as soon as Game Stop had it.

2004 is good but 2005 fixes most of the problems that I had with 2004 plus it just flat out has more stuff.

So in short, yes, you should.

This game rocks. It is the first time I have played the MVP series on PS2. Any tips on hitting the long ball

The Answer, homerun-hitting tips:

look at your hot zones, obviously. if you're using a guy with a high power ranking, just aim up and whichever direction your player's hot zones are in. for example, if he's red inside and cold outside, aim up and in. the key here is waiting for your pitch. use the hitter's eye and take pitches until you see a fastball go down the middle, then destroy it. works for me with ruben sierra every fucking time.

Thanks

speaking of this... ruben sierra is a god in new york in my game. i've been starting him every game because i just own with him. i wait for the inside fastball and crush it to rightfield.

i had just played the red sox and it was a 0-0 game in the 8th inning. two singles and BAM! ruben sierra works his magic again and i win 3-0. unbelievable. he's got 18 homeruns playing about half a season's worth of at-bats. and stats are pretty realistic.

a-rod is hitting .303-38-117 with a game left. sheffield's at .288-30-109. posada's at .301-20-79. only guy who i expected a big year out of who's not really producing is matsui, who's at .292-20-79. and something weird: randy johnson, although not striking out batters at an alarming rate, is third in the league with 196 strikeouts, and has a 2.83 ERA, but is 16-12 because of low run support. my offense has been terrible all season long, but i have what would be the best pitching in major league history. i've only allowed 550 runs all season. rivera has 47 saves with a 2.31 ERA, tom gordon is 10-1, paul quantrill is 11-4. tony womack was sucking huge for me, so i dealt him and unhappy young reliever scott proctor to florida for luis castillo, who's been slumping, but is still an upgrade, and hits leadoff.

kevin brown started to suck and then got hurt, so tanyon sturtze has been 11-5 in his place as my fifth starter with a 3.36 ERA, and brown has been making decent appearances out of the bullpen every now and then. i put him on the block, but of course nobody wanted him. my best pitcher: carl pavano, who's 18-5 with a 2.73 ERA.

this game is fucking sweet. i can't wait to see what the off-season is like.

LOL funny WWE/MVP related tip:

The Starting CF on the Las Vegas 51s (Dodgers AAA team) is Kenzo Suzuki.

<font color=goldenrod>I wonder who told you about that? :shifty:

Well, thus far I'm 7-0 in dynasty mode, coming off the home opener in which Tom Glavine and Roger Clemens had dueling 1-hitters. Glavine went 8 innings and Clemens went 9 (can't hit off of him). Neither would pick up the win though, as it remained 0-0 going into extra innings.

My bullpen was solid, with Orber Moreno, Mike DeJean, Dae-Sung Koo, and Roberto Hernandez combining to give up no runs at all and a boatload of K's.

I got totally molested by Brad Lidge for 3 innings, and I couldn't get a hit off him. They brought in former Met Dan Wheeler in the bottom of the 13th, and he got Mike Cameron out. I responded to that with base hits from Doug Mientkiewicz and Victor Diaz (pinch-hitting for Hernandez).

Then they brough in another former Met, John Franco (not in the game but I created him using his MVP 2004 stats). He gave up a single to Jose Reyes (who was 0-5 on the game). So that brought on Kaz Matsui with the bases loaded and 1 out. I waited for 2 or so pitches and then CRUSHED one to deep left field. Biggio caught it but made a lousy throw home, allowing Mientkiewicz to make the tag-up score and I win 1-0.</font>

Yeah just got this the other day. :love: This game is the shit

did a fantasy draft owner mode as the giants for the fuck of it. this game has a huge amount of replay value. anyway, somehow i got a-rod and guerrero.

c: mike matheny
1b: derrek lee
2b: fernando vina
3b: alex rodriguez
ss: b.j. upton
lf: chipper jones
cf: juan pierre
rf: vladimir guerrero

sp: roger clemens
sp: kerry wood [sucks in this game]
sp: dewon brazelton
then i have two other young starters.

i have j.c. romero and scott williamson as my late relievers, billy wagner as my setup man and armando benitez closing.

Yeah, this is a great game. I wish I could figure out how to play online :mad:

I'm doing a career on the Red Sox and the guy I created sucks. I played about 7 games and he only got on base like once, all the other times he either flied out or caused a double play.

I just got it yesterday, I like it a lot, but I have one question.

In ESPN and World Series in the past, my friend and I made our own all-star teams and would play seven game series's against each other. Is there a way you can do that in this game? Exhibition is kind of dumb because then the pitchers don't get tired or anything.

One other thing, I kind of like how they used to have a contact swing and a power swing. Other then that, anybody know how you can do a series in 2 player mode?

<font color=goldenrod>There's no way to create a team I believe, but you CAN both pick your favorite teams and then make a shitload of trades to get whoever you want on there.</font>

No I did that, I am asking how you play a series instead of just one game at a time, like can you do a "playoff" mode or something?

Nope :(

Anyone want to play online yet?

<font color=goldenrod>LOL, I can trade Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir :cool: (even though Zambrano is actually quite good in this game)</font>

The top players online right now use the Royals.

Their best pitchers throw 51 MPH curveballs and they strike you out every time cause you're always so ahead of the ball. It's a good strategy, but kimda frustrating.

yeah, zack greinke has a ridiculous curveball.

Its like impossible to hit, much less home run

nah. hitting is tough, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it. just don't swing at everything. use the hitter's eye and look for fastballs. you get three strikes, not one, so don't swing just because it's over the plate. if you wait for your pitch, you should get a hit.

in my fantasy league with the giants, i started out way in first place, but i dropped 11 of my last 12 and fell out of first. it was june, so i did something drastic and something that i felt was good for the organization. since i have a little bit of a crowded prospect area, i traded struggling brad halsey, scott williamson, and another decent prospect for roy halladay to bolster my starting rotation. it's now clemens, wood, halladay, brazelton, and some other dude.

I've gotton better at hitting, I figured out that aiming your hit lowers your chance, if you just swing down the middle you have a better chance. That makes homering almost impossible though.

I got it the other day, only played a few innings. Hit a homerun with Kevin Millar, its not really him though. Its some dude #86 with a white beard, kinda wierd. He must not be in the MLBPA or something.

that improves your chances of singles, but certainly not power hits, as you said.

Yeah Ive only hit 1 homerun in like 5 games. Pretty rough. I am gonna wait til I get better before I start dynasty mode.

Which other players are not in the MLBPA?

I already changed Bonds so that he's black and named Barry Bonds, who else do I have to do :mad:

new yankees fantasy dynasty. i decided to go with tons of prospects and not worry about the later years. my pitching staff will probably have the five best pitchers in the game in another couple of years.

C: yorvit torrealba
1B: tino martinez
2B: jose reyes
3B: dallas mcpherson
SS: derek jeter
LF: brian giles
CF: casey blake
RF: austin kearns
DH vs. LHP: eric hinske
DH vs. RHP: keith ginter

SP: oliver perez
SP: rich harden
SP: jeremy bonderman
SP: zack greinke
SP: scott kazmir

RP: john wasdin
RP: denny bautista
RP: juan cruz
RP: joe borowski
RP: jason isringhausen
RP: b.j. ryan
CP: francisco cordero

kevin millar is some giant african warlord on boston.

HOP, the Yanks were better off normal :rant:

BUT HONESTLY, HOW THE FUCK DO YOU HIT? Every god damn time all I do it get jammed and ground or foul out. Occasionally I get one down the middle, but I can't string anything together even against the worst pitchers :mad: Whats the deal? How does the aiming work? Is it sensative or not? Its rediculous how annoyed I am right now.

Basically I point the left joystick uptowards the batter, and that seemes to work out well.

I have such a ragtag team for my dynasty. Such an underdog black sheep group of people. Quite the challenge.

What do you mean, point the joystick upwards towards the batter?

Chros, how about you just stop sucking?

you need to aim. if you swing at a ball that's outside while aiming the joystick inside, you'll either foul it off or swing and miss. you basically need to guess where the pitch will be. swing if it's there, if you get fooled let it go. waiting for your pitch is the best advice i can give.

Is it like ultra sensative or something? Like if its on the corner of the strike zone and i move the dual shock thing to the corner, is that too far? It seems like my aim should be on, but I just keep getting jammed :mad:

nah, it's not that sensitive. there are eight directions. up, down, left, right, and then stuff like up-right, up-left, down-right, and down-left. just look at your hot zones and aim there and be patient.

This game has create-a-player, right?

Yes indeed.

Alright, because I have to have myself in the game (it makes me feel happy inside). The real question is: is it any good?

The game or the create a player? I've only used it once. I made myself like really good, a free agent, and then I was gonna sign myself to my dynasty team...then realized I didn't have the money to sign anyone. So basically I haven't really used a CAP in game...

I've already read (most) of the thread and the game sounds pretty good (plus it's $30 instead of $50, which doesn't hurt). I was talking about the CAP in particular though.

Anyway, probably gonna buy it tomorrow.

Is it really hard to get a stolen base in this game or is it just me?

It's just you.

You have to slide away from the tag. Press Up/Right in the joystick.

Na, I figured out you could lead the runners with R3. Stealin' like a pro now.

the best way to steal is to lead one step, hit the steal button, then lead the second step before the pitcher throws. this way, you don't get picked off and get the best jump.

I can barely get hits on All Pro or whatever so I am staying with pro @@!

I started "Owner Mode" with the Red Sox..I am like 3-3 right now. Wells had 13 K againest the Yankees though. Pretty hot.

Randy Johnson is pretty ridiculous in the game too, I only got 3 hits off of him.

I started owner mode and got all these really good trades and free agents, and Carlos Beltran is on pace to hit 124 hr

doin pritty hott, moved up to all-pro already. Like 12-2 in my Owner Mode. Just have trouble hitting homeruns. I dunno, everytime I go for a hormerun I seem to pop out, so I try to focus more on hitting line drives.

I dunno with time you will get used to every batters style. for me I hit different pitches with every batter. Whenever im batting left handed with Beltran, if I see a pitch up and away it is pretty much gone right away. Just play in exhibition a bunch and get used to them.

Just bought the game. Look forward to playing it tonight after the Warriors' game.

Owner mode with the Red Sox. Middle of my lineup is ridiculous. Manny is 2nd in the leauge with 21 HRs, Ortiz leds the league with 22 and Nixon has like 19. Nixon is unreal in the game though, I don't start him againest Lefties so he has 19 with way less at bats.

I am the Braves and I made some legit moves to get JD Drew back just because he's my boy. Little did I know he would have 40 homeruns and we haven't even reached the All-Star game yet. Pretty sick considering the second place guy has like 16. The pitchers just haven't learned not to go up and in.

You have to mess with the sliders.

My game is a lot more realistic. That is, if I didn't steal too often and didn't make my created player. But other than that, everything is where it should be.

That's just it, I don't get jacks with very many other people (not even my created guy, who's power rating is actually higher). It's the only aspect of the game that isn't realistic.

Mine is slightly random. It very obvious, if you play every game, which players are having a hot streak and which ones aren't.

At the moment, Byrnes,Crosby, and Thomas are doing well hitting the ball. In the begining though it was Chavez and Kendall. So you never know.

Also, I have to mess around the pitching sliders a whole bunch to get it even remotely realistc. The meter difficulty is like at -35 and my control is at -40. I still haven't walked anyone in forever, so I'm still tweaking it. Also, its hard to get the stamina right for everyone. I think I have mine at -6 or so and the cpu at +1.

I still suck at stealing bases though. I'm not sure why either. I tried the technique you posted with the one step, steal, then another step and nothing seems to work.

Yeah, the pitching sliders were hard to get right, but I am in the same situation with you on that one (not giving up any walks).

Just bought it today, I am 1-4 with the Tigers but I'm playing it on All-star. Last Game Gary Knotts pitches 5 hit shutout ball and I win 1-0 on an Omar Infante Home Run...In my season, the Royals are 5-0 :(

I kept the team the same except I traded Doug Mechiewhieh4yagag and Byung Yung Kim for Julio Lugo(Vaquez is garbage) and I traded Scott Williamson for Mike Myers. Myers is actaully on the Sox now and Williamson isn't but Williamson is on the Cubs I think - not the Cardinals.

The game is a lot of fun once you get used to it though. Except I just swing at everything pretty much, I get like 0 BB

I'm not patient enough to take walks or bother throwing around opposing batters. Seems to be working though.

I need some help on stealing bases..hook it up

I just use Furcal and myself (90 speed) and guess when I think the pitcher is throwing a offspeed/breaking/not a fastball. Also, I lead off two steps and go when I see him start to deliver, as opposed to the way Roxer does it.

Slide away from 2nd

Up/right

Seriously, Kotsay has 50 something steals.


That only stsat that isnt too realistic is the aount of steals (because I like to hit run at almost 80% of the time), team ERA (because I can't figure out hard enough sliders), and the team batting average is a little high, but that includes my created player so its on track I guess.

Yeah, I always slide up and right as well. Maybe that's your problem.

No idea what my team would be like right now if Drew wasn't on fire. Probably would be focusing alot more on the small ball (which I love).

I don't know. I will try it

Man, haven't played this in a couple months. I should try to get my dynasty back into shape.

Yeah I had this created player who hit 65 HRs before the allstar break, but I have played like 40 games since then and I only hit three homeruns with him, and they were all like 330 feet at some small stadium. whats goin on

Played today...Jason Johnson getting the win pitching 7 strong....3-2 win :)

2-4 now :)

<font color=goldenrod>My Mets team is insane in year 2 after another huge off-season...

<b>Line-Up vs. RHP</b>
SS - Jose Reyes (progressed a shitload)
2B - Kazuo Matsui (actually regressed, but I decided to keep him here to see how he did and he's done tremendously thus far)
CF - Carlos Beltran (progressed into a monster)
LF - Miguel Cabrera (another guy who progressed)
3B - David Wright (progressed so much vs. RHP it's scary)
RF - Cliff Floyd (switched him over to RF to accomodate Cabrera...he beat out Mike Cameron for the starting job in ST)
1B - Shea Hillenbrand (didn't really progress or regress but I needed a good enough 1B since I could never cut it with Mientkiewicz in terms of hitting)
C - Mike Piazza (re-signed him for one more year.....obviously he regressed a shitload but he's much better than any of the other options I have, even if he is a defensive liability)
-Pitcher Slot-

<b>Lineup vs. LHP</b>
SS - Jose Reyes
2B - Kazuo Matsui
CF - Carlos Beltran (90-something power/contact vs. LHP)
C - Mike Piazza (still crushes lefties)
1B - Shea Hillenbrand (amazing against LHP)
LF - Miguel Cabrera
RF - Victor Diaz (Neither Floyd nor Cameron can cut it against LHP)
3B - David Wright
-Pitcher Slot-

<b>Bench</b>
OF - Whoever isn't starting between Floyd/Diaz
OF - Mike Cameron
IF - Miguel Cairo
2B - Luis Rivas (originally signed to be the starter, but Kaz had a much better spring)
1B - Doug Mientkiewicz (primarily kept around for his defense because Hillenbrand sucks on the field)
C - Richie Driskill (my top catching prospect.....should probably be in AAA getting more at-bats but he's phenominal defensively...the same cannot be said for my other catching options...plus he hit his way onto the team during ST...typically used as a late-game defensive sub for Piazza)

<b>Starting Rotation</b>
1. Pedro Martinez (amazingly, his pitching attributes hardly changed at all)
2. Hubert Perry (some 20-something year old prospect that I converted from a reliever because he has 70-something stamina...only throws 3 pitches but one of them is an amzing 102 MPH heater)
3. Tom Glavine
4. Victor Zambrano
5. Kris Benson

<b>Bullpen</b> (I did like the Mets did IRL and signed a crapload of relievers this off-season and made them all compete for their spots, outside of the closer)
LRP - Abe Alvarez
MRP - Mike Myers
MRP - Francis Beltran
SU - Roberto Hernandez
SU - Dae-Sung Koo
CP - Braden Looper

Gonna need to up the difficulty a little more though...I'm using pro w/ altered sliders but I think I've finally mastered that level...</font>

Huge bump right here.

How do the player progressions work? Like I just finished off my first season and finished spring training for my second year. And some people had pretty awful declines and some had really good progressions. So how does this all work? Is there things to do to get them to progress more or what?

I think it is a combination of how well they did in the season, how well they did in spring training (mini games) and age.

<font color=goldenrod>I think it's mainly age and their "Career Potential" (you can see any players' career potential by going to edit player and checking it out)

Career Potential is the main one I think.....because guys like Victor Diaz only have a 3-star potential, so he actually went DOWN even though he had a great year and is only 25

Also, I'm heading into the 2007 season.....Carlos Beltran went down (not much but he still went down) despite still only being 29 and winning the NL MVP in 2006</font>

2005 Fantasy Draft Vlad Guerrero BA went down .60 pts after allstar brk after leading triple crown. ended up with like 40 HR, i was simming most games. Next year bats .366 with 46 HR, 150 RBI beat Sean Casey for triple crown.

Do they have slumps built into the game or what. Like I got 20 pitches which normally would have been HR but were just fly balls.

Yeah I think they have hot streaks and slumps because I remember like hitting 5 HR with Johnny Damon in 7 games right before the all star break. I hit like 3 with him before that.

Right now im Like 38-30 and 1 game out of first place.