MVP NCAA Impressions

[MizzouRah]

I can't find it at any of the 3 Best Buys I went to today.. sounds like it's selling well.

I'm heading to Kansas City tomorrow for the week, so I'll see if I can snag a copy there.

It probably is selling well, but I know for a fact that my Gamestop only got 5 copies as opposed to 40 or so of MVP 05. The fact that you don't see it on store shelves doesn't mean it's selling well, it more than likely means most stores didn't stock but a few copies of it. This will also happen with the Arena Football game that comes out soon.

I'm sure it's a little of both, the Best Buy employee did say they had 10+ copies of both ps2 and xbox 2 days before I came looking. You also figure the initial "release" of the game and advertisements in the Sunday paper have some to do with it as well. I didn't check GS or EB Games because I want the $10 off.

[kicko]

just wanted to note a glitch that happened to me, i hope it not a common one. I had hit the ball down the 3rd base line and it was looking foul but stayed just fair inside 3rd base, the players still acted like it was a foul ball and went back to their positions and not thinking about the ball, leaving me to run the bases for an in-the-park HR. Again things like this can happen i just hope it a "freak" thing..other then that i'm loving it

[Inuyasha]

just wanted to note a glitch that happened to me, i hope it not a common one. I had hit the ball down the 3rd base line and it was looking foul but stayed just fair inside 3rd base, the players still acted like it was a foul ball and went back to their positions and not thinking about the ball, leaving me to run the bases for an in-the-park HR. Again things like this can happen i just hope it a "freak" thing..other then that i'm loving it

Maybe it was a umpire blown call since that option is set as on by default.

[kicko]

could be but it was so strange i dounbt it will happen again .

fingers crossed

[kicko]

could be but it was so strange i doubt it will happen again .

fingers crossed

[webdanzer]

Anyone else seen prescient cpu baserunning? One out, cpu man on first, takes off when a ball is batted...high fly to mid right field. Even on a hit and run, he would have had plenty of time to get back. He keeps running. I'm thinking I have an easy double play, when my RF drops the easy fly. I only saw it once, and I suppose it could have simply been 'dumb' baserunning that worked out for the cpu, but it certainly looked like the cpu 'knew' it was going to be a drop.

[kicko]

Anyone else seen prescient cpu baserunning? One out, cpu man on first, takes off when a ball is batted...high fly to mid right field. Even on a hit and run, he would have had plenty of time to get back. He keeps running. I'm thinking I have an easy double play, when my RF drops the easy fly. I only saw it once, and I suppose it could have simply been 'dumb' baserunning that worked out for the cpu, but it certainly looked like the cpu 'knew' it was going to be a drop.

i actually got a double play like that, just on reflex i throw back to the base where the runner is just in case i can catch him. well this time he was about 1/4 of the way to 3rd when the 2nd baseman got the ball. ,aybe EA figures they just some dumb college kids or the killer keg party was to blame????

[Zlax45]

Anyone else strugglign in the dynasty mode? I am 0-4 with Boston College getting mercied twice by Army and then losing two tight games at Cincy.

[Bill_Abner]

Anyone else strugglign in the dynasty mode? I am 0-4 with Boston College getting mercied twice by Army and then losing two tight games at Cincy.

You are not alone. IMO, MVP NCAA 06 is, without question, the most challenging arcade baseball game ever made. I'd rather a game be too tough than too easy, but man...I still need more practice -- or a massive "Bill Needs help" slider set. OSU isn't a baseball power, but this makes the difficulty level of other EA Sports games look like preschool designs.

[Zlax45]

Anyone else strugglign in the dynasty mode? I am 0-4 with Boston College getting mercied twice by Army and then losing two tight games at Cincy.

You are not alone. IMO, MVP NCAA 06 is, without question, the most challenging arcade baseball game ever made. I'd rather a game be too tough than too easy, but man...I still need more practice -- or a massive "Bill Needs help" slider set. OSU isn't a baseball power, but this makes the difficulty level of other EA Sports games look like preschool designs.

Exactly

[icvu42]

The create a stadium feature is pretty cool. I'm going to start a new dynasty with Villanova. Since they would play with just a generic stadium, I decided to make one. It's 310 down the lines, but a 40 foot high wall in right field. I created my own death valley with center field at 420 feet. I played a couple of exhibition games with it last night. The wall turned two sure HR's into long singles.

Rick

[webdanzer]

I'm 2-5 now with Rutgers on All-American to break the game in, and the difficulty to me seems in line with last year's MVP as I first started to get used to the system. I'm using Precision Throwing and Load and Fire hitting. It took me a couple of games to get the L&F power, but I've had a few dingers in my last few games.

[tjung0831]

Anyone else strugglign in the dynasty mode? I am 0-4 with Boston College getting mercied twice by Army and then losing two tight games at Cincy.

3-2 with my Arizona St. dynasty, with both my losses coming to Arkansas Little Rock of all teams at home no less. I'm playing on Varsity level and every game has been close except for my last game against Cal Poly which I won 4-1. I have yet to pick up a win for my ace pitcher but my #2 guy is 2-0. I have 1 HR in 5 games, which came from my leadoff hitter. My catcher is my offensive leader, I believe he has 7 rbi's. I need to hit a homerun in game #6 in order to complete the bat challenge and get some new bats. I'm loving this game without a doubt. One of my favorite games in quite sometime.

[JackB1]

something about this game just keeps me coming back for more.
I just love the challenge....between the L&F hitting and the analog throwing.... when you win a game, you really feel like you played a
big part in the win. I never felt that with MVP05.

[bdunn13]

Best baseball game I have played on this Gen of consoles by far. I am 4-8 and loving every bit of it. I have played 12 games since saturday.



Playing online DOES mess you up. I was getting the hand up pitching, then I go online and the online part is slower so my timing was all messed up. After a few games online, I go back offline to play and BAM. I get hammered b/c I can't hit the target.....

After 2 games of warming up last night I pitched the best game to date for me (gave up 1 run)... playing on varsity too.

[AJColossal]

3-6 in my Fighting Illini Dynasty. Just when I thought a slider boost was in order thanks to a horrible offensive rut (1 run in three games ), I bust out for 6 runs and 13 hits in the next game.

The secret, as someone said earlier, is to lay off the power swing. In zone hitting, you really have to have your timing and swing in the right zone or the power swing will definitely do more bad than good. I don't think I'm proficient enough with zone hitting to try it too much.

Fun game, and definitely better than all of the console baseball games I played last year.

Minor quip: I do see a variety of hit types, but most of my hits *by far* are singles to CF. Anyone else see this?

[ScoopBrady]

I haven't messed around with zone hitting yet and I have a question about it. Do you still use the right analog stick to hit the ball when using zone hitting or do you press the a button or something like that?

[Dave]

Minor quip: I do see a variety of hit types, but most of my hits *by far* are singles to CF. Anyone else see this?

It is pretty much the same for me. I have attributed it to my learning curve with the load & fire hitting. A lot of my outs are weak grounders or pop ups to the 2B and SS, so my timing (or lack thereof) is creating most of it, I think. My homers tend to be to the power alleys.

[webdanzer]

Minor quip: I do see a variety of hit types, but most of my hits *by far* are singles to CF. Anyone else see this?

It is pretty much the same for me. I have attributed it to my learning curve with the load & fire hitting. A lot of my outs are weak grounders or pop ups to the 2B and SS, so my timing (or lack thereof) is creating most of it, I think. My homers tend to be to the power alleys.

The L&F hitting seems to be strapped on to the classic hitting model of last year's MVP, so if you want to spray the ball around you need to make sure you are going left or right with your analog swings to push or pull the ball. The power button also seems to equate to the classic "push up to hit" and the contact button equates to "push down". I've found that I've had good results using them in the same way, too. (Power swinging on pitches up in the zone, for instance)

EDIT: I haven't played zone yet myself, but I have heard other rumblings that compared to the other hitting modes it generates less power and less variety. I have no idea if that is true, though.

[kevinpars]

Did anyone see the information pulled together by Bill Abner over at OS and on his blog? Basically, what he learned about college ball pretty much coincided with the way the game was playing. Interesting stuff.

http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/ Scroll down a bit to " College Baseball -- I Had No Idea"

[Bill_Abner]

Did anyone see the information pulled together by Bill Abner over at OS and on his blog? Basically, what he learned about college ball pretty much coincided with the way the game was playing. Interesting stuff.

http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/ Scroll down a bit to " College Baseball -- I Had No Idea"

Kevin, I posted it on page 6 of this thread.

[webdanzer]

Did anyone see the information pulled together by Bill Abner over at OS and on his blog? Basically, what he learned about college ball pretty much coincided with the way the game was playing. Interesting stuff.

http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/ Scroll down a bit to " College Baseball -- I Had No Idea"

I think Bill was referring mostly to the lack of power when equating his findings to the game itself, however. I think he mentioned the rest as slider tweaking goals. I know that in my games so far (default All-American) I have not seen that level (for me and the cpu) of hitting for average, walks, and runs scored. I do see the many singles/fewer HRs, though...but I think that might even change with more familiarity with L&F.

[AJColossal]

I will never understand the whole "aiming" thought process in the MVP series. The direction a ball goes is based on the timing of the swing and the position of the bat meeting the ball, not the will of the batter to make the ball go where he wants.

Yes, there are situations when a batter is trying to hit the ball a certain way, but the fact that I am not going " go left, ball!" and aiming left, and that's the reason why most of my hits go to CF is just stupid as hell.

[webdanzer]

Some of my early MVP impressions:

Fun game. I definitely like it, but I see it mostly as last year’s game set on the college level with just a few tweaks. I’m not quite as excited by it as many of you are, but it’s definitely enjoyable.

-The lag/staggering can suck, depending on where you play. It is definitely stadium specific, but the staggering and skipping you can see on both the pitching meter and throws across the infield can be quite intense. I play both at 720p and on a non-HD set, and I see the skipping and staggering on both. This has been a problem with EA games for some time now, and it continues here.

-Others have already commented on the inability to turn off the batters’ batter’s box animations between pitches. It is definitely an irritant, but only when I find myself noticing it. It’s kind of like breathing or blinking in that regard for me: I can go for a while without noticing it, but when I do, it’s all I think about for a while until something else catches my attention.

-I think the graphics are indeed a step back from last year, but nothing too glaring.

-Pitching is a bit harder out of the box. Whether it’s the players’ ratings or the system, control is not nearly as precise as last year’s game. You can also mess up the meter and have the result simply be a ball…unlike the many ‘auto-homeruns’ from last year’s game. I’ve even plunked a few guys, though it’s very hard to give up a walk on default levels. Great tweak overall, though; I love it.

- Precise Throwing is a mixed bag. I’ve been using it every game so far, and I like EA’s attempt to put what happens into the players’ hands. If you throw high or wide, you know why. Cool. But in implementing that in the way they did, they actually took the decision making out of the players’ hands. That’s a bad thing. Though I wasn’t really crazy about last year’s implementation either, there at least the player decided whether to rush a throw, putting extra zip on it and risking an error. That risk-reward is gone this year, as the GAME decides how fast you are going to throw the ball, depending on the situation. The player just has to execute. There are ways to tweak the system that they have to keep this element as well, and I’d like to see movement towards that in next year’s version. I definitely like what they added, here, but I don’t like what they took away.

-On that throwing note, not a big fan of the fact that the throw and ‘dive’ controls are on the same stick. Already a few times I have thrown the ball to crazy places after fielding it by using the right analog, because the ball was in a location where it looked like I might have needed a dive to reach it.

-Load and Fire hitting is a lot of fun, though pretty gimmicky. Far too much weight determining how well you will drive the ball is given to the timing of your ‘backswing.’ Even if a baseball player (on pretty much any level) ‘loaded’ the instant he stepped into the batter’s box, he’d certainly be able to drive the ball out of the infield on occasion. That said, the execution –actually playing that way- is pretty fun! Checking swings, in particular for me, feels really natural and really ‘real.’ As I mentioned in another post, though, what I think you have left after the new analog stuff is essentially last year’s hitting model. Push right to hit right, with better contact if the ball happens to be there. Same with left. The power trigger equates to last year’s ‘up’, contact trigger to last year’s ‘down.’ The book even tells you that you want to use the power swing to hit a sacrifice fly. So if you didn’t like the combined nature of last year’s hitting model, it will still bother you this year. Overall I have lots of fun with it.

-Recruiting is fun! Not crazy about rewards that bump your stats, though, but overall I look forward to seeing how my team will grow and evolve over numerous (short) seasons. Too soon for me to evaluate the franchise mode, of course, but I’m looking forward to the possibilities.

[Diablo25]

Zone hitting is by far my favorite addition to the game. The analog throwing is cool also but the Zone hitting has taken me back to the good old days of High Heat. The old MVP style, as AJ mentioned above, was a joke. Its about time someone brough this, the best style of hitting, back. I'm having a blast in dynasty mode. 1-2 with Villanova. Lost my first 2 games by a run but then won my first game last night 7-3. I hit an absolute bomb off the bridge over the right field wall in the 4th for 3 runs. It landed in the river Added a solo shot later on.