MLB 2006: Hands-on

[GTHobbes]

This isn't no NCAA2005 we're talking about here.

I agree. NCAA actually has a pretty good history of being good; MLB is a one-hit wonder at this stage.

Just seems to me like there may be more talent (if not as many dollars) at 989 than Tiburon these days. The people that made the great NHL's and Madden's of the Sega Genesis days are long gone from EA by now. Same goes I would imagine for the people at 989, like Kelly Flock (is he still there? I don't know). The 989 games were good at one time, and it seems like this is somewhat of a comeback time for them. If EA wouldn't have sunk all of those potential development dollars into buying out exclusive licenses, maybe we would have a comeback time for them, too.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Matter of fact IMO last years game was the Winning Eleven of baseball.

Can't argue with a man's opinion, but I don't think you are being particularly realistic. Winning Eleven is considered by many to be the finest sports game ever, and is the clear leader of it's genre by both critics and fans. Last year was considered to a more or less three way tie of above average baseball efforts. You'd be hard-pressed to find a review, from a major or any kind of website, that thought MLB had anywhere near WE dominance going on last year.[/quote]

however he is being realistic if it is his opinion

and i feel as strongly as jack ,db ,scoop and bk amoung a couple others in fact maybe even more so

but keep in mind a few of us have a similar vision in what we want out of a baseball game and a similar history in what baseball games we have enjoyed the most in the past so sure personal prefernce has everybit to do with it...someone else may love the direction mvp or world series is going in others may feel high heat was the end of good baseball games

personally i find mvp to be not even close to what i want out of baseball the first year teased me with a couple new interesting twist a bit but the second incarnation was just so far from what i consider baseball i would never had supported the series again whether it continued on or not as im a stickler on my baseball game of choice

world series to me has never been what it was on the saturn i find it do clunky so sterile ...i have repeated many times as bk can attest i only wish sega (at the time) had ran with the homerun king game as this was IMHO the true ancestor to the saturn series of games that game had some serious potential and would like the mlb series single handidly sell some gamecubes to baseball fans in a heartbeat

high heat well im in the same boat as many this is the great series that many of us wish will be revivedwith nothing more than a next generation face lift graphics wise but honestly thats probably a pipe dream at this point so im at peace with this fact and have taken my passion of baseball and put it in 989s camp

now back to mlb from 989 i had a gut feeling the game was going be a little different a little special and made those feelings known last year early on and i was blown away even with my high expectations i felt this was clearly the game of the year in my world and the check swings ,roster limitations didnt cloud my day a bit because i felt as if the future of this series had basically been retooled or reborn and i was more than willing to deal with a couple missing features in order to support a game that came so close to realising what i wanted out of baseball title

and i cant wait until this version comes out its my only planned purchase until the new consoles released and the only reason i will consider seriously purchasing a psp if i go that route (which price point has me rethinking that )

heck the game was so good the free team hat i selected the boston redsox went on to sweep the world series

but just like jack said i consider mlb my personal winning eleven because of my love of baseball in a world of big gaming companys buying up this and that it is one of the only real reasons im still a sports gaming fan

and i can only be absolutley enthusiastic about its potential and im not afraid to wear that on my sleeve

[JRod]

cinci,
great post.

I think MLB has the shorter distance to go to get to that mythical HH level. I can't really compare it to WE because its soccer to baseball. Instead, when a game doesn't become a flavor of the month but a staple in your gaming habits that it reaches that mythical WE level.

MLB has introduced things that are needed in every baseball title that were missing last year. Those have been well documented. Where I see MLB falling short is the graphics. I think its close to WE in that department. They have great animations but the PS2 and MLB, to my eyes, doesn't appear to be all that good looking. I have been spoiled by the Xbox for too long and PS2 games get a bit on my nerves.

In terms of gameplay, I felt like the physics was a bit off. There was a good variety of hits but I still felt that the ball was lively coming off the bat. Maybe the speed in the entire game was faster than I was used to.

Its too bad that MLB is console specific. I think that hurts the mass-apeal of this game but it help in that the developers don't have to waste time with xbox programming and console specific features.

I hope MLB pulls it out because that just means meaningful competition for PS2 gamers.

[Leebo33]

I guess it depends on how you want to word it. If you say, "MLB is *my personal* Winning Eleven of baseball" then you really can't argue that. If you say "MLB is the Winning Eleven of baseball" then I think that is debatable even if you put IMO at the end. That would be like me saying that the Bengals are the best team in football this year IMO. That's different than saying the Bengals are the team I like best.

Seriously, for a game to be considered the "WE of Baseball" I think you would need:

- the AI and player rating system of High Heat
- the pitching and throwing of MVP with the randomness of High Heat (if WE can have meters than so can a baseball game).
- the variable difficulty levels and tuning of High Heat
- the batting model of High Heat, MLB, or ESPN
- the graphics of MVP and MLB
- the franchise mode of MLB or maybe even ASB
- the fielding of any game but MLB...my preference is ESPN
- I'm not sure any game has really nailed ball physics

[Kazuya]

I guess it depends on how you want to word it. If you say, "MLB is *my personal* Winning Eleven of baseball" then you really can't argue that. If you say "MLB is the Winning Eleven of baseball" then I think that is debatable even if you put IMO at the end. That would be like me saying that the Bengals are the best team in football this year IMO. That's different than saying the Bengals are the team I like best.

Seriously, for a game to be considered the "WE of Baseball" I think you would need:

- the AI and player rating system of High Heat
- the pitching and throwing of MVP with the randomness of High Heat (if WE can have meters than so can a baseball game).
- the variable difficulty levels and tuning of High Heat
- the batting model of High Heat, MLB, or ESPN
- the graphics of MVP and MLB
- the franchise mode of MLB or maybe even ASB
- the fielding of any game but MLB...my preference is ESPN
- I'm not sure any game has really nailed ball physics

Another way of doing it might be to say, is the gap between MLB and the other games as big as the gap between WE and it's competition (enormous). Clearly, the answer is no. It's hard to even determine which side of the gap MLB is on.

[bkrich83]

Matter of fact IMO last years game was the Winning Eleven of baseball.

Can't argue with a man's opinion, but I don't think you are being particularly realistic. Winning Eleven is considered by many to be the finest sports game ever, and is the clear leader of it's genre by both critics and fans. Last year was considered to a more or less three way tie of above average baseball efforts. You'd be hard-pressed to find a review, from a major or any kind of website, that thought MLB had anywhere near WE dominance going on last year.

however he is being realistic if it is his opinion

and i feel as strongly as jack ,db ,scoop and bk amoung a couple others in fact maybe even more so

but keep in mind a few of us have a similar vision in what we want out of a baseball game and a similar history in what baseball games we have enjoyed the most in the past so sure personal prefernce has everybit to do with it...someone else may love the direction mvp or world series is going in others may feel high heat was the end of good baseball games

personally i find mvp to be not even close to what i want out of baseball the first year teased me with a couple new interesting twist a bit but the second incarnation was just so far from what i consider baseball i would never had supported the series again whether it continued on or not as im a stickler on my baseball game of choice

world series to me has never been what it was on the saturn i find it do clunky so sterile ...i have repeated many times as bk can attest i only wish sega (at the time) had ran with the homerun king game as this was IMHO the true ancestor to the saturn series of games that game had some serious potential and would like the mlb series single handidly sell some gamecubes to baseball fans in a heartbeat

high heat well im in the same boat as many this is the great series that many of us wish will be revivedwith nothing more than a next generation face lift graphics wise but honestly thats probably a pipe dream at this point so im at peace with this fact and have taken my passion of baseball and put it in 989s camp

now back to mlb from 989 i had a gut feeling the game was going be a little different a little special and made those feelings known last year early on and i was blown away even with my high expectations i felt this was clearly the game of the year in my world and the check swings ,roster limitations didnt cloud my day a bit because i felt as if the future of this series had basically been retooled or reborn and i was more than willing to deal with a couple missing features in order to support a game that came so close to realising what i wanted out of baseball title

and i cant wait until this version comes out its my only planned purchase until the new consoles released and the only reason i will consider seriously purchasing a psp if i go that route (which price point has me rethinking that )

heck the game was so good the free team hat i selected the boston redsox went on to sweep the world series

but just like jack said i consider mlb my personal winning eleven because of my love of baseball in a world of big gaming companys buying up this and that it is one of the only real reasons im still a sports gaming fan

and i can only be absolutley enthusiastic about its potential and im not afraid to wear that on my sleeve

Well said Cincy.

[dbdynsty25]

MLB's graphics last year were so much better than the rest of the games on ANY console, it wasn't even funny. J-Rod needs some glasses I guess.

[pigpen81]

Chris, any chance you can run a beta copy over to Pacific Beach Middle School after 2:10 so we can give it a whirl in our fitness room?

I know, chances are slim.....but at least you can play after school soccer with us on the grass field next to PB Rec., standing invite.

[bkrich83]

MLB's graphics last year were so much better than the rest of the games on ANY console, it wasn't even funny. J-Rod needs some glasses I guess.

I completely agree. I didn't think the other games came close.

[ScoopBrady]

I loved MLB 2005 but in the end my baseball game of choice was ESPN because of MLB's lack of a check swing and I could draw more walks and give up more walks in ESPN. It still only won out by a slim margin though.

989 sports is no longer a joke Kaz. It seems people have such a hard time not dogging 989. Gameday 2004 was a pretty solid game of football that was hampered by some running game issues. MLB 2004 was not nearly as bad as you say IMO. You could tell there was a solid foundation to build upon and that's one of the reasons many of us were anticipating MLB 2005 along with videos and previews floating around the net. Gretzky NHL 2005 has a few issues but a majority of hockey fans who play it for more than 5-10 games learn to appreciate the little nuances that 989 added that reflect actual hockey.

My initial plan for this year's baseball games was to pick up ESPN for $19.99 and MLB for $39.99. I was also going to pick up MVP for the PSP. With MVP being $29.99 I'm going to pick up ESPN and MVP and possibly get MLB for the PSP or pick up something else and get MLB for the PS2. I haven't decided yet but a portable baseball game would be great.

And hey, if you had MLB 2005 but you sold it that means you never played it right?

[Leebo33]

And hey, if you had MLB 2005 but you sold it that means you never played it right?

No, but it does mean that if you got at least $19.99 on the sale of MLB, you can buy 2K5 for free!

[Diablo25]

IMO, the only major things that hurt MLB last year (other than the obvious roster glitch) were the lack of check swings and the lack of walks. If check swings were in the game, that in itself would have increased walks. The developers have supposedly addressed both of these issues and it looks like they didn't go overboard with "new gimmick features". I for one am excited for the game and I pre-ordered it last night! March 1st!, March 1st!, March 1st!...

[Jackdog]

I guess it depends on how you want to word it. If you say, "MLB is *my personal* Winning Eleven of baseball" then you really can't argue that. If you say "MLB is the Winning Eleven of baseball" then I think that is debatable even if you put IMO at the end. That would be like me saying that the Bengals are the best team in football this year IMO. That's different than saying the Bengals are the team I like best.

Seriously, for a game to be considered the "WE of Baseball" I think you would need:

- the AI and player rating system of High Heat
- the pitching and throwing of MVP with the randomness of High Heat (if WE can have meters than so can a baseball game).
- the variable difficulty levels and tuning of High Heat
- the batting model of High Heat, MLB, or ESPN
- the graphics of MVP and MLB
- the franchise mode of MLB or maybe even ASB
- the fielding of any game but MLB...my preference is ESPN
- I'm not sure any game has really nailed ball physics

Another way of doing it might be to say, is the gap between MLB and the other games as big as the gap between WE and it's competition (enormous). Clearly, the answer is no. It's hard to even determine which side of the gap MLB is on.

God I am glad you guys are around to tell me what I think. IMO that is.