Baseball Games On-Target 2004

It's that time of year again. When Winter begins to fade, Spring begins to bloom, and a bunch of guys making millions of dollars start preparing for a long season of sitting around in a dugout 9 innings a game attacking running sausages. That's right, it's baseball season, and as teams gather in Arizona and Florida to prepare for yet another year of watching the Yankees choke in the playoffs like Howard Dean in the Iowa caucus. For us gamers, it's also the time of year for the latest installments of their favorite baseball franchises. This year sees a pair of missing links from last season - High Heat, once the lone 3DO franchise that wasn't an embarrassment, is gone, with Microsoft holding the franchise to do whatever they choose with; most likely used to replace MLB Inside Pitch, which lasted exactly one season before being sent down to the minors, permanently. Also, MLB Slugfest: Loaded will be coming, but much later, and as such there's little info at all other than it's the usual basebrawl game that appeals to those who lack the attention span to play a real baseball simulation. With the absence of High Heat, which was oft-considered the best baseball franchise around, the field is wide open, as Sega, Sony, Acclaim, and EA Sports begin anew with their respective games. Only time will tell which will be the best of the bunch, but it can be said that this will be the most competitive season for baseball video games in quite some time.

ESPN Major League Baseball
Publisher: Sega/ESPN Videogames
Developer: Visual Concepts/Blue Shift
Release: March 23, 2004
Consoles: PlayStation 2, Xbox

Rest in peace, World Series Baseball. The cornerstone of the old Sega Sports brand for many years, WSB has been on the rebound since the disaster of WSB 2K1 on the ill-fated Dreamcast. Their debut on the Xbox in '02 was unquestionably the best hardball sim on the console, and it may still be, as WSB 2K3 was actually a bit of a step down in some regards. While the engine and development teams remain the same, WSB has been replaced as ESPN Major League Baseball, due to the more in-depth ESPN Videogames involvement. Thankfully, as unfortunate as it is to lose the WSB name, the game itself will remain true to the recent WSB games, and ESPN MLB is shaping up to be a major contender this season, as always.

For the first time since the 2K2 installment on Dreamcast (which was a lagging joke, actually), ESPN MLB will feature online play for both Xbox and PS2 (PS2 will be broadband only, FYI). How this turns out will be quite interesting, as baseball games cannot, at all, suffer from lagging whatsoever due to the precision needed for hitting the baseball. With broadband-only play, however, this should (I repeat, should) be eliminated, and free-flowing hardball should be afoot. Adding to that, downloadable rosters will eliminate the outdated rosters on the initial release, letting you sneak A-Rod on the Skanks, Ivan Rodriguez on the Tigers, and Greg Maddux on the Cubbies, and keep up with the other numerous roster changes through Spring Training and beyond.

Most of ESPN MLB will be familiar for those who've played either of the past 2 versions, as not a whole lot has changed, other than improved graphics and sounds along with usual tweaks. From some playtime with the recent ESPN MLB demo, the batting cursor has been eliminated, allowing for more realistic hitting, rather than cursor aiming. The pitching meter is added in for showing the exact power of each pitch, which is a nice addition instead of guessing how much juice (no pun intended, these days) is on a pitch. What is new is the addition of First Person Baseball. Like ESPN NFL's First Person Football, you'll be able to play the game in the 1^st person, for hitting, pitching, fielding, etc. I've got high hopes for this one, as baseball lends itself much better to a feature like this as opposed to football. Also new is the addition of better ESPN integration with Sunday Night Baseball announcer Jon Miller and ESPN Baseball Tonight host Karl Ravech calling the gamesЕunfortunate they didn't get Joe Morgan to do color commentary, but this will do, and should wind up being as authentic as possible, knowing how hard Sega has worked on announcing in their sports games. With these new things mind, along with tweaking what's already excellent, ESPN Major League Baseball has a real chance of being the top dog this season.

All-Star Baseball 2005
Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Acclaim
Release: March 30, 2004
Consoles: PlayStation 2, Xbox

Perhaps the first thing you'll notice in this description is the lack of a GameCube version. That's right, the series that was one of Acclaim's cornerstones on the Nintendo 64 is off Nintendo consoles, unless something changes before release date. There's probably a good reason - as the PS2 and Xbox versions will both offer online play (and again, PS2 is broadband only for the same reasons as the ESPN MLB section covered), and downloadable rosters as well. This is a franchise that has struggled to maintain the glory of the N64 releases, but this year's looks to really be a standout, with the new features.

The coolest idea is the TWIB, or This Week In Baseball, Challenges. With this, you're able to go back into the 2003 season and relive or change the biggest moments of the year to unlock some cool extras. Most likely, you'll be able to change a few major events, like the Marlins comeback in game 6 of the NLCS against Chicago, and take Pedro out of the game in game 7 of the ALCS against the Yankees. With all baseball games nowadays offering franchise modes as deep as the real thing, these kind of special additions are the key to standing out. ASB 2005 has some other new features, like FielderCam. This idea puts you at ground level, for optimal control (hopefully) of your fielder. Rather than the wide-angles we're used to, the FielderCam will put you right in the action. It sounds quite good, and hopefully it will turn out to be a feature that other games will surely emulate.

As always, ASB features commentary from Arizona Diamondbacks announcers Thom Brenneman and Steve Lyons (though Lyons has been replaced by Mark Grace in the booth), as well as D-backs Spanish announcer Oscar Soria for the Spanish-speaking ASB fans. Heck, ASB 2005 even has closed captioning for those who have trouble hearing. With stiff competition All-Star Baseball 2005 is pulling out all the stops, and hopefully Acclaim will dish out something that keeps up, if not surpasses, its very strong opposing titles. If not, at least it's a year ahead, with all this 2005 baloney.

MVP Baseball 2004
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Sports Canada
Release: March 9, 2004
Consoles: PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube

After abandoning the horrid Triple Play franchise, EA Sports really took a stride with MVP Baseball 2003 last season. With innovative features and revamped gameplay, MVP was the surprise hit of the season. This year, it's hoping to be even better, with full EA Sports Nation online play for PlayStation 2 (broadband and dial-up, should be interesting to see how lagball will turn out), and even a GameCube version for sports fans who own that particular console. As of right now, with all the additions to the 2004 edition, MVP Baseball seems to be the baseball game to beat, but we'll be the judges of that when it releases soon.

As you'd expect, all the different meter-based elements will return intact, like the pitching meter that not only is based on power, but accuracy, in the same vein of the old-school PGA golf games. Same goes for throwing the ball - the more powerful you throw it, the better chance it has to go way off course. New, however, is the addition of a brand new hitting style that changes things up. Normally, pressing the stick in a particular direction would dictate where the ball went (aim left and the hit goes left, up and it's a fly ball, etc), but now it only dictates the kind of swing - if you press up and swing at a low pitch, you'll get nothing but air. Should be interesting to see how this works. Note for Slugfest fans - you may now charge the mound if you get beaned by a pitch - must mean suspension time if you do it! You can also appeal balls & strikes, though I'm sure there's no option to ask if the umpire has his proper prescription glasses on calling the game.

The Franchise mode, already quite nice in last year's game, also now features 60 or so real AA and AAA minor league clubs, complete with full rosters for them. This means you can promote actual future stars to the big team, and send down players who are struggling. And yes, you can even send superstars down to the minors; want to send A-Rod to the Columbus Clippers? You can, if you see fit. With this in mind, MVP has the chance to not only be the most complete game on the field, but in the GM's booth as well. After years of aborted baseball franchises by EA (the lone sport they've been unable to dominate at one time or another), it seems MVP is the one that just might end up being the Madden NFL of hardball games.

MLB 2005
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: 989 Sports
Release: March 16, 2004
Consoles: PlayStation 2

Since Nintendo hasn't done a baseball game since the days when Junior Griffey was a Mariner (and a decent ballplayer), and Microsoft has High Heat and Inside Pitch in limbo, MLB 2005 is the lone console-exclusive baseball game, this time for the PS2. Last year, while MLB '04 lagged behind the competition, it was the first 989 Sports game to debut on the console with mostly decent results, compared to the auspicious debuts of Gameday, Shootout, and Final Four, et al. Still, the game had many issues that hurt it from being an elite baseball game. This year, 989 is hoping to sneak a fast one on unsuspecting baseball gamers, with MLB '05 overshadowed by these other 3 baseball games. Like the rest, MLB '05 features online play, with roster updates and head to head play (as long as you have a PS2, all of them will be online compatible, so if that's importantЕwell, have fun choosing the game for this year).

The franchise mode has been overhauled to resemble Madden NFL 2004's Owner Mode in many respects. Not only will you be playing the games on the field, but also managing the money, dictating TV contracts (which earn cash to sign expensive players), concessions, and what kinds of promotions the team will offer at home games. It all sounds very promising as baseball games begin to blur the line between the two extremes of baseball game simulations and baseball management simulations. The 989 trademark Spring Training also returns, letting you create a player, take them through Spring Training, and attempt to earn a shot on the team. It's like Garth Brooks every year (this year in Surprise, AZ with the Kansas City Royals, for those who care), only it's not a shameless publicity stunt.

While there hasn't been much revealed about the gameplay itself, hopefully many of the problems with the 2004 version will be fixed, to make the game more user-friendly and more accurate to the game of baseball. With a great front end and online play, MLB 2005 is off to a good start, but in the face of 3 other games out to dominate, this one could get lost in the pack regardless of its quality, even if it turns out to be outstanding.

Final Thoughts
While not as crowded as last year's season, the baseball game competition for 2004 looks to be competitive, with all 4 games out to win over your gaming dollars. Each offers something the others don't, which makes the game to choose a harder decision. With all of the games offering online play on one or both major online systems, this becomes moot, only really coming into play based on how good the baseball action itself is (after all, if a game plays like a turd, who'd play it online?). With the depth and features of each one of these games, picking any of them seems to not be a mistake, but as the games release, we'll really get a grip on what will be the Yankees of 2004, and on the opposite side of the spectrum, which will be the Detroit Tigers.