Early this year, Major League Baseball followed the National Football League in signing an exclusivity deal for its video-game licensing, threatening to end the current Wild West bonanza of competing titles clamoring for gamer dollars. MLB's seven-year pact with Take-Two isn't as strict as the NFL's marriage with EA's Madden series–only "third-party publishers," specifically EA, will be forbidden from using Major League Baseball franchises and players–but the market for baseball games will almost certainly shrink as a result. With one game dominating the field, some extra attention and resources might go into perfecting its features, but the more likely consequence is that gamers will lose the appealing idiosyncrasies that distinguish one title from the next. For one last season in the sun, three major prospects are competing for a spot in the console. Here's the scouting report:
Hitting
There's nothing harder in sports and nothing easier in gaming than hitting a baseball. No matter how many buttons are slapped on a controller, games can't replicate the precise timing, anticipation, and bat control that go into the perfect swing, so there are two different schools of thought. MVP's simple, uncluttered system uses the left analog stick to control the direction and trajectory of the ball after it's hit, so you can swing for the fences with a mighty uppercut, or aim for a sharp grounder through the hole. MLB and the ESPN-affiliated 2K5 are more concerned with the psychological warfare that goes on before ball meets bat: MLB allows hitters to guess the type of pitch before it's thrown, and rewards correct guesses by giving away the precise location in advance, though that's no guarantee you'll get a hit. 2K5 focuses on the location of the pitch, which is unreasonably difficult to determine, but pays off with the gimmicky "SlamZone," a slo-mo game-breaker that virtually assures a home run with enough furious button-mashing. It also offers the unique option of playing a base-runner while the CPU takes over hitting duties, which encourages stealing and hit-and-run plays.
Edge: MVP
Pitching
In all three games, opposing hitters have color-coded "hot" and "cold" zones that are essential in locating a pitch, but the difficulty in hitting the right spot varies widely with each title. MVP and MLB both utilize a swing-meter for power and accuracy as the ball comes out of the hand, but location presents a much greater dilemma in the latter. Going for simplicity again, MVP has made it a little too easy to hit the catcher's glove every time, but in MLB, players have to anticipate how much a particular pitch is going to break before taking aim. Otherwise, that slider you wanted to carve the inside of the plate will wind up plunking the batter instead. The pitching in 2K5 is modeled after the "K-Zone" graphics in ESPN's broadcasts, with location reliant on horizontal and vertical axes converging on the spot. This may sound like shameless cross-marketing, but the innovation works beautifully.
Edge: 2K5
Fielding
Since standard controllers all have buttons arranged in a baseball-diamond shape, basic fielding moves are universal, but tougher plays bring out the quirks. EA's love affair with the right analog stick gives MVP fielders the option of diving or leaping for balls that are just out of reach, though a botched attempt at a miracle catch could easily lead to an inside-the-park homer. MVP also gives fielders individual swing-meters to control how much strength goes into each throw, which presents the possibility of an overthrow or the ball getting stuck in your glove. 2K5 breaks from hard realism with a couple of arcade touches, letting players try for Spider-Man-like wall-climbs to rob a home run, or "showboat" catches sure to infuriate the manager. As usual, MLB errs on the side of bland functionality, but the controls always feel a beat behind the action.
Edge: MVP
Commentators
In spite of EA's superior resources, the play-by-play and color commentary on MVP is astonishingly inadequate, as if it were recorded in a short afternoon the week before shipping. Coming from a company whose sports games place a premium on realism, sometimes to a fault, it's curious to hear a color man refer to players as "dude" or "meat," as in "You can't hit the ball without swinging the bat, meat." Thanks to reliable baseball man Dave Campbell, MLB at least has the veneer of professionalism, though Campbell gets incredulous whenever the double-play possibility has been eliminated. But both games pale in comparison to 2K5's superb Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, who have logged enough time to make an ordinary game feel like Sunday Night Baseball.
Edge: 2K5
Special Features
MLB doesn't have anything close to the other games' depth and unlockable goodies, but the career mode lets you create and develop a player over time, hopefully leading to post-season and Hall Of Fame bids. Every title has franchise modes, but none more completely imagined than MVP, which delves into Minor League ball (on one farm team, you can hear chickens clucking faintly in the background) and a new Owner's Mode that allows you to build a franchise up from humble beginnings. This year, MVP has also added an addictive hitting mini-game that makes pinball out of precision slugging. MVP and 2K5 are loaded with the expected extras, like retro uniforms, players, and stadiums, unlocked by points or tokens, but 2K5 stretches into clever and often peculiar gaming options, such as playing in fog or hurricane winds, changing the ground rules, or fielding players with oversized heads.
Edge: MVP
Overall
It may be a minor victory, but the satisfying "thwack" sound of ball hitting bat in MLB is the only time this mediocrity rises above the competition. With MVP and 2K5, it's a choice between gameplay and presentation: The more realistic MVP doesn't take as many chances, but it has a longer shelf life, and game modes that would reward an eternity spent on the couch. Just as the network's Sunday Night Baseball and Baseball Tonight have set the standard for baseball obsessives, 2K5 captures the sights and sounds of a summer broadcast. Enjoy such a tough choice while it lasts.