Conclusion

Our trio of intrepid editors sum it all up. There you have it--GameSpot's 2004 Baseball Roundup. Hopefully, we've given you enough information to decide which of these games you should draft into your starting rotation.

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa. Have you watched Field of Dreams lately?

Depending on your needs, each game certainly makes a good case for itself. Do you want the sharpest graphics, or will you forgive a loss of clarity for a greater variety of animation and general detail? If you put sharpness at one end of the scale and detail at the other, MLB 2005 would be on the sharp side, MVP Baseball 2004 would be on the details side, and All-Star Baseball 2005 would be somewhere in the middle. Maybe you just want the game that exudes the most atmosphere by presenting loud music, a thunderous crowd, cool plays, TV-style transitions, and all that sort of jazz. That's MVP Baseball 2004, in a nutshell. Do you want the game with the highest number of teams, legends, retro jerseys, fantasy players, and fantasy ballparks? Look to All-Star Baseball 2005 for that. Do you want the best franchise mode? It's a toss-up. MLB 2005 offers great front-office moves; MVP Baseball 2004 has a deep minor league system; and All-Star Baseball 2005 has a little of both. What about online play? It's a big deal this year. All-Star Baseball 2005 and MVP Baseball 2004 both offer downloadable rosters and exhibition games, while MLB 2005 sacrifices roster downloads to offer custom tournaments.

For those of you who only have access to a PC, GameCube, or PSOne, your options are limited. MVP Baseball 2004 is it on the PC and GameCube, while MLB 2005 is the only game in town on the PSOne. It's a good thing that these are all good games.

Finally, we'd like to end by chastising all of these companies for neglecting to produce a baseball game for the Game Boy Advance this year. Boo! Hiss! Go back to the dugout, meat! There is no good excuse for leaving Nintendo's popular handheld out in the cold. If anyone at Acclaim is reading this--All-Star Baseball 2004 for the GBA was just fine, and the main things we'd like to see in a new installment are smarter CPU fielders, updated rosters, and better stadium models. If anyone at Microsoft is reading this--while you're busy fashioning that High Heat MLB franchise you bought from the 3DO bankruptcy sale into a new game, feel free to get hold of the unreleased GBA version of High Heat MLB 2004 and then release it with updated rosters. Someone, anyone, put out a new baseball game on the GBA soon. As Bill O'Reilly would say, "To not do so would be ridiculous."

And that's that. Game over. The Mariners beat the Yankees 4 to 1, and A-Rod went hitless. Shouldn't you be heading off to your local video game store right about now?