ESPN Major League Baseball 2K5 Hands-On

In real baseball, referring to an organization as a "rebuilding effort" is often seen as a negative--a sign that the team is putting financial concerns ahead of its hopes of winning. However, when it comes to ESPN Major League Baseball 2K5, the idea of a "rebuilding effort" is not at all a bad thing, as the game seems to be taking some of the best aspects of last year's well-received baseball title ESPN Major League Baseball and fundamentally enhancing a number features for this year. We had a chance to play a few innings to see how the title is progressing before its spring release date.

From the moment you set up a game, you'll notice some changes in ESPN MLB 2K5. Besides two main game modes--video game (a more arcadelike experience on the bases) and pure baseball (simulation style)--the game also provides the player with several different choices when it comes to pitching and batting interfaces. On the mound, two new pitching modes include the K-Zone and K-Zone 2 (more on these in a bit). From the batter's box, players can choose between the true-aim system found in last year's version of the game, as well as cursor batting, which makes its return from the old World Series Baseball series. This plethora of choices means you'll be able to find a mix of batting- and pitching-interface styles that give you the best chance for success on the field.

As mentioned, the new pitching mode found in ESPN MLB 2K5 is the K-Zone pitching meter, of which there are two flavors. Similar to the K-Zone strike-zone display used in ESPN's Baseball Tonight program, the K-Zone adds a degree of challenge to the pitching game that hasn't been present in the ESPN MLB 2K series before. Instead of merely choosing a placement for your pitch, the type of throw you wish to make with the press of a button, and then hoping for the best, you'll be much more responsible for each pitch you make in a game. Using a cursor and superimposed strike-zone box on the screen, you can still aim your pitch as usual, and you'll still choose your desired pitch with one of the mapped face buttons on your controller. Where K-Zone pitching differs, however, is in the use of a horizontal and vertical meter that appears onscreen after you choose your pitch type.

Each pitch's success is measured by how accurately you can place the reticle that runs along these two axes inside your pitching cursor. Nail the reticle dead center on your cursor and your pitch will go exactly where you planned it to go. Miss it either vertically or horizontally and your pitch's accuracy will suffer. If you're looking to really throw some hot lead, you can charge up any pitch by holding down the associated button. While doing this, you'll notice your cursor shrink accordingly--this being the natural trade off between power and control that all major league pitchers face. To add even more complexity and control, the size of your cursor (and thus your margin for error) will change depending on certain factors, such as game situation, pitcher fatigue and confidence, pressure, and the aforementioned speed of the pitch. The difference between K-Zone pitching and K-Zone 2 pitching is simple: with regular K-Zone pitches, the cursor switches back to the center after each pitch; with K-Zone 2, the cursor does not go back to the center.

Batting also gets an upgrade in ESPN MLB 2K5. This is obvious, as you have the ability to guess the location of pitches before they cross the plate. While this is nothing new, the introduction of slam-zone animations is. If, while at bat, you guess the location of the next pitch, the game will then shift to a dramatic slow motion animation of the coming pitch, during which time you'll be able to charge up your power meter by repeatedly hitting a button. At a precise moment in the animation, you are asked to swing the bat by hitting another button. Complete both these steps and you're often looking at an extra base hit or, better yet, a home run. What's nice is that these slam- zone (as they're known) animations do not guarantee home runs, or even hits, for that matter. During our time with the game, we struck out once during an animation by failing to swing the bat within the "swing" window. Needless to say, you'll want to gain as many slam-zone opportunities as you can so that you'll have the best chance of scoring runs.