MVP Baseball 2005 is essentially the same as last year's game, which means that it's an excellent baseball game.
All the significant innovations that MVP Baseball 2004 introduced remain intact. The managerial and statistical interface is surprisingly deep. Pausing the game, you get a view of the current situation, including runners on base and their speed rating. You can view each team's current lineups, and each player's detailed ratings. You can double switch, view pitch history, check the current box score, warm up pitchers, have your manager make mound visits or argue a call, among plenty of other options. Many of these functions are also available in game, with quick navigation menus. The gameplay features, such as check swings and using the right thumbstick for sliding while baserunning and making big plays on defense, are no different. Anyone who's played MVP Baseball 2004 will feel comfortable with MVP Baseball 2005, as the gameplay and feel of the game hasn't changed.
The game modes remain nearly identical. The Dynasty Mode, Manager Mode and Scenario Editor return. The Pitcher Showdown in MVP Baseball 2004 has been replaced in favor of three new minigames, one of which is a batting game in which you try to hit balls in a specified direction, and two pitching minigames where the object is to clear colored blocks in the strike zone, earning more points for clearing connected blocks of the same color. There's a new career mode, called Owner Mode, and within this mode, you can use the new Create A Ballpark feature.
MVP Baseball 2005 does have some new features, but these don't significantly impact the gameplay. The main feature EA Sports is touting this year is what it calls "hitter's eye", which essentially colors the ball a different color for a split second depending on the type of pitch. This has limited usefulness, considering you don't have much time to react to pitches, and you're usually more concerned with the location of the pitch. Given these factors, it's extremely difficult to pick up and recognize the color of the ball, determine where the ball is going, and then decide whether or not to swing. Otherwise, batting remains the same, with the hot/cold zones and mistake pitches that are now a mainstay of the MVP Baseball series. Among the other new gameplay features is the ability to adjust your batter's position in the batter's box, presumably to adjust to where the pitcher is throwing. This offsets your hot and cold zones as well, and you'll notice that CPU batters will occasionally use this move. Other new gameplay features include the ability to fake a throw while fielding, and charging the mound after you are hit by a pitch.
For the first time last year, MVP Baseball 2004 introduced Triple-A and Double-A teams for each of the Major League teams, and this year's game adds Single-A teams as well. The Washington Nationals and their home ballpark RFK Stadium are also included in the game.
As with last year's game, the game's presentation is simply stunning. The game looks better than any other baseball game before it, and supports a maximum resolution of 1280 by 1024 on the PC, and 720p on Xbox. The ballparks are gorgeous, and are adorned with billboards featuring fictional brands. Some stadiums have specific home run celebrations for the home team, such as the train in Minute Maid Park, while others have generic fireworks. Scoreboards are dynamic, reflecting the current game's score, although more care has been taken with some stadium scoreboards than others. For example, the scoreboard in Fenway Park at the base of the Green Monster shows not only the correct score, but also the current batter, and the runs, hits, and errors for each team, as well as the inning by inning score. Whereas in Shea Stadium, the inning by inning score is static. Given how great the ballparks look, you'd expect to see pitchers warming up in bullpens that are on the playing field, such as in Wrigley Field, but unfortunately, this isn't the case, as bullpens appear empty in game even when the bullpen menu shows you that there are pitchers warming up. You'll find it a bit strange to see Pro Player Stadium packed with fans, but you'll appreciate the detail and care that has gone into the game's presentation, which presents baseball in its best light, with uniforms seeming a bit too white, although they accumulate dirt, and brand new shiny helmets.
Likewise, the audio is amazing, and creates an unbelievable ballpark atmosphere. The crowd reacts appropriately to the action taking place, and you'll hear vendors selling programs and hot dogs, as well as overhead planes. Stadiums play short clips from the music selection available in the Jukebox. Duane Kiper and Mike Krukow reprise their commentary duties, and talk about a myriad of subjects, including the grass pattern on the field.
The game is simply a joy to play. Even though you'll have to work to score runs, you'll get an immensely rewarding feeling when you pull off a late inning comeback or an extra inning win. The game manages to make pitching fun. With meters controlling the accuracy and strength of your pitches and throws, you feel more involved in the action going on. There are so many little details that add to the enjoyment of the game, such as take out slides breaking up double plays, batters fouling pitches off their feet, broken bats, and replays of your missed swings in inset windows. It's hard to find flaws in MVP Baseball 2005, but the issues are the same as with last year's game. Base running is still a bit frustrating. On the default gameplay settings, you will need to manage your runners, since they never automatically slide, and very frequently you can avoid getting tagged out if you slide while trying to take an extra base.
MVP Baseball 2005 is essentially the same game as its predecessor, but you can't fault EA Sports for not messing with success. The deep gameplay coupled with the top notch presentation makes this game a must have for baseball video game fans.