MVP Baseball 2007 Description:

MVP Baseball 2007 review:
2 stars (A lot of tinkering, not a lot of control) - After playing MVP Baseball '04 and now, '05 on PS2, I find that I actually prefer the older ("Classic") version. The new game is great with many of the things still present from '04 that make it fun to play, but there is a reason it was priced less than '04. There are several small reasons it doesn't rock (they brought back the same announcers, lots of batters look exactly the same-Moises Alou still bounces in the batter's box even though he doesn't do this in real life-some players don't have pictures, etc.). Then there are the big ones...



First of all, the overall graphics are great and the players are a bit more realistic and left handers can actually hit some shots only the right handers could do in '04. Plus, of course, the music is great. I only wish you could pick a playlist or leave some songs off (similar to GT3), because some songs really get on my nerves!



I tried the "Owner" mode and one of the first things I tried was to design my own park. I could be missing something, but it looks like I can make a high right field wall, but not a left field one? Not to mention it is not as high as it looks (nothing like the Green Monster) when the game starts. I would like more control and more choices if the game is going to let me "design" my own park. The stadium starts off with a minuscule seating capacity (lower and upper deck, 20K only). Yes, you can purchase more seats and this is part of the fun, but isn't this the Major Leagues? When a new park is built, it looks like a massive artistic construction with seats all around. Starting off with only a lower and upper deck would be perfect for designing your Minor League park.



After not finding a proper tutorial/FAQ for running my day-to-day baseball operations (selling tickets and concessions at the price I want), I tried it the best I could and found this also to be a confusing double-edged sword. The game doesn't take into account the team's record and even though I am winning every game, I am lucky to have a sell out when keeping prices constant. This is really odd and one of the things I thought would be great to improve upon from '04. I mean, besides the graphics of the crowd being all but crude, sellouts are few and far between even in the playoffs...Now I am so far in debt (you lose money while on the road and only have a chance to make money while at home, which is half the time), not even a rare sellout is helping because my concession sales are not tempting profits my way.



I wish I could comment on the online play, but I didn't bother to pay to play the game and then pay again to play the game on a higher plane. I do hear, of course, that this is one of the best things, to be able to play the game on the Internet (or was it the other way around...but I digress).



I'm sure things will work out in the long run, and my profit margin will come my way eventually, but why should I have to wait that long? Most people who play these games need to see some sort of positive curve or they lose interest. I guess I am one of them. If I could see that things were working, I could easily stick with it. But by making it so difficult to take advantage of one of the major upgrades to the '05 version, EA Sports has effectively stunted their own sequels growth for one of the best games ever made.
5 stars (This is a Grand Slam!) - When "High Heat", the previous baseball sim went out of production due to the bankruptcy of the software company, there was a void in the market, and Electronic Arts' first few offereings in this genre were far from acceptable; riddled with holes, bad plays, lack of flexibility. MVP 2007 was their first serious attempt to produce a realistic basebal sim, and they didn't do too badly although it took several releases of software patches last year before the gamer had anything like a realistic product.



MVP 2007 is almost perfect. I generally play it on a pc, in Dynasty mode (where you take command of a major league team, it's AAA AND it's AA minor league affiliates, and play them season after season....)On the plus side is the real names of ALL players who are members of the players union - the player editor allows you to change, for example the name to Barry Bonds of the Giants, and give him the correct skin tone! The player editor is a powerful tool, allowing you to adjust hitting, fileding, running and pitching elements so, if you find a player who is not a member of the union and want to put him into your team, it is relatively easy to do so.You can even create him if you wish rather than alter an existing computer-created player!



There are also differing difficulty levels (the rookie level is so absurdly easy you will rapidly get bored with it) and I have yet to find anyone who has played an entire season at the highest level and NOT finished at the bottom of their division ! The rendering of the stadiums is superb (although EA skimped on the renderings of the crowd - VERY poorly done!),and player motion is excellent, even accomodating unique batting stances for the major players, such as Julio Franco of the Atlanta Braves and his very unique stance. You can control player development from your AA and AAA farm system, absolutely superb programming from a gaming viewpoint.



On the minus side, you will spend an eternity changing game settings to create a realistic game; too easy and you will get bored with winning 20-1 with every game; too high and you rapidly get discouraged with the computer opponents seemingly endless stream of home runs hit against your best pitchers! There is also a double commentator feature, which some people find annoying, others love. Personally, I have the commentary turned on for realism, although sometimes it can get a little inane. You can charge the mound if you get hit by a pitch; you can dive or run for a catch; you can steal bases; everything is there in dynasty mode except for one detail: if you have the settings so the umpires make occasional bad calls, you can't have your manager rush out of the dugout to argue a bad call (and risk getting thrown out!; a minor detail, but important, nonetheless.



However, if you are prepared to research the correct names and information online for ALL the minor league players, and change their names and information as appropriate, and spend the time adjusting game settings so performance is not too easy or too hard, this is DEFINATELY the best baseball sim EVER to have come out for both the computer AND the gaming console market.
5 stars (THE BEST BASEBALL GAME IN THE MARKET.) - By far, mvp is the best game in the market for the PC.

It's better than the previus one, mvp 2007 in many aspects:

1.- Graphics.- The graphics are very realistic, the faces of the player represent's those of the real players with great detail. Even the way they satand in the home plate is very well represented.

The ball parks are awsome. There are to many details on each one of them, like the green monster in Boston, and the grass on the walls of the Cubs in Chicago. The only bad point is the people in the stands, they look like a carton, and don't move, all the people is the same in all the stadiums.

2.- Realistic.- Each team play's in the same time as in the mayor league, this is, Boston in the afternoon or in the night, Cubs in the morning or afternoon,the time depends on the day of the week, as in real life, this is represented very realistic, and are nice touches. The starting line up can be modifeded if you wish. You can trade player's and if one of your satarters is injured, you can call a backup for the A, AA an triple A to substitute.

In the game, the physics of the ball is great. So,me times your player or the CPU player comitt and error, or some times the ball jump's so hig that your filder can take it.

The mos't dificult part of the game, for me, is the pitcher. One error and the other player will punish you with a home run. Even if you trow a ball in the perfect area, the batter can hit a home run.

The fildeing part is good, tour player can throw the ball to the bases with diferent maners, all depend in his position, also, if you throw so hard, you are in risk of comitting an error.

3.- Sound.- the music is one of my favorites in a game. Is great.

In the ball park the efect's are very good and represent's al you can hear in a stadium.

4.- Mini games.- For me, the best mini game (where you can collect to much points to unolck certain things like parks, jerseys, players, even teams) is the bating. In this part you have to hit the ball in the correct direction that an arrow tell you. In this way you can earn some points.

The pitching part is very dificult for me, and I don't plai't to much.

Over all, mvp 2007 is the best game available on the market for the pc.