Exclusivity has taken its toll on sports video gaming. Arguably, the best NFL gaming franchise - the NFL 2K series - has been relegated to fictional and/or historical players, and arguably the best MLB gaming franchise - MVP - has been sent to college. MVP Baseball was just hitting its stride with MVP 05, and it garnered significant acclaim among critics and gamers alike. Rather than dumping the series, EA decided to salvage its work and modify MVP to emulate NCAA Baseball.
In the second year of the college version, it definitely appears to be a “salvaged” game. The rosters are a mess. Apparently, EA took the rosters from last year's game and just switched all the players from one team to another, to mix it up. For example, Oklahoma’s players from last year's game are now the roster for Ohio State. Almost every college sports game I've played in the last few years had very accurate rosters, with numbers, heights, weights, and even body-styles and facial features emulated correctly for the majority of the players. Failing to update the rosters in MVP 07 is plain laziness. Hardcore fans will painstakingly make these corrections on their own, but since it requires no programming, it's something that should be included out of the box. In addition, only about half of the teams in college baseball are represented, and only 32 stadiums are modeled.
Fortunately, though, MVP still has the same sweet game play as it had in the past. Chief among the new additions is Rock and Fire pitching, which uses both thumbsticks to pitch, as opposed to using the face buttons (however, you still select the pitch type with those buttons). The left stick controls the desired location, and the right stick simulates winding up and throwing the ball. You have to pull the right stick back, time the release, and push the right stick forward and in the direction of the desired location as selected with the left stick. It’s fluid, fun, and, especially on harder skill levels, challenging. You will walk batters unintentionally in this game, especially with lower-rated and fatigued pitchers, who have a very small zone in which to time the release!
As a matter of fact, almost every facet of the game - hitting, pitching, base running, fielding, and throwing can be done with basically just the two thumbsticks. I find it much more natural to control the game this way, but I had to reprogram my brain to adapt. I commend EA for including instructional videos and skill-developing mini-games for hitting and pitching. Given the miniscule manual, and the fact that games are becoming more and more complex to control, I appreciate the ability to see how it's done, and then practice it, to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed the first few times I hit the field. I should also mention that schemes using the traditional face button methods of controlling the players are available as well.
The only area with which I had difficulty with the controls was baserunning. Using the “manual” setting, any runner that wasn’t forced to run would always return to the bag when the ball was hit. For example, if a runner was on second and first base was empty, and a ground ball was hit to the right side, the runner’s first move was to return to the bag, as opposed to taking off towards third base. By the time I could make the correction, the runner would usually be thrown out trying to get to third. Thankfully, changing the baserunning setting to “assisted” corrected the problem.
The performance of MVP on the field definitely impresses. The variety of hits is pretty realistic, from long balls, to pop-ups, to screaming liners, to worm-burners, to dribblers to the pitcher. The pitches move and break realistically, with the exception of the occasional sinker, splitter, or cutter that comes in at the same speed as a pitcher’s fastball. There were games when I felt I had total command of my pitches, and other games where I fought myself the whole time to throw a strike where I wanted it. Also, important to many baseball gaming fans, the user can draw walks at an appropriate rate, and AI hitters will swing at pitches out of the zone.
I didn’t see any glaring gaffes by the AI in terms of fielding, baserunning, and managing the game. Usually, sacrifice bunts were attempted at the right times, pitchers were handled appropriately, and the outfielders made throws to the appropriate bases. However, I didn’t see any hit-and-runs, although that may not be a prevalent part of the college game.
