I finally got my hands on MVP Baseball 2005 after much debate on whether to buy the game or not and after a handful of games, I'm glad I bought it.

If you enjoyed MVP 2004, you'll absolutely love MVP 2005. It seems that EA spent alot of time working on the gameplay, animations and AI while only adding small touches to the graphics. The stadium crowds look much better and the instances of slowdown that plagued the game last year appear to be a thing of the past as I haven't seen a hint of slowdown in any of the games I've played. The menus are nice looking and straightforward and make navigation easy.

On the gameplay front, fielding is probably the most improved aspect of the game. The lag that existed last year when taking control of a fielder and throwing the ball is completely gone. Maximum fielding also feels more responsive - I've made a couple of diving grabs already and hardly had any with last year's game. Overall, fielder control is extremely responsive and very fun. This was one of my major concerns and it's been put to rest. Default fielder speed (especially outfielders) is much more realistic this year as the outfielders don't feel like they're running in mud.

Next is the pitching. It seems that most people either love or hate the pitching meter - I happen to like it. A new addition is the 'Pitch Feedback' which gives you feedback on how close you came to the green (precision) zone. There are a bunch of sliders to adjust pitch speed, accuracy and almost any other variable including the addition of a variable strike zone. The CPU pitchers seem to throw more balls and will walk a batter on occassion (some may have better results than I did because of my need to swing at almost pitch).

The batting interface is an enigma to me. I'm not so sure EA knows what kind of batting system the game uses as they promote the use of pushing up for a flyball swing and down for a grounder swing. I'm not sure how accurate this is as I've hit many fly balls on low swings and vice versa. At this point, I'm playing the game as if it uses a zone-hitting system (putting the bat where the ball is thrown) and will keep tabs on my results. As of now, this is my only complaint with the game - a definitive zone-batting system would've put this game at the top of my baseball list. On a positive note, ball physics seem to have been improved as there is a large variety of hits in the game.

On the presentation front, the game does a good job of bringing you to the ball park. The play-by-play is good and the crowd responds correctly to the action on the field and fireworks get set off for home runs by the home team. Unlike MLB 2K5, MVP offers a few different fielding cameras to use. The games also move along quickly - I've been able to get all my 9-inning games played in about 30 minutes. I'm currently using the 'Center' camera for batting (the default last year) and 'Zoomed' for the fielding camera with the 'Hitter's Eye' turned OFF.

So far, so good with MVP 2005. While I just scratched the surface of the game, I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. Over the next few days, I'll be giving the game a good workout and will post more detailed information on the game including online play. My only real complaint is the confusing batting system (and Manny Ramirez on the cover).