Anyone who knows me knows that I love to play baseball videogames. I have for as long as I can remember. So every year about this time, I end up reading about the newest crop of baseball videogames. With that in mind, I bring you this link from ign.com. It shows a few screenshots from EA’s latest (and likely final) entry into the baseball game line, “MVP Baseball 2005”. The screenshots are of Ameriquest Field The Ballpark in Arlington, and how it looks in the game.
Looks pretty good – last year’s EA entry had some nice looking ballparks, and these shots make our ballpark look pretty nice. I wonder how they’ll deal with “Section 43” of the ballpark (that’s the little triangle down in the right field corner). Most baseball games either ignore it or get it all wrong – I’ve yet to see one get it right. What’s even better about this ganme is the stupid bell isn’t in the screenshot! If only Hicks would take after the videogame makers… ;)
This page is part of a larger article showing the rest of the AL West teams, and how they look – which itself is part of a larger series eventually showing all the parks.
I call this the “final” version of MVP Baseball, because about a week or two ago, Take 2 (the game publisher) bought the exclusive right to the Major League Baseball license. That means that Take 2 (under their new 2K Games brand) will be be the sole publisher of baseball games using the MLB logos, stadiums, players, etc… Personally, that’s OK with me, as the series I’ve been playing the most over the last 3-4 years has been that series (previously known as ESPN Major Leage Baseball, and World Series Baseball 2k3,2k4/etc).
But that brings up the other thorny issue of video game makers having exclusive rights to a sport’s product, which I don’t terribly think is a good idea, and is a subject for another place and time, not this particular blog entry. :)