nickdawgy

Yeah, I take back my sucks comments. It's a good game. At least until ESPN comes out

Frank_M

Anyone know of a good site to download updated rosters (majors and minors) for PS2? I'm not online with the PS2, but I do have a sharkport, so I'm able to update that way.

Thanks

Mad Dawg

Well, the guy who runs www.mvprosters.com has an update with many of the non-MLBPA players and post-1/15/04 transactions. He says that he'll have the minor league players in the update by the 15th.

Frank_M

Oh, ok. I'll check that out. I guess I'd gotten the impression that that was PC-only, not PS2.

Mad Dawg

Yeah, they're PS2. I downloaded the first version last week, but it barely had any moves or players. He's supposedly improved it since then, so I'll try it again today.

For XBOX owners, those rosters are on that site as well, and should be up faster than the PS2 ones (with actual minor leaguers).

Quake1028

My offense has finally gotten going on the pro level, winning my last 2 games 7-2 and 4-2 . Sitting at 5-1 for the year with the Yanks.

nodeerforamonth

I don't see the "yellow" and "green" trails on the ball when it's pitched like they show in the tutorial. Am I missing something?

Frank_M

I've played two exhibition games.. and in each (on the pro level) I had a player hit two HRs:

I hit two in a game with Ty Wiggington, then another two with Wes Helms. Maybe only 3B's hit HR's? :-)

I think when the roster updates are done, this will be a pretty good game.

The worst part right now is the sluggish OF's going after balls. Too many 3Bs against me.

Abranut

As far as I can tell, there are no colored trails coming from pitches you throw in the actual game. They were colored so they would standout during the tutorial.

Setzer

I belive you can adjust their speed under the Gameplay tuning options.....

Setzer

Well, I think I've gotten the pitching down. Last 2 games played I won 5-2 and 7-0. Playing as the Angels, had Escobar starting pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs....second game Colon started and pitched a complete game 2-hit shut-out. Got some bonus MVP points for it too . Offense I'm starting to get the hang of it...still no Homers yet . I'm starting to love this game. The challenge, gameplay, the Dynasty mode, etc are all great.

crow121

best baseball game....ever

Abranut

But won't that increase the speed of the CPU outfielders as well, thus killing more of your offensive opportunities?

crow121

it has different user and cpu sliders

nickdawgy

How are you guys pitching so good? I tried a full game on pro, and I lost 10-5. I hit 3 homers, and had 3 doubles, but my pitching was horrible. I gave up 16 hits, including 9 doubles, 3 triples, and 2 homers. That means just 2 hits were singles. I have auto fielding on, so that can't be the problem.

Another thing, when I did get the batter out, it was a grounder or deep fly. No pop ups. No strikeouts. Plus half of my outs were circus catch type outs. I would have lost by 15 if I hadn't made them.

When you pitch, do you always put the ball in the strike zone? I always aim for the cold areas, and try to have the ball half in the zone, half out. I rarely throw balls, the computer almost always swings at the first pitch, and when I do throw one out of the zone, they never swing at it. When they do swing and miss, it's often early because of a changeup.

I don't mind losing games here and there, but when I lose them because of too many doubles, and computer making contact on every pitch, it gets frustrating. Am I doomed to play rookie mode and win by 15 every game forever?

taylor34

I wouldn't go that far, but it's pretty good. The fact that player progression is completely broken and the large number of fielding/stat bugs prevent it from being one of the best.

Taylor34

nickdawgy

One of the funny bugs I noticed, well actually two of them....

After the game, the PA announcer says "Join us tomorrow for another game between the Anaheim Angels (or whatever team you are) and the Seattle Mariners "(or whatever team you're playing). He says this even after the final game of a series has been played.

The other bug was the replay that shows you swinging and missing, the ball is never caught by the catcher, it just goes through his glove as if every strike was dropped.

Not annoying or anything, just funny. Anyone else have any weird or funny bugs to report?

acidburnlk

those were the two bugs that i noticed also, until i found a weird one today. I was pitching and i took a 15 minute break without pausing the game, and when i started to play again, the whole game had lost its sound. There was no music or anything even in the menus in dynasty mode. Just a strange little bug.

nickdawgy

I played another game on pro, and lost 13-7. I gave up 23 hits this time. I have no problems hitting homers it seems. My pitching sucks, though. Seven doubles, and one homer given up in the loss. All first pitch swinging by the computer.

What am I doing wrong?

nickdawgy

Played another pro game, and thought I'd gotten better, but I hadn't. Lost 23-5 to the Rangers. They had 31 hits, I had 6. Three of my hits were homers. They had 13 doubles, 2 triples, and 4 homers. They lead by 10 after 2 innings, and batted around twice. Two of their players hit for the cycle.

Do I just suck or something, or am I not doing it right? This is so unrealistic, it's making the game not fun.

Then I get an email saying one of my players became the first player to hit 10 homers this season and is on pace for 101.

ugh!

namrfumot

I played as the Red Sox against the Devil Rays (in pro level), and I lost 3-1. I find that pitch selection is HUGE.

Using Pedro if I didnt max out the pitch, even the crumby Devil Rays pitchers would crush it.

Hitting on the other hand...is an art I havent even begun to master. I just read that you can use the control stick to "direct" where you hit the ball...either flies, grounders, etc. maybe that will help me when I play tonight.

crow121

you have to max out the pitches and make sure you get the cursor back into the green section. if not, the computer will crush all the pitches. i'm on pro level and i've shut out the computer 4 games in a row, with the orioles.

jrutz

I haven't seen any reviews for ESPN yet. It just got delayed, maybe that has something to do with it. But I just checked GameRankings and they have no reviews from any of the magazings, so my thinking is that it hasn't been reviewed yet. There's still hope for WSB/ESPN fans!

The only thing I've seen was in Game Informer, and they broke down each feature and ranked the games based on feature availability and hype. MVP and ESPN were neck-and-neck in that article.

Jeremy

Setzer

What Crow121 said....you gotta make sure to hit the 'max' and then on the way back make sure you hit in the green area on all your pitches. The cold areas are good targets but I also try and throw balls just outside their red zone. Like if a hitter likes it inside...I'll come inside out of the zone and usually with a slider. If I go outside high I'll usually throw a change...been successful with it so far. This is definitely not a baseball game you can rush...you have to actually take the time and make pitches.

A-aron

I love rocking the batter .. pitching up, down, in, out. I've had a number of strikeouts where the batter just stood there and didn't take a swing.

I do wish that the frequency of the replays and misses could be set to "OFF" and not just "low."

Even my 4 year-old son likes this game, and has taken a few of my pitches out of the park. However, it is still hard for him to throw to the correct base, and just about every throw ends up at home plate.