MVP 06 NCAA Baseball (PlayStation 2, 2006)

This game is one step in the right direction. For too many years baseball games have been content with the so-so upgrades and lack of improvements have really kept me from playing them, aside from renting to see if there had been improvements.

Finally a game with the long over due improvements hits the shelves and it’s largely under rated by most everyone. I know it took me three of four tragic losses to get used to swinging the bat with the right thumb stick, but hey I finally got it down and you can too. The new base throwing and fielding is great. It makes you concentrate on what your doing not just press a button and it happens. The bull pen and bench options are a touch of the R2 button away. Menus are easy to read and all important information is quickly on the screen without loading times. The flow of the game is quick and most teams on the normal difficulty tend to try to win, although real difficulty is only found on the higher levels.

The player ratings are very close to true on the teams I follow, and the players do seem to make mistakes on their own. This game feels like true armature baseball. Most teams are not stacked to greatness although some like Texas and Florida are. There are about 10 real stadiums in this game including The College World Series Field in Omaha, Baylor’s and Texas’ but most of smaller teams are using generic stadiums. The option to create a stadium and to pick it before every home game is a plus. I personally created all the Big 12 stadiums that were not already in the game.

Graphics could be better but I think they are better than this years MLB game by far. Most of the fielding and running models are excellent and looks more realistic than most.

One last thing I like about NCAA over the MLB games. The number of games till, the end of each season. WOW I mean I can actually get into the future seasons on the NCAA game. 40 games a season as the norm takes a lot less time than the 162 to get to post season in MLB. Sure it means my players are not iron men of the diamond, but I get to do all the things that makes dynasty games fun quicker than you could with the MLB games.

Every Monday on the schedule you have a chance to work threw your recruiting, similar to the NCAA March Madness. This constant recruiting keeps you looking forward to the next season, and keeps you working to keep winning.

Enjoy it; I think it is the best Baseball we can hope for this year.