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Finally
a game where "Swing Batta! Swing!" is actually
a real gameplay mechanic! by
Vaughn Smith
January
25, 2006 - Turnabout
is fair play after all. After 2K Games managed to
snap up the official MLB license, EA was left feeling
a little like 2K and Midway must have felt when they
found out EA had gobbled up the official NFL license.
Not to be deterred, EA's idea people put their collective
imaginations together and came up with a working plan:
create an NCAA baseball game! The finished product
is a great spirtual successor to last years fantastic
MVP Baseball 2005 (one of CCC's
nominees for Top Sports Title of 2005) featuring
some excellent additions and tweaks which should please
MVP fans to no end. While the pro license will be
missed by some, it's not at all a dealbreaker in my
books considering you can play MVP with either college
or pro rules.
If
you're unfamiliar with college baseball, chances are
you're probably not in college...or Canadian. I resemble
both of those remarks but I know enough to get by
and I am quite familiar with the sport having ran
around a few thousand bases in my lifetime (give or
take a few thousand). Playing MVP the correct way,
fans might be a little confused by the changes to
the core game. First off, college baseball favors
aluminum bats over wood. Secondly, the game is played
with more caution than the pro leagues in terms of
take-out slides and collisions at home plate. Slides
have played a big part in terms how the game is played
- if you're running to a base and the baseman has
the ball and is waiting to tag you, you can slide
into the base in an attempt to touch the base with
your foot before he can tag you. A take-out slide
is far more dangerous because the slider attempts
to "remove" the baseman physically from
his position. Since players are wearing cleats this
move can cause some serious damage to the player on
the receiving end. Home plate collisions are also
a no no in the NCAA, and can result in an out, if
the player running to home could have avoided the
collision. This will result in a dead ball and all
previous runners will have to return to the base they
were past when the infraction occured. The NCAA's
10-run rule is also in effect which means that if
any team manages to achieve ten runs more than the
other team at any time, the game will be called in
their favor. If you'd rather play the game with MLB
pro rules, simply set your options to "summer"
and thy will be done.
Improvements
to batting and pitching make MVP a must have for accuracy
purists. Batting is now mapped to the R analog stick.
Load your swing by pressing down on the R analog stick,
and then once the ball is on its way, press up to
swing. It might take awhile to get used to the nuance
of this new mechanic but it will make all the difference
in your game once you do. For extra power and distance,
but less contact press and hold L trigger while swinging
for a Power Swing; press and hold R trigger for a
Contact Swing which allows you to make better contact
with the ball, but decreases your distance and power
- great for getting the ball in play after a hit and
run for example. The vantage point for batting has
also been moved back a little giving you a greater
visual advantage when it comes to picking off pitches...and
this is extremely important in NCAA 06.
Watching
the pitch is key (not that it wasn't before, mind
you..) as you will be given visual color clues a split
second after the pitch has been thrown which will
clue you in as to what kind of pitch is coming your
way:
- Fast
Ball = White
- Off-Speed
Pitch = Green
- Breaking
Pitch = Red
- Sinking
Pitch = Purple
- Knuckle
Ball = Orange
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