Extra Bases: ESPN 2K5 Baseball

By Jonathan Berohn

Being a baseball fan and recreational player, I wholeheartedly agree that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports (although you could make a strong case that teaching kids to hit a baseball is even harder.but let's not go there).  Unfortunately, that same level of difficulty when it comes to hitting often makes its way directly to baseball video games-and going 0 for 4 over and over again doesn't sell a lot of video games.  The makers of ESPN 2K5 Baseball  realize this, though, and built the game around an amazingly simple-and exceptionally fun-hitting interface.

Hitting

In baseball games I've played in the past, you often had to try to maneuver a three-dimensional target on a two-dimensional television screen to hit a ball moving through too many planes to keep straight.  Grounding out to short was a minor victory.  This particularly bothered me since I love baseball, but had to turn to other sports games to avoid total frustration.

ESPN 2K5 Baseball gets around this kiss of death by limiting how you have to aim at the ball.  Basically, the game shows you approximately where the pitcher is aiming the pitch, and you try to move your batting target to that area.  To keep things from getting too simple for hitters, the batting target is invisible until the pitch leaves the pitchers hand-you have to guess where you are.  It sounds a lot harder than it is really.  In any case, unlike a lot of other baseball games, you DON'T have to get your target exactly on the ball to make contact.  Better still, ESPN 2K5 has a really cool "fat pitch" feature.

If you guess right and do manage to line up your hitting target with the pitch location-you guessed it-fat pitch.  What this means is that you don't have to worry about location at all.  You just need to crank up the power and swing when the screen tells you to.  If you have a power hitter up, you're looking at 400+ feet of home run coming soon (singles hitters can also go deep, but you're likely to see gap shots as well).

Game Play

The rest of the game play is also quite fun.  2K5 has some built in features to let you make spectacular home-run robbing catches without mastering physics (this was my 6-year old son's favorite part of the game, so that ought to give you an idea of how user friendly the controls are).  2K5 also gives you a tremendous amount of control over each fielder and base runner.

One feature that is particularly handy is a smart throw.  That lets you either throw the ball to wherever the AI determines is the best bet, or you can opt for manual control for more precision.  The only feature I don't much like is the base running.  Both my son and I had trouble getting one guy to take an extra base while holding others.  It's doable-but it takes a lot of practice.

Extras

In addition to almost all the current players (the omission of Barry Bonds is glaring-but you can create him), 2K5 comes with a player and roster editor so you can get the latest rookies and make roster moves to keep up with your favorite team.

The graphics in 2K5 are excellent, and you can even choose to play in several old stadiums-being a Pirates fan, I love having Forbes Field as an option.  2K5 also has several authentic old-time and all-star rosters you can choose from (Joe Morgan flaps his back arm, and Willie Stargell circles his bat), and there is a great home run derby.