MVP Review

Posted on January 29, 2006 by billsportsgamer

Gshark posted it today.

And, no, I did not write the lead in saying it was the best college baseball game to come out in a long time. So no wise cracks. heh

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4 Responses to MVP Review

  1. Jon Diehl says:
    January 29, 2006 at 1:41 pm

    Bill -Very nice review. However, something you mentioned as an AI flaw isn’t exactly true. You mentioned it in the blog the other day and I didn’t comment, but then adding it to your official review I thought you might want to know.”Along these same lines, it makes no sense to try to steal 2nd base when you have a runner on 3rd and it’s the bottom of the 10th inning and the score’s tied. That’s pretty weak AI and something that EA needs to address next year.”Often, with a winning run on 3rd in the bottom of the last inning, a baserunner will take second base uncontested. It’s not even recorded as an official steal.I watch alot of MLB, I mean a ton, and I see this constantly at the bottom of an inning with the score tied (especially if you watch Tony LaRussa managed teams). That base runner is meaningless for the score, so many times the 1B won’t even hold him on, and if he goes for 2B, the catcher won’t even make a throw. Officially, it is called “catchers indeference”. The reason why the offense would want the runner at 2B, is to eliminate the force-play at 2B for a tough groundball up the middle. If they’re not being held, there’s no risk in taking the base… and the defense isn’t going to take the risk of a bad throw or a double steal and lose the game that way.

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  2. Craig Tompkins says:
    January 29, 2006 at 1:45 pm

    Jon beat me too it. I was just going to say the same thing. In addition the force out as Jon says, there is also the fact that if there is only 1 out, getting the guy on 2nd takes the double play out of the question which would end the inning without scoring the run.

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  3. bill says:
    January 29, 2006 at 2:22 pm

    Jon, yes, you’re correct about this in terms of a real baseball game. The problem is, and I should have made this point more clear in the review, is that in the game, you can throw that runner out and end the inning without much fear of a bad throw or a double steal. I ended two bottom of the 10th rallies this way, in the exact same situation. Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 outs, runner on 1st goes for 2nd, I gun him down, inning over — and so is the chance for the CPU to win the game with a base hit. I agree that this happens a lot of the real game, but in a videogame, the risk isn’t great enough to warrant that runner trying to move to 2nd — particularly if that runner is a slow as dirt 1B, which was the case in one of my games. The guy was out by 5 feet.

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  4. Jon Diehl says:
    January 29, 2006 at 5:14 pm

    Bill -Was your 1B holding the runner on at first? If so, he should have a pretty good chance of being thrown out, just like any other steal chance. You normally don’t see them take the free base if the 1B is holding the runner on. What’s stupid, and I’m guessing your point, is that the CPU would run in THAT situation (being held on).I haven’t seen it yet, but I haven’t played enough games that have gone into extra innings either.

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