Major League Baseball® 2K5 has totally revamped the series' pitching controls, making it smoother and more fun than ever. The new options create new opportunities that you can exploit tactically and strategically, but only if you know how to use them.
Choose your own style of pitching.
Major League Baseball 2K5 offers pitchers several different options to ply their trade. The default scheme is called K Zone, and while it looks like the most complicated, it's actually extremely intuitive. Position the circular icon anywhere you like, inside the strike zone or out. Once you choose your pitch, a large vertical and horizontal line appears, intersecting at the center of your icon target. Two small circular markers move down the lines toward the middle, and you must stop them by pressing a button as they approach the middle. The closer these markers are to the center when you stop them, the more accurate your pitch. If you nail each marker at the precise center of the icon, you are rewarded with a bit of vibration in your controller ... and with a pinpoint-perfect pitch.
K Zone pitching also lets you put a little more heat on the ball by holding down the selected pitch button. The longer you hold down the Split-Finger Fastball button, for example, the harder and faster that pitch is when you finally let go. The drawback to this extra power is a loss of control—the targeting icon gets progressively smaller as you hold the button down, making it a harder target to hit with the markers as they move along the crosshairs.
The game also allows you to pitch with a more traditional cursor placement system (position your cursor, choose your pitch, and it goes more or less where you tell it to), which is easier to implement but doesn't allow for the kind of precision a good K Zone pitch will have. You can also use a simple power meter scheme that determines how hard and fast you throw the ball, but also impacts your pitcher's stamina over the course of the game. Or you can choose the precision meter system pioneered by MVP Baseball™ 2003 that requires you to hit specific points on a rising and falling meter to determine the power and accuracy of your throw. While all this variety is great for replay value and for customizing the controls, the best system for this game is easily the K Zone pitching. It's intuitive, it's easy to learn but hard to master, and it allows for the kind of big-league pitching that professional teams expect.
All those Ks make it breezy out here.
Most baseball games allow for the fact that when you're playing against other people (either on the same screen or via XboxLive™), the fact that they can see where you're targeting the pitch is a major defensive handicap. Some games have the targeting cursor fade away and some don't show it at all, but instead rely on vibration to tell you when you're out of the strike zone.
The solution in Major League Baseball 2K5 is called fake targeting, and it's both original and effective. By pulling the right trigger as you're placing your target icon, you can secretly tell the game to aim for wherever the icon was when you did so. From there, all you have to do is keep moving the icon around to confuse your opponent and then let fly; the ball will go to the spot where the icon was when you pulled the trigger. You can set and reset the fake target any number of times, but only the last setting will count when it comes time to pitch. Fake targeting all but eliminates the problem without making you guess where you've aimed the pitch. There's just no way for your opponent to know where that ball is going to go, especially after you've faked him out a few times. If he can't rely on his reflexes and his eye to follow the pitch, he's just a strikeout waiting to happen.
The pick-off controls have not changed as dramatically as the rest of the pitching controls, but they're crucial when you're up against the game's new On Command baserunning. With this feature, the offensive player can switch from controlling the batter to controlling the runners on base. He can still tell the batter to swing, not to swing, or bunt, but for the most part he cedes control of the batter to the A.I. In exchange, the player takes direct control of the runners and can increase or decrease his lead with a great deal of precision. From there, the game allows the runner to quick steal at any time, or break for the base as soon as the pitcher goes into his stretch. If you give up hits and are facing bases with men on, be sure to keep them honest (and close to the bag) with frequent pick-off attempts. And if you see them jump, don't hesitate to go for the pitch out to give your catcher the best possible chance of throwing them out.
Look alive out there!
Major League Baseball 2K5 tests console pitchers, but it also gives them the tools they need to become stars. The next time you think about heading out to the mound, think about K Zone pitching and get ready to master the art of three up, three down.
