Major League Baseball® 2K5 brings Xbox® gamers real baseball action at a bargain price. Presented with all the insight and style of a real television broadcast, this title improves on all the features that made the franchise a hit, while also adding some new twists that will give Xbox baseball fanatics plenty to shout about.
A great night for baseball.
Major League Baseball 2K5 features complete and fully licensed rosters from every MLB team (as well as their home stadiums). Take the field with any of the major league teams or build up your own squad in the extensive franchise mode. You can take your team online and compete in tournaments against other Xbox Live™ gamers, or you can explore single-player modes that cover everything from beating a preset challenge in a specific game scenario to supervising a multi-season career as a manager.
No matter how you choose to play, you'll discover the graphics and animations are smoother and sharper than ever and the crowd noise is louder, rowdier, and more authentic. There are now picture-in-picture boxes for each occupied base so you can keep track of what your runners are doing, and the lead off and steal commands are smoother and easier to implement. The broadcast presentation really struts its stuff during close plays, when the instant replay Chase Cam puts you right in the thick of the action as the play unfolds.
You can customize almost every aspect of the game until you're playing the kind of baseball you want to play. Along with basic settings like the weather conditions, time of day, wind strength, innings per game, and how smart the A.I. is, Major League Baseball 2K5 lets you customize small but crucial details like the degree of pitcher fatigue, player confidence, and how long a fielder can sprint in order to make the play.
Ready to earn your Golden Glove?
The controls have been significantly overhauled to give hitting, pitching, and fielding a more realistic feel. Major League Baseball 2K5 offers five separate pitching schemes to choose from, including two different meter variants, the classic cursor style, and two versions of the game's new K Zone pitching.
In the K Zone setups, the pitcher positions a circular icon where he wants the ball to go. After the type of pitch is selected (each MLB pitcher has his own list of pet pitches), a large crosshair appears on the screen with two moving markers. The markers move toward the pitcher's target and you must tap the button when the marker is directly over the target. If you correctly line up each marker, your pitch will go precisely where you told it to go. The farther from the mark you are, the less control you have, and if you totally blow it, you give the hitter a golden opportunity to blast the ball out of the park. The K Zone interface is new and unique, but once you get the basics down, you can baffle the most keen-eyed of batters.
Hitting well requires both good timing and a good eye. You can swing for contact alone or try for the fences, but if you don't time it right and follow the ball's trajectory, you're only going to whiff. By manipulating the thumbstick to follow the incoming ball, you improve your chances of solid contact. If the pitcher totally hangs one out for you, you enter the new feature known as Slam Zone: The action enters a kind of slow motion situation as you and the pitcher both mash the buttons to fill up or drain your special Slam Zone hitting meter before the ball reaches the plate. The more juice you have in the meter, the farther the ball will go once you hit it. You may never get a better chance at a record-breaking home run distance, so when you enter the Zone, make sure you're ready.
Master the mound.
Major League Baseball 2K5 has an impressive list of new and improved features and one of the sharpest presentations found in any sports game, period. Between the incredibly deep franchise mode, extensive game customization, and online competition, baseball fanatics should have their hands full for the rest of the season.
