MVP Baseball 2005

MVP Baseball 2005 is a baseball video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It features Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez on its cover. It holds the full Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, and Major League Baseball Players Association licenses. Like the previous installments, the game includes real-life announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who are best known for their roles as the announcers for the San Francisco Giants.

Later in May 2005, a PlayStation Portable version of the game, titled MVP Baseball, was released.

Gameplay
MVP Baseball 2005 consists of 30 Major League Baseball teams and includes all licensed players within the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Barry Bonds notably does not appear in the game due to his withdrawal from the MLBPA's licensing agreement. His "replacement" is a fictional player named Jon Dowd. Dowd bears no resemblance in appearance to Bonds, but his skills mimic those of Bonds. Similarly, Kevin Millar, who was not a member of the MLBPA, is also absent from the game, replaced by a fictional player named Anthony Friese.

The game features authentic minor league teams and actual minor league players, including double-A and triple-A-level farm teams. Additionally, 2005's installment includes ball clubs from the High Single-A ranks, providing each MLB team with three levels of minor league farm clubs. Unlockable features include two legends teams, 63 legendary players, 15 classic stadiums, five fantasy parks, and more than 100 retro uniforms. Rosters are current as of January 12, 2005, and the game includes the then-new Washington Nationals, along with their then-temporary home, RFK Stadium. New rosters could be downloaded to the Xbox and PS2 versions via their online play menus.

MVP Baseball 2005 includes an exhibition mode, a manager's mode, two different franchise modes, a scenario editor, and a variety of baseball-themed practice games. In the exhibition mode, players can quickly set up a game against another team, selecting a starting pitcher and adjusting the line-up if needed. The manager mode simulates gameplay based on players' choices before the opening pitch, with outcomes displayed in a running box score rather than visually depicted swings or plays. The scenario editor allows players to adjust 20 different variables, such as the teams involved, inning, count, and base situations.

A minor glitch in Duane Kuiper's commentary concerns switch-hitters currently at bat, where he may claim the batter hits better from one side despite conflicting power and contact stats. For instance, although Lance Berkman's default power and contact stats are higher when batting left-handed, Kuiper may assert that Berkman hits better from the right side. Another discrepancy occurs when Kuiper mentions Hack Wilson setting the MLB single-season runs scored record with 192 in 1930, whereas Wilson actually set the MLB single-season RBI record with 191 in 1930. Additionally, the uniforms of the single-A Wilmington Blue Rocks are misspelled, with an extra "L" in "Wilmington".

Franchise modes
Both the dynasty and owner's modes keep track of events and statistics. Injuries and suspensions occur throughout the season, requiring the players to adjust line-ups accordingly. Other teams will offer trades, and some players' own players will ask to be traded. On the statistics side, the game keeps a running tally of the current and previous season statistics in 64 different categories, along with 120 years' worth of league-leading stats.

Dynasty Mode
Dynasty Mode enables players to draft and manage a team for up to 120 full seasons, including spring training games. Responsibilities include setting line-ups, making trades, and shuffling players up and down through the team's three minor league farm clubs. Team chemistry, rivalries, and player moods are also variables in the dynasty mode that can be strengthened or weakened by win–loss records, player salaries, playing time, and position in the batting order or pitching rotation. The players' moods can be monitored via face icons in each player's profile. If a player is unhappy or wants to be traded, the player may send a message in MVP Inbox asking the players if they could consider their desires. The game gives the player a changing series of 1 and 3-year goals to live up to. Meeting these goals boosts managerial rating and team chemistry. Failing to do so has the opposite effect. Games can be played in real-time, or chunks of the season can be simulated in one fell swoop. The dynasty mode in MVP Baseball 2000 had a bug that made it impossible for computer-generated players to evolve into A-list superstars unless the players actually played 95% of the team's games. That was fixed in the 2005 release. It's now possible to give players an added stats bonus by playing the batting and pitching mini-games during spring training.

Owner Mode
Owner Mode is similar to Dynasty Mode, with the addition of ownership and financial responsibilities for the team, similar EA's Madden NFL games. Here, players can set ticket and concessions prices, hire staff, buy, and sell new stadium shops, schedule promotional giveaways, and various stadium upgrades (such as scoreboards, additional seats, home run fireworks, and luxury boxes). The goal is to manage the team successfully for 30 years. There are a variety of player, team, and financial reports to look at that show team's progress on a daily and yearly basis. In Owner Mode, players may design a custom ballpark for their team. The ballpark editor lets the players pick from a set list of various locations, field shapes, and seat colors, as well as specific wall, grass, and dirt designs. It also lets players add on additional seating levels and grandstands throughout the course of their careers.

Features
The most prominent new feature in the game is the "Hitter's Eye" system, which turns the baseball different colors in the pitcher's hand (white for fastballs, red for breaking pitches, green for off-speed pitches, pink for sinkers and orange for knuckleballs) and leaves a trail as the ball flies through the air toward the plate to aid in hitting, which game developers said had been too difficult in previous versions. In addition to the Hitter's Eye, an Owner Mode feature and pitching and hitting Mini-Games were added. Other minor features include the ability for the managers to argue with the umpires at any time (automatic ejection for arguing balls and strikes) and a slow-motion overhead view of the plate that can be accessed after every pitch (pitch/swing analysis) to see pitch location or the batter's timing. Games can also be rained out, forcing players to play doubleheaders. Minor league teams from the California, Carolina, and Florida State Leagues (High A) were added to their respective teams. However, most Minor League rosters are incomplete and feature developer-created replacement players. The game also supported online play, but as of 2008, the servers for the Xbox and PS2 versions are unavailable.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for MVP Baseball 2005 includes nine songs, all by different artists. The game was the first release for four of these songs, from artists ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Bravery, Hot Hot Heat, and Louis XIV. The soundtrack is widely held as one of the best in-game soundtracks of the 2000s.

Reception
By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of MVP Baseball 2005 had sold 1 million copies and earned $29 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 55th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2001 in that country. Combined console sales of MVP Baseball games released in the 2000s reached 3.5 million units in the United States by July 2006. In 2006, the game held the 98th spot on IGN's reader's choice top 100 games.

Critical response
The game was met with positive to average reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 87.53% and 80 out of 100 for the GameCube version; 87.10% and 07 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version;  86.96% and 86 out of 100 for the Xbox version;  84.57% and 85 out of 100 for the PC version;  and 66.78% and 67 out of 100 for the PSP version.

Awards
The game was given an award for the best sports video game of 2005 from X-Play. In May 2013 the game ranked fourth on a "Best sports video games" list by ESPN.

MVP Baseball 2005 was a finalist for PC Gamer US's "Best Sports Game 2005" award, which ultimately went to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06.

Legacy
After EA lost the license to make MLB video games, EA ended support for the game. Despite this, the game's modding community continues support and releases annually updated rosters and alternative leagues (e.g. MVP Caribe, MVP Mods, etc.).