Extraordinarily Ambiguous Sports

I couldn't resist; I just picked up EA's MVP Baseball 2005. I was a big fan of the way the game played last season, despite the lack of steals and walks, the computer manager warming up pitchers curiously early in the game, and the notorious "lefty bug." In addition, the way the batting model worked, versus its description in the manual, was hard to decipher. To get the best contact, you needed to swing in the direction or location of the pitch. However, the manual indicated that you swing up to lift the ball, down to hit it on the ground, and so forth. The manual also cautioned that swinging down on high pitches made them hard to hit, and vice versa. Hmm... Do I aim for the pitch to make good contact, or do I swing up to go for the long ball? I never really figured it out last year.

Ah, but it's 2005, and the developers have had a whole year to fix the problems from last year. Thankfully, just about everything I listed above has been corrected, at least according to some reputable and discriminating gamers from the Sports Gaming Nation and Digital Sportspage. The one enigma remains the batting model. To quote from the whopping 12-page manual itself:

Page 2 - "Moving L in the appropriate direction based on pitch location during your swing changes the way the ball reacts off the bat. To take an uppercut swing, move L [up left, up middle, up right] while swinging. This increases the chances of hitting a fly ball, but also increases your chances of poor quality contact if the pitch isn't up in the zone."

Page 10 - "Keep in mind that the EA Sports Pure Swing System tells hitters how to hit the ball, not where to swing. For example, moving L up for a high pitch performs an uppercut swing - it doesn't aim for the pitch up in the zone."

So, which is it? Do you use the stick to aim for the pitch, or to direct the ball? Thanks for clearing that up, EA. Oh, and thanks for the whopping 12 page manual, minus pages 1 (table of contents) and 12 (credits). I'm sure anyone not familiar with your game will be able to master it with that veritable encyclopedia of information.

Despite the above-mentioned issue, I'm excited to sink my teeth into this title. I'll post some impressions in the future, once I get a handle on things.