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Enter the Dugout of MVP Baseball 2004 with EA Sports Producers - Part 2

By Michael Lafferty

 

“We are very proud of this game and believe that users will have a fun and authentic baseball experience with every game.”

 

Editor’s note: This is the second in a multipart interview about EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004. For the first part, please see http://www.gamezone.com/news/02_26_04_02_10PM.htm

 

At the end of the month, the Major League Baseball season swings into life and the hopes and dreams of fans everywhere are again under fire.

 

But while fans of the game cannot do anything about how their favorite teams perform in real life, they certain can control the fate of the season in the cyber world of videogames.

 

That’s where EA Sports newest offering in the world of baseball videogames, MVP Baseball 2004, comes into play. But what is new, different or exciting about this year’s entry into the storied lineup?

 

For the answer to that we went straight to the source. Ben Brinkman and Nate McDonald, assistant producers for MVP Baseball 2004, took time from their busy schedules in order to talk about the title with GameZone.com.

 

 

So, on to part two of the interview on MVP Baseball 2004 …

 

Question: Tell us a little bit about the graphical content of this title. How where you able to capture players' signature elements? Will gamers have the opportunity to put themselves into the game? If the latter is possible, is there a skill series players will have to work through to qualify for the Bigs? Does the game feature any MLB legends?

 

Ben and Nate: Graphically, we pushed the hardware to its limits in getting the game looking as sharp and realistic as possible, and I think it shows from the first time you enter gameplay. Here is a list of some of the things to be on the look out for:

 

  • More than 500 real player heads. We created real heads for almost all of the players in the MLB, including managers and legendary players, and they look identical to their real life counterparts.

  • More than 275 authentic and licensed uniforms. We created all existing uniforms for all teams, as well as a very large number of minor league and retro uniforms.

  • Numerous body types for players and managers. In the real world, all players and managers come in all different shapes and sizes. We created a much wider range of body types to choose from this year so that each player will more closely resemble their real life counterpart.

  • A number of Classic stadiums. Each of these classic stadiums has been replicated with a specific era in mind during the period of time that teams played there. For example, Polo Grounds was modeled specifically to look like it is in the early ‘20’s. The lighting treatment, the crowd, the ads were all made to make you feel as though you are playing a game back during that particular era.

  • Minor League stadiums. These stadiums are where all our minor league teams play their games. Again, these were created to give you the feeling that you are actually playing in a minor league ballpark. The size of the stadium, the rural location that is noticeable when looking at the cityscape, the crowds, the scoreboard, etc.

  • Live dugouts and bullpens. As it was alluded to earlier, we have live dugouts and bullpens with real players mulling about and warming up when called on. There are PIP windows that can be brought up to see how well your pitchers are warming up in the bullpen so that you can track their progress.

  • More than 125 signature pitch styles and batting stances. Capturing these styles and stances involves extensive research on particular players to get good reference material that the motion capture talent can review beforehand so that they have a good grasp on how to mimic each player’s signature style. Generally, pitchers tend to be more time consuming than batters, because each pitcher has their own pitching mechanics that make their style look so unique, and trying to get someone to change their own mechanics to mimic other pitcher’s mechanics proves to be difficult at times, but we always manage to get what we want.

  • Numerous stadium animations. Some of these include: planes, blimps, moving vehicles in cityscape, animating sky based on wind speed and direction, and much more. This just gives the feeling that the setting and the ambience is that much more realistic. We even have the cut of the grass on the field change every so often when playing in Dynasty mode.

  • Multiple types of PIP windows. This year, we added live bullpen PIP windows so that pitchers warming up can be tracked to see if they are ready to be brought into the game yet. We also added check swing PIP windows so that show up when an appeal is sent down to the first or third base umpire to see if you went around on your swing.

  • 3D crowds.

 

Gamers will have the opportunity to put themselves into the game a couple of different ways. The first being through Create Player, which allows gamers to create themselves exactly the way they would like them to be by having the ability to adjust everything from their appearance top to bottom, to the equipment that they use and wear, to the ratings for all of their attributes. They then have the ability to take the created player into Dynasty Mode and the player will progress accordingly within the Dynasty Mode based on how well their performance stacks up against the rest of the players in the league. So if you start your created player in the majors, and he struggles at that level, his progression will be stunted until you send him down to the minors where he can learn to become a better player and play against players that are closer to his current level of talent. The second way is through Edit Player, which allows gamers to edit any player in AA or AAA that is not a member of the MLBPA. There are a number of players that fill the minor league rosters, mostly AA, that are fake, and gamers have the ability to change anything and everything they want for these players, including their appearance, equipment, name, number, etc. These players will then progress within Dynasty Mode based on the same factors that were noted for players that are created in Create Player.

 

We have a wide range of legendary MLB players in the game that we were able to acquire through the Cooperstown Collection license. Some of those players include Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Bob Gibson, Rollie Fingers, and many more, including legendary managers. In addition, we individually licensed some of well known legendary players that were not a part of the Cooperstown Collection license, including such players as Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb, just to name a few.

 

Q: Tell us a bit about the online game features. Will this game have a matching system?

 

Ben and Nate: Since this is our first year featuring PS2 online play, we wanted to keep it simple. After you’ve logged on successfully, you can just choose the Play Now option from the MVP Online menu, and you will be matched up with another user. Of course, you can challenge users in the online lobby the old-fashioned way – but you can add favorite opponents to your buddy lists or search for friends online with the EA Messenger. In addition to text chat, the PS2 version of MVP 2004 also features EA SPORTS Talk voice chat, provided both players are using a supported USB headset, and both have a broadband connection [we don’t support EA SPORTS Talk over 56k modem].

 

Our EA SPORTS Online feature for MVP 2004 on PC gives you the option to jump right into an online game using Quickmatch. If you choose to play with the preset Pro Play settings, these count for leaderboard standings. Or you can craft your own custom matchup and play just for fun on any level from Rookie to MVP difficulty, choose whether the strike zone fades, the throw meter is on or off, if you want to play with manual/assisted/automatic fielding – you can even use the DH rule with AL teams if you like. The PC version of MVP 2004 also has tournament play for AA and AAA teams, as well as for MLB teams.

 

 

Q: One of EA's signatures has been amazing sound to support the visuals. Has anything changed in this latest version? What sort of process do you take to make the sound elements sparkle?

 

Ben and Nate: Audio has greatly improved since last year. We have a very talented team of audio artists with background in film and music who really set out to make everything they do sound as authentic as possible. It really shows when you play our game on your regular TV or in a state of the art sound room. Let me run you through some of the enhancement to the audio for MVP Baseball 2004.

 

We think that last year our crowd audio was some of the best around and it’s gotten deeper and better this year. In MVP 2003 we had one crowd for all occasions. This year we have four different crowds that vary based upon attendance. If two last place teams are playing in Dynasty mode then the crowd is going to be sparse meaning the crowd reactions and base volume will also be much lower. On the other hand if the Red Sox and Yankees are playing in October at Fenway the crowd is going to be ear splitting. We recorded crowds at Safeco, SBC Park (on the night the Giants clinched the NL West) and Nat Bailey Stadium here in Vancouver, home of the Vancouver Canadians, one of Oakland’s “A” teams.

 

We’ve also added a bunch of new chants as well as differing levels of chants to match the crowd size. Another new audio feature is on-field player chatter. This is not a new concept but we’ve tried to do is really make it useful as opposed hearing the same thing over and over. Before the pitch the chatter tells you the number of outs and where the possible plays are. Once the ball is in play they will let you know where to throw the ball, or if you should just throw it to the cutoff man.

 

Umpires, hecklers, vendors and sound effects have also been upgraded from last year. We now have stadium specific sound effects like the train at Safeco or the jets flying over Shea Stadium to really make you feel like you are at the ball park.

 

PA has also been revamped. Last year we only announced the current batter. This year the PA does everything from announcing subs to announcing upcoming promotions at the ball park to playing sound effects like glass breaking on balls fouled straight back or a car crash sound for collisions at home plate.

 

Finally, we recorded a bunch of new play-by-play and color commentary with Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow of the San Francisco Giants.

 

MVP will be available in Dolby Pro Logic for PS2 and Gamecube, Dolby Digital for Xbox and this year PS2 and XBOX are THX compatible. We tried to tighten up our audio from last year but in the end we’ve almost doubled the amount of content and made it more intelligent all with the goal of making users feel like they are on the field.

 

Q: Has the control system changed at all? Is the AI intuitive and how does the game adjust the control levels to meet each player's skill level?

 

Ben and Nate: For the most part the control system stayed similar to last year, with the exception of the aforementioned changes to batting and the new addition of Big Play Control. Big Play Control is exactly like it sounds; players can control every movement of their player in the field. Using the right stick players can tell their fielders to stretch, dive, jump or slide to catch batted balls. Also, if the player is near a wall Big Play Control will allow the player to scale the wall to bring back foul balls or potential home runs. On the base paths Big Play Control allows users to adjust the size of base runners lead offs. Once the ball is in play Big Play Control gives the user control over our all new variety of head first and feet first slides. These slides give the player the ability to slide out of the way of tags, break up double plays or take out the catcher on a close play at home.

 

Another area the control system has changed is in the area of preloaded throws. There has been some debate in the forums on this subject so let me clear it up once and for all. Preloaded throws have been overhauled in MVP 2004 allowing the player to catch the ball and throw it much quicker using special preloaded throw animations. Preloading throws are very necessary when relaying the ball in from the outfield, trying to nail a runner on a slow roller or attempting to turn two. This is a big improvement over last year.

 

Regarding our AI we have implemented “Adaptive AI” that picks up on the user’s patterns and tendencies throughout the course of the game and adjusts accordingly. For example, if you play the CPU and tend to swing at pitches out of the strike zone the CPU will adjust and throw more pitches there until you show a better eye. This adaptive AI is scales by skill level meaning the CPU learns slower on rookie and very quickly on MVP and effects CPU batters as well. I don’t want to go into too much detail on this because what fun would it be if you knew the CPU’s strategy?

 

Q: What do you think is essential for a great baseball title, and how does MVP Baseball 2004 meet those criteria?

 

Ben and Nate: I believe that depth (in both gameplay, features and modes) and authenticity are crucial to making a great baseball title and I believe MVP Baseball 2004 will deliver depth to users the likes of which they’ve never seen in a baseball title. As an extension of depth, a great baseball title has to play a great game of baseball and we believe that MVP Baseball 2004 does that as well. We are very proud of this game and believe that users will have a fun and authentic baseball experience with every game.