How Good is this Game?

[Jackal5150]

Hey guys.

I was a big fan of High Heat and was seriously distraught when it was discontinued. I have been waiting for a worthwhile baseball game since and noticed a lot of the Mod makers for HH are now creating mods for MVP which leads me to believe this might be what I am looking for. I play PC.

Would someone who has played both series give me a little description of MVP and how it holds up to HH? I read numerous reviews but would like to hear from actual players. Is the gameplay and sense of running a ballclub similar to HH? Is the interface better than the last HH which was basically a console port? Ect.

I am suppose to get the game tomorrow but would like to hear what you guys have to say about it.

Thanks much. :D

[Stix]

I used to play High Heat 03 or 04(can't remember anymore) and then switched over to MVP last year and was amazed how much better. Not in just one thing but basically everything. Graphics, pitching, batting, all of it is more advanced and over all better quality. Plus when you add in all the work the modders do here it is top of the charts. I would definatly recommend getting MVP.

[MarkB]

I'm an old High Heat guy. I played 2003 and 2004 and IMO, MVP owns High Heat. Sure, there are things that High Heat did better than MVP and there are things that MVP does better that High Heat did, but overall, I don't think High Heat can stand up to MVP.

It really depends on what kind of game you want. If you want strong stats based information, or are a sim or manage only type player, you'd most likely prefer High Heat 2003 or before (2004 was terrible, IMO), but if you want a solid game on the field, I'd take MVP 2005 every time.

[excremento]

Another long-time High Heater who LOVES MVP. I used to call Triple Play "Triple A", but this game is sweet.

I've been using Pared's sliders for the All Star level (with a couple personal tweaks), and the game play has been sweet. Get it.

[Jackal5150]

Hmm sounds promising then.

What I always liked about HH was those games were very good on the field and behiind the scenes. {except the last one} It sounds like this game is similar except better gameplay and graphics.

Also anyone who played HH knows that all the games in that series were sort of "incomplete" out of the box. Tunefiles had to be set to fix gameplay and everyone added mods that made the game a LOT better. I thought they were close to getting the game perfect with 2004 but they fell short when they ported the console interface over which made it almost unplayable imo. Then 3DO went out of business :roll:

Glad to hear EA picked up where 3DO left off. I was a little worried knowing the Triple Play series wasn't very good.

Thanks for your guy's replies.

[telemudcat]

MarkB summed it up pretty good. Although I think if the HH series would have continued on, it'd be a tough call on which one is better. I've played over 150 games of MVP, and just last night I saw a couple of things I havent seen before. Compared to HH, MVP still seems a little "arcade-y". (I think thats due to the interface) If youre a sim or manage only type guy, I'd go with OOTPBB.

Bottom line, you wont be dissapointed with MVP, as long as you get your sliders to your liking.

[Jackal5150]

" If youre a sim or manage only type guy, I'd go with OOTPBB. "

Nope I like to actually play the games. But I also like to run things after they are played. Sort of like how you would play Madden Football.

[capa]

I, too, was enamored of HH in its day. But it has the advantage of being looked back upon with slightly rose-colored glasses these days. There were alot of issues with the game...remember how bunting did not work in the first few versions? I remember tweaking tune files for weeks and months to get gameplay realistic, as did many other folks.

It was a great game for its time, but required as much tweaking, if not more, than MVP. I think this release of MVP nailed the on the field stuff...better than any game before it. yes, a little tweaking is required here and there, but it is pretty darn playable and realistic out of the box. Not 100%, but no game has provided that yet.

I spent 3 years with High Heat tweaking and playing it to death, doing oldtime rosters, etc. MVP has me won over now. It is the better game on the field.

C

[mrtuck73]

I was a HH fan as well and the one part of MVP that in my opinion is lacking compared to HH is the stats. I liked in HH that when you looked at the "leaders" in a particular category, it showed all players top to bottom and did not have a cutoff point. I still think a baseball game should have attainable all-time stats but maybe a future game will incorporate that. To me baseball is about thestats (just my 2 cents)!

[Jackal5150]

"I, too, was enamored of HH in its day. But it has the advantage of being looked back upon with slightly rose-colored glasses these days. There were alot of issues with the game...remember how bunting did not work in the first few versions? I remember tweaking tune files for weeks and months to get gameplay realistic, as did many other folks. "

Yeah I remember once bunting a double over the first baseman's head

I was a big tweaker type guy too. Had to get that as perfect as possible. Seemed like as soon as I did, the new game version would come out and I had to start all over.

[spitoon]

I think the advances in technologies have put MVP ahead of HH. If you were able to go back and compare HH2K3 with an "MVP" from the same era, HH would win hands down. Conversely, if HH had continued and there was an HH05 I'd imagine it would be better than MVP 2005...

Since we can't do that I'll jump on and say that MVP 2005 is a worthy substitute, and in fact beats out HH in many aspects.

I do miss the spreadsheet style interface though :(

[NYM]

Ive played HH 2004 and it doesnt match up to MVP. Graphics are more fine tuned and its just great. You guys summed it up great. I seriously suggest u get this game if u want a good one.

[Jackal5150]

Oh ill defenitly have it tomorrow.

How bad is MVP's Interface though? Hopefully better than HH2004's which was so clunky, you couldn't see half the stats on the page without scrolling around. Really killed that game for me. :(

[RiceBoy]

The MVP interface still requries you to "scroll around" to see the stats, but I still think it's better than HH 2004. The HH 2004 interface was the worst inferface I had EVER experienced in a PC game. I'm not sure if the mouse was even usable in it. I just remember there was that on screen keypad and I had to scroll through the letters and numbers and select using my gamepad, exactly like if I was playing on a console; keyboard was completely useless! Try editing or creating a player without the ability to use your keyboard or mouse! That turned me off HH completely, after loving 2002 and 2003. And MVP at the time, IMO, wasn't quite up to snuff, so I abandoned baseball gaming. Until MVP 2005 came along, and now I'm back and loving it.

[Jackal5150]

Heh yeah that is right, I forgot HH2004 was Mouse Driven on top of being clunky. It was too bad too because I thought they got the on the field play close to perfect once you modded it and tweaked the Tune. They just rushed it out the door and didn't bother to use the spread sheet format they used in every edition prior. It still irritates me to this day.

Thanks again for the replies guys. Ill shut up now. I just wanted to hear what you all had to say about MVP. Im lookiing forward to getting it tomorrow. Sounds like a winner.

[rickel2]

mvp 2005 is a great game! don't hesitate to buy it. it's truly the best.

[MrGravyard]

So HH 2003 was better than HH 04? In what ways?

[jbmagicfan]

So HH 2003 was better than HH 04? In what ways?

no

HH 2004 was better than hh 2003.

HH 2003 had the foul ball bug. there was no foul ball hit in the game

[endeavor]

MVP 2005 the only way to go, great fun this game!! 8)

[excremento]

no

HH 2004 was better than hh 2003.

HH 2003 had the foul ball bug. there was no foul ball hit in the game

I think the best HH was 2002...the one that came out in the spring of 2001.

[spitoon]

I think the best HH was 2002...the one that came out in the spring of 2001.

I agree HH2K2 was the best. I didn't play HH2003. 2004 was good, but the clunky console port interface ruined it to some degree for me. I suppose I've become used to that to a degree since the MVP interface is similar, except you can use the mouse.

I think the only reason people would say that 2003 was better than 2004, is if you liked the 'spreadsheet style' stat interface (which I did). 2003 was the last year with that style of interface IIRC.

[Jackal5150]

I didn't buy HH2003 either because every review I read said it was no diferent than 2002 except they added one new pitch and a few graphic changes which would get modded over anyway.

HH2002 was great and the high point of the series imo. I remember I had that sucker modded to the gills. Had every uniform and stadium ever made saved in folders, had the Tune file perfect and had loads of sound effects and songs.

[MrGravyard]

Yea I have 02 & Loved playing it. then got 04 which is ok But I love to be able to print stats & such.

[CHOWDERHEADSLC]

HH2002 was great and the high point of the series imo. I remember I had that sucker modded to the gills. Had every uniform and stadium ever made saved in folders, had the Tune file perfect and had loads of sound effects and songs.

Same here - that was a great game. - I had held off on getting MVP 2005 because of some of the issues that were being listed. I am glad that I went ahead a picked it up though - it has been very fun and is proving to be one of the best that I have played in a long time. If I start "craving" serious sim/stats than I break out my OOTP 6 and get my fill.