MVP 06: NCAA Baseball

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MVP 06: NCAA Baseball is the fourth edition of the baseball series developed by Electronic Arts. Because of Electronic Arts' loss of the Major League Baseball license to Take Two Interactive, which now has the exclusive MLB license, the publishers decided to transition the MVP series to feature NCAA Baseball, joining the publisher's NCAA football and basketball lines. MVP 06 was released on January 18, 2006 for the Xbox and Playstation 2 consoles.

1 Changes to Gameplay
2 NCAA Stadiums
3 Conferences featured in the game
4 Soundtrack

[edit] Changes to Gameplay

While MVP 06 offers several large changes to gameplay in batting and fielding to reflect the switch to the collegiate game (aluminum bats, fielding by collegiate players), pitching remained essentially unchanged. Also, MVP 06 offers the player an option to change hitting and fielding to "classic" mode, reverting the controls to those of MVP Baseball 2005.

[edit] Load and Fire Batting

MVP 06 offers a brand new method for controlling the batter called "load and fire" batting. The player takes control of the batter's body by pressing and holding a button to lift the hitter's leg at the correct time so the hitter can use his hips to rip into the ball.

[edit] Precision Throw Control

The game also features a new precision throw control. Players use the right analog stick in order to throw the ball to the bases. If a player holds the button too long, he can overthrow the base, and if he does not hold the throw button long enough the ball could fall short, likely causing an error.

[edit] Create-a-Ballpark Mode

In addition to the features mentioned above, the game has also improved the "create-a-ballpark" mode. The player can now choose the distance and height of the walls. In order to attract MVP Baseball 2005 fans, there are preset ballparks with names such as Boston which has similar dimensions to Fenway Park (since 1990, the host of the baseball version of the Beanpot, and for 2009, the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament) for nearly every Major League ballpark.

It should be noted that in the future, some Major League parks may be required to reflect the increasing trend of college games at professional parks, such as Turner Field, which hosts a Georgia-Georgia Tech game, Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros College Classic, the Metrodome, part-time home of the University of Minnesota and host of the Dairy Queen Classic, and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, which alternates as host of the Big 12 Conference tournament with AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City's Bricktown Ballpark may be one of several Minor League Baseball stadiums that could be required to reflect the trend of hosting important games and tournaments at minor league stadiums. Other minor league stadiums that could be included are Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium in Norwich, Connecticut,home of the Big East tournament, Regions Park near Birmingham, Alabama, home of the Southeastern Conference tournament, and Zephyr Field in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, the current home park for Tulane while the Green Wave's on-campus facility, Turchin Stadium, undergoes renovations (Zephyr Field also hosts LSU's annual games in New Orleans with Tulane and the University of New Orleans). Zephyr Field also occasionally hosts the conference tournaments for Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference.

[edit] NCAA Stadiums

Notable stadiums in the game include:

Rosenblatt Stadium (home of the College World Series)
Arizona (Kindall Field)
ASU (Packard Stadium)
Arkansas (Baum Stadium)
Baylor University (Baylor Ballpark)
California State-Fullerton (Goodwin Field)
Clemson University (Doug Kingsmore Stadium)
Florida State University (Dick Howser Stadium)
Georgia Tech (Russ Chandler Stadium)
LSU (Alex Box Stadium)
Miami (Mark Light Field)
Ole Miss (Swayze Field)
Mississippi State (Dudy Noble Field)
Nebraska (Hawks Field)
Notre Dame (Frank Eck Stadium)
Rice (Reckling Park)
Stanford (Sunken Diamond)
USC (Dedeaux Field)
St. John's (The Ballpark at St. Johns)
Tennessee (Lindsey Nelson Stadium)
Texas (Disch-Falk Field)

[edit] Conferences featured in the game

[edit] Soundtrack

All of the bands on the soundtrack are signed to Victory Records. Songs are listed in alphabetical order by artist.

Artist	Song	Album
Action Action	“Paper Cliché”	An Army Of Shapes Between Wars
Aiden	“Die Romantic”	Nightmare Anatomy
Bayside	“Devotion And Desire”	Bayside
Hawthorne Heights	“This Is Who We Are”	If Only You Were Lonely
Silverstein	“Smile In Your Sleep”	Discovering the Waterfront
The Forecast	“These Lights”	Late Night Conversations
theAudition	“Appr