Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood (ign.com)

- ign.com -

November 29, 2006 - The right analog stick is taking over sports games. From throwing punches to shooting baskets to hitting a baseball, the days of button mashing have quickly evaporated in favor of hit sticks, swing sticks, shot sticks, and highlight sticks.

Word is, MVP 07 NCAA Baseball is going to push the right analog controls up another notch by implementing the stick into your pitching mechanics.

The pitch stick? No, EA Sports is calling the new control Rock and Fire Pitching, as you do just that, rock the right analog stick back to windup, then press it forward to fire the ball.

Before the windup, select your pitch by pressing the corresponding button (X for fastball, square for curve, etc.), then as you pull the stick back, your pitcher winds up and raises his leg. There is a bar at the bottom of the screen that you need to watch as you press the stick forward to release the pitch. If you release the ball too late, the throw will be low. Release it too early, the ball will sail.

The more you pitch, obviously, the more tired your pitcher will become and the sweet spot of the release bar will shrink, making it more difficult for pitchers to throw the ball accurately.

Looks like the days of pressing buttons are clearly behind us.

Other MVP News of Note

Look for MVP to feature a few more teams than it did last season as MVP 06 included 128 schools, while MVP 07's number of teams has increased to 152 in 16 conferences. Additional ballparks will also be highlighted, including Arkansas' Charlie Baum Stadium, home of the Arkansas RBI girl cheerleaders (and yes, the RBI girls are in the game!). Add in school fight songs, and MVP should deliver a significant improvement in terms of capturing that college atmosphere.

Another improvement to the series deals with school customization. If your favorite team has had a lackluster recruiting year (or decade) you'll be able to enter the creation zone and tweak your rosters, giving your lineup more power or your pitchers better control. You can take any current NCAA team, then customize everything in order to create your own team, changing the school name, logo, location. You can even then go in and create your own stadium and players to get just the right look and feel you want before taking them on that long Road to Omaha.

And if you're looking for the real-life college baseball news, or news on just about any sport for the matter, MVP's ESPN integration delivers a real-time ESPN Ticker, radio updates every 20 minutes, and the latest news from ESPN.com. ESPN announcers Mike Patrick and Kyle Peterson also return to call the action and deliver the play-by-play, from the diving catch in center to the pickoff at first.

The only real disappointing news is the fact that the game isn't going to be released on the 360 or PS3. In fact, MVP 07 is only coming out for the PS2 (February 6 is the tentative release date). A somewhat mind-boggling move considering the fact that the MVP engine is still the best playing baseball engine in gaming (not to mention the terrible effort put forth last season by 2K Sports).

From what I hear, the MVP 06 game outsold expectations. So why no next-gen college baseball? I guess we'll have to wait until 08 to see if the MVP franchise lives on in next gen. But won't that give their competition enough time to finally catch up? Especially now that former MVP gameplay designer Ben Brinkman is heading up the MLB 2K7 team. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

Cover Announcement

In more positive news, EA Sports inked Angels sensation Jered Weaver to appear on the cover of MVP 07 and is set to announce the signing later this week. In case you didn't know the 6-7 Weaver before his breathtaking rookie season, the kid was an amazing college pitcher at Long Beach State, winning the Roger Clemens award in 2004 as the top pitcher in NCAA baseball. He was also an NCAA First-Team All-American, not to mention the Golden Spikes award winner (think Heisman of college baseball).

Seems like the perfect player to introduce Rock and Fire to the gaming world. Weaver tied a 56-year-old MLB record as a rookie, winning his first nine consecutive starts, before finally finishing the season 11-2 with a 2.56 ERA.

Things are looking up for fans of the series…if you own a PS2, that is. Everyone else will have to wait and see what Sony and 2K are able to deliver.