I love to play (on the PS2 mainly), but I've hated Baseball and Basketball games for the longest time.

I like to play NBA live 95 for the Genesis, but haven't like a NBA or NCAA game since. Anything to suggest?

As for baseball, I'm from the old school. I like my NES emulator. Swing with A, pitch with A, faster pitch by holding down, changeup holding up. Run the bases with B and the arrows.

Anything this simple and fun today? I hate all the new games and how many damn buttons you have to push just to throw a pitch or take a swing. I'm just looking for some good advice here.

NBA games are kinda worthless I think, and haven't bought one since NBA Live 2001 where I dominated on All-Star.

For baseball... nothing is simple anymore, although ESPN 2K5 is VERY addictive. You'll play for hours to unlock all the bonus stuff, GM career mode is quite indept, and who can resist playing at legendary ball parks like Shibe Park, the Polo Grounds, and Olympic Stadium? :)

My personal opinion....

NBA 2K5 is one of the better basketball games out.......

MVP Baseball is awesome this year too.

MVP and the 2K games are both excellent as far as baseball goes. I'd say you won't go wrong with either.

NBA I'd say your best bet is probably 2k.

You guys ever tried playing Tecmo Super Baseball? That's a fun game. Playing is rather simple: to pitch, press on the control pad for a pitch (i.e., up button for a fastball), and then press A to pitch.. For hitting, same thing. Playing on an emulator, I went 127-35 with the Orioles, and won the World Series, 4-2 over the Expos. Pretty good, considering I started off the season 2-9 and in last place. Had big winning streaks thoughout the season.

No matter what the game, on medium difficulty, I still tear asses apart. In my ESPN 2K5 Devil Ray Season (Drafted teams), I'm 32-1, pitched a perfect game with Dontrelle Willis, a 2-hitter with Jake Peavy, and have MVP contenders Juan Pierre and Rocco Baldelli... and Tino Martinez, only because I make him hack the ball all the time. :)

Johan Santana has an ERA of 0.63 (3 ER in 48 IP!) and Dontrelle, since a horrible start in season (7 ER loss), has allowed only 3 ER in last 6 starts.

I only played the original Tecmo Baseball for NES. That was back in the day when you had to move your whole outfield at the same time.

I had Ken Griffey Jr. baseball for SNES but I hated those games.

I have both of the Ken Griffey Jr. games for the SNES. Owned Winning Run for about 9 years now, and I still haven't finished it. As for the other one, it's good, but don't ever try to play on auto-field. You will be screwed over by your infielders. For example, say you lead 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, and one out. The batter hits the ball to the shortstop, and instead of converting the double play like he should, he'll throw the ball home, where the throw will ALWAYS be late, and a run will score. And they'll keep doing that until they get a friggin' clue in their head.

Yeah I remember how horrible the auto fielding was. I think the last straw with that was when I realized that not even 4 or 5 run leads were safe in the 9th.

Auto fielding caused the majority of my losses. After I realized it was doing more harm than help, I went with manual fielding.. Managed to make the playoffs with the Orioles.

Well, went for it, after watching so much baseball, I just had to play. I was fully prepared to get MLB 2k5 for the price tag, but checked a few message boards before I went to get it and alot of people complained about bugs. I was gonna let it slide, but then I saw that MVP was only 10 bucks more, and I went with it.

I fucking LOVE it. Having not played a baseball video game since SNES, I am blown away at virtually everything in this game. Simple animations, the pitching system, the throwing system (Diamond on the controller, diamond on the field, corresponding button -- how the fuck did no one think of this till now).

The only problem I'm having is that I'm playing on Pro, pitching is really dominating. Haven't quite had a no-no yet, but had 2 one-hitters in the first 20 or so games of the year. I s'pose that isn't rediculous or anything, but I feel a bit too dominant on the mound. Of course, I'm the Mets, who have a real nice rotation with Pedro, Glavine, Traschel, among others.

Hitting started out real rough for me, and is getting better. I seem to get plenty of hits really, but getting runs in is a problem. My biggest game of the year is 6 runs. The most I've given up is 4. I feel like I'm having a great sim though, even though I'm on a 9 game win streak.

Feel realistic?

First PS2 game I picked up was Triple Play 2001. Man, was THAT a heaping load of dung! It was impossible to manufacture runs, and even at high difficulties, you'd finish with 6 or 7 HR's a game.

I got Acclaim's All-Star Baseball as a bonus for the MLB Extra Innings package in 2003. It's probably the best baseball simulator I've played. Guys go through slumps and hot streaks and you have to vary your pitches to strike guys out. Has nice little touches, like bunting (the red/white/blue banners) on Opening Day, ejections for beaning, throwbacks uniforms, and minor league prospects. You can also relocate your team, allocate salaries and build a new stadium. You have a bunch of old timer teams, including the Negro League stars. It has all the old throwback fields and about 10 'Future" fields. They're not space age Jetsons crap, they're realistic new fields for the Yankees, Twins and others. It has the Rule 5 draft and amatuer draft. In addition to full stats, you can also track your players' All-Star ballots and award rankings throughout the season. The tracking gives you an added incentive for when you start to tie up your division title.

In the two years I've had it, I've played a full season and a half with the Pirates. Brian Giles was the MVP with good, but not INSANE numbers. Kip Wells got off to a 3-1 start, but then hit a horrible slump and couldn't get anybody out. I sent him to the bullpen over the summer, and he rebounded with a strong reurn to the rotation for the pennant drive. Had a tough wildcard round with the Astros, then rolled through the NLCS and WS (beating a VERY difficult Boston team in 4 games. Johnny Damon was a nightmare).

Extras are cool. There's a fairly intelligent trivia game you can play. It a broad selection of legitimate questions, not fluffy shit like "what city do the BlueJays play in". You can also unlock video clips from Buck O'Neill, Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken.

Some of the interfaces take awhile to figure out. First time I called up a Triple A guy, it took me 15 minutes and a few resets to get past the annoying "You Do Not Enough Men on Your Roster" error message. Also, I was disappointed that the rosters did NOT expand in September. You still had 25 men for the entire month of September. But I still recommend it. Especially if you're REALLY into baseball.