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Greetings, sports fans, and welcome to the TIPS & TRICKS sports section. In this monthly column, we’ll be bringing you all of the freshest dirt on your favorite sports video games. We’ll also show you the newest sports-related game goodies and comment on the latest happenings from right here behind the…Sports Desk

MLB 2K7

When EA Sports deconstructed its highly successful Triple Play franchise for the 2003 season, many fans were nervous about the future of the franchise. But when baseball video game junkies saw the new pitching meter, realistic physics and all-around awesomeness of the game in general, it was clear that EA Sports had revolutionized the sports genre once again. MVP’s dominance continued with the next two installments of the game, but then things took a dramatic turn: Take Two Interactive, the publisher of the MLB 2K series, locked up the exclusive third-party rights to the MLB license until the end of the decade (albeit in response to EA’s similar hijacking of the NFL).

After a lackluster effort for the 2006 season, Take Two knew drastic measures had to be taken in order to retain the thinning baseball audience. Following the adage to “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Take Two did just that—they hired Ben Brinkman, a lead designer of the MVP series, to come in and help revitalize the MLB 2K brand. But this was no last-minute free agent pickup; Brinkman has been at MLB 2K developer Kush Games since June of last year, giving him plenty of time to play hardball with the redesign of the floundering franchise.

Among the first and most noticeable changes to the series are the player models. No longer does every major leaguer suffer from the “high hat” syndrome popularized by Blue Jays’ Fred McGriff in the ’80s and ’90s. Now you might even recognize your favorite players, whether it’s J.D. Drew’s scowl, Vladimir Guerrero’s constant smile or Barry Bonds’ implausible musculature.

While visual improvements are important, gameplay is always king, especially when it comes to sports games. Thankfully, Kush has tweaked the gameplay in subtle ways that make a big difference in the overall baseball experience. Player momentum and realistic physics have finally been introduced and can, and probably will, have a major impact on nearly every game you play. In other words, there’s no more stopping on a dime and changing direction (only Barry Sanders could do that in real life anyway, and he played the wrong sport). Instead, players will have to plant, pivot, shift their weight and then start moving again. The description make it sound like players are moving in molasses, but it actually happens much faster (and more subtly) in the game. The bottom line is that it’s more realistic, which is always a good thing.

Along those lines, the wide variety of player models also affects movement. So big guys like Matt LeCroy won’t be quite as nimble as someone like Chone Figgins, meaning it’ll be helpful to know who’s chasing a fly ball (or rounding second base) when making your decisions in the field or on the base paths.

There’s also a different kind of momentum Kush is introducing this season, and it’s more about emotional momentum than physics. MLB 2K7 now features an “intensity meter” that basically measures the…well, intensity of a situation and gives you appropriate feedback (in the form of a rumbling controller). The actual intensity of the feedback will depend on the situation, as well as the player you’re controlling. Thus, if somebody like Mariano Rivera is on the hill in a close game, you may not even notice any difference. But if it’s some rookie who you just called up last week, you can bet that hitting your spots will be much, much more challenging in pressure situations.

Another feature expected to add to the experience is online play. While little is known about taking the action to the Internet, it’s likely that 2K Sports is pulling out all the stops, including continued support for online leagues. If the addition of Ben Brinkman and all the new features are any indication, it looks like we may not even remember that EA Sports used to be the Dean of the Diamond. MLB 2K7 is due to be released for the PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DS and PSP on March 6th.

With a little detective work, you may be able to locate the original artwork that was used to create the packaging for your favorite game. In some cases, it may still be in the possession of the original artist, or a former employee of the game’s publisher. We don’t know of any one collector who specializes in original video-game art, so if you’ve got the determination and the budget, you might become a pioneer in this very specialized subset of the game-collecting hobby. Good luck!

Massively Multiplayer Online…Sports Game?

If you own a gaming PC and you’re reading this magazine, it’s very likely that you’ve at least dabbled in an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game). Whether it’s Ultima Online, World of Warcraft or City of Heroes, most of us have spent some quality time in the “alternate reality” zone.

While the majority of massively multiplayer games fall under the RPG genre, one could consider games such as Counter- Strike and Halo as massively multiplayer affairs as well (the only real difference being that traditional MMOs are persistent worlds, meaning that virtual life goes on once you leave the game).

But for the past five years or so, a company called Netamin Communication Corporation has been in development on the world’s first massively multiplayer sports game, Ultimate Baseball Online. The game is just like any standard MMO: first, you create your character, who will earn Experience Points as you play, allowing you to “level up.” Once you level up, you’ll earn a Skill Point, which can be added to your character’s pitching or hitting abilities. You’ll also earn three Parameter Points every time you level up, which you can add to one of seven attributes: Stamina, Arm Strength, Catching Range, Speed, Throwing Accuracy, Quickness or Body Strength. So depending on what position your character plays, you’ll want to improve specific attributes to make him a more complete player at his given position.

If you’ve played a lot of PC games, the controls in UBO will be very familiar, as everyone uses the keyboard-and-mouse control scheme. So if you’ve been a console gamer all your life, it may take some time to get used to the slightly less intuitive (at least in the beginning) WSAD format. During a game (as in pretty much any other MMO), you can send a chat message to everyone in the game, just your teammates or even just one other player. This is a great tool to get used to using, since you’re playing with eight other humancontrolled players and communication is a key to winning.

Unlike traditional sports games, online play with UBO means you’re playing with 17 other human players, one for every position on the field (two teams’ worth). Of course, this means you’ll have plenty of “down time,” even during a game, since unlike football, not every player is involved in every play of a game. The best part of Ultimate Baseball Online is the fact that you can play online for free. Of course, there is a catch. You can play pick-up games and certain tournaments without cost, but if you want to join a league or one of the “pay to play” tournaments, you’ll have to pony up some dough. The cost is $9.95 per character per season, and the season typically runs about two months; the Web site guarantees at least 10 games per season. So when you do the math, it works out to roughly five bucks a month or $1 per game, which isn’t too shabby.

As UBO is a PC game, there are minimum system requirements, which aren’t too steep if your PC is relatively new (I’d say less than three years old). You’ll need a 1.4 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, a GeForce 3 or better video card with at least 64 MB and a 256 kbps up- and downstream Interne connection. Of course, these are the bare minimums to get the game to run, so if you want to play the game and actually enjoy it, you’ll probably want a PC with a little more “oomph.”

Now is a good time to get into the action, too, because UBO has launched a Year-Long Best of UBO 2007 Competition, where the winner of a 64-team tournament at the end of the year will win $4,500 in cash. There are three ways for a team to gain entry into the year-end tourney: win one of the four seasons that will be held in 2007, win a Pay-to-Play Tournament or rack up a high amount of Power Ranking Points, which are basically accumulated through participation and league activity.

So if you feel like you could use a little cash bonus at the end of the year, or if you just want to feel the thrill of victory and earn the right to call yourself the “Best of 2007” (in UBO circles, anyway), get signed up at www.ultimatebaseballonline.com and play ball!