This year, as in most recent years, a glance at the baseball shelf of your local VideoGame Hut will leave you feeling worried and confused. You will see the "New Release" sticker on MVP Baseball 2005, and you will see the same sticker on MLB 2006, and you will wonder whether you have been using an old calendar. Then you will wonder if the guy behind the counter has been spending too much time in his basement and has taken to be-stickering all the boxes in the store. You will furrow your brow.

If you are sensible you will relax and tell yourself that marketing is an inexact science if indeed it is a science at all, which of course it is not on account of it is mostly a line of work sought out by drunkards who have trouble with sums. One marketing genuis thought adding a year would make MLB 2006 sound advanced and forward-looking. Another marketing genius, whose genius was deeper, thought 2005 would do just fine for MVP Baseball 2005 because the 2005 baseball season is only getting underway now, duh, and if it's good enough for the big leagues surely it's good enough for the masses.

If you find all this blather about names distracting and trivial and you are eager to hear which of the two is worth your money, you should still relax. Baseball video games are getting to be commodities. They are like gasoline, in that you are in for much the same experience whether you shop at Shell or at Esso.

This is not bad news. It means you are not taking a serious risk when you make your decision based on the design of the cover. It means fewer cases of buyer's regret. It means more baseball fun for more baseball fans this spring.

Fun is the key word here. Both of these games have a relaxed, happy vibe about them, as if a weight has been lifted off their shoulders and they can finally get around to having a little fun. Maybe this is because the Curse Of The Bambino is over at last. Maybe it is because the congressional hearings and the new steroid policy have cleared the air. Probably it is a little of both. Ask yourself how you're personally feeling about baseball this spring, Carlos Delgado notwithstanding, and you'll probably answer "relaxed and happy and full of eager anticipation." Somehow, both these games capture that mood. Play ball, they say.

The two share remarkably similar interfaces. To pitch, you move a little baseball cursor around in the strike zone, which is divided into squares coloured to indicate the hitter's relative strengths and weaknesses. You tap a button to choose a pitch from your pitcher's arsenal. Then, as the man on the plate goes into his windup, a little arc-shaped meter appears, with a little needle moving from one end to the other. If you can stop the needle just as it hits the "sweet spot," you will throw a mean strike. If you miss, chances are good that the batter will knock the stitching right off the ball.

In both games, learning to pitch well is a long and satisfying process. The first time your slider makes the batter look foolish, you will feel proud. When the announcers start congratulating you on your standout performance all game long, you will find yourself itching to go out to a real field and throw a real ball. The vibe in batting is similar. It is fun, it is challenging, and it is much the same from one title to the next. It is baseball.

So how to choose? There is no reasonable answer. Flip a coin. Make an issue of 2005 vs. 2006. See which one your friend is getting and get the same one. Or the other one. Both look terrific. Neither one knows the SkyDome isn't called that anymore.

MLB 2006 is available for PlayStation 2. MVP Baseball 2005 is available for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.