A little piece of me died the day that 2K Sports acquired the exclusive rights from Major League Baseball to create the only third-party MLB game. I am/was a huge fan of EA Sport’s MVP Baseball series, and their last iteration, MVP Baseball 2005, flirted with perfection. I played 2K’s MLB 2K6 and 2K7 on the Xbox 360, and both times I felt like my dog had died and my parents had tried to replace him with one of those plastic robo-dogs. Nothing felt right. I missed my MVP.
Three years after the demise of the MVP franchise, I picked up “MLB 08: The Show” for the PlayStation 3. SCEA really hit one out of the park (pun absolutely intended) with this game, finally I am actually enjoying a baseball video game. Let’s break down what makes “MLB 08: The Show” so great.
Pitching in “MLB 08: The Show” is fun. The pitching meter was taken from MVP Baseball 05, there is no denying that. A simple yet engaging pitch meter that accounts for pitch power and accuracy is perfect. You will not throw perfect pitches all the time. The pitching is actually realistic. Even Josh Beckett can’t locate 10 straight pitches. If you throw strikes, you will blast through the inning. There are no repetitive cut-scenes that leave you waiting for 2-5 seconds. The composure of your pitcher determines his accuracy and ease of use of the pitching meter (see video below).
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=c4XB3YtYbQg[/youtube]
Stepping up to the plate is relatively straight forward, but there is some depth to be found. If you want, you can just wait for the pitch and point the left thumb-stick to where you think the ball is going in the strike zone and hit either X or SQUARE to swing normally or swing for power, respectively. For an advanced and more accurate at-bat, you can hold down R2 and guess which type of pitch will be thrown to you and/or where within the strike zone the pitch will cross. If you guess one or both of the variables, you will have an increased chance of a hit. And if you know the pitch, and the location, you will be presented a great opportunity to blast one into the outfield bleachers. Once you have played a dozen games, you should have the hitting down and expect to increase the difficulty.
Fielding is pretty basic, although it does have some flaws, some of which will cause you to throw your controller. The more I play “MLB 08: The Show,” the more bugs I see. Sometimes on double plays the shortstop will pause a second or two before getting the ball to the second baseman, allowing both baserunners to be safe. Another quirky occurrence involves a situation where the first and third basemen leave their base on a play where the pitcher must cover one or the other. When you throw to that base, the ball goes to the first or third baseman instead of the pitcher covering, again causing the base runner to be safe. Aside from these flaws, the fielding is good, not great.
“MLB 08: The Show” looks and feels like you would expect. After all, it’s a next-gen baseball simulation. The graphics are hit and miss. The players themselves look fantastic for the most part from their faces to their mannerisms. In terms of sound, the crowd reacts appropriately to big play and blown calls by the umpire. The play by play is great, with an all-star announcing crew of Matt Vasgersian, Rex Hudler and Dave Campbell.
The main modes you will be playing will be “Franchise” and “MLB 08: The Show’s” trademark, “Road to the Show.” The Franchise Mode is solid, with everything you would expect from roster adjustments from AA to the Majors, making changes in your lineup, and channeling your inner Theo Epstein. Two nice features are the option of saving your progress mid-game (where games take upwards of 60 minutes), and “fast-forwarding” to the next half-inning or the end of the game.
The Road to the Show is back this year, and it is pretty much the same experience from the last two years. One thing that is starting to piss me off with my created player is the way the “manager” handles me. I have a 1.12 ERA through 30 games (22.2 innings) as a relief pitcher/closer (yet I never close games). There are too many times where I wait 60 seconds for the game to load, I throw to one hitter, then the “manager” takes me out, for seemingly no reason. Then I wait another minute for the game to load, and I do it all over again as it simulates until my next appearance. I got so fed up that I decided to read a magazine between all of the load times, all of this after allowing for the required install the first time I threw the disc in the PS3.
Lastly I will address the online play. Clearly PSN isn’t a great service, but I haven’t experienced too much lag in the games I have played online. This was not the case with “MLB 08: The Show.” There was noticeable lag in six of the seven games I played online. With the pitching meter and batting, any lag will break the game. I did some research online and it seems like many gamers are having this issue. Let’s hope Sony patches the game soon, as the one time we played without lag was sheer pleasure.
I hope I was able to get the point across, that although there are some flaws, this is the best baseball game I have played in three years, and it is the most played PS3 game in my library. If you are a fan of baseball and have a PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3, pick up “MLB 08: The Show” and get ready for opening day.
Score: A-
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