MLB 08: The Show

I don't play many sports games at all, but I like baseball so I thought I'd try a new one. Most people preferred The Show to the 2K series this year, so I got that one. It's a pretty fun and accurate simulation of the sport. The last baseball game I played was All-Star Baseball '99 for the Nintendo 64, with Larry Walker on the cover, so it's been a while. In that time, pitching has gotten more involved and hitting has gotten harder. In that old game, you only had to pick a pitch and location and it would go there, and when batting, you could line up the icon with the pitch icon to swing at it. Now, you have to time a multi-part meter right to execute a pitch well, and hitting requires you to rely on your own vision much more and swing smartly. There are some helpers you can use to make it a little easier like pitch guessing, although the online league I'm in has them turned off because apparently they have amazing eyesight. Fielding and baserunning is pretty intuitive, and how close the gameplay has gotten to real baseball is impressive, although there are still some weird gaffes like runners taking bases when there's no way they would have been able to, and stealing bases is a cakewalk.

The presentation and commentary are pretty good. There are some weird inconsistencies, like an often repeated animation of the umpire throwing a ball to the pitcher without the ball ever actually going into his glove, and fan animation repeating too often, but the amount of stuff they crammed in is cool. Most of the big pitchers and hitters have authentic windups and batting stances, and there are nice touches like playing arguing close plays. Rex Hudler is annoying and some comments are either repeated too often or used in inappropriate situations, but it's definitely better than it used to be.

I haven't played online much, but the integration of leagues and mail are nice, and weekly roster updates are great. I've spent a lot of time with the "Road to the Show" career mode, and besides missing most of my created pitcher's rookie season with an out-of-nowhere "fractured head" injury, it's pretty interesting to build up his skills and move him towards his goal. I wish your stats improved based on how you play instead of using arbitrary skill points, but it's still cool. Too many little things prevent The Show from being a full experience. How does it not even have a home run derby, a simple feature present in that game I played nine years ago? It's not important, but it's something. I am not and will never be a sports gamer, but I'll probably continue to get enjoyment out of this for a while.