Review: MLB The Show 2010

via media.gameplaybook.com

One of the best overall sport games in it's current generation -- Sony's MLB: The Show returns for another year, with high expectations and for another year -- it's meets and exceeds expectation. The problem that many face with the series is that it is only featured for the Sony products (PS3, PS2, PSP) and many XBOX and Wii baseball fanatics are stuck with the mediocre MLB2K series. If your a true baseball gamer, like myself, it's almost worth ditching your Xbox 360 or Wii to obtain the Playstation consule. That's how deep The Show is.

 

More after the jump.... 

 

 

On first look, The Show impresses the eye. As soon as the main menu appears you have a variety of options to pick from. Let's say you just wanna get a quick game going ... of course you have the QUICK GAME option. Wanna play as Aramis Ramirez to hit in the home run derby? You got it. Wanna play a season as the Chicago Cubs? Of course, you got that too. How about building a franchise with your beloved Cubbies, creating your own ticket prices, parking prices, concession prices? And maybe even have sponsors for Wrigley Field to build in revenue? And pick Derrek Lee as my spokesperson for TV and radio to sell season tickets? Hell, you wanna play the minor league games too! But there's NO way a baseball game can be that deep.... right? No, you can do that too in the FRANCHISE mode.

Okay, okay let's say your not even into all that, and that won't stroke your ego enough. Well let's say you wanna be a 18 year old prospect catcher. Raw talent and you want to create the man like it's your son and play him throughout the minors and through rule 5, arbitration, free agency, etc. Well of course The Show has that for you too (Road to the Show).

 

The graphics for this game are simply amazing. Increditbly detailed. They have most players down to the tee! From players all the way down from Albert Pujols to Jeff Samardzija they have the looks dead on. Their are flaws as sometimes players might go through walls and disappearing for a second. And sometimes infielders don't move as much as you would like -- granted the ball might be out of their range but you would at least like to see alittle effort.

For a game for so much depth you would think the graphics would be just "ok" or "borderline good" -- but the graphics on the game are nothing short of great. So no problems there.

The gameplay for me is also wonderful. More often times than not the simulation of the game is incredibly accurate to what really happens. My only problem would be in the franchise mode/road to the show mode. Sometimes pitchers have pitches in their arsenal that are no longer realistic for a pitcher to have. I've faced at least 10 pitchers in my season of Road To The Show that have the Knuckleball in their arsenal. Way too many pitchers are groundball/flyball pitchers not enough strikeout pitchers in the future also. I'm nitpicking though.

The sound to the game is great. You can add your own batting music for each individual player -- or even make your own soundtrack to listen to while your not playing the game. The announcers are good - sometimes alittle repetitive, but mostly they are on target. For example I'm playing as Josh Davis in the Road to the Show feature, and I was a September call up, and I made a horrific swing and the announcer said: "If he keeps making swings like that, he'll find himself back in AAA". Speaking of Road to the Show...

Road to the Show is a great feature. You can play as your self as a 18 year old kid in AA trying to make yourself into the big leagues and turn yourself into the next Albert Pujols or Roy Halladay. You -- like a regular prospect in real life --  have series of goals you have to obtain before you get called up to the next level or in some cases get into the starting lineup or rotation. For example, I'm playing as myself and my current goals are: Collect 28 total bases within the next 7 series, have a batting average of .300 or higher, draw aleast 3 base on balls. Also I must increase my contact vs. left handers and my plate discipline. I can increase those attributes if I can obtain enough points to increase them. For example, if I get a hit in a game I will get 5 points to go towards my attributes.

I'm in my third year on my Road to the Show and I'm in the MLB playing for the A's. I'm hitting .390 with 12 HR and 44 RBI's. Halfway through my season. .390 with some pop in my bat and you know what irks me, I'm hitting 8thin my lineup because I'm a rookie with less attributes than some other guys. I have Rajai Davis hitting second on my team and he's hitting .240 with a OPS of .669. Who's managing this team? Dusty?

I was tempted to ask for a trade. Hell, I did ask for a trade (you can do that, by the way)! You know what message I got from my GM/Manager? "Your a vital part of our organization, trading you would not be a asset to the team". Bunch of crap. But that's what makes this game soooo good. I'm going to demand a hell of alot of money in the offseason though and I might not even re-sign with the A's if they keep me down in the lineup like this ;-)

The franchise mode is awesome, also. I love being able to control my whole team and they even have arbitration and the rule 5 draft for all you baseball realist out there. Like I said before you can set your own ticket prices, beer prices, cotton candy prices, valet parking prices, etc. Everything you could thing of. If you wanna put a billboard right on top of the scoreboard at Wrigley to build more revenue, you can do it. Wanna build a spa room for you club to build up morale? Make your team go from riding the bus from game to game (which kills morale), to taking a private jet. The only thing missing from this is a 3/4 team trade option. I hate that you only can trade with another team. Come on The Show, it is 2010 :-)

In closing, The Show 10 is one of the greatest games not only for baseball, in general, as far as sport games are concerned. The 59.99 it cost will be a long forgotten memory as soon as you step up to the plate.

 

Graphics: 9 out of 10

Gameplay: 8.8 out of 10

Depth: 10 out of 10

Sound: 8.5 out of 10

Longevity: 10 out of 10

Overall: 9.1 out of 10

I'll do the MLB 2K10 review if enough of you want me to. Hope you guys value my opinion.