Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by John DeGiorgio

Last March the PSPs were in bloom for the first time as MLB camps were winding down in Florida and Arizona. Hopes were high for the new system fans alike. Load times and missing gameplay modes were like the Red Sox bullpen trying to hold a 1 run lead. Everything was in place for success but they’d fall short in the end. This wasn’t quite what we were looking for.

About two weeks after the system launched, the Royals had already been mathematically eliminated and Sony released MLB:06 (Yep-same year) with little to no fanfare. Why would anyone pay attention? 989’s track record was less than impressive and EA’s MVP was coming to the system in about a month. Not even a hint of anticipation. Without expecting much, I picked up the game just looking for ANY baseball fix and soon found out that this was the best sports game available for the system at the time and the best baseball game for the year. EA couldn’t touch it.

Diminished load times, tight controls and legit results gave us a taste of what could be done for sports games on a handheld. Sure, it was missing modes but it got most everything else right on the field. It felt like baseball.

This leads us to the present. The calendar has changed but the title really hasn’t. It’s still MLB:06 but they added “The Show” and moved Vlad off the cover in favor of Big Papi. With last year’s success, Sony has our attention. 2K Sports will be releasing the baseball challenge this year on the PSP. Will MLB 06:The Show stay in the race longer than the Royals?

The graphical touches in this game are present long before you hit the batter’s box. The menus are clean and clear, every step of the way. As you dig deeper into the pre-game setup things are well laid out, so there should be no trouble getting where you need to go. You’re even given the choice of grass patterns on the field.

Once your desired game loads up you are tossed into a stadium that very closely resembles its real life counterpart. From the “Jimmy Fund” sign under the Green Monster seats to the rock waterfall in Anaheim, every detail is in place for as far as the licensing could go. One of my favorite ad replacements is the “Hess” logo in center field in Tampa that’s been changed to “Mess”. Appropriate. In the stands the quality drops off a bit as it seems that the only people who go to games look just like cardboard cutouts. At least they react well by clapping and standing up at the proper times. 

All this is nice, but if the million dollar athletes that drive this game look like stick figures, all the accurate signage in the world can’t save it from an early trip to the showers. I’m happy to say that this is not the case.

Models are very sharp and heavily detailed. It’s easy to see the little things like labels on batting gloves and wrinkles in uniforms.

Different player shapes and sizes are represented as well. You can clearly tell the difference between a slap hitting shortstop and a lumbering DH. Individual stances are incorporated as well. Nomar is twitchy and Sheffield pinwheels his bat as you would expect.  

Jumping into the game provides little drop off in quality. Catchers don’t throw the ball back to the pitcher, and there are the occasional hiccups, but these are few and far between. I noticed a bit of a slowdown if your outfielder needs to reverse his direction chasing a ball off the wall, but in the time I’ve put in, these occurrences haven’t affected any outcomes.

Ballpark atmosphere is solid all around with crowd noise and stadium announcers all heard at the right times. The 3 guys in the booth this year are actually pretty informative and give updated info all through the game. Up to date stats , like current game batter history, is usually followed up by some real information on their style or career. They can be a tad bit behind on the play by play, but won’t tell you that the SS made a nice diving catch when your center field just camped out under a lazy fly ball.

The soundtrack is standard game stuff nowadays with some rock mixed in with hip-hop. Not memorable either way.

Since EA has changed video game baseball pitching forever, it’s hard to imagine a game without the pitching meter, and MLB is no exception. Confidence plays a heavy part in accuracy through the speed of the meter. While it’s not as bad as last year, you still have to bear down with men on base because that thing can fly around rather quickly.

Unlike EA, Sony hasn’t gone crazy with throwing meters. It seemed as if there were there for everything but the vendors gunning a bag of peanuts 6 rows up in the bleachers. Chuck Knoblauch aside, I always found it cluttered the screen and was unrealistic and unnecessary to have a meter over the second baseman on a routine ground ball. It just complicated things. Making easy plays should be easy. The diamond button layout for bases eliminates any problem with moving and throwing at the same time, as well.

On the hitting side, things can get as complicated or as easy as you’d like. Want to just hit the X button and swing away? Go ahead but, there’s also a power swing option with the square button if you’d like to swing for the fences at the expense of contact. You also have the ability to guess pitches with a right trigger, face button combo or guess location with a right trigger, analog stick combination. Correct guesses will give you indicators to provide an advantage. 

Directional and situational hitting can be accomplished in two ways. Either by moving your swing with the analog stick or an analog stick, triangle button combination. Need to hit behind a runner or get a sac fly? No problem. You have the control to get it done.

The first thing I look at with a baseball game is the fielding. Not that this is the most important part of video game baseball, but it seems like something that isn’t given enough attention by developers or reviewers alike. Unless you only want to play homerun derby all the time, the greatest pitcher/batter interface in the world isn’t worth a dime if you can get someone to hit a double play ball and then not be able to execute the double play itself.

In the past, some games (I’m looking at you All-Star Baseball!) were all caught up in animations. “Look at this throwing animation! Did you see how he got up from that dive and threw across his body!?!” Wonderful. A slow roller to 3rd just turned into a stand-up double because it took 6 hours for my 3rd baseman to finish his animation!!! I’m all for great animations, but don’t let them get in the way of the game.

MLB handles this very well. From a diving stab in the hole, to your second baseman ducking out of the way after he flips to the shortstop to start a double play. It meets my demands for minimal, appropriate animations that won’t cause you to go into your own throwing animation and fling your PSP across the room.

Now that I got that out of the way, on to the next big, baseball game play question: Do CPU pitchers throw balls and do CPU hitters swing at them? The answer to both is yes, and it does so intelligently.

While you’re on the hill you’re rewarded for working intelligently and the batter will react in the same way. Any pitch has the potential to be swung at. CPU batters won’t sit around waiting for you to give them something right down the middle and having two strikes will cause them to be even more aggressive and allow you to throw outside the strike zone to pick up a K. Along the same lines, every pitch that you throw over the plate doesn’t automatically end up over the wall either. Moving the ball around will keep them guessing. Going up the ladder can get some players to bite. Staying on the corners and in their cold zones will provide the best results, but don’t keep going to the well. Throw too much junk and they’ll catch on. The only problem I had while pitching, as I mentioned before, is that when you lose confidence after a few hits and there are men on base, the pitching meter can turn into a bullet train. Far too many passed balls can occur this way, and it really shouldn’t be that drastic. Some impact after being knocked around is acceptable, but the past balls that can ensue take it a bit too far. If your pitcher is winding down late in the game or is just getting hit hard, it’s good to have full bullpen control with an indicator to tell you who’s warmed up enough to get into the game.

Anyone who has ever played against me knows that I have a tendency to swing at garbage. If the pitcher throws it, I’ll probably take a cut at it. If I take a cut at a pitch that’s way outside it appears that this is registered and the CPU pitcher will go back to the well to look for the K. If I’m having a hard time with a curve, you can bet that I‘ll see a lot of them until I catch on. Hot and cold zones with pitch location are provided and can be used to your benefit as well.

CPU pitching is realistic to the point that I’ve seen the batter following a home run brushed off the plate and the next time around the order that HR hitter gets plunked as well depending on the game situation.

Overall the gameplay within MLB is among the most solid of any baseball game to date. Good fielding, pitching and hitting combined with smooth graphics and a wide hit variety makes it feel like you’re actually involved in the real thing. While it doesn’t really break any new ground, it does just about everything and does it all very well.

MLB 2K6: The Show has no franchise mode. Figured I’d get that out of the way early. If this is the reason you’re buying a baseball game, look elsewhere. What it does have is season, career and King of the Diamond.

Even though season mode is nothing new, I feel that I should point out that I repeatedly got realistic results while siming my way through them. Cy Young winners had 17 to 24 wins. HR leaders totaled 45-55, ERAs and batting averages all ended up in respectable ranges with guys you expect accomplishing them. A-Rod and Derek Lee win the HR titles, Oswalt wins in ERA, etc. Team results were similar. Usual suspects at the top and bottom of the standings but sometimes you’d get a surprise in either spot to keep you honest. One thing that I did find a bit annoying was the other GMs kept offering the same trades over and over. Not that the offers were bad, but if I rejected it the second time, chances are the 5th time isn’t going to get it done either. At least they’re persistent.

Career mode gives you the ability to develop your own player RPG style. You get to create the look you want along with position and distribute attribute points and assign your player to an MLB team. The game even gives you the lowdown on what teams you’d fit on as well. Creating a first baseman and want to play for the Cards? They really don’t need you. On the other hand, the Red Sox may be a perfect fit. This adds a little more personal involvement and added dimension that keeps you coming back to maybe get enough triples to lead the league this year, or enough K’s to put you in the top 10.

King of the Diamond mode adds another wrinkle by allowing you to pick a hitter and pitcher and play a one on one match up by using targets all over the field to score runs and timed innings to move the game along. This makes for a good little diversion, although playing an actual game would be far more rewarding.
Another nice feature is the ability to go online, to play, and download rosters and even news stories that can be filtered by team. At the time of this writing there was already a roster update. This is a good sign. Keeping things current goes a long way to enhancing realism.

It’s a sports game, that being said, it always can provide a new experience every time you boot it up. No 2 games are ever the same for us sports fans. That’s the beauty of the genre. There should always be something to go back to.

Now that 2K sports have wrapped up the 3rd party license for Major League Baseball, you’re only going to have 2 choices on your PSP, just like last year. And just like last year, Sony is first to the plate with their take on the sport. Once again they’ve proven that they shouldn’t be ignored by building on an already solid base in last year’s offering. We’ll see if MLB: The Show has what it takes to hold the top spot again, but it would take a Ruthian effort to send this game down to the wild card spot in a two team division.

Gaming Trend Score

87

1. Graphics: 85
2. Audio: 80
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 92
5. Value/Replay: 80
6. OVERALL:87