Name: MLB 09: The Show
Genre: Sports, Baseball
Platform: PlayStation 2, PSP, PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on PlayStation 3)

                                                Watch the Video Review.

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I love America’s pastime and pretty much everything associated with it. I tend to hold my baseball video games to some pretty high standards. Hell, I still have my copy of one of the all-time greatest sports titles, MVP Baseball 2005. 2K’s third-party exclusive agreement with Major League Baseball may have put an end to that excellent EA series a few years ago, but thankfully, the first-party loophole in 2K’s agreement prompted Sony to create their baseball franchise, MLB: The Show. Last year’s effort was pretty damned good. For the first time since its inception, PlayStation 3 owners got to see what it was like when Sony drew a line in the sand for its competition. With MLB 09: The Show, Sony’s San Diego studio would once again toe the mound in an effort to establish its stance as the clear number one game in the rotation. The only question was, how close to a perfect game would they come?

MLB 09: The Show is hands-down the best-looking baseball game to date. While last year’s version was also very impressive looking, Sony SD somehow managed to squeeze a little bit more out of their engine. Not only do the players look much more like their real life counterparts, but they also move and react much more realistically. A great deal of attention has been paid to the unique batting stances and pitching motions of the virtual ballplayers, meaning more accurate representations of your favorite big leaguers. Ken Griffey Jr’s beautiful swing? It’s there. Tim Lincecum’s spastic, yet effective, delivery? That’s in there too. Several non-marquee players are definitely given the short end of the computer clone stick, but everyone else looks so spot-on, it’s hard to complain too much.

In The Show 09, Major League ballparks are given just as much attention to detail, and are easily the best looking stadiums in any sports title, let alone a baseball game. Boasting some of the most accurate and impressive lighting in any sports game, The Show faithfully recreates the look of your favorite field during day or night.  The sun and shadows will move across your favorite park, nearly in real-time, providing a great sense of realism. My only complaint as far as stadiums go is the fact that Sony hasn’t improved their grass texture for three years. Not that it looks terrible, but after seeing just how nice a grass playing field could look when done right like it was in Madden 09, I feel that everyone else should follow suit. The dirt infield remains largely unchanged from last year, but that’s not a bad thing. The mild particle effects from players moving around the infields still work well, and as the game progresses, the “played-in” look around the bases still looks solid.

To help provide one of the most immersive presentations in a sports title to date, Sony SD has put a lot of thought into the fans in the stands. Not only will you notice attendance vary game to game (unless you’re the Yankees or the BoSox), but upon closer inspection, you’ll also take notice that the fans now wear different clothes month to month. Granted, the people in the stands are still a few hundred polygons short of what you’ll see on the field, and the crowd is full of copy-and-paste people, but it’s a nice touch that adds some much needed personality to what would normally be a very boring part of the experience. Fan interaction during a game is also miles above what players at home are normally accustomed to. Whether the crazed Yankee faithful are booing every Red Sox player who steps up to the plate, or the entire stadium is on their feet cheering on a pitcher just one strike away from a complete game shut-out, your patrons will act accordingly. Of course, if you prefer you could also record your own crowd chants and jeers to better replicate what it’s really like to sit in the upper deck at Citizens Bank Park. For my taste, no game will ever boo enough people as a true Philadelphia crowd, so I needed to add my own.

As far as controls go, Sony didn’t really have much to improve upon, so the basics remain largely unchanged from last year’s game. You pitch with a three-button meter, and you can swing with just the press of a button. There’s a bit of depth to the actual swing mechanics on the higher difficulties, as the sweet spot of the bat decreases in size the more challenging you make the AI. Taking it one step further, Sony has given diehards that felt last year’s game was too easy more of a challenge with the all-new Legend difficulty. Be prepared to put your skills to the test instantaneously if you choose to play on this level. A misplaced pitch will almost always end up with the computer crushing the ball out of the park, and not being selective at the plate will lead to weak groundouts at the best. I consider myself a pretty savvy ballplayer, but in the first 5 games of my franchise on Legend, I’ve only amassed 9 runs compared to the computer’s 46. Needless to say, I’ve got some work to do.

The biggest overhaul this year comes in the form of the more in-depth Franchise mode. Fantasy junkies will revel in the options available ranging from finally being able to use 40-man rosters, to proper arbitration rules, in addition to all the free agent types and the Rule 5 draft. Casual gamers turned off by the intricacies of a management simulation shouldn’t be too worried, as there’s a handy guide to explain all the new additions built into the off season menu. Combined with the additional tutorials explaining the importance of certain dates during the winter months, The Show 09’s Franchise mode is not only easily accessible, it’s super addicting. My only complaint is despite having many of the actual coaches for teams in the game, often the actual first and third base coaches for your team vanish once you take control of a team. For example, when playing a game in Exhibition mode, Phillies first base coach Davey Lopes was congratulating my players whenever they reached base. As soon as I jumped into Franchise mode, Davey was replaced by a generic coach the game made up. It may sound a bit nitpicky, but when everything else is so accurate, it’s a bit strange when something isn’t.

If you haven’t tried out previous incarnations of Road to the Show, Sony’s version of Be A Pro (Sony’s came first if you were curious), you’re really missing out. Taking a created player from his first Spring Training to (hopefully) the World Series is a lot of fun. This year’s version boasts several tweaks to make baserunning and fielding a bit more user friendly. Baserunning now uses the left analog stick to advance or retreat instead of the face buttons, and it’s certainly a bit more intuitive than in years past. Tracking the ball off the bat was iffy at points in earlier versions of the game mode, but this year Sony has added a red ring around the ball (think Fox Track) to make it easier to follow. It’s not really a huge difference maker for those of you who create infielders, but outfielders will find this new tracking technology extremely helpful. Players can train in more areas, and can even take part in interactive practices prompted by your coach. The changes are minor, but all of them improve on the already solid gameplay the mode provides. All they need to do now is allow people to take their created players online like NHL 09.

You can play with a friend on the same system, but in this day and age, online is where all the action is. The game my have just hit shelves, but online rooms are constantly jam-packed. If you can’t find someone to play within minutes of signing in, you’re doing something wrong. As easy as it is to get a game started, there are a few issues with playing The Show online. Granted, the game just came out, and these issues will more than likely be addressed in the coming weeks, but they are issues nonetheless. Online games are hampered by tremendous lag. In a game predicated on timing, lag is almost inexcusable. Even on connections that the game deems "graet," the delay is terrible. Also, voice chat seems to work less than half the time. I played a few games where the person I was playing could hear me, but I couldn’t hear them, and vice versa. Those two things are by no means deal breakers, just be aware that there are some issues. Sadly, the online leagues won’t be open for nearly two weeks, so I was unable to see how effective they were.

It’s really a shame this game is a PlayStation exclusive. MLB 09: The Show is an example of what happens when everything goes right in a game, and I wish more than 30% of the gaming world had an opportunity to enjoy the things this game has to offer.  Despite a few flaws, this game is quite possibly the best baseball video game to ever grace a living room. It may not be a system seller, but MLB 09: The Show provides one more reason why nobody should be giving up on Sony just yet.

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