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    MLB 09: The Show

    Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Mar 03, 2009

    Return to The Show with Sony's latest and greatest entry in its long-running baseball series. Nothing gets you closer.

    sgthalka's MLB 09 The Show (PlayStation 3) review

    Avatar image for sgthalka

    Best baseball game to date, but some weirdness creeps in.

    Starting with 2006's re-branding (and re-invention) of Sony's baseball series as "The Show", developer San Diego Studios has steadily evolved a rock-solid core gameplay model to the stupidly high level of excellence it's at now.

    I honestly couldn't imagine how SCEA could elevate the series after playing last year's MLB 08. Sure, some oddities could be fixed, some new details could be added to online or franchise modes, but the game was already at such a high level, I expected the franchise to stay at this plateau.

    Stupid me, because not only does MLB 09 improve on 08's release, it renders it obsolete. Excellent revisions to the hitting and fielding mechanics makes you feel closer than ever to playing out a real Major League game. Each game you play will surprise you. The hit variety doesn't even seem like a pre-selected "variety" -- it's just real. Balls will fly off your bat however physics allows it. Shots down the line, doubles over outfielders' heads, bloopers over infielders, triples buried in outfield corners. The full array of hits will now take place.

    Fielding mechanics are the other side to this coin. You could have great hit variety, but without good fielding mechanics, it wouldn't count for much. Outfielders now take natural routes to balls. It looks real and feels real. Infielders are no longer ball vaccuums, instantly sucking up any ball near them. Fielding stats and how hard the ball is hit now impact what plays out. Hot shots will pop out of or ricochet off mitts. Throwing animations now make double-plays more natural to pull off.

    Franchise mode takes a new level of strategy in roster management, as an entirely revamped offseason changes how you deal with negotiating contracts. The contract meter system is gone, where you could just punch in different numbers until your player re-signed with you. Now you have to make an offer and hope your guy comes back to the team. Low-ball guys with arbitration if you don't care about them, and get draft picks when other teams sign them, just like in real life MLB. You'll have to be much more generous with free agents and even your own players. CPU teams will out-bid you and run after premiere talent just as hard as you do.

    Player development is a mixed bag. Progression is ultimately tied to each player's (uneditable) "potential" rating. The developers claim this isn't set in stone -- A potential players are not guaranteed to be superstars, while C potential players could theoretically develop into Major League role players. The idea is to mimic the somewhat unpredictable nature of real-life scouting and development. In practice, there aren't any surprises visible over several seasons of franchise play. A potential players will develop the strongest, jumping 10 to 15 skill points each year, while B potential brings in about 5 to 8 skill points overall. C-potential players rarely progress at all, while D-potential players only get worse.

    Aging players are handled strangely. Stats and performance do not gradually fade as a player ages and eventually retires. Instead, retirements happen according to age or "free agent market conditions." This will lead to bizarre situations where someone hits .300 / 20 / 85 but decides to quit the game just because they turn 37 years old and that's apparently their age to hang it up.

    Online performance is serviceable but ultimately depends on how good the connection your opponent has. The graphics take a hit. Intermittant frame loss or freezing is a common problem, making games an uneven and frustrating experience. Steady games are great fun, but don't expect more than half of your attempted online games to play without problems.

    Online leagues suffer from unintuitive commissioner tools and buggy design.  While it's great to see a live draft option instead of using stock rosters, as well as new flex games to let people play games out of order with whoever's available online, each doesn't quite play out like you might hope. Live drafts were recently patched in order to allow players who were free agents in the off-season to actually appear on your drafted team. An unmentioned time limit would also halt live drafts in progress at the 2-hour mark and automatically finish the draft, regardless of what round your league was in. Then once you prepare your league settings and invite players, you cannot change anything. And you'll probably screw something up because the options aren't explained very well, so you'll have to scratch the entire league and re-form and re-invite players with fixed options. You can choose a league set up with two divisions, but when players join, they can go in whichever division they like and you might wind up with uneven divisons, which screws up the scheduling.

    Also, live draft scheduling is a mess. The system doesn't schedule it until you activate the league, which locks in all the players. If you're waiting for some late invites to come in on Sunday, then activate the league hoping to do your draft on the same day, the joke's on you. The system thinks you're planning to do it next Sunday, so wait another week.

    There is also a 14-day waiting period before you can even form a league, as well as 10 games played online minimum and a peer rating minumum of 3 out of 5 stars. So you better hope your opponents are kind to you, otherwise you won't be able to form a league.

    The final point worth mentioning is the excellent user contributions you can make to the game now -- custom walk-up or closer into music make a pretty huge impact on the game. The music gets a stadium filter applied to it so it sounds like it's actually coming out of a ballpark sound system. In-sane. Custom rosters can also be easily shared in-game through the online service, and the ratings help the cream of the crop stand out.

    Other reviews for MLB 09 The Show (PlayStation 3)

      A Binge Gamer Review: MLB 09: The Show 0

      By James Walker • March 2, 2009 [Edit] ”Baseball? It’s just a game - as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It’s a sport, business - and sometimes even religion.” Ernie Harwell I have been a fan of baseball, and specifically the Detroit Tigers, since before I picked up my first SEGA Genesis controller. Around this time of year I turn into a giddy little school child as I anxiously await opening day around the league. Thankfully, whil...

      3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

      The Show continues to be the best MLB game available 0

        To be as forthcoming as possible, I must admit that I’ve not spent significant time with a baseball game since EA’s stellar MVP Baseball 2005. Sadly, this was also EA’s last professional baseball outing, as Take Two bought the rights to produce Major League Baseball games that same year in response to EA’s purchase of the NFL license. Lucky for us baseball fans, Take Two’s deal with the MLB does not apply to first-party publishers who wish to create an MLB game of their own, leaving the doo...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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