Everything You Need to Know About MLB 10: The Show
Posted by Eric "TheHerp" Galaviz on March 1st, 2010
With only one more day to go, the follow up to last year’s best baseball title, MLB 10 The Show looks to once again provide gamers with the most realistic baseball game in the market. For those who haven’t been closely following the upcoming title or if you just missed something, we created a one stop shop for everything you need to know about The Show. What you’ll find in this preview are some highlights of key features and additions to MLB 10 The Show and all the videos released, and yes that includes the “Dear Playstation” commercial that we all love.
If you haven’t seen it already or even if you have, the commercial for MLB 10 The Show is hilarious. Check it out.
The realism that Kevin Butler is talking about in The Show comes from all the little subtleties in the game. Last year I was blown away by how accurately they were able to capture certain player’s rituals or mannerisms at the plate or on the mound. This year’s version will include all of that and will also bring a more realistic environment. MLB 10 will have real-time players in the dugouts and bullpens, fireworks, rally towels/tundersticks, working clocks and home run counters like the one seen in San Francisco. Of course you can’t bring a game to life without fans and this year crowd detail has also been improved. They will be much more active this year, reaching over the wall for foul balls, scrambling for home run balls and making more noise in pressure situations. This might seem like very small additions but brought together it helps bring the real game to into the virtual one. Here’s the trailer showing off some of these features.
Road to The Show (RTTS) is one of the best modes of the MLB The Show franchise. It has been the leading sports title in creating a realistic and engaging “create a player” mode. This year in RTTS you’ll have much more control over what your player looks like and his accessories. Once you create your player you’ll be sent right to the Double-A season. While last year’s version had you start in spring training, starting in Double-A will give you a more realistic approach to working your way to the majors as most players don’t receive an invite to spring training until after their first year. Before you get into a game you now have the option to participate in pre-game batting practice or when you get called from the bullpen you’ll get some time to throw practice pitches. Just like batting practice and your time warming up on the mound, it doesn’t help you gain experience, but it will help you get ready for the game or at-bat. Once you are in a game you have full control of what you want to experience. You can play out every pitch/play in the game, only the last pitch in the at-bat, or just plays that involve you. Whether you are on the field or in the batters box there is a bigger emphasize on fundamental baseball. Throwing to the wrong bag, stealing when you shouldn’t be or failing to cover a base will put you in a bad spot with the manager. Lastly a huge emphasis went into gaining skill points and the flow of the game. New training modes have been added for both hitters and pitchers, and goals throughout the game will be shown in way as to not break from the pace of the game. You can also hit the D-pad to show the goals of the game in case you missed it, which is really nice.
To go along with RTTS you now have the full control as the catcher in the new Catcher Calling the Game mode. You’ll be calling for pitches and locations which includes 9 zones inside the strike zone or 8 zones outside. Just like in real life it is your responsibility to know the batters and your pitchers strengths and weaknesses. The pitcher might shake you off so you can pick another pitch but sometimes the catcher knows best and he’ll throw that pitch if you keep asking for it. You’ll have to also watch out for wild pitches and base runners, which adds to the difficulty of being a catcher. It’s a really cool mode and I’m excited to get a chance to call a game but then again, playing every game as a catcher might take it’s toll.
Making it’s return to the series is the Home Run Derby. Fans have been asking for this to be added to the game for some time now and we finally have it. You won’t only get the Home Run Derby, you’ll be getting the entire All-Star experience. During your franchise or RTTS season you’ll get a chance to play in the All-Star Futures Game along with the Derby and the regular All-Star game. Check out this trailer that showcases the new All-Star experience.
MLB 09 The Show suffered from very poor online play, mainly due to lag. Sony has been saying they have worked very hard on fixing that issue for MLB 10 and if they can then I think fans will enjoy the improvements to the Online Leagues. In addition to added customization when creating the league, people can now drop in and out of leagues during the season. If someone can’t handle the season and needs to back out, the commissioner can find a replacement to take over that team. Fatigue is also another factor managers will have to deal with as you will no longer be able to use your ace for every game. Here are some of the key features of the new online leagues:
· Additional Commissioner Slot (6 total leagues now)
· NEW Auto-resolve feature. Set to On/Off when creating a league and helps keep leagues progressing
· Ability to Drop and Replace players within an In-progress league
· Apply a Custom Slider to a league
· League Invitation system upgrade
· New My Complete Leagues list, showing a summary of all completed leagues, the winner and playoff participants
· New League Round-up and League History tabs in Gamer Card
· More emails and communication on league changes
· Players Needing Leagues upgrade. Commissioner can now send invites directly from that screen
· Additional information about users for a commissioner resolving a game
· Quit a league at any time (commissioner or league member). No more being held hostage
Finally Real Time Presentation Mode is one of the brand new features to this year’s game. The new presentation mode should give gamers a further sense of realism by attempting to capture the camera angles and shots seen while watching a game on TV. Instead of going in-depth on how this new system works here is a short video displaying the Real Time Presentation.
There is a lot of detail put into every offering of The Show and I don’t expect MLB 10 to be any different. If you want to learn more about the game you can read the full preview here. I am extremely excited about the upcoming title and I hope that all of these new features can come together to bring us the realism that we have come to know and love from this franchise.
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