Review: MLB 10 The Show

Every time I play MLB 10: The Show I’ll see something different, that’s how baseball is. Most likely you will see something new every game of the year and The Show gives you the same exact feeling. This combined with the level of detail in the game makes it the most realistic baseball game ever made. But creating a realistic game isn’t the only thing SCE Studios San Diego has done. You can personalize the game in a way that makes it your own. With the ability to import your own music, edit walk up music, bring a created player through the majors, your experience with MLB 10: The Show can be different than anyone else’s. Even though we didn’t see a huge change from last year’s title, the additions and improvements made to this year’s game makes The Show undoubtedly the best baseball game on the market.

Personalization in a sports game might seem a bit strange but The Show gives you so many options to make the game your own. For starters you have the option to import your own music to the game and it’s the easiest thing to do. Any music you already have on your PS3’s hard drive can instantly be accessed within the game’s Jukebox. Outside of the songs playing while navigating the menus they will play during batting practice, the home run derby and in the practice modes during RTTS (Road to The Show). Adding to this is the ability to edit the music played for players and teams. Want the walk up music you hear when you go to the game. You can add that. Want the music they play for strikeouts or at the end of an inning? You can add that. Want to celebrate a home run with the same music that the pros round the bases with? You can add that. Having all of these options at your disposal allows every gamer to make The Show their own game.

All of these audio editing abilities aside, the sound effects of the game are as realistic as one would expect from a baseball game. Fans get louder at the right times, it’s louder for rivalry games and the atmosphere at St. Louis is going to be different than in Oakland. There are also team specific chants, rally rags and that obnoxious fan screaming something. If you are missing a chant from your favorite team, you can record one using a headset and add it in the game yourself. It doesn’t sound that good but it’s a nice feature to have. It’s too bad that you can’t change the commentary because it’s not that great this year. Matt Vasgersian does an excellent job calling the game but the color commentary needs a lot of work. Hopefully next year they can update the commentary a little so it’s not as annoying.

As good as the audio is at creating a realistic atmosphere if the gameplay or controls are bad it means nothing. Luckily that isn’t the case with this year’s The Show. Batting and Pitching remains the same as last year’s and that’s okay because it worked fine in ’09 and it works just as fine this year. Little things like more realistic pitching and better check swing adds to the already stellar controls. Pitching is very simple, just pick the pitch you want to throw, pick where you want to put it and go through the 3-click meter motion. Some might think this isn’t very realistic and makes it seem like every pitcher is the same but I don’t think that’s the case at all. Though I like the mechanic from MLB 2K10 I think the speed and the pitches being more unpredictable makes it more realistic in The Show.

Hitting is also pretty simple with the X and Square button used for contact and power swing. What makes it realistic is being able to guess the pitch and location. Especially when playing against users, the guess pitch feature creates some epic battles at the plate, battles you can’t get anywhere else. This is what major leaguers do: they guess a pitch and location. Though it’s much simpler in the video game, it gives gamers a chance to feel what it’s like to outwit the pitcher.

Fielding controls remain the same with some better AI but there are still some problems with it. You’ll occasionally see the CPU or even user-controlled players take a bad route to the ball or sometimes not reach down for hard hit groundballs that seemingly should have been scooped up. Other things like not turning too quickly or taking too long to throw the ball due to long animations still plague the game. This isn’t so bad when it happens every now and then but if you are an infielder in RTTS the issue comes up far too often. That being said the AI is still very good, quite possibly the best in any sports games. Batters at the plate react correctly to certain situations, managers more often than not make the right decisions and pitchers won’t always go out of the zone even in 0-2 counts.

In terms of game modes MLB 10: The Show offers plenty of options for gamers. The new Home Run Derby fills out the complete All-Star experience, Manager and Rivalry mode is back this year along with the improved Franchise, Online and RTTS (Road to The Show) modes. Franchise mode offers gamers a very in-depth experience. You can now control all 30 teams in the league if you want to mirror real league games. Every aspect of being a GM is in the franchise mode from scouting, managing minor league options, dealing with injuries, the Rule 5 draft and even ticket prices and promotions. As realistic as this mode is there are still some trades the AI will make that will make you scratch your head. Also it would be nice to make 3 team trades which happen every year. As good as the franchise mode is they really need to take a look at it and add something else to update it for next year.

The biggest draw to this game is the Road to The Show mode. In its fourth year, RTTS is easily the best create a player mode in any sports title. In this mode you create a player, start in double-A ball and take him through the road to the majors. Unlike other pro modes getting to the majors might take some time. In the two players I created, one a starting pitcher the other a catcher, it took me two seasons in the minors to get a starting job in San Francisco and I have yet to crack through the White Sox organization with my catcher. Though some might not like how long it takes to get the call I don’t mind it because it gives you the real experience of being a minor leaguer. The games are much shorter in this mode so playing through an entire season doesn’t take that long at all.

RTTS hasn’t changed much from last year but there are some new drills and features like pre-game batting practice that further immerse you into the mode. The new tracking system that keeps track of little mistakes like not covering a bag or stealing when you shouldn’t affects your character more this year. Not doing the fundamental things will put you in the doghouse with your manager and playing the game the right way will net you some bonus points. Gaining points this year is basically the same from last year. Everything you do in the game will give you experience points which are used to upgrade your player. You will have the occasional goal here and there which will give you extra points but they don’t rely only on the goals to get you points. It is based on your skill so players who aren’t as good will take longer to upgrade the player but you are in the minors, which means you do have some skills so you will be able to hit home runs, strike out batters and do things you would expect baseball players to do like throw runners out from the outfield.

New to this year is the ability to play as the catcher and call the game. It’s just like being a pitcher in the sense that you choose the pitch type and a location to throw to but you don’t have any real control of where it goes. You can choose between many different locations in the strike zone as well as outside of the zone. It does give you an accurate experience of calling the game because you do have to know the pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses but you aren’t rewarded any extra points for calling a good game. For how long it takes to call a game it’s disappointing that you don’t get that many points during the game. It is fun calling a game but unless you really like playing as a catcher I would go with another position because it’s just more satisfying.

RTTS is very good but there are still some issues that come up with it every year and with 2K creating a similar mode hopefully that is incentive enough for Sony to further improve the mode. Some manager decisions are a bit suspect and the AI issues I spoke about earlier really can affect the enjoyment of the mode. Other things like long load times will hopefully be looked at for next year.

Online issues seem to have been fixed for the most part but lag and disconnections is something that fans will once again have to deal with. The games I have played online ran smoother than any of the previous titles. This is a good sign for the very in-depth online franchise mode. The online franchise is a good feature to have but after playing the Madden franchise league having CPU teams gives more of an incentive to play an entire season or even half a normal season because you don’t have to deal with scheduling a game every week. If people know who can commit to it the online league is a great mode but the issue is finding those people.

What brings everything together is the level of detail in the game. The new real-time presentation mode mirrors so closely to what you see on TV that you could leave the game running and at a quick glance you might not realize it’s a video game. Everything from the stunning visuals to the authentic batting styles and pitching deliveries to just the fans walking up and down the aisle during the game comes together to give you a unbelievably realistic experience. When you see people leaning over to reach for foul balls, mascots dancing during the break or rally rags being waved in the post season, you feel like you are watching the real thing. The presentation in MLB 10: The Show is second to none.

Overall this year’s The Show is once again the best baseball game in the market. All AI, animation, collision issues aside this is a great game. Never before has a baseball game given the user so many options to mirror their favorite team. There weren’t any huge additions this year but they didn’t really need much since last year’s game was so good. That being said I expect next year’s title to be that much more improved with a ton of new features, which I hope includes a way to upload updated rosters and stats to a franchise mode. It’s so difficult to create a realistic baseball game let alone create one in which you get the “anything can happen” experience and MLB 10: The Show does just that. It is one of the best sports games I’ve ever played and is a definite contender for end of the year awards.

Doin It RIGHT: - Great customization. - Impressive presentation and graphics. - Most realistic baseball game on the market. - Improved online play.	Doin It RONG: - Some AI issues. - Still has some collision and animation issues. - No CPU teams in online franchise mode.
FINAL SCORE: 9 / 10