MLB 09: The Show - PlayStation 3

MLB 09 The Show is a fantastic all-around game. The only thing that keeps it from attaining absolute greatness is the lack of true collision detection/clipping problems and the occassional odd glitch. The gameplay modes are full and comprehensive. New this year is a batting practice mode which lets you take 20 pitches to learn the timing and break of pitches. This is a far more elegant solution to learning to play than being tossed into an exhibition game. Road to the Show is similar to previous years, but now adds mini-training session to improve your skills. There are no revolutionary changes to the gameplay, but all the little pieces (more realistic fielding, increased difficulty in check swining, more accurate ball physics) add up to a game experience that is as realistic as it comes. New lighting effects (real-time shadows, active passing of time during games) add a heightened sense of realism to what was already a fantastic looking game. This year's edition adds even more refinement to the atmosphere by adding heightened crowd animations and custom cheers. The player models are now more realistic with full cloth animations. This game is a fantastic successor to the 08 The Show, and the 08 game was phenomenal, making 09 a no-brainer purchase.

I remember when the commercials were airing, they were billing this game as the most realistic baseball game ever. Well that may be true I suppose, but does that make it a great, enjoyable game you're going to want to spend $60 on? I thought so when I picked it up, but have wound up proving myself wrong. The game is very realistic. All the players pitch, bat, field, run, etc. just like their real-life counterparts. The gameplay is silky smooth and fluid, never a hitch, playing offline vs AI or vs a friend offline. It's a gorgeous looking game, great sounding too. So on all the technical merits, this game scores rather quite high, which is why I gave it the overall score of 5 stars, because I'm being fair here, I'm not gonna tear a game down and give it 1 star just because of one or two things I don't like about it. However on that note. The problem I do have with this game is just that it's too difficult! To the point where the game just isn't all that much fun to play most of the time. Not as though so much that it feels like a chore, but often at times just trying to do so much as get a hit can feel like an epic struggle against the AI. A lot of times pitching is made far more difficult than necessary too, you can line up a pitch right down the middle, get the power point and release point set just right, and still for whatever reason, watch it go sailing outside the strike zone. Fielding isn't all that bad, but often getting to a line drive or a sharply hit grounder can be tough to do if your initial reflexes aren't quick enough. Running is hit or miss, usually the AI's arms are accurate and strong, but they do tend to commit a lot of errors against you in running situations, often overthrowing the intended base. And by the way, in case you're wondering, yes you can adjust the sliders, but no it doesn't make a difference, as the AI constantly adapts to your style of play. My only other complaint is that there's no home run derby, and playing online is no fun at all, because it's usually just a ridiculously slow, choppy, lagfest. So my bottom line is this. If you don't mind having to really gut it out and earn the heck out of every win against the AI, and you don't mind never having even an occasional high scoring "slugfest" game, but you want something really pretty looking...then I guess MLB 09: The Show just might be the game for you. However, if you want a game that's actually fun, and won't keep you up at night trying to figure how to get things down right, you might want to give MLB 2K9 a closer look.

Awesome expecially if you appreicate the game. Standard game playing is great. Graphics are precise, the game controls are great from controlled sliding to pitching controls. It is very realistic. In "Road to the Show", you make the 40 man roster and after spring trainig, they place you in A, AA or AAA depending on your spring. You earn attributes based on reaching goals and can add them where you feel appropriate. I made it to the bigs after 2 seasons in the minors so it took me about 3 weeks. I play SS so when fielding, the camera is from the fielders eye and not the batter so it is very realistic. When baserunning, you are in the runner's eye so you control only the runner. Be careful with pickoffs because the pitchers are good. You only play the plays you are involved in so you can play a game in about 15 minutes thus you can finish an entire season in about a week. You can create personalized cheers and jeers for yourself. Awesome feature. Can't wait for 2010 version to come out.

Very nice game for any baseball fan. The RTTS is great as always but can get boring after spending all of the season in AA hitting .200. The RTTS is very had, but realistic as can be all in all. The training in a nice new addition and the baserunning has new features that have their ups and downs. Stealing bases is funner in RTTS but after that it is a little confusing. For example as the camera angles change so does the directional buttons. Online play is good but the rooms become crowded and it also becomes difficult to find sizeable opponents. What would really put this game over the top would be a WBC. I know 2K7 used to have this and it was really fun. Can you imagine a WBC with these graphics? Overall this is a great game with a few downsides but a lot of up and definetely better than 2K9.

The game play is absolutely amazing and very realistic, much better than MLB 08. The only complaint I have is that the game is way too difficult. There are 5 different game play settings and I always play on level 2 (Veteran). Even on such a low level you have to be absolutely error free in all aspects of the game, hitting, fielding, pitching, base running. With pitching it is very easy to walk someone and just about every time you hang a pitch anywhere in the strike zone the computer hits a homerun. When you are batting unless you time the pitch just right and have solid contact you will ground out or hit it right at someone. The difficulty of the game takes the fun out of hit. At least with MLB 08 I was able to win more than half my games.

I rented this game (will buy very soon) and could not keep my hands off of the controller for a week. This was my first 'The Show' game and was impressed at the superior graphics and gameplay. To me, this game beats out the 2K baseball series by a long shot because of the overall difficult gameplay coupled with graphics that knock almost any other game out of the water. With 2K, I could go through the batting order in one innning without getting an out but with Sony's game the AI is adaptive to the player's style and makes it a chess match of strategies just to win a game (just like being in a real baseball game). The only thing (right now) that I would ask Sony to fix is the loading periods between games or innings. But I can live with long loading times with a game as good as this.

You are terribly wrong. 1) "I could tell you about the perfect graphics" - Graphics are pretty good, but the players don't look anything like themselves. The entire Cubs and Red Sox line-ups look terrible. 2) "Each player is rendered with extreme precision" - Really? They lost this on me with taking out plenty of signature moves. Take for example one of the most notorious stupid moves in baseball: Soriano's hop. If a move as obvious and unique as this one is not in the game, they obvious didn't do their research. 3) "Also, as you play the game the infield wears down, if you dive for a ball on the back of the infield in the third inning, that large swipe of dirt will still be there the rest of the game, this is amazing. Score a runner from second base, and you'll see the footprints in the dirt until they get covered by even more footprints. The crowd is intenase this year, it's dynamic. If there's a blow out, they might leave early. Also, you'll see Yankee fans in Fenway and vice-versa, as that's how it really is" - There's absolutely no point to this...how about making a true BASEBALL game, not a stadium game. I'm okay with the crowd affecting play, that's baseball, but not showing people getting up and walking away, that's a waste of space. Moving on to things you generously look over: Pitching and batting are terrible. I love hard games and I love real life games--this game is neither. The pitching makes no sense. You have absolutely no control over where the ball is going to end up. My pitcher was in the 5th inning with 1 hit and no runs and the yellow in his pitching meter was huge, but still the ball did not go anywhere near where I told it to; moreover, this is not just a single occurence (which I could understand in a game) it happens almost every single pitch. It's just terrible. Furthermore, the strike-zone in this game is the worse I have ever seen in a video game; it's worse than real life, and that's saying something! It's impossible to get on a streak when a ball that is literally right down the middle gets called a ball. Now, moving on to hitting, the game loses everything. Hitting makes no sense what-so-ever. Don't think I expect to get a hit every time I walk up to the plate because I don't; however, I would like the hitting system to make some sense. Through my experience, your best bet for a hit is with a pitcher where you can just bloop it over the infield or hit it so softly they can make it to first. Guessing a pitch does absolutely nothing. When you have D. Lee, M. Bradley, Big Papi, or any big hitter sitting on a guessed-correctly, high fastball, it should be a homerun at least every other time...which it's not. It's a fly out or a ground out. Needless to say, the hitting icon during the next batters turn can read "timing-perfect, position-wheelhouse" and chances are even then you won't get a hit. All in all, this game sucks. Sure the stadiums and crowds are lifelike, but who wants that when the actual gameplay is terrible. The players aren't really like themselves, the batting and pitching are programmed horendously, and the game is just plainly not fun.

To start, Road to the Show is great. I wish all sports games would have this. It really makes you feel like the coaches are judging you based on your performance. Aside from Road to the Show, everything else about the game is superb. The graphics, slightly improved graphics, lighting, a list of other new features, and most importantly, the features from past years games. The same day I bought this, I say MVP 2005 for ps2, (I have an old 80gb ps3) I would have to say that with the list of consecutive excellent titles created by Sony, The Show Series has successfully taken the throne from EA Sports' MVP series as the best, and "Most Realistic Baseball Sim Ever."