By Kenny Barto
With the 2010 baseball season on the horizon, Sony Computer Entertainment has released a masterpiece with MLB 10: The Show. This game is, in fact the most realistic baseball video game ever made.
The game’s core mechanics are based around being challenging but fun. Pitching is difficult, and I’m sure Sony made it this way for a reason. It’s not like past versions of the 2K Sports baseball franchise where you could retire the side on three pitches, and have a pitch count of 60 after throwing a complete game shutout. Despite being challenging, it’s also very fun, and is what makes this game addicting. Batters will foul away pitches, and it’s extremely hard to throw consecutive pitches in the same exact place. This causes realistic pitch counts, and will also make you pay more attention so you don’t make a mistake. Pitches also have realistic flight paths. You have to start the pitch and anticipate where the pitch will end up. You will also notice that umpires will squeeze you on occasions, and will also call strikes on pitches just outside of the zone, which adds more realism into the game.
Just like pitching, batting is also challenging while still being fun. The pitching intelligence is smart and will definitely challenge you with everything in that pitcher’s arsenal. One thing that has stayed constant in this franchise since the beginning is the “Guess the Pitch” feature. You can guess where the pitch is going to go and you can also get the location. Even if you get one out of the two correct, the game will let you know so you know at least half of what is coming your way.
Another improvement in the gameplay is the feature where you place your bat within the zone. This is yet another feature that makes this game so realistic. Using your left stick, you aim where you think the pitch is going. If you get this wrong, you will either end up hitting the ball off of the inside part of the bat, causing a slow dribbler, or one off of the end of the bat, causing a pop-up. You also have your choice of a regular, contact or power swing. They are both self-explanatory, but one common misconception is that you can’t hit home runs with a contact swing. In my time playing this game, I hit at least three home runs using the contact swing simply because I knew where the ball was going and placed my bat perfectly.
There really isn’t much you can say about graphics, because they are simply amazing. Using a 37-inch 1080p HDTV, I was simply blown away at how realistic they made this game look. Everything is extremely smooth, and I could not pick out anything about the graphics that I did not like. Even small moments stand out, like when a ground ball is hit foul near the crowd, you will see them leaning over the wall to try to grab the ball, just like in real life.
The “Road to the Show” feature is what makes this game so unique. You create a player and take him through the minor league ranks and into the majors. I find that being a pitcher is much more entertaining, but you can create yourself as a position player as well. When you do well in a game, you earn training points, and you use those points to make yourself better by choosing what training you want to do. You can simply spend the points by bettering your attributes or by participating in actual events like simulated games to better your player’s ratings.
I strongly recommend any baseball fan who owns a Playstation 3 to buy this game. From the smooth gameplay to the incredible graphics, everything was done correctly with little to no blemishes. Even though MLB 10: The Show might not break any sales records (mostly because it’s exclusive to the PS3) it is definitely in the early running for the top sports game of the year. Sony did not disappoint with this game.
