MLB 08: The Show
I know I usually don’t talk about baseball video games, but I can’t hold back my rage any longer.
The other day I picked up a copy of MLB 08: The Show for Playstation 3. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, the standout feature is you can create a player and take him all the way up from the minors to the majors, while increasing his skills along the way. It’s a fun idea since you only control your created player instead of the usual baseball sim where you control everyone.
Overall, “The Show” feature is executed pretty well, yet the main problem is the annoyance factor of the actual baseball game. Sure the graphics are great, but there are a number of glaring problems.
First off, the fielders are idiots. Nothing is more annoying than seeing the shortstop field an easy grounder, leisurely take his time throwing to first, and watch the base runner be safe by half a step. If the fielder had even an inkling of urgency, the runner would have been out by a mile. Instances like this happen all the time in all sorts of situations.
The other problem with fielders is that there is no collision detection. My player can run through any other fielder like he’s not even there, making for a very unpolished game experience.
The strike zone is a problem too. The designers thought it would be fun to have incredibly inconsistent umpires. If a ball is thrown to the edge of the strike zone, it might sometimes be a strike, or sometimes a ball. While this may emulate real life in some ways, (let’s leave that discussion for another time) it makes my head hurt when a ball is so blatantly a strike and it gets called a ball. I think we call all agree that typically umpires do not try and make the strike zone size random. The game designers did.
I also feel that pitching in general is a bit unrealistic. I never get a sense that I’m expanding the strike zone when I get ahead in the count. Batters seem to keep the same strike zone regardless of the count. There’s also way too many foul balls. In baseball there are about .6 foul balls hit per batter faced. Rarely is there an at-bat in the game where I don’t have at least one foul ball.
I could go on with my gripes about the actual game, but my biggest problem of all is that it’s not nearly as good as EA Sports’ MVP Baseball 2005, which in my opinion is the greatest baseball video game of all time. That game was made 3 years ago and since EA lost their rights to create an MLB licensed product, baseball video games have taken a huge step backwards.
MVP 2005 had extremely responsive fielding controls, a great pitching system, a simple batting system and it really felt like you were in control of all 9 players on the field. For all the pretty graphics the new games have, you never really feel like you’re in control of the players and that is where they ultimately fail.
I just wonder how many more years I’ll have to wait before a baseball sim as good as MVP 2005 comes along again.
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here, here. MVP and EA sports baseball games were by far and away the best. These 2K sports games and the Show are just awful, and the whole licensing crap has ruined baseball video games seemingly for good. I’ve just given up hope.
Definitely. If you like gameplay, MVP 06 was miles ahead of the competition. It was college, but the physics of the batting, pitching, and fielding were absolutely genius. The little games between the batter and pitcher were all captured beautifully. Even the computer knew what it meant to be an intelligent pitcher or hitter. Can EA find some way to get licensing? The GM simulation stuff was never the most complex, but if that’s what you’re into you should just play Diamond Mind Baseball on PC or enter a fantasy league.
You can buy a PC version of MVP Baseball 2005 and update it with rosters from mvpmods.com. The graphics have certainly aged, but on the other hand you don’t need a monster of a computer to run it.
I know this is not a site geared towards video game (which I wouldn’t call myself even half an expert in anyway) but I tend to agree with most of your gripes with the lastest brand of baseball video game. EA Sports is, of course, hands down, without doubt, the best at creating realistic simulations of whatever sport they can touch.
That said, there are several things you can do to combat some of the default gameplay inadequacies usually in the form of adjusting and saving your sliders. I happen to like the umpires inconsistency, but if you don’t, change that setting, save it, and move on. The lackadaisical fielders drive me batty, so I change their footspeed and throwing velocity. Is it realistic? Perhaps not, but like with most things you have to make little adjustments to make your gaming as close to perfect as you can. I too find it extremely annoying there are no collisions between fielders, baserunners, or that, well, you can’t pull an Arod on the bases and yell in a guy’s ear. Or better yet, pull an Albert Belle and cream a guy in your way. How about charging the mound? Of course, like in real life there should be consequences to those actions, but THAT is just my opinion. If you like to deck a guy, or charge the mound every at bat without consequence, well you could turn the repercussion slider all the way down.
Yes, there are flaws. Yes, it could be better. I wish it were too, but the games have come a hell of a long way since I was playing Nintendo all afternoon after school. I can’t wait to sit in for half an evening full of a rivalry of this latest release, it may be smoke and mirrors but man do those graphics look sweet.
Oh and I really wish there were late hits in NHL ‘08. That drives me nuts. EA Sports, you guys really dropped the ball there, but your game is still the best.
While, the Show 08 does have some flaws is it by far the close thing to MVP 05. I’ve played tons of games of 08 in these two weeks since its release and haven’t had any problems with fielders being lackadaisical. There’s a way to pre-load your throw to prevent the problem your having.
Like Goon said, tweaking the sliders really helps you adjust the gameplay to exactly how you like it. You can turn down the frequency of foul tips, umpire consistency and a ton of other options.
I know it’s no MVP 05, but the Show is still bloody good and 10x better than any baseball offering from 2k Sports.
Tweaked the sliders… I don’t mind the gameplay too much since I can alter the adjustable sliders, but I second the point on the foul balls. I’m surprised no previous commenters mentioned this. I have it turned all the way down and the typical batter fouls off 3-4 pitches. The only way I could combat this was by turning the pitcher’s stamina way up.
I’ve also taken the sliders suggestion by turning down the pitch counter slider so the at-bats are shorter. This cut down on many at-bats going to a 3-2 count and beyond, but I agree the foul balls are still out of control.
I also tweaked the umpire consistency and I feel the calls are equally inconsistent. In my opinion, this slider doesn’t do much.
I have to admit I enjoy “The Show” mode a lot and it’s fun, but I still feel it’s lacking as an overall baseball sim.
You can turn the umpire inconsistency off altogether in the general options, not even messing with a slider for it. And if your fielder didn’t throw the ball with enough urgency, it was because of the way you threw the ball, not because of a problem with the game. You can control how quickly he gets rid of the ball and how hard he throws it by how long you hold down the throwing button.
Practice some more before you complain about how bad the game is. MLB 08 The Show is the best baseball game ever made. Yes even better than MVP 05.
I couldn’t agree more nor could I have written this any better myself. Everything stated is absolutely true. I cannot believe all the great reviews this game received just because it was better than the absolute, total piece of crap ’07’s version was. The CPU literally will foul off 10 pitches in an at bat and mine whiff all the time. I looked up the record for most pitches in one at bat in real life and supposedly Alex Cora had 18 one time. I had a grueling, torturous at bat that lasted 32 pitches! 32 pitches is f*%king unreal. This game is a total torture to play and the makers of it should all be fired!