Customer Reviews

MLB 06 The Show

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

MLB 06: The Show, is without a doubt the best baseball game on the market. However, it does have some very aggravating flaws that will takes some getting used to. Among other things, players have a habit of advancing to second base on their own, even if there is a runner on second that is not moving, or if they just hit an infield single. I can't begin to tell you how many outs of lost because of this. Another annoying glitch is the frequency of wild pitches. Once you get used to the controls, there are less, but there are still an unrealistic amount. When you're first getting used to the game, it will seem like every time you throw a slider it's a wild pitch.

Now, enough of the negative stuff! Let's talk about why this is the best baseball game on the market today.

Graphics: 10/10 The graphics are amazing in comparison to any other baseball game I have played. I played 2K5 last year, and I though it's graphics were excellent, but The Show will just amaze you in comparison. Player movements are much less choppy.

Gameplay: 8/10 As I have already stated, there are some glitches in the gameplay that can be really annoying. But one other annoying thing about this and EVERY baseball game that has come out in the last 2 years is that you can't slide into first. It's acctually just impossible. Why this is I have no idea, as in all of my really old games you had this capability, but not here. Really weird. Still, the gameplay is a lot of fun and very realistic. You will no longer hit a home run every time you come up to bat, you have to acctually keep your eye on the ball and aim your swing.

Extra Game modes: 11/10 This is what makes the Show stand out above the crowd. This is the only baseball game out that has an ACTUAL HOME RUN DERBY! 2K5 only had some game where you saw how many homers you could hit in a specific time period, but The Show has the actual derby from the all star game. 10 outs, anything other than a HR is an out, multiple rounds etc. This mode is especially fun to play with friends. King of the Diambond is also an interesting mode, in which you chose one batter and one pitcher and play an arcade style game with ghost sunners and bonuses.

Franchise: 10/10 Amazing, and I absolutely love the stadium management stuff where you can set food and ticket prices and even advertise games and hold "bat day" or "bobblehead day".

Career: 10/10 This is Baseball's answer to John Madden Football's "superstar mode". You create a player and guide him through the minor leagues with the eventual goal of makeing "the show".

Overall: 9/10 All in all, MLB 06: The Show is an outstanding baseball video game. I highly reccomend it, but there are some glitches that can get very annoying at times, so be warned. In reference to the review above which states that the game has problems with lockups ("freezing"), I have had the game for over a month and have never experienced a problem.

I've been playing this game for about 3 weeks now. In previous years I was loyal to the EA Sports version until they lost their contract with MLB this year.

The Show 2006 is a very worthy competitor. Better in many ways and not as good in a couple of others.

PROS:
- Graphics are good; no better or worst than EA Sports as far as I can tell;
- Love how the pitching works, and how pitchers will lose confidence. In a tight game you can really "feel" when a pitcher is starting to lose it. Forces you to manage the bullpen, etc. which I like.
- The "Guess Pitch" feature when batting is just outstanding. Allows you to sit on a fastball (if you so choose).
- Gameplay is smooth.
- Settings are very customizable. For example, by default the game is set with a lot of cut scenes between pitches. A replay, the runner standing on first, etc. This makes for great realism but it really slows down the gameplay (I mean, if I want to watch a baseball game I'll just turn on the TV, otherwise I just want to play the game). The great thing about The Show though is that you can turn all this stuff off, which makes for a much quicker transition between pitches/batters.
- Franchise mode is very in-depth, much more so than MVP, particularly on the financial side. You can set up advertisements, take a loan from a bank, etc. Some will like this, others will think it's too much to manage. Again you can customize this to your liking (e.g. have the computer run the financials).
- Sony updates the MLB rosters weekly, which you can download via online mode. Much better than EA Sports.

CONS:
There are several areas that can be improved:
- The announcers voices lag behind the gameplay. Not a huge deal to where it detracts from the fun of the game, but definitely a little annoying after awhile. A company like Sony should be able to clean this up.
- Lack of variety by the announcers. Again, not a huge deal, just a little annoying. For example, every time Willie Taveras comes up to bat the color commentary is "and you can see by his numbers that he's swinging the bat a lot better at home". Every single time.
- Trading players in Franchise Mode is a complete joke. This is a big one for me. As an Astros fan I like to take the team in Franchise mode and "tinker" with the roster a bit. First of all, the computer won't allow you to trade multiple players for a single player (for example, a 3-for-1 deal). This happens ALL THE TIME in baseball, but not in The Show. In The Show, the computer says "unable to make trade as the Yankees don't have roster space", meaning that they already have 25 players assigned to their roster and so can't take on two more players while giving up only one, as it would give them 26 players on the roster. This is ridiculous; obviously a player should just be pushed down into the minors. This is how MLB handled it.

The stupidity doesn't stop here though. Assuming you do find a team willing to trade, the AI is just awful. For example, in April/May during my season, just to test the system I offered Morgan Ensberg, Roy Oswalt, and Brad Lidge to Tampa Bay for Carl Crawford and two scrubs from AAA. Tampa Bay wasn't interested. HOWEVER, once the trading deadline came around in July I was able to trade a 28 year old AA pitcher for Crawford. I made similar types of trades to acquire Joe Mauer and Dontrelle Willis.
For me this is a really big negative of the game as I love the franchise mode. EA Sports was far superior in this category, and Sony has a lot of work to improve the AI here.

- This is very nitpicky, but I personally don't like the swirling baseball graphic that appears on the field during a pop fly (the area to which you are to direct your fielder to catch the ball). Would prefer something a little simpler.
- I've had a lot of trouble with effective baserunning. Not very intuitive for controlling manually. And when you set it to allow the computer to handle baserunning, every now and then you'll see your fat, slow catcher (or whoever) trying to turn a single into a double. Not a huge deal, but sometimes annoying.

In summary though, I can definitely recommend The Show as a very good game. The gameplay, particularly the pitching and hitting modes, is better than EA Sports in my opinion. The annoucers are not as good. The franchise mode is more in depth, with the exception of making trades as noted above.

ADDENDUM: After completing my first season in Franchise Mode, in fact the game does allow you to trade multiple players for a single player. The AI still is not very saavy as you can get some real steals by trading with AA and AAA scrubs. But it is possible to do it.

This game seems half baked. Good ideas with poor execution.

Graphics:
Arguably the best part of the game. The graphics are nice and the faces of star players are pretty well rendered. Body types aren't as well rendered and look pretty generic. Stances and deliveries are done well. Ballparks are also replicated nicely.
Little glitches mentioned later detract from otherwise beautiful game graphics.

Gameplay:
The pace of the game is slower than any baseball game I think has ever been put out on a platform--but in a good way. It does give one the feeling of a real baseball game one would view on television. This can be quickened up in the options if one prefers a quicker game experience or just want a 'quick and dirty' game. The commentary is pretty good and although a little bit repetative is not annoying except for exclusion of a lack of recording names for almost all game generated players if you play franchise or career for a decent number of seasons.

Pitching lacks depth in that every given pitch breaks the same way. No differing breaks on any changeup, although one may break more given the pitchers ability. Also many pitchers especially relievers seem to be given extra pitches that they don't throw in real life presumably so 2 or 3 pitch pitchers cannot be guessed so easily for the pitch guessing feature in the game.

Fielding
The controls feel a lil slow and clunky in the responsiveness department. Throwing feels the worst as the game really needs a throw meter.

Tuning
Some gameplay feel that I found a little not to my liking or a little off was the ease of getting on base via bunting--especially drag bunting. More than what would be a normal amount of infield singles. Many of what should be routine double plays the first base runner beats out. Injuries don't seem to happen often enough. I think I hit 6 or so batters in a row without my pitcher being thrown out and with none of the batters sustaining an injury. Ease of wild pitch seems a little off also. For as much as the game wants to be simulation-like it loses credibility as rare events happen to the point of being routine.

The title "The Show" would make you think the developers spent a lot of time on their unique Career mode that lets you create a player and play through his career--WRONG! It's not terrible at all but is not much more than a franchise mode without any control over the lineups and rosters since you are just a player. The mode lacks the depth that could have made this title uniquely great. Nothing happens by chance except injuries with the choice of playing through it or not. Recieving mentoring from veteran players or advice from coaches is totally absent and it's a shame. Also the notes other players and the manager quickly become repetitive. You feel pretty detached from the team. An interesting feature would be to open up requests with say the owner or the GM once you reach 'veteran' 'all star' and 'hall of fame' status, increasing your clout in your organization based on your star status and importance to the team as an individual or the ability to recruit key free agents.

Bugs that are pretty inexcusable and may be a gamebreaker for you:
1. Game freezing during a played game
2. Lack of running tagout animations. First time I ran down a player I literally wasn't sure if I'd tagged out the runner because my player didn't reach out with his glove.
3. The minor but very annoying 4 shadows for every player on the field.
4. Umpires don't move, they sometimes in overhead shots go 2d, and you can walk right through them like they are ghosts.
5. A glaring lack of recorded names for game generated players. Hearing, "Number 24 comes to bat!" gets pretty annoying if you play career or franchise for a number of years and game generated players start to predominate the league. Some minor leaguers do get the recorded name treatment from the game for some reason, but not the majority.

Like many other MVP fans, I was very sad to hear that Take Two had bought exclusive 3rd party rights to MLB games this year(which essentially all this agreement did was eliminate EA's MVP game for the next seven years). Well since Take Two's 2K baseball series is widely known to be horrible, I was worried what I would do for a baseball game the next 7 years. I was almost to the point of keeping MVP 2005 for 7 years and updating the rosters. But knowing this was very time consuming and would quickly get to the point of having an outdated game, I looked at the options. Fortunately, us Playstation2 owners don't have to buy the Take Two game because the agreement still allows Sony to make this game. Luckily, I played this game at a friend's house and immediately feel in love with. I played 3 games with him, then went to the store to buy it myself. It's so addicting, and such a baseball simulation it's ridiculous. You feel like you are an at actual baseball park controlling the players. The graphics are amazing(players actually look like themselves unlike in MVP where everyone was fat or skinny, Derek Lee is not 400 pounds on this game like he appeared to be in MVP) and the faces are the best I have seen in a baseball game. The stadiums are beautifully done as well, and for you Cardinals fans, the new Busch Stadium IS in the game, and Sony did a fantastic job recreating it and the skyline behind. The commentary is the best I have ever heard in a baseball game also, you almost feel like the guys are sitting there watching you play, it's scary sometimes. The presentation is GREAT and is just like a television baseball game. The game plays wonderfully too, you get realistic outcomes, and it's a challenge. Pitching makes you think: unlike with MVP where every pitch you took and threw was probably a strike, you WILL throw balls, you WILL take walks, and you WILL walk people in this game whether you're trying to or not. If your pitcher starts giving up a bunch of hits and walks, he gets frustrated and his confidence level lowers. This makes it harder to place your pitch where you want it and you will need a mound visit to calm him down. Playing this game just makes me see how much MVP was off in their attempt to simulate baseball; compared to The Show, MVP is a simple arcade game. It's clear the makers of this game are huge baseball junkies, they REALLY know the game. Small details really set this game off, I love how the outfielders will celebrate with each other after a great catch or how after a basehit the guy at first will carry on a conversation with the 1st baseman and give him a pat on the back. You didn't see this stuff in MVP, and it adds so much to the experience. I honestly can't put this game down and can't recommend it highly enough. I like The Show so much that if MVP 2007 were to come out, I wouldn't even consider buying it, MLB 06 The Show is truly THAT much better. Anyone who gives this game less than 5 stars can not be a fan of real baseball, if you like arcade stuff, you won't like this, but if you're a true baseball fan, you'll eat this up like no baseball game ever before!

One thing I forgot to add, a REALLY cool thing Sony does is they update the rosters EVERY Monday. Last week was the opening day update and all the rookies were added that made their debuts the first week of the season, and their updates are very accurate unlike some of EA's. When a guy is called up, you can bet money that he will be in next Monday's update. And it's not just big time prospects that get added, Sony even pays attention to the random no-name career minor leaguer who just got called up. For people very particular about rosters like me, this is an awesome feature.

In this game there are many new features and the awsome classic ones. In career mode you will start in AA with real teams and stadiums. You have to play 9 innings in career and franchise ,but you can change it for regular quck games when you play your friends. You can though, just do your at bats. The graphics are awsome the best yet. Also the rosters are good (about evertthing before the game came out). You can use the eyetoy in some modes too. This game may not have the world baseball clasic but is better than 2k6. This game does feature the red sox and Big Papi, but yankee fans will still like it with Damon and the NYY are the best team in the game. This does also have new rival mode where rivals play each other. You can also play online.

The game is fun and a great game!

I bought this game a few days after it came out. The trailer is awesome, the music is great. But then I played it. I was frustrated from the beginning, but decided to be patient since it is not MVP 2005 that I am so used to.

THE GOOD:
- I am music lover and this game has some awesome tracks
- The graphics are great, make other games look cartoony.
- Highly customizable.
- Mini-games are good.


GAMEPLAY:

(Offense)
- Offensively, its really up for debate. Being able to guess a pitch is an integral part of real life batting. But in my opinion, not in this game. If you guess the pitch right, all you have to do is time it and, if its in the stike zone, usually get a good hit or homerun. With 5 or 6 pitches available to the pitcher against you, the laws of probability suggest that I will be making contact a lot if I guess at every pitch. I must have completed about 8 games by now and can consistently produced 10+ runs with the Yankees.
**Can't really control the runners. You can send them, thats
about it.


(Defense)
- If you are trying to replace MVP Baseball 2005, you will find this game very lacking defensively.

**You can do most things easy enough, but I can't get over the absence of the throwing meter on defense. After the outfielder throws the ball, L1 (PS2) gets the cutoff man to intercept it. The longer you hold L1, the harder he'll throw. Why not incorporate that into the rest of the game?

**I feel like players have limited range when diving on the run.

**You can "Preload" the throw, by pressing the base before the fielder possesses the ball, and result in the fielder getting rid of the ball faster. These good things make the absence of a throwing meter much more distressing.


(Pitching)
**Takes some getting used to. The spot where you aim isn't where the ball will land, but rather where the ball will break. Big difference when throwing curves, splitters, changeups, sliders.

**After each pitch, the spot is shown where the ball broke and landed. Problem is that many times this will not be consistant with where you SAW the ball go. As a batter you NEVER see the sideways break of a slider (you see what resembles an outside curveball or changeup), though its marked after the pitch, many times INSIDE the strike zone.


ONLINE:
**Online interface is awesome. The rooms are shared by PS2 and PSP users that can't play aganst each other. In my opinion, they should be on seperate servers, if they can't play against each other.

**The online game experience is the same as the offline if both players have good connections/bandwidth.

**I have played two ALMOST complete games online. Both times as I am scoring 10 plus runs on the oponent, they quit on the bottom of the ninth. Their punishment and my reward are a couple of lousy points! No win or loss is given. No statistics adjusted to either player. Don't know what the points are for. I (and I think most players) care about wins/losses and stats such as average, ERA, HRs, RBIs, etc. If the other player quits on you after you are having a great game, your stats stay as they were before you started. You can see how that player is rated before you play but
that does not justify the way its currently setup.


GRAPHICS:
**Joints. With so much effort obviously being put into making this game as life-like as possible, one noticeable flaw is the double-jointed wrists of some batters.

**Faces look bad

**Too much graphics for the PS2?? This game is eye-candy like no other, but freezes frequently during gameplay.

- After a play, the game waits for the commentator to catch up because he is usually one play behind!!

- After the third out, the player make their way to the dugout. One time I saw four or five of them jogging in place at the dugout steps.

- After a batter strikes out, the scene kicks in with a close up of the frustrated hitter making his way back to the dugout. Many times the commentator has not caught up to the last pitch and the programmed scene ends prematurely! The batter loses his life-like
movement and walks like a stiff-armed robot.


I did not play with season mode or franchise mode or career mode. They all sound great but after experiencing the gameplay, I cannot see myself dedicating much time to this game.


CONCLUSION:
The game started out on the road to be the best baseball video game out ever made, but along the way the makers overlooked basic things which render this game inferior to most.

This review contains a laundry list of the known bugs and problems with MLB 06: The Show. If you notice any more while playing, please email me and/or leave a comment here so I can add them to the list and hopefully get the list to the programmers:

Sometimes on a bunt the catcher just stands there and doesn't chase it because he "knows" that it is going to roll foul. Of course in real life he can't know this and would chase the ball up the line and then touch it as soon as it goes foul.

Similarly, batters who hit pop-ups that may or may not go foul often stand in the batters box without running at all and of course that means the ball is going to land foul. Those runners should run it out until they know the ball is foul.

Sometimes guys who strike out swinging on three strikes turn around and argue with the umpire when they are walking away. This animation should be limited to those who strike out looking. (Or take a questionable strike in the at-bat.)

Ground balls hit up sharply up the middle often look like they are going to get through and then 100% of the time the second baseman makes an incredible play and throws a perfect strike instantly across his body to get the runner at first. Very unrealistic.

There is no way to interrupt the "did he check his swing" animation like there is in the MVP series. Every time you check your swing you have to watch the whole simulation of them looking down the line to the umpire who then goes through the motion of saying whether you held up or not.

There does not appear to be a way to have the outfielders pick up a line drop on a hop and throw it quickly to first. The animation always has the outfielder casually picking it up and tossing it in, even when you could realistically get a slow runner at first on a line drive one-hopper to a right fielder who is playing way in.

The computer never looks runners back and never throws to third base when you have a runner on second base and there's a ground ball to shortstop. You can just run him to third base risk free, it seems.

Line drives that should hit runners often go right through their bodies.

Sometimes on double plays the shortstop just doesn't throw the ball even if you are pressing the button.

When you bring in a switch hitter like Bernie Williams and the computer then changes handed pitchers, the batter does not switch sides of the plate as he should.

Unlike MVP, there is no way to see the pitch sequence for the previous at-bats.

Some players names are pronounced differently by the announcers and the stadium public address guy. (Jose Guillen of the Nationals for one.)

Sometimes the computer fielder's foot is off the bag and the umpire calls an out anyway.

Attempts to pick off runners lead to throwing errors far too often.

The controls for diving and leaping are just terrible.

The controls for sliding runners are terrible.

Hitting "select" shows the speed ratings for the runners - but not the batter!

When there is a man on first and a grounder to first base, the computer doesn't realize that if you step on first and then throw to second the play at second requires a tag.

If you are a fan of baseball, this is the game for you. Don't expect an arcade experience, this is REAL baseball. Great presentation and great graphics as well(the best looking MLB game ever to hit the console market). If you are a former MVP player like me, this game reminds a lot of MVP but with better presentation and atmosphere so MVPers should enjoy this one. The pitch meter which MVP made famous is also on this game. There are 1000 different individual batting and pitching motions, you would not believe how many players that Sony motioned capped to get their exact correct stances. Very impressive. There's so many "little things" that help make this game great: attention to detail, spring training games/spring training uniforms, pitchers getting mad after having a bad inning and getting pulled go to the dugout and knock over Gatorade and slam their glove against the wall, batters slamming their helmet and bat down after striking out.. I could go on and on, the attention to detail by Sony is AMAZING. By far the best MLB game on the PS2 this season, and possibly the best MLB game ever released(even better than MVP). DEFINITELY pick this gem up

In response to Chris Kennison's review about this game freezing or locking up, I've played almost 50 games and have not seen one freeze or lockup. There may be something wrong with your PS2 if you have one of the older models that Sony recalled. Call Sony and ask them to fix your PS2, under the settlement of some of the defective PS2 models, Sony is required to fix them for no charge.

This game does not have a freezing problem though just to clarify for everyone that saw Chris' review.

pretty good graphics and great gameplay give this game 4 stars overall. The only problem with gameplay is that there is a cut off every time you through from the outfield. The game has great features though, like the career mode where you create yourself, someone else, or just someone you just plain made up.
They usally start in triple A but you can train and get better. You can ask for a trade, complain, or asked to be called up. Sometimes they call you up on their own though. Dynasty mode can be hard with budgets however though, but i've always had a hard time with budgets, so if you understand budgets ignore this part. However, if you smack the ps2 with a baseball bat though over budgets don't get this game. I dont like budgets but i can tolerate them so its all good to me. Whatever you do though don't get mlb 2k6 its got bad graphics and the gameplay is confusing. I hope this reveiw helps.

I just got this game today and I've only played it for awhile, but it looks really great, plays really great, and has a lot of cool features that make me think I'm really going to enjoy it for quite some time. You can play the standard "franchise" mode that all games have - or you can create a player from scratch and he has to earn a roster spot, gaining in abilities as you complete certain tasks during spring training and during the season. It's nice to see some of these game makers try something fresh and creative. The game is easy to get around in, the settings are easy to use, and the gameplay so far seems pretty super. The look of the thing is another thing that makes this game stand above the rest. I'll play it more and see if I still feel great about it, but so far I'm really impressed.