Customer Reviews

MLB 08 The Show

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How does the saying go? The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Well, that's pretty much the mantra of this latest installment of the MLB franchise. With some new tweaks (and some new bugs), MLB 08 has crash landed on the PS2 console with a few changes that may either excite or disenfranchise some gamers.

First of all, the biggest change is the Guess Pitch feature, which no longer gives you the help of an exact location of pitches as last year's version did. For some, this change makes the game more difficult, as they could always hold back and wait for that perfect fastball in the lower half that you could rocket over the wall with relative ease. Now, should you select the new option for the Guess Pitch feature, you are only given an indication that the pitch will be in the area you guess. So, if a low and inside fastball is thrown by John Lackey, and you're clever enough to have selected the area you think the pitch will go, you can no longer rest assured that your guess will lead to an automatic base hit because the pitch could be low and waaaaaaaaay inside. You swing, you miss, or you chop the ball into the dirt. This, of course, adds to the realism of the game more and creates situations that n longer hinge on your habit of always guessing low and down the middle (Which was what I did all the time in MLB 07).

Another improvement is the Rob Home Run feature. I particularly love this because timing the jump was always the most difficult thing to do in any of the baseball games. Now, this doesn't mean that you'll have any more luck at robbing the home run, it just means that you can. Still, the ball may be too high, or your player might not be too fast, but the added excitement of snagging a foul ball in the stands or a home run from over the fence increases the playability factor exponentially.

Other than those things, not much else has changed between versions of this game. There are still bugs-a-plenty...outfielders that continue to run against the wall even though the ball has ricochet back into the field of play. Shortstops that inexplicably snag sure-fire homeruns out of thin air, and the plethora of foul balls the CPU hits even after getting a batter to an 0-2 count on off-speed pitches.

The umpire feature never seems to be of any prominence. I remember the advertising for this series that bragged how an umpire's strike zone varies depending on the ump's personality. Well, that is a crock because the strike zone variable seems wholly random. Sometimes, an ump will call an outside pitch a strike, but later on that same ump will call an inside pitch a ball. The probability is wholly random, as I see it.

Base running is still an incredible blunder. It is impossible to send a runner to steal a base. it is reliant on the computer, and taking the CPU option off results in a confusing button configuration that never seems to be wholly accurate or effective. I long for the days of EA Sports easy stealing and base running system...want your runner to advance to third on a slow roller up the middle? Just press the Left directional button and they're off to the races. In MLB 08, the controls are incomprehensibly convoluted, and having to memorize button procedures takes away from the fun of the game.

As always, the announcer team is morbidly banal...many of the same one-liners and comments were just repackaged into this game. It's gotten to the point now where whenever I hear "The 3rd base coach had to do a skip-to-my-lou", my body instantly seizes and my bowels release. OK< not really, but it's as annoying as listening to Tim McCarver in the playoffs. Either get new announcers or write new scripts for these guys cause recycling these "gems" demeans my intelligence.

Things that are missing: Fan interference!? How about a little love for the guys who lean over and try to snag foul balls? Also, an easier way to manually update rosters during the course of a season would be preferable then having to do it before starting a franchise by adjusting the rosters for those unfortunate enough not to have a PS2 with internet capabilities. And those bugs! Ugh! I'm not talking about the ones that swarm Joba...I'm talking about the others. Like a pop-up skied up the middle beyond second base that the catcher has to run through the infield to get? What's up with that?

Anyway, those points I raised are more nit-picky than anything. MLB 08 is still a quality baseball game, better than 2K's. The gameplay is smoother and the myriad of options regarding gameplay blows the lid off of the shell that is 2K. I would recommend this game for the hardcore baseball fans. Especially if you have an internet connection for your PS2 so you can get updated rosters, because as fun as it is to reflect on the times when Santana was on the Twins, it's extremely annoying to have to face him in the course of a season in the American league.

Having never played any of the previous MLB series games, but having played the fantastic MVP Baseball 2005 nearly to death (best baseball game ever), I bought MLB 2008: The Show mostly because I needed updated rosters, but also because the reviews were better than 2K Baseball. Immediately I was drawn to the Road to the Show feature, an RPG-like feature that lets you create your own character, build their stats through the minors, and before too long live out your dreams in the majors. The fun value of this is quite high, but the logistics are a little sketchy, which is how I'd review the game as a whole.

I'll give some examples. The Hitter's Eye allows you to predict which pitch you think will be thrown and where. Unfortunately, once you master this (and it doesn't take long), hitting on the most difficult level becomes a breeze, and pretty soon your whole team is batting .300 plus. Then there's the ability to make forced trades and editor individual players to better match their real-life stats. While I did enjoy tinkering with the players, you can only do so before you start a season, not during. And good luck trying to make trades during the season - you've got to sacrifice your best players for a trade to go through, because you can't convince anyone that a young player is a "prospect."

And then there are a ton of flaws, bugs, and little annoyances scattered throughout. A few of the bigger ones: The Rays still wear uniforms that say "Devil Rays" (despite getting the new name right everywhere else). The stadiums have incorrect or completely made-up backgrounds (Seattle, where I'm from, has a few random generic buildings behind Safeco Field instead of the easily recognizable Qwest Field arches and the tall, black Columbia Center, and there are many more stadiums with similarly generic backgrounds). And stealing bases or tagging up and running is virtually impossible to do with the game's convoluted controls (the only way I can tag and run is by tagging/running everyone on base, not one base at a time, so sack flies are very difficult to execute). What happened to just using the arrows on the controller as bases, and tapping the appropriate base to indicate a steal? Example: man on first and third, don't want to steal home but do want to steal second, so instead of sending both runners you just tap the "up" arrow and steal second. Problem solved.

In the end, the game can be very fun because you win all the freaking time on the hardest of difficulties, and it can be very frustrating because it's not very realistic and flaws and errors aboud. The fun does tend to win in the end, barely, and I have played the game through twice (once in season mode, once in Road to the Show). I just wish they'd put more time into making it a cohesive and realistic experience than an arcade game, which is what this ultimately feels like.

I've had the last few versions of this game, and there isn't much difference, if any, from last years. EXCEPT BUGS!

Game freezes, miss-catched pop flys by AI players, called strike check swings (when reviewed on "replay" the call is always wrong), and just weird things like getting "locked" into a menu during the game and not being able to get out...thus having to restart the whole machine.

Just aggravating when you're in the 8th inning and I go to my bullpen and I can't get out! Just won't let me out and I push every button, and nothing.

So, I'm only about 40 games into my "season" and I've had to restart the game at least 10-15 times and lose all my progress.

The only bug I remember in the 07 version was players missing easily catchable throws on "off action" scenes, which was nothing.

This game is great,has good graphics a fun road to the show mode, and franchise mode is VERY realistic. The only problem is, sometimes when playing a game (it has only happened in franchise mode to me, not quick game or road to the show) in franchise mode, after hitting a homerun, the player who hit the ball freezes in the position that he was in when the ball hit the bat, forcing you to simulate to the end of the game, and the homerun does not count. This game is still very fun, and i would recommend buying it.

The game is spectacular. One of the best baseball games I've ever played, and the only thing to ever come close to MVP 05.

That said, there are a couple bugs that you should be aware of. Sometimes the fielding goes a little wonky (for example, a bloop single to the outfield will sometimes require the C to go get it; this is rare and only happened once in RTTS while pitching), and the real gamebreaker is the fact that sometimes the game freezes after the game (either during the post-game wrapup, or on the loading screen back to the menus). This is very frustrating as there's no way to patch it and there's no sign it's going to hit until after you've finished a game and find all your progress wiped away.

I'm a baseball fanatic and I've always liked the MLB The Show franchise. Good all around the game. But there are some glitches in it that are frustrating. If you're new to the PS2 and want a good baseball game, then this is the one for you.

Not much change from last years game. Still a pretty good game. Big bug to me is the cpu hits an UNGODLY amount of foul balls. Don't think you're going to walk a particular batter in order to get to the pitcher either! Cause the pitchers hit just as well as the cleanup man. Get past these few things and it's still fun.

First off, i just want to say how awesome playing this game is. When playing the umps are realistic in blowing some calls. Not enough ejections and stuff from managers in my opinion but i enjoy playing it. What ticks me off is, and i play Road To The Show more then franchise or anything like that, i play on all-star, and the most annoying thing about the game is the bug. After going 4-5 HR 3 RBI's and a SB in the playoffs, it's bottom 9th a ground ball is hit to my player my team is winning by 7, 2 outs, no one on, easy out, then suddenly the game freezes. It's the most irritating thing i have encountered with the game. Other then that it was really fun. The rosters are not updated enough in my opinion, Kosuke Fukudome is not in the game but is the current starting RF for the Chicago Cubs. Great game if you lose baseball, you'll love MLB 08 The Show!!

I played MLB07 and it was a pretty good game, with some minor bugs. I figured the makers would fix these problems in the newer version, but I was mistaken. It is immensely frustrating that the game freezes at inopportune times. For example, I was playing the Nationals once, and I went to my bullpen to start warming up a pitcher. A screen pops up and says I must replace Jon Rauch, the other teams pitcher. At this point, I can't replace him because he is not on my team, and I can't go back because I "must replace" him. This happened in the 07 version, and it still happens in the 08 version.

Also, the baserunning is horrible. The following situation happened countless times in both this years and last years versions of the game: man on 1st, two outs. Ground hit up the middle, guy on 1st dives head first back to the bag and gets thrown out at second when I try to manually advance him. I scream THERE ARE TWO OUTS---RUN!! That is one of the first things I learned in baseball, to run on contact when there are two outs.

Also, what a previous reviewer mentioned. For some reason, when a pop-fly is hit near the first baseman, or by shortstop, the game makes the catcher go out and field the ball.

It seems like they keep adding new elements to the game, but neglect to repair the old flaws. Make a game that is not as flashy, but plays close to how the real game is played, then I'll be satisfied. I don't know how this game keeps getting good reviews all over the place, but I can't stand it.

I played this game for years, and have since upgraded because I can't stand the features on the game. For starters it's completely lopsided towards advantaging the computer whether it's a fair call or not (I'd call it cheating), kinda like playing against the Yankees constantly in the Bronx (we all know it). The strike zone now has a more "realistic" umpire that will call strikes balls when you're pitching, but will call balls strikes when you're batting (again, advantage to the computer). There's an annoying glitch, or again as I would call it, an unfair advantage that happens every once in a while when you get 2 strikes on a batter. Either they will foul it off endlessly which swells your pitch count, or you have to throw pitches WAY outside the strike zone hoping they will swing, or they watch it to pick up a ball and gain count advantage.

Home Runs by the computer happen frequently if you make a hairline mistake, but if you're batting and you guess the pitch AND it's location, you're likely to ground out hard or fly out. No more of the days where if you guess correctly that you're going to get a hit. And once you do smack the crap out of the ball, it BETTER be way out, because if it's anywhere near the wall, the computer outfielders jet out to the wall and will rob you of a home run. It'd be fine if it happened once a game, or once every couple, but I've had it happen to me numerous times in ONE game.

Pitching controls are hard to master, if you put the same pitch aimed in the same spot, and hit the power and accuracy meter the same way 2 times in a row, you will get a different pitch result. The computer places a "yellow dot" in the strike zone as a way to suggest where they think you should throw, but that mostly screws you every time.

Running and stealing is ridiculous. Want to advance your runner home from 3rd but keep your guy on first for a tag up? Good luck with that, as you'll most likely have both runners take off, making an easy double play at second for the computer. Commentators say the same garbage over and over, I can only put up with Rex, but most the time it sounds like he's rooting for the other team.

It's little and big issues like this that really take the fun out of the game for me, because you can be up by 5 runs to start the 9th, and all of a sudden the pitch locations aren't going your way, the computer gets away with bologna hits, and before you know it the games tied up and you just spent 45 minutes throwing a gem and hitting like a champ to blow your pitchers win and possibly lose the game. Garbage.

I would not buy any version of The Show on a PS2 console ever again. Do yourself a favor, buy a PS3 and play on that console, the game play is better and it doesn't screw you over nearly as often.