At least it is for video gamers! Today, both MLB2K9 and MLB: The Show come out. Both were lackluster last year. I hope there is significant improvement on the sim side for both.

I will likely buy them both. I have to try them out myself - despite reviews. Sports is the only genre where I just don't trust the reviews.

 

let me know which one you like better, i've generally found MLB: The Show to be the better of the two. We'll have to play each other

 

Yeah I hear The Show is a great game so let me know how it plays out. My favourite Baseball game of all time - RBI Baseball for NES

 

Are you forgetting the original Ken Griffy for SNES?

 

baseball stars was where it was at with the NES

American Dreams FTW

 

Best baseall game ever was - without any doubt - High Heat 1997. Nothing has ever come close since.

MVP Baseball 2005 for the PC comes in a close second - especially with all of the mods.

 

Oh damn! I totally forgot about that too, it was pretty good on N64 too. I also had -- I think it was called World Series Baseball for SEGA Game Gear.

 

RedSox Rule.

 

Here's an early review of MLB '09: The Show.

After reading the critics scores across the Internet (thank you gamerankings.com!) I decided to only keep The Show and returned MLB2K09. It looks like the 2K game was really bad again this year. It is so sad that they are neglecting the exclusive license that they bought.

My early impressions of The Show have been largely positive. The game is very realistic and has an incredibly long list of options, settings and customizations. I updated my roster to the most recent version and started playing some exhibition games - with the Angels of course.

Right off the bat the game felt familiar. It is basically the same game as last year with just a few tweaks. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Along with all of the good from last year, a few bugs also reared their ugly heads. First, there is still a problem with getting a variety of hits. I just finished a game where I lost 5-2 to the Rays. We both had 9 hits. They had 8 singles and a triple by Carl Crawford. I had 7 singles a double and a triple. That distribution is better than last years but not good enough. Second, still too easy to steal. Figgins had 2 stolen bases and Aybar had 1 in the game. Torii Hunter was thrown out though on a pitch out. Finally, the check swing system is broken. Each time they appealed a check swing it was called a strike - no matter how slightly I swung. Some of the calls were just laughable on replay as the bat barely left my shoulder and I was called out nonetheless. Frustrating.

The game does have some very nice features. The stats are deep and the analysis you can glean from them is actually helpful to gameplay. I love the way the night games start off at twilight and then get all the way dark in about 2 innings. But the graphics are not perfect. The player models and stadiums are great. But the programers made no attempt to detail the sky. It is either blue or black - no stars, moon or clouds. This makes it feel very 8-bit and not in keeping with the rest of the game graphically - which is very good.

So far I am enjoying the game. There isn't enough new material to get super excited about. But - like last year - the basic gameplay is solid. I have not even started a season or messed with the sliders yet. So this review is very premature. I like what I see so far though.

 

Does anyone else have the game? Want to play an online game??