I saw an article online tonight about MLB 2k9, the forthcoming annual entry in videogame baseball from 2K Sports. The article (from gaming news site Operation Sports) shows screenshots from every ballpark in the new game. Below is their shot from the Ballpark in Arlington (click on it for a larger version).

As you’ll note from the shot, they did not take into account the changes in the ballpark for 2009. I know they start working on these months and months before they come out, but I was kind of hoping they’d be in there. I haven’t seen a shot of the Ballpark from the Sony entry (MLB 09: The Show), but they probably have the same layout.

The games come out in just a little over two weeks at this point, and the Sony entry for the PS3 looks absolutely stellar again. I wrote about it a lot for last year’s edition, and that was stellar – things only look to get better. The 2K entry also appears to be much improved from what I’ve read.

Here are some ordering links if you’re interested:

2K Sports’ MLB 2K9:
[ Xbox 360 | Playstation 3 | Playstation 2 | PSP | Wii | PC ]

Sony’s MLB 09: The Show:
[ Playstation 3 | Playstation 2 | PSP ]

2K Sports is deciding to use their official MLB license to produce another game beyond the annual “regular game” (this year being MLB 2K9). They’ve also had a pretty good side game called “The Bigs“, as well as a downloadable game for the Xbox 360 called “MLB Stickball“. However, coming in a week or two is a new one, called “MLB Front Office Manager“.
If you’re familiar with the game that EA put out called NFL Head Coach, you have an idea of what this is about. I know there’s a group of people here who might be interested in this game due to the annual folks who play the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league. This is a “Run every stinking little detail about your team” type of game. It’s not a true “play the game” type of baseball game. This is not out yet, so I can’t do a review on it, but I’ve always loved the game “Baseball Mogul” for years, and this seems like a snazzy version of that, so I’ll probably be into it.
The primary reason I’m doing this story now instead of when it comes out is something about the game that just popped up. As you’re probably aware, the Xbox 360 game has “Achievements” – little awards if you will that you get for doing things inside games. Every Xbox 360 has them. It’s a requirement. Anyway, the list of achievements for this game came out today, and the game has taken the mickey out of the Texas Rangers a bit. Some of the achivements are standard things like…

• Complete an entire Amateur Draft.
• Manage a minor league game from beginning to end.
• Successfully sign 50 free agents to your team in Career mode.

However, the reason I’m posting this is because of this achievement:
Win the Rangers their first World Series in Career Mode.
Grrrrrrr. ;) In all fairness, they have the same achievement for eight other franchises, too – they’re not solely picking on the Rangers. But thanks for the reminder that we haven’t won a World Series guys. Appreciate it.
The game is coming out on three platforms. Xbox 360 (my preferred), Playstation 3, and PC. I have links to purchase all three here. The 360 version is above, and the other two are shown here:

Those of you who know my life outside the Rangers site know that I work for a video game company. I work for a company that puts out third person shooters (recent vintage would be Prey, and we’ve done Max Payne, and going further back, Duke Nukem). Anyway, I’ve been playing video games for quite some time, going back to my first system, the Atari 2600 in 1977. I’ve played just about all of them since then, and if there’s one thing I do on a new console, it’s play baseball games. I can’t say I’ve played every single one, but I’ve played a great percentage. This past Christmas when I got a Playstation 3 from my company as a Christmas present, I immediately started looking into the situation regarding baseball games on this new console. I had played The Bigs on my Wii, and have been playing the 2K Baseball game on my Xbox console since it was called something else on Xbox 1.
The Playstation 3 console had the 2K game ported to it, but due to contracts, the only company who could make a PS3 specific game is Sony themselves. So I checked into the MLB 07 The Show game, and it had decent reviews, but from what I could gather was not the “killer app” baseball game for the console. Since this was mid December, the early remarks were out on the next iteration, MLB 08. They were looking pretty good, and since it was only for the PS3 (well, for the PS2 & PSP as well, but that’s not germane here), I thought it would be a lot better. Console specific games usually are, since they don’t have to worry about multiplatform issues, and can truly harness the power of a specific console. So I got excited about this release.
So we get to March, and the game hits the stores. I actually walked out of the store with a copy of MLB 08 the Show for the PS3, and MLB 2k8 for my Xbox 360. Brought them home, and fired ’em both up. I know the 2K series, having been with it for years, and the newest iteration of that game feels a lot like the same thing more or less. Oh, I know it’s not, but it FEELS that way having bought and played every version for about five or six straight years. Then I hit MLB 08 The Show, and I have to say it felt like a breath of fresh air. Let’s hit some “official” bullet points about The Show…

• MLB 08 The Show is the long running officially licensed baseball title available exclusively on all PlayStation platforms: PLAYSTATION 3, PlayStation 2 and the portable PSP.
• MLB 08 The Show is available exclusively for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable consoles.
• MLB 08 The Show is the best-selling and most realistic baseball simulation available.
• MLB 08 The Show for PlayStation delivers the closest experience possible next to actually playing in the Majors.

Most of that sounds like corporate selling stuff, but I will buy into the most realistic baseball simulation available. That is not corporate stuff. It’s quite true. MLB 08 The Show kicks MLB 2k8 in the head pretty darned well. 2K had some major frame rate issues (which were helped, but not solved) with a patch. The Show was quite fluid from game one, and has remained so. I do not have an HDTV (yet), but even in standard def, The Show’s graphics are way better. Also, something else I should point out. In this day when most games are gearing towards HDTV, they take very little care into how the game looks on SDTV’s. 2K has some text that is COMPLETELY unreadable on my TV set – it’s just too small. On an HDTV, that might not be a problem, but on my TV, it’s rendered useless. MLB 08 The Show has no such problem. All the screens are rendered beautifully, and are totally readable.
One of those “intangible” things is the “feel” of the game. It’s not something that I can pin down and say “OK, this menu does “X, and the other game does “Y” so I’m saying this game is better”. MLB 08 The Show’s menus just “feel” solid. Some games you look at the menus, and it looks pretty shoddily designed. Again, no such feeling here with The Show. The menus don’t feel like you’re going to break the game, they don’t chug, and they perform like you’d expect them to. Basically I don’t feel like I’m fighting the interface to find what I want here. I know most people don’t care about the feel of the menus, but I do – and this excels perfectly.
One other thing I tend to notice about a lot of baseball games is not a lot of care is taken in how the fonts and lettering on the back of uniforms look. A lot of games look well, WRONG. The Show has no such problem. Check out these couple of shots, and they look right to me. You can click on either of them to see a larger image.

It’s not just things like fonts on the player uniforms that look better. Ballparks, player models, umpires, everything just “looks” great. It’s hard to quantify it, and give you the words that will make you believe this, but if you play it, you’ll see it. Again, here’s a few screenshots to show you what I’m talking about.

That’s just graphics. The game play is solid, too. It took some getting used to the first few games I played, because I was so used to 2k’s way of doing things, but once I wrapped my head around it, I had no problems going forward from that point. Hard to talk at length about controllers – they either work, or they don’t – and this works. :)
The announcers I like a lot. The guys in the game are Rex Hudler, Matt Vasgersian and Dave Campbell. Dave Campbell was a guy I thought who was underused on Baseball Tonight, and Rex Hudler you know from the Angels. The other guy I admit to not knowing who he is, but that’s not a problem. Hudler is “Hud” in the game, too. Has some goofy comments – try swinging at a pitch that you have no hope of hitting, or throwing to a base where nobody is, and you get a good chance at a “Hudism” being thrown your way. The Show also suffers far less from repeat announcers. A problem a lot of games have is that once you play them a lot, you hear the same “bits” over and over again. I’ve heard some repeating here for sure, but nothing even close to being in the same ballpark (har har har) as some other games (yeah, I’m looking at you Joe Morgan in 2K).
Probably the most hyped feature of the game is “Road to the Show”. This is actually cooler than it sounds, provided you pick the right position. Basically you start this game by creating a player, and giving him specific abilities, you can customize just about everything about the player. One’s initial thought would be to create a roid raging freak-a-zoid, and have him called up to the Show after his second game in the minors, but you can’t just max out everything, you have a limited number of skill points you can distribute around, so it’s more fair in that regard. I created a few players, and played this way for awhile. It’s pretty cool, because your manager will berate you if you play like crap, and will bench you. You have to negotiate your contract in the offseason, and while I’ve never been outright released, I imagine that’s in there somewhere if you play like a complete moron. One other thing about this is that the mode is geared around a single player, and actual in game play reflects this. YOU ONLY PLAY ACTUAL PLAYS THAT INVOLVE YOUR PLAYER! This is important, because if you pick what’s regarded as a boring position (left field perhaps), not much happens. One time I picked first base, and 95% of my plays involve just running to first to have another player throw me the ball. That was really not very exciting, to be honest. If you are benched, the game might skip two or three games before you get called up as a pinch hitter. That’s another drag – if you are playing a RTTS game with a bench player, the game has to load all the graphics, and all the sounds you normally would to play a game, just for one at bat. You spend more time loading than you do playing in that scenario. Don’t get benched, you’ll spend a lot of time loading. That nit aside, it’s a very cool feature, and one of the stronger points of the game.

Some other minor things which are important is the ability to save in the middle of the game. For some reason, baseball games don’t let you do that, but you can here. There’s a really strong replay feature that is called “Replay Vault”, which lets you go back to any play in the game and check it out. There’s also customized personal music, really detailed stats on players, real life scores from MLB games in a ticker, MLB news, and the usual gameplay modes you see in baseball game (season, franchise, playoffs, etc). Franchise mode is where I spend most of my time, although RTTS was a really cool one that draws a lot of attention too. Anyway, Franchise has things like controlling player time, which you don’t often see in that mode.
Players generally look more like themselves than other games I’ve played. There’s also a boatload of personalized player moves, the umpires aren’t generic, and the coach names are the right ones, too. There are a TON of features that I don’t have time to get into here. I suggest checking out this Sony press release about the game – it goes into a lot more detail than I can here.
One other thing that I really like is the game has had weekly roster updates. It’s pretty darned thorough, so if you’re into having the current guys on your team, you’ll probably be into this, big time.

There is one thing I wanted to say that I feel MLB 2k8 is superior to The Show in. That’s a feature where you can collect and trade baseball cards. 2K has this thing where they have Topps baseball cards and you can collect them by achieving certain “objectives” with a player. You can also trade with others online, collect packs, and all that kind of stuff. I really REALLY liked that feature. In fact, if MLB 08 The Show had that feature, I would have NEVER played 2K’s game at all. MLB 08 The Show’s baseball game is far superior to 2k’s now, and if either 2K did not have the cards, or the Show did have the cards, I never would have played anything but the Show. Hey, if the Show designers ever read this, stick in the card thing. Guarantee you it would get used.
My review of the game is based on my experiences playing the Playstation 3 version. The game is also available for the Playstation 2. My guess is the game is the same, just the graphics (for obvious reasons) aren’t as strong. As for the PSP version, I have to image it’s mostly the same but with FAR less sophisticated graphics. I can’t speak to the PS2 & PSP versions, I have not played them.
If you have a Playstation 3, and never got the game, I strongly suggest buying it – it is by far my favorite baseball game right now. Below are some ordering links you can use to buy the game (click on the cover art). If you have one of these consoles, and like baseball games, I recommend it very highly. Back on April 11th, I asked about whether or not you had a PS3, and I gave away a few copies of the game back then, but I still have some left. If you have a Playstation 3, and have not played this game, please drop me a line. First two people to send me a PSN Friend request (to Joe3DR) will get it. Thanks. The remaining copies are spoken for.

Here are a few Youtube videos showing various aspects of the game. Check ’em out, they’re quite cool.

I wanted to apologize to Ayn over at BNC for taking so long in getting this done. I was originally supposed to do this back in March, but as time marched on, I got more embarrassed at how long it took me to do this. Sorry about that!

I was curious to know if you are a visitor to my site if you have a Playstation 3.
If you do, I was wondering if you’ve played MLB 08: The Show.
If you have a PS3, please leave some feedback to this post, even if you have not played the game. I will explain why shortly.

It’s February 7th, and it means we’re about four weeks away from the annual release of this year’s crop of baseball videogames. I’m an old school gamer, and I’ve been playing baseball games on just about every platform there has been since my first system in 1977 (the Atari 2600).

Anyway, since we’re in the buildup for the new games, we’re getting the usual bunch of screenshots and all that. Saw this one today, and thought I’d pass it on. It’s from MLB 2k8, and shows Ian Kinsler at bat at the Ballpark.

2K’s “MLB 2k8” is the latest entry in their series (which started back a few years ago when it was World Series Baseball, and going further back than that on the Sega Genesis). One of the things that has plagued the 2K series has been the player models. That’s supposed to be Ian Kinsler, and it sorta looks like him, but not exactly. 2K is the exclusive “third party” baseball game maker. That means that Sony can make one for the Playstation, and Microsoft can make one themselves for the Xbox 360 (likewise Nintendo for the Wii), but nobody outside the console maker can make a MLB baseball game other than 2K. With that in place, you’d think they’d do a better job of getting the players right. The last couple of entries in this series have been a little more “miss” than “hit”, so I’m hoping they rebound in this latest edition.

This year I have a Playstation 3, and will be checking out Sony’s “MLB 08 The Show” game. Everything I’ve read about that makes me think it might dethrone 2K’s game as the best baseball game around.

I wrote about this a bit when MLB 2k7 game out last year, and I’m bringing back a screenshot that I used then from the baseball game from Atari for the 2600 in the 70’s. We’re a long LONG way from that.

I don’t know if you know of a game called Baseball Mogul or not. It’s a rather fun baseball game where you get to uber-micro manage a team. Set contracts, lineups, hot dog and ice cream prices, build a new stadium, move your team, etc, etc, etc. It’s a (mostly) text based game, and is a great way to pass some time if you’re into baseball.
You can read some more about it on Wikipedia here or on the official page for it here. Please note that this link will not get you the free game, just read it for info – the free link is later on in this post.
Anyway, to celebrate the playoffs, the program’s author (Clay Dreslough) has decided to give away last year’s edition of the game (2007) for free. All you need to do is go to the website and download it. The current edition is the 2008 version, but there’s nothing wrong with the 2007 edition if you don’t have it, or perhaps have an older version. The catch is that once the World Series is over, the offer is gone. The page with the free download is here.
I’ve been a fan of this game for many a year, and have bought many editions of it. If you’ve never tried it, I suggest grabbing the free download here – it’s the full game, just not the 2008 edition. There is a demo available for the 2008 version too, but that is limited to one season; this 2007 is the whole shebang.
If you’re into stats, numbers, and “sim” games – then you will probably like this. Give it a try.
Have you played this game/series? Let me know in the comments here.

As you may or may not know, my day job is in the video game industry. Been working where I am since December of 1992 – a long time. Anyway, I ran across an article on the MLB website today which talks about videogames and major league baseball players. Enjoyed reading it. You can check it out here.

I’ve been playing baseball games since the 70’s when baseball games looked like this on the Atari 2600:

Now baseball games look like this:

The second screenshot is from the Xbox 360 version of “Major League Baseball 2K7” from 2K Sports, which is due in March.
I’ve been following this series since it was called World Series Baseball and it started on Xbox 1. It’s now called “MLB 2kx”, and a lot of reports called last year’s game a failure. I personally didn’t see that, but the developer took a lot of steps to make sure this year’s edition (and future ones) got significantly better. They hired the lead developer from 2K’s biggest competition, EA’s baseball game, which was generally regarded as better when they lost their license due to EA getting it. By all accounts, this year’s edition should be significantly better. The problem I suppose with last year’s edition is that nothing on it really seemed like it was ‘next gen worthy’.
But this certainly does. And that’s why I’m talking now. I will spend many an hour with this game when it comes out, as should you if you play video games and like baseball. The primary reason I started this entry was that I discovered tonight that the lead designer of MLB 2K7 has started a blog at gaming site 1up.com where he will be talking about the game. It’s definitely worth a read, check it out here: http://mlb2k7.1up.com. Additionally, there’s several eye popping new screenshots out, you can check out that archive here. There’s several previews for the game out at IGN, IGN again, Gamespot, amongst others. There’s also the official website at 2K.
The game is scheduled to come out on March 5th for the following platforms:

• Xbox 1
• Xbox 360
• Playstation 2
• Playstation 3
• Sony PSP
• Gameboy Advance
• Nintendo DS

You can click on any of those to pre-order a copy at Amazon.com.
I really wish they had done a Wii version – I found that the Wii controller system was excellent for the copy of Madden 2007 I have for the Wii. I would hope we’d get a real baseball game for the Wii with the 2k8 edition, and not the tech demo baseball game that comes with that console. Anyway, I’ll be playing on the Xbox 360, that’s my platform of choice.
Take a look at the links and previews above – the game looks impressive.

Here’s something I submitted several times to 2K Games. They had an “Ask the developer” series where you could submit questions, and the devs would address them. I sent this several times, and never got a reply, so I’m posting it here. It’s about uniform number issues in baseball videgames.
One thing that always bothers me about every baseball game is the callous attention paid to uniform number control. I see two issues here:
1) Retired Numbers
2) Number collision
With the first one, I think it would be cool to have each team have their real numbers as blocked off and then in franchise mode, you could retire other players’ numbers, too.
With the second, there’s nothing to stop me from having an entire team with the same number if I wanted to edit the players. If you play enough franchise mode, players get moved around alot, and you end up with more than one guy on the same team with the same uniform number. I wish it would be possible for the game to recognize that the team alraedy has a #27 (random number picked for this example), and then if you create a new player, sign a FA, or trade for someone who has #27, you get asked what you want to do about it.
Or failing that, at least let us be able to edit uniform numbers. I can understand not wanting to edit players in franchise mode, but for those of us who care about editing our own rosters to be as accurate as possible, the inability to edit uniform numbers is fairly annoying. Course all this could be turned off, or better yet have to be turned on as an option for those who want this kind of micromanaging.

I found this when it was first posted, but forgot to mention it. IGN had posted an interview with Mark Teixeira back on March 14th where he talks mostly about baseball videogames. It’s a different interview from the usual ones you read about winning, losing, baseball, etc. Here’s a few tidbits from it:

IGN Sports: Who is a better hitter, you or the guy in MLB 2K?
Mark Teixeira: It depends what difficulty I’m playing on. If I’m playing on Easy, then I’m pretty good, but if the pitchers are set to All-Star in the game, I think I do better in real life.
IGN Sports: So I know what kind of hitter you’re going to be in the videogame, but if I’m hitting against you on Xbox Live, what kind of pitcher are you going to be?
Mark Teixeira: I definitely mix it up. I know everyone looks fastball, so I’m going to throw a lot of off-speed pitches, some sliders, and I’m going to get you to swing at some bad pitches.
IGN Sports: Who is a better hitter, you or the guy in MLB 2K?
Mark Teixeira: It depends what difficulty I’m playing on. If I’m playing on Easy, then I’m pretty good, but if the pitchers are set to All-Star in the game, I think I do better in real life.

Go check out the full interview with Mark, it’s a pretty good read.