The Show vs. MLB 2k8

by Chow88

I’ve been an avid baseball video game player since the days of baseball stars on the NES. And for those who have played it, IMHO still one of the best baseball games ever. (Who doesn’t want to play on a team with Babe Ruth, Dizzy Dean, Sandy K etc.) I’m the type of guy who buys a baseball game EVERY year, so I know a thing or two about baseball games on consoles. Since 2K took over the baseball licensing and stealing the baseball genre away from a stellar MVP baseball game, I’ve been an avid 2K backer, because frankly there wasn’t anything else at the time. But it turned out to be a good little game, and almost caught up to the legendary status that was MVP baseball. Which brings me to 2k8, on release date I was as giddy as a school boy (as cliché as it sounds…. I really was! lol) But after eagerly anticipating the first word of a review, I was crushed to find that IGN gave it a 7.4. I talked to my boy, darktrc, who told me to go and try mlb 2k8 and decide if it really was that bad. After going to my local shop, and fielding my first ground ball from 3rd and seeing the animation of my throw chop its way to first, I thought to myself, can this really be happening? I thought, oh, I could handle this; it’s not that bad. But after 3 innings I felt this game was almost unplayable, I don’t know if it’s because of my high standards for baseball or for the love of the game but I could not deal with it. Darktrc, who apparently loves The Show 08 so much he bought it for his psp and ps3, told me to give it a try. The show is a good game. I feel it’s going in the right direction, and will be a great game within a few years. I do enjoy the animations, the graphics although a little “Cartoonish” still nice, and the game play is smooth. But compared to the 2k series it does lack a bit. In the show the GM’s do not sign any free agents in franchise mode. There is no dynamic weather, which is an amazing feature on 2k, and every night game has your players wearing long sleeve, even in July in Texas. On a personal note, I’m not a big fan of having a contact/power button to swing. I like using the right analog stick to swing, I find it more realistic, and requires greater skill. Diving for balls feels a little awkward and is not smooth IMHO. Once again this is a good little game but I’m concentrating on the negatives. For the PSP, taken into consideration this is a portable console, it’s a good little game. And I love the RTTS mode, although it’s frustrating as hell! Lol

For this blog, I was going to contact 2k sports about the different issues, but after looking through their forums, I see they have acknowledged their issues, and they are in the process of resolving them. It’s commendable for a company to recognize their faults, and resolve them and not just push a game out and say too bad, wait for next year, as we are the only kids on the block (for the 360 at least). If they do patch up the issues, then I may get it for my 360 as I can’t get away from the swing stick. My problem is last year they also had issues at release, with saving the game and the game freezing. And now all these frame rate issues? Who does the beta testing? The frame rate issues are an obvious problem, and it seems like something a tester would catch. Is it possible that 2K is pushing the release to meet a deadline?