I was going through the PlayStation Network the other day, like I do every now and then, and looking over the demos available for download. Some demos I download even though I have no real interest in the game, just to see if maybe I’m wrong about it. One such demo I downloaded on Saturday night fell squarely into that category. MLB 09: The Show is the latest installment in the “MLB: The Show” series of baseball video games, and may be notable for being one of the few sports franchises which EA Sports doesn’t have their claws in. Now, for those people who know me fairly well, you know that sports and I just don’t get along. I don’t watch stuff on TV (the occasional football game, such as the Super Bowl, notwithstanding) since it’s pretty boring for me to watch other people play a game. The only sporting event I’d remotely enjoy seeing live in person would be a baseball game, and that’s more because of the atmosphere than the game itself. I don’t have a favorite team of any sort. I don’t know stats. I’m lucky if I know all the rules of a game for that matter.
But, I really like this video game.
One of my biggest problems with all the “Sports (Year)” games, such as Madden ‘0-who-cares, is the fact that more often than not there’s no real difference between the previous year’s release and the new one. Perhaps die hard fans of the sport would enjoy having updated stats available, but especially with this generation of consoles I see no reason why those stats can’t be updated through some kind of downloadable content. In some cases, I think the majority of changes in a game from one year to the next was literally the title, the announcements, and the players’ and teams’ stats. So maybe one of the reasons I really like MLB ’09 is because I haven’t owned previous versions of the game. But having a look over the older versions, it does seem like quite a bit changed since last year’s offering. And the proof is in the playing.
While I don’t really care to watch a game on TV, there is still something about baseball that I enjoy now and then. As mentioned, it’s probably the only sport which I’d voluntarily watch live and in person, in part because of the atmosphere of the ballpark itself. And MLB ’09 brings a bit of that atmosphere to me, which is nice. Looking over Citizen’s Bank Park in the demo gives me the feeling that I’m sitting there cheering the Phillies as they recreate their World Series matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays (the only game you can play in the demo it seems). The controls make sense to me, from pitching to hitting to fielding and even stealing a base or two. The commentary and visuals make it feel more like I’m watching a baseball game than playing a video game: clean and realistic graphics and overlays used for the broadcasts, tidbits about a player or the current game’s stats interjected by the commentators, all the sorts of things you’d get watching a game on the television. I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the goals of this release was to have people who aren’t playing walk past the television and comment that they didn’t think that team was supposed to be playing right now, and the instant replays and the crowd’s changing attitude based on various events makes it even more believable that you’ve tuned in to a Major League event.
Will I run out next week to pick this up as it gets unboxed onto shelves in the local stores? Maybe not.. but I plan on playing that demo quite a bit more, and looking around for the next GameStop coupon in my email which might apply to this title. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I like playing this baseball game.