Mike Likes

It’s what Mike Likes

Recently Written

• Wait til Next Year
• EA’s at it again.
• NFL Week 3 Review
• What a baseball weekend
• NFL Week 2 Review
• Guitar Hero World Tour Setlist
• NFL Week 1 Recap
• Spore, DRM gone bad.
• Help Toast build a computer!
• First to 80

Categories

• baseball
• Gaming
• general
• Guitar Hero
• Neumont
• NFL
• Review
• Sports
• Uncategorized
• Work

MLB 08:The Show review

Posted on March 13, 2008 - Filed Under Gaming, Review, baseball

At the start of February I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be getting a baseball game this year. MLB2k7 left such a bad taste in my mouth I was hesitant to try, and didn’t enjoy 07 the show much either. However I decided to look into both games. Ultimately I found that the show offered more of what I wanted, I still might consider picking up the relatively featureless 2k8 on wii, simply to see how it plays and hope if they generate some sales off it they will put more effort into it next year. Well enough of that so here goes, and sorry no screens :p

MLB 08 quite simply is a well made game. It managed to be fun and do a good job of simulating baseball without making it frustrating. It’s got your standard baseball modes, but it’s the little things within them that make it stand out, such as mimicking player movements, crowd interaction, and PA announcement calls. As for the modes it has a quick play single game option, Franchise mode, online play, and your various training modes to hone your skills without playing everything else.

So let’s start with Franchise Mode. This does a really nice job of making you feel like you’re the owner of a club. You start off picking the team you want to take control of. Once you select them you’re presented with a list of goals that you’re expected to complete before your contract as GM with the team is over.  They can range from drafting high potential players, making X amount of profit, get 3 15 game winners, have a winning percentage of X, or even Host an all star game.  All in all they added a little more to do then just play the games, make trades, sign free agents, rinse and repeat.

After you’ve reviewed your goals the franchise starts in spring training.  Here you can begin to make all your roster moves.  This is where the first minor flaw of a great game will stick its head out.  The trade system…is pretty weak at best.  Some pretty lopsided trades are allowed to go through.  Ultimately if you care though, you can choose to not exploit it…or you can make a dream team.  Who doesn’t want Santana, Zambrano, Nathan, D. Lee, A. Ram, B. Roberts,  Siezmore and Soriano on the same team after all?  Beyond making trades during the off-season you can sign free agents, or put players on the trading block so the CPU will make some offers.  Though, these tend to be lopsided in the opposite direction, but will give you a ground to work on if you feel you can pick up something else to make the trade more balanced.

One of the neater things that is apart of franchise mode is your not just managing your roster.  You manage the entire organization.  From whom your manager is all the way down to who your regional scouts are.   You can select Manager, 1st base coach, 3rd base coach, pitching coach, batting coach, 4 scouts, and a development manager.  Each will have 4 abilities and you’ll look for who has what you want for the price your after.  It’s a nice things to do, and one of those subtle details that makes the game that much more realistic.

However, that’s not were it ends.  You also get to dictate how your funds come in and how their spent.  Beyond the obvious of your money is being spent on players and management you also have to spend money on keeping your field in good condition.  There is also the amount you want to spend in developing players.  Want your pitchers to get more control?  Increase the control portion of your pitching management.  Want more steals, increase speed.  To many throwing errors?  Increase arm accuracy.  You’re also able to put funding into Rehab, to get better at treating injuries and preventing them in the first place. 

Which leads to your stadium itself can be upgraded.  You can add things that will improve your ability to treat players by giving them a spa to relax in, or a massage table to work on strains and pulls and a couple of other things.  You’ll be able to choose how your team transports from city to city.  Will they be taking a gray hound? Team bus? First class flight? Or have you made so much cash you bought your own personal team jet?  The nicer the transportation the less energy your players lose between series as well as higher moral.  This will help keep players wanting to play for you after your contract expires.  Not only can you add in these comfort things you can also add things that make you money.  You can add in more vendors to sell food, more peanut guys walking the stands, a guess your pitch machine, a hot tub, face painting, and various other things to increase revenue.

Not only do you get to chose how many concession stands to have, you choose what price to sell the items at. Will you have $8 soda or $2 soda? How much does a pretzel cost, what about a signed ball, or a team jersey, even down to how much it cost to get your face painted.  You’ll be able to see how much you cost relative to the rest of the league. You’re also able to set the prices of tickets, as well as add more seats to the stadium. However it seems the CPU likes to compete to have the highest cost as every few months you’ll notice the league average on prices will begin to rise.

Not only will income come from ticket sales, concession sales, and entertainment offered. You’ll have the option of marketing the team.   You can choose how much to spend in advertising the team in the newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV.  You’ll also be able to pick what you’re advertising.  Do you want to pump out your dominate starters?  Your all star players? A hot rookie prospect? Or even the team’s record?  Obviously the goal here is to see what is the sweet spot to spend in order to get more fans buying tickets.  However you also can sell billboard space, get a TV contract, or even sell the name to the stadium.  TV contracts and stadium names will come with goal to reach in order to get full payment, ranging from getting so many RBIs to averaging a certain attendance.  They are usually very reasonable goals simply asking for around average expectations.  The billboards simply run for a set period of time.  The only knock against this is it seems to have no real affect in game.  You won’t see the billboards change in your stadium; you’ll just get a check at the all star game and/or the end of the season.  However it’s one more of the little things that make the game that much more real.

Once you’ve got all your revenue set up, spring training deals made, prices set, and roster line up set, rotation set, closer picked out you’ll be ready to start the regular season.  During the season you can set up promotions, such as giving away 5000 hats on a first come first serve basis. You’ll also be able to scout players from 4 different regions for the rookie draft at the end of the year.  You’ll want to make sure you keep an eye on prices, fan support, and player support to make sure you maximizing profits and keeping everyone happy.  The season itself is fairly standard, play your 162 games and compete to make the playoffs.  All star game in the middle of the season that you can keep tabs on how many votes your players are getting.  You’ll have the trade deadline in summer to deal with, as well as managing injuries and lineups across your MLB, AAA, and AA teams.  All in all there is a lot to do from game to game.

Once the season is over, and the playoffs are done you’ll move into the off season,   always my favorite time of playing a franchise.  First you’ll get the option to offer new contracts to your players who will have theirs expiring before they hit free agency.  Then you’ll have the rookie draft and Free agency signing period.  The draft is fairly normal; pick up players that look good based on how your scouts feel.  Free agency is always fun as you’ll compete with other teams to sign players.  Once you’ve finished this all up you’ll rinse and repeat and start all over from spring training. So that’s all for franchise now.

Another awesome game mode is Road to the Show (RTTS).  Quite simply you create a player, pick a team to try out for, work your way from AA to the hall of fame. I was a little skeptical of this at first, but it turned out to be quite fun.  You’ll first create your player, there are a TON of options to chose from and you can really sculpt the player to look like anything you want…except a short and skinny player :p 150lbs is as low as it gets.  You’ll assign your starting attributes which are limited, and if you chose a pitcher you’ll select 3 pitches (you can learn up to 5 eventually).   Once you’re happy with your look, name, nick name, position, and attributes you’ll move on to picking a team.  Now you could just go ahead and pick your favorite team, but that might not be such a good idea if say you want to be a 1b for the cardinals.  As Pujols is a great and young player so it’s unlikely you’ll ever make it the majors as long as he’s there.  So it’s wise to select a team that either has an older player that will retire in a few years, or an average player that you could surpass.  Also take note of their AAA player’s talent level as that will give you a gauge on how quickly you’ll get your first promotion.  

Upon selecting your team you’ll be taken to spring training.  For the most part you’ll be a starter in each game (or every 5 if you’re a pitcher) so you get a fair chance to get some points.  Spring training is exactly what it sounds like, training.  You have no goals to accomplish, and your attributes won’t deplete if you don’t work on them during the month or so of spring training.  So use this as the chance to pump up your most wanted stats off the bat. A note for pitchers, you can’t throw a 100 mph fastball and a 67 mph curveball, balance is the key.  

After spring training is completed you’ll be taken to your AA club. Once hear you’ll start being give goals to meet for a set period of X series.  These can be stat goals such as having a certain batting average or era.  They also can be getting your attribute up to a certain point.  You’ll sometimes be forced into failing these goals in order to maintain your attributes.  As if you don’t train an attribute over a period of time it will start to deplete and you don’t want your attributes to go down. 

When you actually play a game you’ll only play the parts you’re involved in.  As a pitcher you’ll sim all the abs by your team.  As a fielder you’ll only field when you’ll be involved in the play.  You’ll sometimes be given in game goals.  They can be drive in the runner or it could be get the sign from the 3rd base coach and do it proper. If you pass or get a positive result you’ll be given some points to increase your attributes.  If you fail them you’ll lose some points.  You’ll also gain or lose points based on your performance.  Getting so many put outs will gain points, but getting stuck out will cause you to lost points.

After you finish the game you can either go right to the next game you’ll be involved in or you can chose to interact with the manager.  As a starter you can complain about being pulled early, which either the manager will let you stay longer in your next outing, or you’ll miss your next start.  You can also talk about team chemistry and various other things.  You can also take the time to check your stats, achievements, goals, or take the time to train your attributes.  You’ll continue to progress through your career until you work your way up to the majors.  It will take around 3 seasons on average to reach the majors, which will put you at a 21 year old major league rookie, which isn’t to shabby.

These two modes along will offer hundreds of hours play time for any baseball fan.  Luckily it doesn’t end there though.  You can also do quick games and play online.  Personally, I don’t enjoy sports games online, to many people that play to win by exploiting the game, then play to win like they are playing a real baseball game.  However it’s fairly popular and got a good number of players on it.  So if it’s your thing it has your standard online features.  Including quick games and leagues.  They also have a website you can go to check stats and Communicate with players.

Graphics: 9/10 as far as a sports game goes this is top notch.  The players are accurate to their real life counter parts, even some of their prebatting rituals.  The stadiums look amazing and the crowds are fairly well all things considered. It’s not jaw dropping like Heavenly sword or Uncharted.  

Sound: 9/10 you can pick your own soundtrack from songs on your ps3.  Your track list is limited to it about 30 songs and you won’t here the music during a game, but only while on the menus.  It’s a step in the right direction 

Game play: 9/10 hands down the best baseball sim I’ve played.  If you like baseball, this game is amazing.  A few small details will let you know it’s missing some of the small details, but it’s pretty damn closed.

Mike Factor: 9/10 it’s a game that has occupied a good number of hours already.  The countless little things in the game keep you wanting to play to find out more of them.  The way the fans react to the game, the animations in turning a double play, sliding animations and just the subtle details of baseball in general make this a lot of fun. 

Comments

Pages

• About
• Chat

Meta

• RSS
• Comments RSS
• Wordpress Themes

Recent Comments:

• Mike: I want to change some of the coloring…but i’m being lazy >_> Namely the black on the dark blue text...
• Jason: Looks like a good collection. Btw, nice site layout
• Michele: Zambrano pitches the first no hitter since 1972. Cubs win! Today Lilly has pitched 6 innings without a hit....
• Michele: Don’t give up on our Cubbies!! We went to the game on Aug 29th and it was so exciting to be in the...
• Jason: How about we stopping being so dependent on extravagant entertainment? Bring kick the can back!
• Anon: tl;dr, but I for one don’t pirate modern games. I have thought about it however when I can’t...
• ryan: Mark - if you watch the video (you should be able to find it on youtube pretty easily) I think you’ll...
• Mike: It’s not supposed to be a Silent Hill or resident Evil by any means, but I do get the feeling it’s...
• Mark: The faces look almost plastic. Unless the game’s meant to feel scary, it probably won’t feel right...
• Mike: Ya, thus far the developers has just been showing off the graphics engine. I wouldn’t expect much in the...

Recent Trackbacks:

• Mike Likes: Wait til Next year, tale of Cubs post-season.