MLB 08: The Show…An End of Season Review

By Gary Armida (and once again with some help from the guys at whoneedsrules.com)

Baseball season may be heading into its most intense time of the year, but video game baseball season is winding down as the next wave of Madden Football hits the shelves on August 12^th. During our review of Sony’s MLB 08: The Show, FCP (along with our colleagues at Whoneedsrules.com) gave a “big thumbs up” for Sony’s latest addition to its baseball franchise. The 2008 edition of the Show gave one of the more complete video game experiences that baseball gamer has experienced in quite some time. While I have a philosophy to enjoy games for what they are, there are some very important issues that the SCEA San Diego studio will have to address in order for the series to take the leap towards video game greatness. FCP does not do the task alone. Once again, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Whoneedsrule.com for our Post-Mortem review of MLB 08: The Show.

The Good

Most importantly, the Show plays a great, realistic, fun game of baseball. As we said in our review, players, for the most part, will perform as they do in real life. The virtual managers will make pitching changes when appropriate and perform baseball strategy when the situation arises. The AI will perform hit and runs, sacrifice bunts, and suicide squeezes.

In addition, for the graphic whores, the graphics are the best of any baseball game to date. From the player models to the uniforms, most players look and feel like their real life counterparts. Each stadium has incredible detail from moving parts to some stadium specific chants. All of this adds up to great immersion for the baseball gamer.

While this part of the article is much shorter than the “Please Fix it” section, rest assured that the Show is one of the best baseball games to date. The purpose of the rest of the piece is to continue to push it to bigger heights and give gamers an even better experience.

Please Fix it

Of course, no game is perfect. The Show has its own share of nagging issues that drag it down. First, for any hardcore gamer, a tight, realistic franchise mode is a necessity. The Show fails to deliver in this area. While one can play many seasons, the gamer will have to put up with certain “unrealistic things”. The first would be trading. The AI seems to only want to trade for prospects that have “A” potential. While that may simulate something like we see during the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, it leads to some very unrealistic trades. For instance, Evan Longoria, the Rays stud third baseman, was traded to the Dodgers for Jeff Kent. Unfortunately, these trades happen early and often during a season. A more realistic trade engine or a way to limit the amount of trades (like 2K’s system) is needed for people who like a semi-realistic experience during franchise mode. While one could argue that playing a franchise mode is a suspension of reality, most gamers want a franchise that at least comes close to simulating real life. Sure, unrealistic trades can happen, but the Show needs to tighten up their logic.

In addition, the focus of franchise mode needs, well, re-focusing. The Show has you act as a GM as well as a CEO. A gamer is faced with making decisions about revenue (which is fine) and travel arrangements (which isn’t fine). By default, teams ride a bus to travel. I ask you, when was the last time a Major League Baseball team has taken a bus across country? Also, things such as field conditions, facility management, and adding extra seats (yes, it’s that easy) are things that the virtual GM of the Show has to deal with. Most of the features don’t seem to have any impact on the franchise. This quasi-owner’s mode setup is something that does not simulate reality. A Yankees franchise should not have to worry about getting revenue from billboards or working your way towards having your own TV station. Of course, a player could set those options to be handled by the AI, but a game mode shouldn’t make you want to do that. The Show should focus on the general manager tasks, having players scout for the draft, looking at your minor league system, and cultivating trades. A player role and morale system would be a better system to include rather than the price of hotdogs.

Another issue with the franchise mode is player fatigue. The fatigue engine does need work. Players like Alex Rodriguez normally play 162 games unless there is an injury. Players all seem to tire at the same rate which will eventually force a gamer to have to sit their star. Some players do play more than 150 games in a year. A better fatigue rating is needed so that players who play the majority of games are differentiated from guys who are platoon or bench players.

Of course, many of these issues can be addressed by using the roster control system. This system lets a player control every roster. The problem is that this option must be turned on at the beginning of the season. A great idea would be to give the gamer the option of when to turn it on. For instance, a gamer might want to start a franchise season with roster control on. Then, right before the trade deadline, he could turn it off to allow AI trades. That would help balance the desire for reality and the desire to have a virtual baseball season.

Another issue with franchise mode is AI bullpen use. Many times, the AI will bring in the same set of pitchers for each game. While that may happen from time to time during the real baseball season, it does make the game somewhat repetitive when David Aardsma pitches 3 or 4 innings in each game of your four game series with Boston.

In short, franchise mode is lacking. Whoneedsrules owner and executive editor, Scott Burress agrees with the problems with franchise. Burress states that, “Franchise mode just feels lifeless, nothing really happening other than playing game 1, 2, 3 etc.”

On the field, there are certain issues that don’t have a direct impact on the game, but are a bit tedious nonetheless. Burress brings up the issue with foul balls. “Why do I constantly have 3-4 guys a game get 10 foul balls?” Foul balls in the Show function more to elevate a pitch count. There is a pattern to them. Some pitchers, Joba Chamberlain for instance, do not have many batters who are fouling off 10 in one at bat. In the Show, it happens quite often.

Whoneedsrules board member, Rudy Dyck, brings up the fact that there are too many singles in the game. An experienced Show veteran will be able to average 9 or 10 hits a game, with most being singles. He also thinks that a pitcher still has too much control, despite having sliders to fix that. Walks, even on the most difficult of combinations of sliders, are tough to come by. Burress also feels the walks from the hitter’s perspective, stating that he’s had many hitters get ahead 3-0, only to have the count get to 3-2 most of the time.

One big complaint from the Whoneedsrules (from here on in referred to as WNR) message board was online play. Many, including Burress and board posters Rodster and Aukevin, agree that the online portion needs a major overhaul. With online leagues being a major factor, the online portion better be tight. Unfortunately, that is one of the Show’s weaker points. Aukevin, the commissioner for the WNR league, states that the commish does not have enough power. Connection drops would result in one team getting a win awarded. The commish does not have the power to change that. Also, if an owner drops from the league (common in big leagues), the commish cannot replace the owner. That results in teams taking forfeit wins and thus losing interest in the league. That happened to me in WNR’s league. After playing the first game (a thrilling extra inning win as the Rays), I received three consecutive forfeits. My interest waned and the league disbanded (with the Rays 4-0 and in first place). Additionally, stat tracking would be a welcome addition to league settings, rather than seeing last year’s MLB stats.

Another common complaint from the WNR boards was the base running. Dyke and Burress both find the base running non-intuitive. Often, with multiple runners on, a player will think that they are sending one runner, but because running is mapped to the L-Stick, a slightly wrong flick of the stick could have runners moving all over the place, killing a rally.

Lastly, John Enoch, a staff writer for WNR, would love to see some graphic tweaks like day-night progression, field condition progression, and real weather effects. One important improvement Enoch brings up is shared by Dyck as well. Loading times for the “Road to the Show” mode is quite long. It does take away from the flow of a career when jumping to your next event on the field.  

Heading Home

As previously stated, MLB 08: The Show is a fine baseball game. It gives one of the best baseball experiences to date. But, as one can see, there are still things that can push the franchise to greater heights. With some game play tweaks, an overhauled online experience, a faster and more expanded “Road to the Show” mode, and a more focused franchise mode, MLB 09: The Show can make people forget the glory days of the High Heat and MVP franchises.

Editor’s Note: A big thanks to the guys at Whoneedsrules.com for their input. As I’ve said before, they are a great group of guys and it is a site I visit every day. Check our “Friends of FCP” list for the link to the site.

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