Well, I was kind of dissapointed with this review. I'm going to pick up the game regardless because I need my baseball fix and I waited this long!
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/788/788261p2.html
MLB '07: The Show Review
Does the PS3 edition hit one out of the park?
by Jeff Haynes
May 14, 2007 - Expected results have a funny way of continually surprising everyone. Take the start of this year's baseball season, for instance. In February, Yankees fans were still prepared to boo A-Rod anywhere he went, the Daisuke Matsuzaka mania gripping Boston had reached religious heights, and gamers were eagerly awaiting Sony's follow up to last year's excellent baseball title, MLB 07: The Show. However, instead of trying to sweep the market with the versions of the game for all three systems, Sony sent the PS3 version of the game back down to the minors for some extra development time. Well, as the season has shown, A-Rod turned boos to cheers with his home run streak and Dice-K became a mortal pitcher after all. But did the release of MLB 07: The Show for the PS3 45 days after Opening Day equal or surpass the hype that the series as generated over the past two years?
Not really.
Don't get me wrong -- MLB 07 for the PS3 tries to carry over everything from the PS2 version of the game, such as the Pitch Command System, Road to the Show and umpire personalities. It also tries to add to the mix with some brand new animations, better textures for stadium and some new Sixaxis controls. However, there's a few significant problems that wind up arising with the title that keep it from being great: some gameplay mechanics that were better in the PS2 version of the game didn't make it over to the PS3, while others don't work as well as you'd expect them to. Plus, for a first party baseball title that's coming out as late as MLB 07 is this year, you'd expect, perhaps even demand something that stretched the capabilities of the system. As it currently stands, The Show feels like a ported PS2 game - a good PS2 game, but one nonetheless.
Pitching and batting are still central to MLB 07.
MLB 07 still places a large emphasis on the pitcher this year, thanks to the inclusion of the Pitch Command System and the Adaptive Pitching Intelligence. Players will still be able to use the catcher's calls as well as the confidence their hurler feels in a particular pitch to improve their success on the mound. However, they'll need to take into account the Umpire Personalities, which will call the strike zone tighter, looser or right down the middle. For the most part, this hasn't really changed in the PS3 version, with only a few exceptions: thanks to the lack of vibration in Sixaxis controllers, pitchers will have to fight through a much faster pitching meter whenever they're rattled or feeling the pressure in a game situation. While you'll still have to discern what kind of ump you happen to have in front of you, it seems a bit easier to find out, especially if you paint the black a few times. It feels like these umps are a bit more willing to give up their personality tells earlier in the PS3 version.
Batting is still solid, thanks to the included Swing Analysis tool that gives you an indication as to the timing and location of your swing as well as the location of the ball. On the other hand, queuing up bases with the new baserunning targeting system can still be a bit sticky. Fortunately, the new meter that was implemented for fielding to determine the strength of a throw has been tightened up significantly. Now you have a better sense of how much mustard you're putting on a throw if you hold down the button to the baseman or cutoff man you're targeting.
Get ready to dive thanks to the Sixaxis controls.
This isn't the only fielding change made in the PS3 version; thanks to the Sixaxis controller, players have a new way of performing plays that could be Web Gems. By snapping the controller up, you can make a fielder jump, while snapping downwards or moving the controller horizontally left or right can make them dive in those directions. For the most part, the motion sensitivity for fielding works really well - better than it does in some other PS3 sports titles. The only danger that you may run into is that trying to get an infielder to dive for a ball that squirts through the gap can sometimes cause your outfielders to unintentionally dive as well, putting them out of position to make a play on the ball.
Players can also use the Sixaxis controller while they're on offense to influence your slides. By tilting the controller to the left or the right, you can determine just how much of a slide to the inside or outside of the bag your runner will make. Unfortunately, this mechanic doesn't work as well as fielding, as it can be extremely hard to tell just how much you need to tilt to successfully pull off these moves. Since the game won't actually give you a hint on how to best pull this off (as opposed to fielding, which it will tell you about), you're better off sticking to the analog sticks.
Although most of the gameplay of MLB 07 managed to survive the transition from PS2 to PS3, one facet of play isn't as solid as it was on the older system: computerized infield logic suffers from a number of AI flaws that just weren't in the PS2 version. In a number of games we played, we noticed instead of tagging a base during a force play, (especially if the runner hasn't gotten past the baseman) the infielder will more often than not opt to throw to the first baseman, which doesn't make sense. For instance, with one out and runners on first and second, a grounder is sent to the third baseman that's half a foot away from the bag. Instead of trying to turn the 5-4-3 double play or even stepping on third before throwing to another base, the fielder tosses the ball to first, making the inning drag on longer than usual. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but for some reason, the AI will pull bush league plays like this, which will make you scream.
Sure, that's infuriating, but what about the other big draw to this year's game on the PS2, the Road to the Show mode? One thing that is nice is that players will now have a large number of nicknames or actual last names that you can assign to your created player. With 273 pages of voiced names, you should be able to find something to call your rookie player. However, what you'll find once you've entered the mode is a somewhat different system than on the PS2. For one thing, you will rarely ever receive a "not attempted" classification for a goal, even if the circumstances are out of your player's control. If, for instance, you're supposed to perform a sacrifice bunt and the runner gets picked off a base, it shouldn't count as a failed goal. For some reason, now it does. This harder edged "pass/fail" criteria makes playing this mode much stricter than ever before. When you couple this with the fact that it will constantly demand hard to almost impossible goals over and over again, the mode has a large amount of fun sucked out of it. Could be just me, but having my skipper tell me I have to go yard five times in a row or get a triple ten times in a row is just insane. When you couple this with the fact that the camera angles haven't improved from PS2 to PS3, and you still can't make defensive adjustments, Road to the Show starts to lose a bit of its strength as a selling point for the game.
Online is still good, but the Road to the Show isn't as solid as the PS2 version.
At least the online component of the game has carried over faithfully. MLB 07 will allow players to chat, IM, send mail and even create posts that PS2 and PSP owners can interact with. In effect, this gives a much larger sense of a baseball community with the online features present in the PS3 version of the game, as it unifies all three systems on the Sportscast network that Sony has created for the title. Along with the standard features of continually having a sports ticker with game information streamed to your system in real time, players can get hourly news updates on teams. Similarly, the leagues and online player card info is still as solid as the other versions of the title.
Technically, however, MLB 07 is one of those games that teases you with what should be an excellent experience, but falls short overall. The framerate of the game is extremely solid, and runs without any slowdown during in-game cutscenes or transitions between innings. Similarly, the title has received more than 3500 new animations, so crow hops, slides, tumbling catches and other plays feel a lot more natural. Watching players kick up dirt particles and dust as they stepped up to the plate or tried to gain extra bases was quite nice. What's more, many of the in-game cutscenes are pretty impressive to check out. I was stunned to see an umpire take a player's bat and check it before returning it to him, just as I was pleased to see players talking to each other on base, as well as one of the best crowds in sports games. I was also pleased to see that during exhibition, franchise or season games, the camera tracked the ball a lot faster when it was put into play.
While cutscenes are impressive, some of the visual issues and textures don't do the game justice. On the other hand, this isn't what you'd expect a next-gen sports title to look like. Many of the faces look extremely generic, and while the camera will sometimes zoom in on them to show off the excitement or anger that washes over a player during a particular moment, you're probably not going think that athlete looks like their real life counterpart much. The same can be said about the character models, which are restricted to three body types and somewhat limited cloth physics. Considering that MLB's competition made their athlete's look much more realistic, you realize that the Show has a lot of catching up to do for next year's PS3 title. What's more, visual issues extend to your created players as well. For some reason, your created player's profile image with his stats won't ever match the athlete you put together, which is simply lazy. Outside of this, you'll find a number of glitches as hats and bats flicker into place, collision detection issues, like players trying to celebrate and missing each other's hands, and other random visual hiccups. However, some of the worst items are some of the background textures. While stadiums have received new textures, the background environments haven't, so generic areas like Baseball City in Florida during Spring Training games or minor league parks in particular look horrendous. Water textures outside of parks look really poor. Combined with load times that can last up to 30 seconds or more for any single game or Road to the Show situation, and you'll wonder if this game is really utilizing the PS3.
At least the sound is still top notch. The three man crew of Vasgersian, Hudler and Campbell are still solid, and the timing of what they're saying appears to be a bit sharper in the PS3 version than the other editions of The Show. The soundtrack is still the same, but the true standout within the sound department is the ambient experience. The large amount of crowd commentary and razzing from fans is an excellent touch for the game, and really gives you a sense of being at the park. Even cooler are the radio play by play calls from various games from around the league last year, with various announcers literally screaming about game winning home runs or incredible double plays. Those pieces of audio literally get your adrenaline pumping as your navigating menus or waiting for a game to load.
Closing Comments
The Show manages to bring up the overall shell of Sony’s baseball game from the PS2 minors, but as a next gen title, it doesn’t have all of the fundamentals to compete with other sports games out there. Funky infielder logic, lackluster visuals and other odd changes to the gameplay formula literally turns a great baseball title on older systems into a good title on the PS3. That isn’t to say that baseball fans shouldn’t take a look at The Show; just don’t expect it to be leaps and bounds that the other sports titles around.
IGN Ratings for MLB '07: The Show (PS3)
8.5 Presentation
The radio calls add a huge amount of presentation to the overall MLB 07 atmosphere. The visuals from The Show compliment this nicely as well.
7.5 Graphics
While the improvement in animations and cutscenes are nice, the generic textures and glitches make you wonder just how next-gen this really is.
8.0 Sound
The three man team is still just as solid as before, and the crowd comments are pretty sweet.
7.5 Gameplay
Infielding AI issues and Road to the Show changes pull a large amount of fun out of this year’s debut on the PS3.
8.0 Lasting Appeal
If you can get around the AI issues and career mode issues, or dive solely into online, you’ll find an enjoyable experience here.
OVERALL
7.7
Good