A long time
ago, in the real world, a group of guys were standing around discussing Major
League Baseball when one of them said he didn’t follow the sport. To incredulous
stares, he explained that there was no loyalty in the player ranks, and because
teams changed personnel so often, and the team chemistry/personality changed so
much, he just threw up his hands in despair and stopped following the game.
The writer of
this review explained to that gent that loyalty wasn’t to the players, it was to
the team, the organization and the city where the team was based. That was
coming from a die-hard St. Louis Cards fan whose team (as of Sunday, May 13) was
five games under .500 and nine games back in the division standings.
(A fan whose
reason had fled his brain and it seems logical that if he wears his Cardinals
baseball hat, the right color on the right day, his team will win and start
gaining ground. Yes, I know – that is just silly … but it seemed to have worked
for a bit there.)
But quite
recently, the perception has taken a bit of a hit. Why? Blame it on SCEA’s MLB
’07: The Show.
What are the
Cardinals but a collection of legendary players – Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, The
Wizard of Oz (Ozzie Smith) or Albert Pujols? How many team fans know – off the
top of their head – how many pennants their team has won? Or World Series
titles? (17 pennants and 10 WS titles for the Cards, who are DEFENDING champs
and WILL come back this year.)
But then along
came the newest iteration of MLB with its Road to the Show mode. An 18-year-old
second baseman is assigned to his beloved Cardinals, has a decent spring
training and is inked to a one-year deal worth $33,000 and then reassigned to the
Memphis triple-A club. In mid-June, the Cards call him up the Show, and he does
what he is asked to do – pinch run here, pinch hit there, play second, play
third, play right field. In short, he does whatever his legendary manager asks
of him to the best of his abilities. Tony is happy with the youngster and keeps
him around. June becomes July, then August and September and the Cards have won
the division and enter the playoffs. The rookie is a starter at second now, and
a contributor to the club’s success. But come the playoffs, the kid goes on a
tear, having a monster playoff run. He is named the NL Playoff MVP. The Cards
win the World Series and it all progresses to the off-season.
Ok, now
remember, that was a one-year deal, so the kid is a free agent. The offers don’t
exactly roll in, but he gets four decent ones. The Cardinals, alas, are at the
low end of the totem pole, only offering a 2-year deal worth $137,500 per year.
The Angels, the team the Cards beat in the Series, pony up a deal worth $270k
per year for four years; San Diego sees that offer and comes to the table with a
four-year deal worth $281k per year; and Boston offers a three-year contract of
$218,250 per year.
The question
becomes this: at what point does loyalty factor in to an organization as opposed
to playing for another team and receiving a financial remuneration commiserate
with demonstrated ability? Or, in layman’s terms, should the kid just take the
money? Would the Cards consider the kid a bargain-basement deal and trade his
low salary and serious potential to another team if, in the 2008 season, they
felt they could broker a deal that got veteran talent to them for a playoff run?
Thanks MLB for
bringing a new perspective to the diamond.
Hey, wait a
minute … Ozzie was a Padre for four years … !!! … hmm, perhaps this is an easy
decision after all.
While there
are many ways to play the game, including rivalry, exhibition, manager,
franchise, season and the Road to the Show career mode. The game also has
full-on support for online play.
And yes,
there are some new features added into the mix – aside from the obvious new
rosters – that seem a little hit and miss. Umpires have personalities. Oh no!
There goes the theory that only their seeing-eye dogs have all the charm. (Ok,
just kidding; it is a job that is not only vital but underappreciated.) The
controller also will allow you to target certain baserunners quickly, and the
game has a new pitch command system (use the pitches in your repertoire or risk
having to relearn to throw them), adaptive pitching intelligence (which seems to
mean that if the AI is throwing you fastballs low and on the outside third of
the strike zone, and you are crushing them, the chances of seeing one down there
gets less and less as the game develops a scouting report on you), and a
throwing meter.
You won’t
see all of these features if you play at the lowest difficulty level, but crank
up the challenge the gameplay options expand.
Some of the
anomalies of the game include a camera that will squirrel around while seemingly
trying to locate the career player for the next event in that player’s game.
Also, you may field the ball and before you even throw it, see the first baseman
diving off the bag or sprawled along the ground. The game has already determined
you will be making an errant throw to first so nothing you can do will change
that.
And speaking
of the camera … when baserunning, the camera does not always rotate correctly
and you can’t see what is happening with a ball hit to the outfield. The result
is you are not sure if you can advance, and should the ball drop, you look
rather stupid being forced out at the next base. Conversely, if you presume that
the ball was hit into the gap and you try to advance, and it is caught, you look
even sillier being doubled up.
The camera
is rather lazy, at times, when swinging around to pick up the signal from the
third-base coach. And while it would be nice to dance off base and watch to see
if the line drive to the outfield falls or is caught, sometimes you can’t quite
do that. The game seems to be trying to adhere to the laws of physics and
rotating your neck 120 degrees doesn’t quite fall into that frame, but in real
baseball, you would swing your body so you could see, rather than merely guess.
And while
the game is great at setting up the situations, there is little information
offered when you are on base. You can’t glance at the scoreboard to refresh the
situational memory, and the coach will not send in a signal to steal, run and
hit or anything else. A batter may square around to bunt, but might be bluffing
to get the infield to react. If you think there is a bunt coming and take off,
and the bat is pulled back, you are likely left high and dry, and are thrown out
advancing to the next base.
In one
instance, the career player was on second and another baserunner was on first.
The pitcher was batting and squared to bunt, but pulled the bat back. The runner
on first, though, was taking off with the pitch. No signal from anywhere, so the
career runner was not moving much. It almost felt as though a double steal was
on, but someone forgot to tell the career player.
The game has
a couple of other problems as well. Playing as a career player (second base for
the Cards), there is a close play at first and the career player argues the call
… rather vehemently … too vehemently … Ok, it was too demonstrative for the
sensitive personality of the umpire. The career player is tossed out of the
game. Ok, as the game usually then cuts to the next event in the player’s
career, the next thing that should have popped up would be the final score and
announcing the player of the game. Nope. The game shows control of the next
batter in the line-up, a pinch hitter. Surprised, nonetheless a few hacks are
taken and the ball is lazily popped up in the infield. The shortstop camps under
it, makes the catch and the game crashed to the PS3 desktop. Since the last save
was mid July and the incident happened on the final day of July, that was better
than a week’s worth of games that were lost.
The SIXAXIS
control implementation seems to be hit or miss. It can be used for sliding and
hook sliding in particular. In one inning, the hook slide is executed
beautifully, but the runner was still tagged out. The next instance, a ball hit
to the outfield is bobbled and the batter (controlled player) is trying to leg
out a double. The throw comes in, the SIXAXIS controller is jerked to perform a
hook slide to the outside of the bag (the same motion as before) and instead of
sliding, the runner slows down, stands up and is easy pickings. Of course, this
could be that the window to actuate a slide is small and the control commands
were issued too late or too early.
While not
connecting online, the game launches and searches for an end-user agreement. On
the day before the game was available on retail shelves, the game would not
launch for a good portion of the day due to a network error. “SportsConnect
connect lost” was the message and the game would not launch at all. Once that
SportsConnect server came back online, the game launched just fine.
In the
graphical department, MLB ’07 is a treat. The players’ faces are hit or miss,
but some of the plays are wonderful to watch and the environments (though they
give the pretense of being interactive with dust flying up, but you won’t see
footprints in the dirt) are lush. The game plays out in 720p in high definition
and looked great on a 42-inch Sony Bravia television.
As for the
commentary – that is handled by Matt Vasgersian, Dave Campbell and Rex Hudler.
Vasgersian seems to have some new dialogue, as does Hudler, but Campbell doesn’t
really seem to offer much that is new from previous years.
MLB ’07: The
Show is still, in spite of a few errors, nine innings of fun baseball action.
The online portion promises to be robust with leagues and tournaments, and the
career elements are very entertaining. If viewed without wearing the hat of a
former newspaper sports editor, and shucking aside the baseball purist attitude,
MLB ’07 is a solid liner to the gap in right center. Though not quite home run
distance, it does try to stretch that sure double into a triple.
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Gameplay:
8.2
The controls, for
the most part, are easy to use. Some of the SIXAXIS elements feel a little hit
or miss and you will have to make certain contact with the buttons or that hack
at a fastball right down the pipe may turn into a checked swing.
Graphics:
8.6
Rendered out is
720p, MLB ’07 is a visual treat. The camera can be a bit of a pain, and the
interface may suffer from the scenario of ‘the more that is offered, the more
that is wanted’ in terms of information supplied.
Sound: 8.0
Some of the
commentary is just a rehash from previous years. Still the broadcast style
presentation really adds to the experience.
Difficulty:
Medium/Hard
The cliché is ‘easy
to learn, difficult to master.’ That is true here in regards to the control
scheme.
Concept: 8.0
The new elements
really bolster the depth of the experience. Still, there are a few items that
could be improved upon – especially in the single-player career mode.
Multiplayer:
N/A
A full array of
online features will be offered and should provide a very entertaining
experience. Unfortunately, this aspect could not be tested at the time of the
review.
Overall: 8.4
Sure, there are
some frustrations in this game, but it is still a pretty good representation of
the game of baseball. The game looks great, sounds good and plays well. The
components are all in place to make a pennant run for the top baseball title in
’07.
