Since the PS3 launched last fall, quite a few games have been
released attempting to capitalize on its SIXAXIS motion sensing capabilities,
many of which have been sports titles. Sometimes the results come to great
effect, like with NHL 2K7. Other times, they’re not so great. Unfortunately,
Major League Baseball is one of those games. While the game is largely an
improvement over last year’s model in terms of tweaking the individual elements
of America’s favorite pastime, the PS3 version feels surprisingly unpolished,
with unresponsive SIXAXIS controls and general buggy issues throughout.
Last year’s Major League Baseball 2K6 was the first entry of
the baseball franchise to hit next-generation of consoles with a launch on the
Xbox 360, but was widely ill-received due to some glaring problems with the core
game. Instead of building upon last year’s feature set as is often the case with
annual sports releases, the 2KSports team decided to address the issues with the
predecessor, and for the most part they succeeded. The baseball mechanics in
Major League Baseball 2K7 play a lot more fluidly than 2K6 in just about every
way.
The game offers a much improved interface over 2K6. The menus
are easier to navigate, especially in the franchise mode. This mode is just as
deep as ever, but now it’s a lot more intuitive and you can accomplish a lot
more this time around given the ease of use.
Some glaring issues have also been cleaned up on the field
too. Baserunning has been fixed a lot, giving you a display on the lower part of
the screen to watch your player run the bases. Taking a second base requires a
push of the face button and some quick tapping to put the extra hustle onto the
run. It’s still a little tough to get a handle on it, but it becomes second
nature once you do. Fielding also feels a lot smoother, too as catching and
passing are more streamlined than they were previously.
One of the biggest and most unique additions to the gameplay
on the field is the new swing mechanic. Swinging is completely done using the
motion sensing abilities of the SIXAXIS controller. Instead of pressing a button
to make your batter take a swing, you have to thrust the controller forward and
he’ll swing the bat. Depending on how you thrust it (upwards or downwards), the
ball will either go low or in the air.
The SIXAXIS controls for batting are a good idea, but they unfortunately don’t
really work in practice. Swinging can be very unresponsive and quite
frustrating, especially considering that you only get a split second to realize
whether or not the pitch will be a ball or in the strikezone. Trying to thrust
at the right time can be a very trying process, with the controller either
reacting too late or not at all. On several occasions, my player would even try
to bunt (which is done by pulling back on the controller instead of forward),
which got on my nerves very quickly. If this were an element that didn’t factor
into the game very much, I may’ve let it slide a bit, but batting is one of the
most integral parts of baseball, so it was an extremely glaring issue.
Graphically, the game is a hit and a miss. Some of the facial
details are excellent, with players that look and move eerily like their real
life versions. Certain athletes even benefit from “Signature Style”, which
brings you closer to the game by having the onscreen avatar perform movements
that their real-life counter would do on the field. Little elements like Gary
Sheffield’s batting stance (complete with the bat wiggle thing he does) are
present in the game, showing a real attention to detail on the part of the
developers. The stadiums look great and are pretty accurate as well.
On the negative side however, while some of the facial
details for certain players look very realistic, others just look frightening
and unnatural. Aside from that, the game’s visuals suffer from a general lack of
polish, with tearing and aliasing jaggies abound. The biggest problem for the
PS3 version is the framerate. It remains consistently crappy throughout, making
fielding unnecessarily difficult.
The sound is pretty good, but not outstanding. The music is
the same kind of modern rock tracks that you’d expect from a modern baseball
game. The commentary is pretty stiff and uninspired this year, with Jon Miller
and Joe Morgan sounding a little tired and bored.
Major League Baseball 2K7 is a definite improvement over 2K6,
but the series still has some work cut out for it in order to take the PS3
baseball genre by storm.
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Gameplay: 7.5
Considering last
year’s lackluster next-gen showing, Major League Baseball 2K7 is an improvement,
offering a more fluid game of baseball. Unfortunately, the spotty SIXAXIS
controls are more of a curse than a blessing for its PS3 debut, acting extremely
erratically and ultimately leading to frustration.
Graphics: 7.0
Nice animations and
great effects like rippling uniforms are ultimately hampered by a particularly
framerate. Some of the player’s faces look very accurate, while others are just
frightening.
Sound: 7.5
The soundtrack is
what you’d expect from a baseball game, laced with modern rock tracks, but the
commentary is pretty stiff and feels largely recycled.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 7.0
The game makes
some nice improvements over last year’s model, but the SIXAXIS elements are
inconsistent and annoying.
Multiplayer: 7.5
Online play gives
you some good options, like quick play matches and a league mode, which can be
pretty deep. Unfortunately, lag becomes an issue often.
Overall: 7.3
The game does a
good job of cleaning up the mistakes from last year’s version and provides an
overall much cleaner baseball game. Unfortunately, the buggy SIXAXIS support and
some technical flaws open up a whole new can of worms.
