This is a big year for Sony's MLB series, though the reason why may surprise you.
Without a doubt, MLB 08: The Show is the must-buy baseball game of the year. While many aspects of MLB 08's gameplay shine in comparison to 2K Sports' rival title, MLB 2K8, the game's single biggest claim to fame resides in its career mode titled road to the show. In RTTS, you play out the career of a young, up-and-coming baseball talent trying to leave his mark on the majors. Although MLB's career mode has been around since MLB 2004, recent improvements to the RTTS, including fast-forwarding to situations in which your player is directly involved, have made this game mode the premier way to experience baseball gaming. That’s the good news.
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| While Major League Baseball has its moments... |
The bad news for Sony is that it will only be a matter of time before 2K (or EA Sports if it acquires 2K) replicates this feature in its own series (frankly, I'm shocked this hasn't been done already). To understand why this may be inevitable, let's look at why the road-to-the-show mode is so popular in the first place.
The typical sports game features only two game modes that have any long-lasting appeal: franchise mode and online play. Online play in sports games has been hit or miss. Because of connection issues, frame rate issues, lack of timely updates, or lack of in-depth online tools (such as stat tracking and file sharing), the online experience in many sports games is flawed in one way or another. Although a few games (like Madden) have gotten the online component correct, this does not apply to either MLB 08 or MLB 2K8 (the specific online shortfalls are out of the scope of this article, but you can check out GameSpot’s review of MLB 08 and MLB 2K8 if you’re interested).
Franchise modes, in contrast, are typically very polished in sports games. While it is true that some games feature so many robust franchise features to the point of convolution (College Hoops 2K8), most franchise modes provide an adequate balance of depth and nuance to entertain gamers for the long haul. The problem is that Major League Baseball's long haul is simply too long.
Baseball is undoubtedly the most stat-intensive sport--not only reflected in the breadth of statistics being tracked but also in the esteem in which fans hold these statistics. Player comparison provides the fodder for many baseball fan pissing contests, with arguments always throwing around stats back and forth. It is this stat-centricity, along with MLB's exorbitantly long seasons, that make baseball franchise modes an unfulfilling experience. On the one hand, you want to play a full baseball season to compare your players' statistics with those of actual players--both past and present. On the other hand, do you really want to play a full baseball season?
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| ...162 games has even the players dozing off. |
Luckily, MLB 08's road-to-the-show career mode not only boasts ample replay value (because each position plays slightly differently), but also allows for full MLB seasons to be played in a relatively short time. This is because the game fast-forwards to the next play in which your player is involved--whether it is your next at bat, next time on the mound, or the next time the ball is hit into your player's vicinity. This allows for games to be played in less than 15 minutes (unless you're a starting pitcher) and doesn't make a 162-game season feel like a form of self-administered torture. And, because it is a full season, baseball enthusiasts will be treated with statistics they can then compare to the real thing.
It is this natural synergy between MLB games and career mode that convinces me 2K will soon (possibly even next year) implement a similar feature in its baseball franchise. This may become all the more eminent should EA take over the reins of 2K’s baseball franchise as EA has implemented similar career modes in their Madden and NCAA Football franchises. As a result, Sony's MLB series is on the hot seat. The developers of Sony's MLB series need to press their current advantage in the baseball videogame market by continuing to innovate; be it with new features that complement the RTTS experience, or an overhauled look at this long-running mode that expands its scope beyond its current implementation. Unlike in basketball, Sony has a good thing going with its MLB series, but it's only innovation that will keep it ahead in the count.
