Last year, MLB The Show for the PS3 wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t meet the expectations one would have of a ‘next generation’ game – it had less features than the PS2 version and really felt like a straight-jacket port. This year, however, Sony went back to the drawing board and gave us a true next generation game that is easily the best baseball game of 2008.

The graphics have received a nice new coat of paint and look superb. Stadiums and players all look sharp, and the ‘live’ scoreboards are a nice touch. One of my gripes from last year was the Orioles pitching coach was sometimes dressed in the opponent’s uniform – this doesn’t happen this year – but then again, the Orioles fired their pitching coach so that eliminated the problem. The models look great but it’s the animation that steals the show. This is the best animation ever seen in a sports game from the pitcher’s wind up to the smoothness of the hitter’s swing. Everything looks fluid and natural, and if nothing else shows that you can in fact program a baseball game on the PS3 that runs butter smooth.

The “Road To The Show” mode remains a bright spot; this is a quasi-role playing game where you create a character (unfortunately, unlike the PS2 version, you do not have the ability to import your own face using the PS Eye) and select a position. This is followed by giving your player attributes at your discretion. Perhaps you’d rather have a defensive shortstop than a strong offensive player? It’s up to you. After the player is created you’re then off to spring training as a non-roster player, hoping to make The Show. This is rather difficult because your abilities aren’t where they should be just yet, so you’ll probably get a minor league contract to focus on your skills.

How you perform in the minors will translate to a call up to the majors, or a demotion, or your release. The better you perform the more experience you’ll receive and the more you can adjust your attributes. The nice thing about RTTS is that you only see the part of the game where you’re involved; so if you’re a starting pitcher you’ll only play every 4-5 days, which makes for a speedy season. Throughout the season you can gripe about your contract, and complain to the manager, which is always fun and usually results in you getting demoted for challenging authority. During each game you’ll have certain goals you have to achieve which will give you extra ability points. While somewhat better than last year’s goals, there are still some goals that don’t make much sense; however new this year are coach signals which you better follow. It’s about time someone put this important part of the real game in a video game.

The traditional features of a baseball game are all here – franchise and season mode as well as coach only manager mode. The stats generated by the sim engine are solid except that there are way too many stolen bases. Hopefully this can be addressed via a patch. Still, franchise mode is fun, but most are waiting for that first roster update from Sony to get everything just right.

The gameplay itself is phenomenal. The batter/pitcher interface is very well done and while it can be challenging to hit the ball, it’s not insanely difficult. New this year is a batter/pitcher analysis which is invaluable to get an idea of where a pitcher likes to throw. You can drill down to day or night games when batting left handed, etc – it’s nice attention to detail and reminiscent of the Wii Power Pros videogame. Ball physics are superb – it actually feels like you can mishit a ball and be jammed resulting in a popup or top spin on the ball.

Fielding is both hit and miss. While we still are playing “guide the player into the circle” on fly balls, it’s nice to see that wind can affect the play and you have to adjust accordingly. There’s also a nice feeling of depth in the outfield – specifically it feels like it really is over 400 ft to center field. The drawbacks to fielding repeatedly occur on bunts and passed balls; it seems as if the system always selects the worst fielder to go after the ball and furthermore if the perspective is from the pitchers view and you think, “is square first base or third?” While playing as an infielder it’s nice that you’ll run towards the base and not accidentally step over the bag for an out, which has happened in that other baseball game.

The computer is a smart baseball manager even on the basic levels, using double switches and warming up pitchers based on your lineup for the best advantage, the AI also plays defense very nicely and won’t automatically let your runner go home to score instead of the sure out at first.