Review by: William Abner

I should probably cut to the chase right out of the chute: MLB 09: The Show is the best console baseball game on the planet. And it’s not even close. The Show’s graphics, animation, attention to detail, gameplay, and depth is unmatched not only by the competition but to any baseball game of this generation.

That said, this is not the kind of yearly sports update where the changes to the previous installment will bonk you over the head – many of the enhancements are subtle, but remain critically important to the progression of this series. The improvements are such that, for a serous baseball gamer, going back to MLB 08 is unthinkable. Plus, it’s drop dead gorgeous on a 60” Sony Bravia. It looks ridiculously good.

The key areas of improvement revolve around the pitcher/batter confrontation, fielding, and extra base hits. Last year, the CPU pitchers painted the strike zone like Michelangelo on HGH. It was frustrating to get to a 3-0 count only to have the pitcher storm back, refusing to give up a walk. This year, especially after altering the in game sliders which tweak parts of the gameplay, drawing a walk from a pitcher with average to poor control is possible. Sounds like a small fix on its face, but if your baseball game doesn’t have ample walks then your baseball game doesn’t work right. Here, you’ll play games where you draw no walks at all – then you’ll play a game where you draw six or seven. This variability is crucial to the Show’s longevity.

The same holds true for when you are on the mound. If you get too cute and try to hit the corners you can expect to walk a fair share of batters. Granted, it’s still too easy to throw a strike when you really need to – you’ll only walk a hitter when you are working the edges, but this is significantly better than last year’s game and makes for a more authentic experience.

The fielding model is better in ’09 in that poor fielders are now a liability – and better yet a player who tries to track down a fly ball, running a long way to reach a potential hit, might drop the ball when he gets there, diving for the catch. It was a bit annoying to know that in last year’s game if a player reached the ball he was going to catch it – this year that is nowhere near the case. Those diving, circus catches matter more; they are more eye popping now when they’re actually made. And trust me – do not play a player out of position. It gets ugly.