MLB 08: The Show

Although the official start of the baseball season is still a few months away, the hard-working folks over at Sony have been busy all off-season polishing and putting the finishing touches on their much-beloved baseball title MLB 08: The Show. This is our first look at the title.

Players who are familiar with the franchise and have played some of the recent titles will find many of the same features in 08. One of the first new features is a new ticker that appears in the game and gives you updated scores for all your favorite teams. You can also use a new scouting option to locate players that are close to your skill level. We were not able to try out the online features but were told that they were coming.

Although the online modes are not quite ready for the big leagues at this time, we were really impressed with the ability to save our progress in the middle of a game. This will be a huge improvement to the gameplay and allow players to stop the game and resume it when they have time. Kudos for the team in adding this feature.

Another addition to MLB 08: The Show is an improved player creation tool that gives the player a ton of customization options by utilizing the right analog stick to give many more ways to make your player look exactly like you want them to–whether that be your virtual self, a celebrity, or some off-the-wall character design. After creating a player, you can choose from playing through a regular season, managing a club in manager mode, play a quick game or exhibition, and our personal favorite Road to the Show mode. This mode is a career mode that gives the players goals to earn points and improve their player. It is probably the best way to play MLB 08: The Show.

Continuing the tradition of the great MLB Franchise Mode, players will be given goals and time frames to complete tasks. These tasks will change depending on the level of skill for the ball club you control. Players will also be able to track their progress and receiving feedback on how you are accomplishing your goals. The Manager mode also gives players a great chance to manage their team and control every single detail or just let your players play like they want to. Although this is not going to give you free control over the gameplay, for those who want don’t have the skills to play or just don’t feel like actively hitting and pitching, this should prove to be a fun way to play MLB 08: The Show.

When actually controlling the action on the field, players will find that the mechanics are essentially the same. Players will still need to guess where a pitch is going to be thrown and move the cursor to where they think it will be thrown. The big changing to batting is a new system that will track how well your players are doing and reward, or penalize, them for how they perform at the plate.

MLB 08: The Show is shaping up to be yet another yet MLB game for your PlayStation 3. While we will hold our final judgment until we receive our review build, this is looking like a winner.