Grand slam

by ERIK LEIJON

We’re already one-third of the way through a new season of baseball, but only now has MLB 07: The Show (PS3/SCEA, SCEA) stepped up to the next-gen plate. Sure it would have been nice to crank a limp fastball into the left field bleachers off of Jason Schmidt (aka Benedict Arnold circa 2007) in April, but considering how polished Sony’s latest is, all is forgiven. Besides, the only other officially licensed game in town, 2K’s quite good MLB 2K7, is surprisingly tough to find in stores.

The graphics aren’t quite on par with the best the PS3 has to offer, but the characters move fluidly, so the PS2.5 visuals aren’t a major letdown. Thankfully, The Show’s pioneering features are all still present and have been ramped up slightly. Rest assured this isn’t a next-gen conversion marred by a limited selection of game modes (yeah, I went there Madden)—the career mode is deeper than ever before, and there’s a new Road to the Show career mode.

In career mode, gamers create their ballplayer from the ground up, with a myriad of very specific aesthetic selections. (What other game lets you choose acne levels or chin cleftness?) Starting from the minors, in the past players, would play their character’s at-bats, and over multiple seasons eventually earn a chance to ’roid up with the pros.

Added to this year’s new Road to the Show mode is the opportunity to run the bases with your avatar and to make fielding plays. Specific at-bats also play like mini missions, since the manager will give you a specific order, like to bring the runner home from second, or to simply not strike out. The games also fast-forward directly to your plays, so you’re not saddled with having to play through all nine innings. Actually, it’s possible to get through a season in one afternoon if your real-life beer league game happens to be rained out. My only complaint about fielding and base running is that the ball in play doesn’t have an indicator icon, making it difficult to follow.

Perhaps I just never paid enough attention, but only now have I noticed the lifelike ball physics. Hits in real life rarely go perfectly straight, yet in video games they always do. In The Show, doubles over the first-baseman’s head slice like real liners would, and balls hit in the dirt can sometimes act unpredictably. What has remained largely untouched is the pitching and hitting controls, and with good reason. The Show is one of the few baseball games that have done a great job balancing hitting and pitching so neither side has a built-in advantage.

It’s even rarer to find a ballgame that accurately reflects just how a quality change-up can wreck a batter’s timing, and The Show’s pitches all move naturally and can be followed with the naked eye. The pitch-guessing mode is good for hitters who sit on fastballs (or to expose pitchers who become too predictable). There’s also a new catcher-advice function that will help pitchers find the right pitch to get the punch out. Don’t let the average graphics fool you into thinking this is a lazy port—MLB 07: The Show is the best baseball game I’ve ever played.

No pain, no game

Last week on CNN’s Web site, a doctor in Boston coined the latest ridiculous condition to befall modern American society: Wiiitis. Dr. Julio Bonis had been playing too much Wii Sports, resulting in a more shameful version of tennis elbow.

If you’re getting hurt playing Wii, it’s time to get the fuck outside and get some real exercise, but, then again, if it means getting my OxyContin prescription refilled…