Spring training

by ERIK LEIJON

Cleaning out some of the clutter this week, so if you happen upon the curb in front of my place, feel free to grab the discarded lawn chairs, rolled up coaxial cable or copy of Dante’s Inferno that suspiciously looks like someone attempted to run it through an industrial strength paper shredder.

I love spring, not just because of the warmer weather and lack of salt stains on my pants, but because of the promise of another baseball season. I know baseball isn’t exactly beloved around these parts, and chances are you’ve stopped reading already and have moved on to some inferior, non-baseball related activity, but MLB 10: The Show (PS3/SCE, SCE San Diego) is a terrific video game, in addition to being an accurate representation of America’s pastime.

I’ll keep things short because The Show 10 isn’t much different from The Show 09: technically speaking, it’s the most thorough sport-to-video game adaptation, a fact that will delight fans and infuriate detractors. It’s baseball in all its sublime glory: it’s slow, stats-heavy, complicated and devoid of immediate gratification. It will take hours to learn to navigate the menu screens, days to learn the basics of pitching and hitting and an entire season to actually learn to lay off the low-and-away slider. It’s insanely tough even for baseball vets as the AI is merciless when it comes to punishing mistakes and often good enough to beat you at your best. Hitting, especially, is an exercise in masochism, as the balls come in fast, the sense of depth is somewhat lacking at the default camera angle and graphical limitations make it impossible to pick up the spin of the ball (essential when doing the real thing).

It’s frustrating, just like the real game. MLB: The Show 10 preaches to those who already pray at the altar, and for those gluttons for punishment, there is an embarrassment of riches. There are too many modes and options to tinker with, but what The Show does perfectly is capture the individual battles of baseball. Not just pitcher vs. batter, but the right-fielder gunning down an overzealous runner hitting third, or the shortstop playing deep in the infield launching a rocket to first base. It feels like baseball—not video game baseball, but real baseball.

More heroes

A great Wii sequel, and they didn’t even need the resort! No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii/Ubisoft, Grasshopper) is as eccentric, bombastic, campy and gory as its progenitor, albeit with some slight tweaks to reduce the amount of travel and keep attention on the slashing and decapitating. Getting rid of the long motorcycle riding sequences was a simple, effective improvement, as the only thing stylish assassin Travis Touchdown now needs to concern himself with is new ways to spill blood with his beam katana.

The humour is infantile and the dialogue (intentionally?) horrendous, although playing largely as a raunchy satire of other video games (especially of the 8-bit variety) works in its own delirious airspace. And yes, Touchdown still saves his game by sitting on the toilet. Thankfully the Desperate Struggle is not a reference to that particular technique.

And if for whatever reason you’ve beaten Final Fantasy XIII already or are looking for another SquareEnix RPG, Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (PS3/SquareEnix, tri-Ace) is finally out on the PS3 after being released on the XBox 360 last year. As the name implies, the International edition comes with superior Japanese voice acting. It’s classic RPG gaming, meaning a long, epic adventure, but Star Ocean: The Last Hope is about as good as it gets when it comes to this beloved genre.