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Sony’s baseball franchise hits the PS3. Sony’s MLB franchise has long been the all-star in Sony’s sports lineup. The jump to PS3 is a smooth one, capturing the best parts of the PS2 version while improving the presentation to take advantage of the PS3.
You’ll spend much of your time with MLB 07 playing the Road to the Show. In this mode, you create a player and choose your position and team. Instead of playing through whole games, you’ll only play when your particular player is involved in a play. The game gives you a number of goals to complete, which then award you points that can be used to improve your player. Successfully completing these goals will eventually earn you a contract with the team, though you’re free to request a trade if you aren’t happy with the team you have. Getting a contract means that the game will give you more goals to complete, letting you really get involved with the character.
The other beefy mode is the game’s franchise mode where you will be responsible for everything from the budget, to managing fans’ expectations, keeping players happy and signing them to contracts, setting prices for the games, and making sure the stadium is in good shape. It’s a very in-depth mode and a nice contrast to the Show mode. Otherwise, the game also includes the expected career, season, manager, quick play and rivalry modes.
The great gameplay modes wouldn’t mean much if the actual gameplay—the pitching, hitting and fielding—weren’t top-notch. The pitching is based on a three-button press system where you press the button to determine the pitch type, power and accuracy. The system works well and the game does a good job at encouraging you to try different types of pitches since the catchers will often call for a specific pitch type. The hitting is equally satisfying. The balls come at a good pace that gives you just enough time to react. As expected, you can try to guess the pitch type in order to increase the likelihood of hitting the ball. Likewise, the fielding is just as intuitive, making it easy to catch the fly balls in the outfield and successfully manage the players in the infield.
MLB 07 supports online play through the PlayStation Network. The online mode is fairly robust. You can play games (both ranked and unranked), participate in leagues, upload game settings, and even get news from MLB games. You do this all through your online avatar, which tracks all of the necessary stats.
MLB 07’s presentation has been noticeably bumped up with the jump to PS3 hardware. The players themselves look pretty good with the biggest personalities looking quite close to their real-life counterparts. The animation—from running, to hitting and pitching, and baserunning—all look great and help bring the game to life. The developers added some player-specific animations for key players, which add some variety and look great. The stadiums look grand, particular the awesome crowd which may just be the best crowd yet. Still, there are some last-generation reminders here namely in the grass and some stiff animation.
The game’s audio is also great. The sounds of baseball all sound authentic. Rowdy and loud fans bring the game to life and help reinforce the ballpark atmosphere. Dave Campbell and Rex Hudler provide the game’s color commentary. They’re pretty good, although a bit too repetitive. Matt Vasgersian provides the play-by-play, which is generally spot-on.
MLB 07: The Show is the best baseball game currently available on the PS3. The sharp presentation, coupled with great gameplay and the excellent The Show mode make the game an easy recommendation for baseball-loving PS3 owners. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- May 21, 2007
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