“Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate and sober self-esteem.” – Saul Steinberg

When it comes to video-games, baseball can be one of the purest, most entertaining, satisfying and enjoyable experiences to be had in a game. Standing in against a pitcher throwing so fast and hard the ball looks like a BB instead of a baseball, and yet managing to judge the timing and powder the pitch high into the bright blue sky, watching it trail away until it disappears behind a fence. And, conversely, it can also be a frustrating experience, especially when you either can’t find the pitch to hit, or you do manage to hit it and it trickles directly to a fielder.

And that’s only half of the game. The other half is fielding and that can either be a sweet dream or a nightmare. 

When MLB ’09: The Show first launches, there is the sense of the familiar in the start-up menus, but once you head out to the ballpark you will be struck by the graphical facelift the game has received. It truly is a wonderful looking game. The lighting reflects different game settings, from the sunny afternoons to the games played under overcast skies, to twilight and even night games up the lights.

The stadiums now look more realistic with wear and tear on the field and each stadium more closely resembling its baseball counterpart. When it comes to the game itself, SCEA’s dev team has dropped in more than 700 new animations and not only have the fielding controls been updated to allow fielders to take different routes to hit balls but the tag system (wherein a fielder tags out a baserunner) has been totally revamped to create more realistic animations by position. And a new hotshot system has been introduced to create more realistic physics animations that include bad hops, misplayed balls and hits too hot to handle that may be bobbled.

There has been a lot of overhauling in this game. For example, you can now create custom taunts and edit the music for particular events like homeruns. And on off days, you can enter training and earn more points put directly into specific areas. This might be perfecting your swing against the slider, or maybe it’s improving your performance on the base paths (this pertains to the career mode). When it comes to the season or franchise mode, the draft system has been revamped and includes the latest MLB rules.

If anything, every aspect of the game has been improved to give it a more true-to-life feel.  

But even so, the game is not without flaws and bugs. Three popped up early in the career mode with a second baseman for the Cardinals. The batting HUD disappeared on occasion for seemingly no reason. Instead of the display at the top showing balls, strikes, inning and outs, there was nothing. The pitch selection for the opposing pitcher was also gone and while it seemed you could guess the pitch that was coming, unless you had memorized the pitcher’s range of pitches, it truly was a guess.

On another occasion, the career player was standing on third as a baserunner with two outs. A high fly ball was skied toward right and the right fielder drifted under it for the routine catch. He drifted back, and back and back, and apparently made the catch though he had disappeared through the outfield wall just before doing so.

Another instance had the career second baseman in the field, in a double play situation. The ball was hit to short and he moved toward second base to get the toss from the shortstop – except he didn’t quite make it there. The targeting circle, which should have encompassed second base was about 6 feet off the bag. He hit the circle, stopped moving, took the toss from the shortstop, and turned to throw to the first baseman, who was already jumping up for the wild throw. After the errant toss, he ran across the bag to another point about six feet to the third base side of where second base was and again froze in his tracks, and would not move. The return throw from the first baseman, who was attempting to get the runner that has reached safely on the overthrow, sailed well past the second baseman and into left-center field. It was, to say the least, an extremely odd set of bugs.

While online multiplayer was not able to be tested, the game does not release to retail until March 3, there will be online season modes, the ability to listen to the audio from another players’ game or use the S.C.O.U.T. system to find the perfect matchup for a game.

Other modes of play, aside from online, season and franchise, include a manager mode (you don’t control the players but rather issue basic commands), a rivalry mode and a practice mode to help players get that batters eye or work on other fundamental aspects of the game.

To bolster the challenge overall of the game, a fifth difficulty level has been added.

All in all, MLB ’09 is a more robust game than last year’s iteration. It certainly is not flawless, but it is very solid and a lot of fun to play. Certain there is a learning curve – try holding off on that 2-2 pitch that starts in the strike zone and then starts to bend away as it nears the plate; if  you can, you have more discipline than I – but generally the game is very entertaining.

The announcing trio of Matt Vasgersian, Rex Hudler and Dave Campbell can be repetitive and a tad annoying at times, but if you feel that is the case, turn down the audio and enjoy the visual treat that is in store for you.

Gameplay: 8.5
Some load times and not all the control elements seemed to fire on a regular note – like the power swing button. And on bases, the R1 button managed to lead off nicely, but the L1 button to reduce the lead was a little hit-and-miss at times.  

Graphics: 8.9
A few glitches, but the stadiums, the lighting effects, and the animations are all very well done.

Sound: 7.5
While there are some decent tracks in the musical score, some of the songs are forgettable and the announcing trio of Matt Vasgersian, Rex Hudler and Dave Campbell manage to get in a fair share of repetitive comments … you know, just like in year’s past.  

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.8
There has been considerable improvement to this game to make it feel more realistic and play better.

Multiplayer: NA
As the game does not hit retailers until March 3, this element was not tested for this review.

Overall: 8.7
A superior product to last year’s outing, which is actually saying a lot. Yes, there are a few glitches that can hamper the experience a bit, but generally this is a terrific game that plays well, is entertaining and challenging.