MLB '06: The Show brings an all-new dimension to hardball. The gaming mechanics and new game modes help you recreate the experience of real-world baseball. Set up and maintain multi-game rivalries, or jump into duels between pitcher and batter. Save your game to your Memory Stick to preserve your progress, as you make your way through The Show. With the new Historical Greats option, nostalgic fans can go up against baseball's legends New 3-man booth - Rex Hudler, Matt Vasgersian and Dave Campbell provide in-depth commentary Multiplayer gameplay, locally via Ad Hoc Mode or across the nation via Infrastructure Mode
Features:
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Try out Career Mode, Rivalry Mode and other new game modes
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All-new game mechanics like the Release Point Pitching meter, pitch-type guessing and user-controlled slides
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Personalize the way you hit the field - Pick a position, assign yourself to a team, and start negotiating
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King of the Diamond mode challenges your pitching and hitting skills - move as many ghost runners as you can in two minutes
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Take over management duties for a 40-man lineup -- set the active players on your team
Average Customer Review:
( 56 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Awesome Game; but with some very annoying flaws...Jun 08, 2006
By Michael Goonan MLB 06: The Show, is without a doubt the best baseball game on the market. However, it does have some very aggravating flaws that will takes some getting used to. Among other things, players have a habit of advancing to second base on their own, even if there is a runner on second that is not moving, or if they just hit an infield single. I can't begin to tell you how many outs of lost because of this. Another annoying glitch is the frequency of wild pitches. Once you get used to the controls, there are less, but there are still an unrealistic amount. When you're first getting used to the game, it will seem like every time you throw a slider it's a wild pitch.
Now, enough of the negative stuff! Let's talk about why this is the best baseball game on the market today.
Graphics: 10/10 The graphics are amazing in comparison to any other baseball game I have played. I played 2K5 last year, and I though it's graphics were excellent, but The Show will just amaze you in comparison. Player movements are much less choppy.
Gameplay: 8/10 As I have already stated, there are some glitches in the gameplay that can be really annoying. But one other annoying thing about this and EVERY baseball game that has come out in the last 2 years is that you can't slide into first. It's acctually just impossible. Why this is I have no idea, as in all of my really old games you had this capability, but not here. Really weird. Still, the gameplay is a lot of fun and very realistic. You will no longer hit a home run every time you come up to bat, you have to acctually keep your eye on the ball and aim your swing.
Extra Game modes: 11/10 This is what makes the Show stand out above the crowd. This is the only baseball game out that has an ACTUAL HOME RUN DERBY! 2K5 only had some game where you saw how many homers you could hit in a specific time period, but The Show has the actual derby from the all star game. 10 outs, anything other than a HR is an out, multiple rounds etc. This mode is especially fun to play with friends. King of the Diambond is also an interesting mode, in which you chose one batter and one pitcher and play an arcade style game with ghost sunners and bonuses.
Franchise: 10/10 Amazing, and I absolutely love the stadium management stuff where you can set food and ticket prices and even advertise games and hold "bat day" or "bobblehead day".
Career: 10/10 This is Baseball's answer to John Madden Football's "superstar mode". You create a player and guide him through the minor leagues with the eventual goal of makeing "the show".
Overall: 9/10 All in all, MLB 06: The Show is an outstanding baseball video game. I highly reccomend it, but there are some glitches that can get very annoying at times, so be warned. In reference to the review above which states that the game has problems with lockups ("freezing"), I have had the game for over a month and have never experienced a problem.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Great game, but room for improvementJun 01, 2006
By C. Hall
"chall811"
I've been playing this game for about 3 weeks now. In previous years I was loyal to the EA Sports version until they lost their contract with MLB this year.
The Show 2006 is a very worthy competitor. Better in many ways and not as good in a couple of others.
PROS: - Graphics are good; no better or worst than EA Sports as far as I can tell; - Love how the pitching works, and how pitchers will lose confidence. In a tight game you can really "feel" when a pitcher is starting to lose it. Forces you to manage the bullpen, etc. which I like. - The "Guess Pitch" feature when batting is just outstanding. Allows you to sit on a fastball (if you so choose). - Gameplay is smooth. - Settings are very customizable. For example, by default the game is set with a lot of cut scenes between pitches. A replay, the runner standing on first, etc. This makes for great realism but it really slows down the gameplay (I mean, if I want to watch a baseball game I'll just turn on the TV, otherwise I just want to play the game). The great thing about The Show though is that you can turn all this stuff off, which makes for a much quicker transition between pitches/batters. - Franchise mode is very in-depth, much more so than MVP, particularly on the financial side. You can set up advertisements, take a loan from a bank, etc. Some will like this, others will think it's too much to manage. Again you can customize this to your liking (e.g. have the computer run the financials). - Sony updates the MLB rosters weekly, which you can download via online mode. Much better than EA Sports.
CONS: There are several areas that can be improved: - The announcers voices lag behind the gameplay. Not a huge deal to where it detracts from the fun of the game, but definitely a little annoying after awhile. A company like Sony should be able to clean this up. - Lack of variety by the announcers. Again, not a huge deal, just a little annoying. For example, every time Willie Taveras comes up to bat the color commentary is "and you can see by his numbers that he's swinging the bat a lot better at home". Every single time. - Trading players in Franchise Mode is a complete joke. This is a big one for me. As an Astros fan I like to take the team in Franchise mode and "tinker" with the roster a bit. First of all, the computer won't allow you to trade multiple players for a single player (for example, a 3-for-1 deal). This happens ALL THE TIME in baseball, but not in The Show. In The Show, the computer says "unable to make trade as the Yankees don't have roster space", meaning that they already have 25 players assigned to their roster and so can't take on two more players while giving up only one, as it would give them 26 players on the roster. This is ridiculous; obviously a player should just be pushed down into the minors. This is how MLB handled it.
The stupidity doesn't stop here though. Assuming you do find a team willing to trade, the AI is just awful. For example, in April/May during my season, just to test the system I offered Morgan Ensberg, Roy Oswalt, and Brad Lidge to Tampa Bay for Carl Crawford and two scrubs from AAA. Tampa Bay wasn't interested. HOWEVER, once the trading deadline came around in July I was able to trade a 28 year old AA pitcher for Crawford. I made similar types of trades to acquire Joe Mauer and Dontrelle Willis. For me this is a really big negative of the game as I love the franchise mode. EA Sports was far superior in this category, and Sony has a lot of work to improve the AI here.
- This is very nitpicky, but I personally don't like the swirling baseball graphic that appears on the field during a pop fly (the area to which you are to direct your fielder to catch the ball). Would prefer something a little simpler. - I've had a lot of trouble with effective baserunning. Not very intuitive for controlling manually. And when you set it to allow the computer to handle baserunning, every now and then you'll see your fat, slow catcher (or whoever) trying to turn a single into a double. Not a huge deal, but sometimes annoying.
In summary though, I can definitely recommend The Show as a very good game. The gameplay, particularly the pitching and hitting modes, is better than EA Sports in my opinion. The annoucers are not as good. The franchise mode is more in depth, with the exception of making trades as noted above.
ADDENDUM: After completing my first season in Franchise Mode, in fact the game does allow you to trade multiple players for a single player. The AI still is not very saavy as you can get some real steals by trading with AA and AAA scrubs. But it is possible to do it.
12 of 14 found the following review helpful:
A lil disappointingMar 09, 2006
By G Swifty
"gadams12"
This game seems half baked. Good ideas with poor execution.
Graphics:
Arguably the best part of the game. The graphics are nice and the faces of star players are pretty well rendered. Body types aren't as well rendered and look pretty generic. Stances and deliveries are done well. Ballparks are also replicated nicely.
Little glitches mentioned later detract from otherwise beautiful game graphics.
Gameplay:
The pace of the game is slower than any baseball game I think has ever been put out on a platform--but in a good way. It does give one the feeling of a real baseball game one would view on television. This can be quickened up in the options if one prefers a quicker game experience or just want a 'quick and dirty' game. The commentary is pretty good and although a little bit repetative is not annoying except for exclusion of a lack of recording names for almost all game generated players if you play franchise or career for a decent number of seasons.
Pitching lacks depth in that every given pitch breaks the same way. No differing breaks on any changeup, although one may break more given the pitchers ability. Also many pitchers especially relievers seem to be given extra pitches that they don't throw in real life presumably so 2 or 3 pitch pitchers cannot be guessed so easily for the pitch guessing feature in the game.
Fielding
The controls feel a lil slow and clunky in the responsiveness department. Throwing feels the worst as the game really needs a throw meter.
Tuning
Some gameplay feel that I found a little not to my liking or a little off was the ease of getting on base via bunting--especially drag bunting. More than what would be a normal amount of infield singles. Many of what should be routine double plays the first base runner beats out. Injuries don't seem to happen often enough. I think I hit 6 or so batters in a row without my pitcher being thrown out and with none of the batters sustaining an injury. Ease of wild pitch seems a little off also. For as much as the game wants to be simulation-like it loses credibility as rare events happen to the point of being routine.
The title "The Show" would make you think the developers spent a lot of time on their unique Career mode that lets you create a player and play through his career--WRONG! It's not terrible at all but is not much more than a franchise mode without any control over the lineups and rosters since you are just a player. The mode lacks the depth that could have made this title uniquely great. Nothing happens by chance except injuries with the choice of playing through it or not. Recieving mentoring from veteran players or advice from coaches is totally absent and it's a shame. Also the notes other players and the manager quickly become repetitive. You feel pretty detached from the team. An interesting feature would be to open up requests with say the owner or the GM once you reach 'veteran' 'all star' and 'hall of fame' status, increasing your clout in your organization based on your star status and importance to the team as an individual or the ability to recruit key free agents.
Bugs that are pretty inexcusable and may be a gamebreaker for you:
1. Game freezing during a played game
2. Lack of running tagout animations. First time I ran down a player I literally wasn't sure if I'd tagged out the runner because my player didn't reach out with his glove.
3. The minor but very annoying 4 shadows for every player on the field.
4. Umpires don't move, they sometimes in overhead shots go 2d, and you can walk right through them like they are ghosts.
5. A glaring lack of recorded names for game generated players. Hearing, "Number 24 comes to bat!" gets pretty annoying if you play career or franchise for a number of years and game generated players start to predominate the league. Some minor leaguers do get the recorded name treatment from the game for some reason, but not the majority.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Made me forget all about MVP..Apr 16, 2006
By Brian Anderson Like many other MVP fans, I was very sad to hear that Take Two had bought exclusive 3rd party rights to MLB games this year(which essentially all this agreement did was eliminate EA's MVP game for the next seven years). Well since Take Two's 2K baseball series is widely known to be horrible, I was worried what I would do for a baseball game the next 7 years. I was almost to the point of keeping MVP 2005 for 7 years and updating the rosters. But knowing this was very time consuming and would quickly get to the point of having an outdated game, I looked at the options. Fortunately, us Playstation2 owners don't have to buy the Take Two game because the agreement still allows Sony to make this game. Luckily, I played this game at a friend's house and immediately feel in love with. I played 3 games with him, then went to the store to buy it myself. It's so addicting, and such a baseball simulation it's ridiculous. You feel like you are an at actual baseball park controlling the players. The graphics are amazing(players actually look like themselves unlike in MVP where everyone was fat or skinny, Derek Lee is not 400 pounds on this game like he appeared to be in MVP) and the faces are the best I have seen in a baseball game. The stadiums are beautifully done as well, and for you Cardinals fans, the new Busch Stadium IS in the game, and Sony did a fantastic job recreating it and the skyline behind. The commentary is the best I have ever heard in a baseball game also, you almost feel like the guys are sitting there watching you play, it's scary sometimes. The presentation is GREAT and is just like a television baseball game. The game plays wonderfully too, you get realistic outcomes, and it's a challenge. Pitching makes you think: unlike with MVP where every pitch you took and threw was probably a strike, you WILL throw balls, you WILL take walks, and you WILL walk people in this game whether you're trying to or not. If your pitcher starts giving up a bunch of hits and walks, he gets frustrated and his confidence level lowers. This makes it harder to place your pitch where you want it and you will need a mound visit to calm him down. Playing this game just makes me see how much MVP was off in their attempt to simulate baseball; compared to The Show, MVP is a simple arcade game. It's clear the makers of this game are huge baseball junkies, they REALLY know the game. Small details really set this game off, I love how the outfielders will celebrate with each other after a great catch or how after a basehit the guy at first will carry on a conversation with the 1st baseman and give him a pat on the back. You didn't see this stuff in MVP, and it adds so much to the experience. I honestly can't put this game down and can't recommend it highly enough. I like The Show so much that if MVP 2007 were to come out, I wouldn't even consider buying it, MLB 06 The Show is truly THAT much better. Anyone who gives this game less than 5 stars can not be a fan of real baseball, if you like arcade stuff, you won't like this, but if you're a true baseball fan, you'll eat this up like no baseball game ever before!
One thing I forgot to add, a REALLY cool thing Sony does is they update the rosters EVERY Monday. Last week was the opening day update and all the rookies were added that made their debuts the first week of the season, and their updates are very accurate unlike some of EA's. When a guy is called up, you can bet money that he will be in next Monday's update. And it's not just big time prospects that get added, Sony even pays attention to the random no-name career minor leaguer who just got called up. For people very particular about rosters like me, this is an awesome feature.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Great GameMar 23, 2006
In this game there are many new features and the awsome classic ones. In career mode you will start in AA with real teams and stadiums. You have to play 9 innings in career and franchise ,but you can change it for regular quck games when you play your friends. You can though, just do your at bats. The graphics are awsome the best yet. Also the rosters are good (about evertthing before the game came out). You can use the eyetoy in some modes too. This game may not have the world baseball clasic but is better than 2k6. This game does feature the red sox and Big Papi, but yankee fans will still like it with Damon and the NYY are the best team in the game. This does also have new rival mode where rivals play each other. You can also play online.
based on 56 reviews
( 56 customer reviews )
