Last year's installment of 989's MLB 2005 surprised a lot of people in the sports gaming community. While to this day I stand by the issues I had with the game, I secretly wished that MLB 2006 would give me some hope for the future as I'm forced to go without a fully licensed MVP Baseball next year. In many ways MLB 2006 comes through this year as many issues I had with last year’s game and it looks that much better because of it. The question is- can it capture the same nuances of baseball that it sorely lacks?
MLB 2006 has many of the typical options that exist in sports games these days. You have the ability to play an exhibition style match between two different teams in any stadium in the game. You can also play a full season as well as a homerun derby mode. However, the meat of the game is in the franchise and career modes.
MLB 2006's franchise mode is very good. It offers many of the standard features like the ability to sign free agents, draft and trade players, spring training, and post season. However, MLB 2006's franchise mode is much more than a multi-year representation of a typical season mode. It also allows you to view a wider variety of stats than any other live action baseball game. It also features a Hall of Fame, and handles the monetary aspects of the game better than all the other baseball games released this year. I do have to admit though that there wasn't much changed in this mode from MLB 2005, but it still is much deeper and robust than any of its competition.
MLB 2006's most interesting feature is the Career mode. While it was in last year's game, it remains as one of the most unique and satisfying modes I have seen in a sports game. It allows you to control your player as he progresses through the minors, and hopefully the major's. Your ultimate goal is to make it to Cooperstown (i.e. The Baseball Hall of Fame), but you face many sub goals including scoring a huge contract, winning a ring, and improving your ratings and stats. What makes this even better is that you can skip throughout the season to games and parts of games where you'll actually play. This way you aren't forced to play with other players who you probably don't care much about. Another interesting feature is that you can have dialog with the manager, teammates, and the media. While most of these conversations are a little risky like spilling the beans on your manager or teammates to the media, or telling your manager you don't like his decisions, if used correctly they can not only positively affect your reputation, but also help your team win. One aspect of Career mode that I felt was missing was the ability to control only your character in the field. Instead, when your team is in the field, you're forced to control the pitcher, and any fielders, which would include you if the time arrives. It's a minor gripe, but definitely something that should be added for next year.
Online mode is definitely behind the times. Not only are there no leagues, but the gameplay is significantly reduced when you play online. Controlling the pitching meter is now significantly more difficult as well as timing your swing properly. MLB 2006 even features a pet peeve I had with MVP Baseball 2004, which was the ability to change your lineups and starting pitching before each online matchup. While I'm not a big fan of going online to play sports games, the online experience won’t be up to par for those who do enjoy it. Despite the issues I noticed, there were some good aspects too. The online component does feature roster updates as well as custom tournaments that can feature up to 32 players, the latter of which can be really fun and enjoyable. Overall the online experience was very disappointing.
The batter-pitcher interface runs neck and neck with MVP Baseball in terms of realism, and enjoyment. MLB 2006's pitching interface now features a semi-circle meter similar to that of MVP Baseball. The biggest difference is that the target zone for accurate pitches is much smaller and harder to hit, thus pitch accuracy can vary quite a bit, especially for pitchers like Matt Clement who do not have great command. Another pitching property that I enjoy is that on breaking pitches, you aim for the spot where they break, not where you intend for them to cross the plate. The only problem is that the amount of break is way too consistent for most pitches. That is, the sinker is going to drop the same amount each time, meaning as long as your aiming is true, you can pitch however you want without having to worry about hanging a curve or slider over the plate.
Batting offers a much different experience. Depending on the difficulty level, you either have to time your swing correctly, aim your swing based on the correct subsection of the plate, or aim your swing in the correct zone. Unfortunately, there is no way to mix up these options for other difficulty levels. For instance, if you're bad at aiming your swing, but proficient at other aspects of that difficulty level, then this game will not be very forgiving. Another problem with the batting interface is that it just doesn't have very good physics. In MVP Baseball, if you hit a slider trailing away square on your bat to center field, the ball will start to tail away towards the opposite field by about 10-15 feet. Not so here. From a pitching perspective, you just aren't rewarded enough for fooling the batter into jamming a pitch, hitting it with the fat end of the bat, or anything else which would prevent the batter from nailing the pitch on the sweet spot of the bat.
Fielding isn't the crowning achievement in this year's crop of video games. However in terms of realism, MLB 2006 is the most accurate. From right off the bat, the difference between a good fielder and a bad fielder is apparent. Some players are actually a liability in the field and cost you runs. The lack of sliders doesn’t allow you to customize this area as much as the other baseball games for the PS2, but the defaults are realistic enough that most people won't mind this. The fielding camera is dynamic in that it rotates around to give you the best angle for making a play. While it doesn't rotate around to put you behind the fielder, it does properly account for foul balls and double plays.
That doesn't mean that fielding doesn't have its problems. Like many other games, the fielding interface is very unforgiving in that you have to have cat-like reflexes in order to duplicate the performance of the computer. Grounders through the infield are especially hard to get a jump on even with countless hours of practice. Getting a jump on a fly ball is rather difficult and the swirling cursor to indicate where the ball will land requires precision timing and placement to make the catch. In other games, if you make an effort to be in the vicinity, you'll have a chance to make the play. With MLB 2006, you'll think you're close enough to the marker, but realize that it isn't good enough when the ball bounces in front of you.
I really did not like the controls in MLB 2006. Not so much because they didn't use the right analog stick like MVP Baseball 2005 and Major League Baseball 2K5, but because in many cases their effectiveness is shrouded in mystery. I'm used to having a face button or shoulder button determine whether a fielder should dive or slide in previous baseball games like Baseball Stars or the original World Series Baseball. However, the effectiveness of modern games using the right analog stick instead is simply a wash in my mind.
One of my pet peeves with MLB 2006 is the control scheme for stealing bases. There are two methods of stealing a base: manual and automatic. The manual is pretty flexible in that you can have a runner take off for second at any point in the pitcher's windup. While this adds a new dynamic to the game, it's just a little bit too much on your plate when you're trying to hit and run. Automatic baserunning is a different beast. This leaves it up the decision to take off up to the computer. The biggest problem here is that the computer might not take off on a given pitch; it might wait for a favorable count or situation. I wasn't too thrilled with this; it took a lot of control out of your hands, and the runner didn't always identify the correct situations to run. For instance, the runner might take off on a two-strike count with less than two outs with a strikeout pitcher on the mount.
The biggest problem with MLB 2006 is that there is a lack of visual meters and indicators. For instance, there is no power meter for fielding so you do not know how hard (or accurate) your throw is. Also, if you do no use the pitching meter, it's hard to determine the timing of your pitch. Finally, if you are in a mode that requires you to aim your swing, you have no idea what zones are covered by your swing. Also, it’s unclear as to how far out of the strike zone you can swing and still make contact when you’re using a cursor or zone hitting format.
I found the graphics in MLB 2006 to be superb. Player models are very detailed and diverse. In a sport where you rarely see the top of a player's head, facial and body features become more important. MLB 2006 takes these features to a whole new level. Not only do player's faces look incredibly accurate, but when importing your own image into the game, you too can look just as authentic. If you don't have an Eyetoy, the sheer amount of facial variations almost guarantees that you can find a representation that's pretty close to being real.
Another aspect of the graphics that really excels is the animations. Last year's version was plagued by repetitive animations, however MLB 2006 features a multitude of different fielding, hit, and miscellaneous animations. In addition to their diversity is the accuracy of the animations especially in the field. Turning a double play looks almost as slick as it does in real life. Swing animations change based on your swing location combined with the pitch location. If you get jammed or inside out a swing, the game represents it well.
The biggest graphical downside is the stadium graphics. The crowd is made up of relatively static sprites that don't really interact much. The stadiums themselves do not look very impressive as they do in other baseball games. Instead they take on a very drab look. The presentation helps to showcase the stadiums a little better, however they still come off as unimpressive. Minor league stadiums aren't very plentiful as in this year's MVP Baseball, and they seem extremely gimmicky and way too over the top in terms of decorations, props, and their overall theme.
The sound for MLB 2006 is sub par, but significantly better than last year. Announcers Dave Campbell and Matt Vascersian sound pretty dry, but their script is surprisingly innovative and not as annoyingly recycled as the duo in MVP Baseball or John Madden. The announcing style is still that of a radio broadcast, where they'll describe the game as if you can't see it. However, they also will offer more insight and analysis than most sports games. Many of their lines flow seamlessly and are pretty accurate, which is a huge step in the right direction. Their biggest flaw besides sounding dry and boring is that in the end it still sounds like a video game, which is a common flaw for most sports game commentary anyway.
While the announcers do their job adequately, the same can't be said for the sound effects, or the stadium atmosphere. The commentary for this game is going to get repetitive enough that you'll just want to turn it off, but what you're left with is nothing. You'll hear cheering, the crack of the bat, the umpire, but that's pretty much it. The crowd isn't very dynamic, even for this year's crop of baseball games, and aurally it just doesn't sound like you're at the park.
The only saving grace in my opinion is the sound track. While I typically do not give a whole lot of credit for sports game that cram worn out music tracks, I have to admit the MLB 2006 sound track is pretty diverse in terms of music styles, which is good for representing a player's at-bat music. The music track includes songs from Papa Roach and Saliva among others. It doesn't change the pitiful sound of this game much, but it doesn't hurt either.
The replay value for MLB 2006 is either very high or very low depending on what your interest is. Offline there are many quality options like the Career and Franchise modes that you can spend a lot of time in. However, despite how well-tuned the gameplay is, you cannot customize many gameplay variables to alter your experience. The ability to further customize the game really would have added significantly to the replay value as it did for EA's and Kush's baseball games. It really puts a damper on MLB 2006's gameplay, which otherwise is pretty decent. If you prefer to take the action online, you'll be even more disappointed. Players looking for a robust online experience will put down this game very quickly in frustration or boredom. There are some gamers out there who will really enjoy what 989 has brought to the table this year. However, for others the $40 price tag might not correspond to the amount of enjoyment they'll have as compared with MVP Baseball 2005 or Major League Baseball 2K5. So depending on your dedication and preferences, the amount of time you could spend in MLB 2006 could range from a few hours to over a hundred hours. My recommendation is to either rent before buying or just wait until the price goes down.
It is certainly encouraging to see the MLB series take huge strides the past couple years. I wouldn't be surprised if next year 989 created a game that could be the envy of all the other baseball games in the North American market. However, there are still some significant problems with MLB 2006 to make you wonder if the MLB series will ever excel above and beyond its peers.
