Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: 2K Sports
Genre: Sports Sim
Release date: Available now

With the start of a new baseball season comes a lot of great things. High hopes for your favorite team to do well, or sometimes friendly trash talking between you and others whose favorite team is a rival of yours. It also brings us a new sports game for the season. First I want you to sit back and recall your best video-game memories. Somewhere near the top of the list is likely a moment featuring a friend and a sports game. The reason: sports games offer the opportunity to face off with friends in a one-on-one battle; it’s like a fist fight without throwing fists. Let us take a look 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball 2K10 to see if it can make the final out to get the win.

MLB2K10’s main mode of control is using the right analog stick for pitching and batting. Selecting a pitch is basically a two-step process. A display pops up with a pattern you must follow. How well you copy it determines how good the pitch is going to be. More difficult pitches such as the curve, slider and many others have harder patterns to copy than a fastball, but having a pitcher with good stats makes this much easier. Batting is similar because it uses the right analog stick for the most part. The game comes with a variety of swings, such as defensive, power or contact to help you get that big hit to win the game for your team.

Fielding is set up much like any other baseball games in the past. Each base has a button assigned to it. When you throw to a base, you have to hold and release in the target zone to complete the throw. The controls also allow you to do anything you want, from base stealing to picking off a runner. MLB2K10 also offers the “My Player” mode. In this mode you can create a player with many customizable features, then work him from the minors to the big leagues and hopefully into the Hall of Fame. In “My Player” mode, you are only able to control your player, while the computer takes care of everything else. If you are connected to the Internet, multiplayer mode becomes available, as does the “MLB Today” feature. This syncs up to the real MLB games that are being played that day, with the option to play them, see MLB stats, and read the news.

Truly impressive visuals make MLB2K10 a fun game to play. The presentation looks great, and the feel of a real baseball game makes for an overall enjoyable experience. I didn’t win many games online, but I found out quickly how exciting multiplayer is. In addition, “My Player” mode is a blast to play. When my player was called up from the minors to the majors, it felt like I was the one getting the call. MLB2K10 also includes a contest offering $1 million to the first player to pitch a perfect game, something only 19 pitchers have ever done in real life. A winner was recently announced, but click here for a look at one of my attempts.

MLB2K10 uses newer controls to help make this baseball game more and more realistic—for everything except batting. I could never hit the ball on a consistent basis. I had a hard time determining if the ball was going to be in the strike zone or not, which took some entertainment value away. I enjoyed the “My Player” mode, but the base assignment for the buttons is different than in any other game mode. In online multiplayer I found myself throwing to third base rather than first, giving my opponent an easy base hit.

MLB2K10 is a fun and exciting baseball game. The “My Player” mode is very entertaining and makes you get attached to your character. If you are new to baseball games, you might want to try the demo first to get a feel of it before putting money down. I recommend MLB2K10 for those who have played sports games and can’t get enough of them.

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