Major League Baseball 2K10

Story

As with most sports game there isn’t a storyline, however this game offers two versions of ‘Home Run Derby’ (Home Run Derby Career and the standard one-off event) and ‘GM Career’. In the end Home Run Derby of any kind is boring, whether you're selecting a group of three players to switch between or playing as one. Thankfully GM Career works out a bit better and it also comes in two versions (The Farm where you play in the minor leagues and Manager Showdown where all the matches are simulated). You play the role of a new general manager who has his pick of which team to oversee. Pick your team and then complete different goals set by your manager. If you complete goals, you'll be given more money to play around with over the course of a 162 game season.

Graphics (4/10)

Even considering that it is on a handheld device, the animations don’t work all that well and player details aren’t very distinctive on the low-resolution models. It should also be noted that it makes an honest attempt at delivering the finer points of the sport, but the lack of technical proficiency on the hardware side holds it back. This causes players to slide along the field during animations rather than being able to have each foot stick to the turf properly. Even small elements like having a smooth swing animation are too much for the PSP to deliver.

Game play (4/10)

In this case it is the lack of speed provided by the UMD hardware that lets it down as there is a lag between pressing ‘X’ to skip the cut scene. This can be very annoying and it put me off playing the game. It was also a bad idea to default the ‘X’ button to the dive function. What that translates to is a centre fielder who, instead of loading a throw home, dives face first into the ground, missing the fly ball.



Image from ign.com

Sound (2/10)

The commentary sounds fine, but the comments are incredibly delayed thanks to the lack of UMD speed and there is a serious lack of atmosphere as the crowd needs to sound more alive.

Replay Value (2/10)

There is a wide range of game modes available however the main attraction of a game has to be it’s game play and this game is seriously lacking in that department. It is something I will not want to play for the foreseeable future!

Overall Comment

There’s promise and some fun to be had when you can overcome the various frustrations that the system and the controls present. A more arcade-style of baseball would fit better. If you are a fan of baseball in real life or even the virtual world, this is one thing you would want to AVOID - if you have an alternative to a handheld console!