We're just a couple of weeks into the baseball season, and most fans are still enjoying that flush of springtime optimism, hoping their team will make it to the playoffs. Unless you live in my town, Washington, where the Nationals are already looking worse than the 2008 squad that stumbled to 102 losses.
I've already abandoned the real-life team, opting to play out the 2009 season in virtual reality. First step: Dragging Albert Pujols, Dustin Pedroia and Tim Lincecum away from their contending teams and plugging them into the Nats lineup. Cheating? Perhaps, but isn't this what the Steinbrenners have been doing all these years?
Besides, creating a new National League East powerhouse is a lot more fun than watching the Nationals infielders kick around grounders. And once your team fades from contention (hello, Pittsburgh), you can join me on the virtual diamond.
_"MLB 09: The Show" (Sony, for the PlayStation 3, $59.99; PlayStation Portable, $39.99; PlayStation 2, $29.99): Pedroia, last year's American League MVP, gets called "scrappy" a lot, meaning he's the kind of player who's always hustling. He's an appropriate cover boy for Sony's baseball franchise, which has scrambled for respect but emerged last year as the best in the game.
Sony hasn't made any substantial changes with this year's model, opting mainly to tweak last year's successful production. Graphically, "The Show" keeps edging closer to broadcast quality, with realistic lighting, accurate player models and even dancing mascots. And gameplay is just a bit more lifelike; computer-controlled fielders, for example, aren't quite as perfect as they once were.
Away from the pennant race, the main addition is a training mode that lets you work on your batting and base-running skills. The drills are part of "Road to the Show," in which you build a player from scratch and work your way up from single-A to the majors. It remains the most addictive career mode of any sports game _ in many ways, more satisfying than the team game. Three-and-a-half stars out of four.
_"Major League Baseball 2K9" (2K Sports, for the Xbox 360, $59.99; Nintendo Wii, $49.99; PlayStation Portable, $29.99; PlayStation 2, $19.99): Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum is on the cover of "2K9," but the game itself is a balk. It feels incomplete, probably because a different studio has taken over development of the franchise since the poorly received "2K8."
The most noticeable issue is its flaky artificial intelligence; computer-controlled fielders show laughably bad judgment. Hitting homers is much too easy, with games usually devolving into double-digit slugfests. It's fun for casual play, but real baseball fans will get bored.
Graphics and audio feel unfinished as well. Most of the players look like partially melted dolls, and the soundtrack is just awful. Could we please have a moratorium on the Romantics' "What I Like About You"? One star.
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