The Show has been the definitive baseball series the past few years. For 2010, Sony left a large majority of the game unchanged, but made a few tweaks in the realism realm. However, the amount of glitches I experienced threw a curve ball in the dirt to what could have been a deep bomb. While it’s still a good game, there were quite a few times that I yelled at my PS3.

The core gameplay remains largely uncharged for MLB 10 The Show. Pitching, hitting and fielding mechanics are all exactly the same, which is to say they’re done very well. I’d like to see some changes in the pitching and hitting possibly using the right stick going forward, but the button presses still work nicely. You’ll see some out of play additions like fans diving for balls and the new Real Time presentation, which are nice touches. On the field, the only real change is slightly tweaked ball physics to go along with the new catcher mode in Road to the Show. If you’ve always wanted to be a catcher and call the game, this is your chance. If not, there’s little new here to make you jump out of your seat. Home Run Derby and the All Star Game finally make an appearance, so if you want to slug a few out in Anaheim, have at it.

While the core gameplay mechanics are solid, I experienced quite a few glitches that really bothered me in MLB 10 The Show. For starters, the game keeps putting Derek Jeter in CF and Curtis Granderson at SS for me. That makes zero sense. When I would fast forward in a game, players would change positions or come out of the game entirely for no reason. I saw four bad hops in the infield in a single game when playing as the Mets at Citi Field, which is not very realistic (especially with the game ranking the Mets #1 in defense). Lastly, on multiple occasions I saw outfielders struggle to get the ball to 2nd base on even two hops (guys like Jayson Werth and Jeff Francoeur has lasers for arms, but couldn’t get the ball back to the infield). All of this can be fixed with a patch, but it should have been right from the start.

While there are glitches, you can’t deny that this is the most realistic game of baseball you can play outside of getting drafted yourself. Hopefully Sony can innovate a bit more next year (especially getting new announcers) and fix the issues I experienced, but for 2010, The Show is your winner in terms of what game to buy.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]