Once I turned on the game on the first thing that hit me was the graphics are a bit pitiful on the loading screens and the game itself is pretty basic looking, although it is very cartoonish so this isn’t as terrible as in like a Madden or something. The characters all look like shrunken bobble heads, but have little differences in animations, pitching style, batting style, etc.

Beneath MLB Power Pros very cute exterior lays a fairly deep game. I was very surprised to find after loading the game up that the initial screen has a ton of options, form season to homerun contest, to exhibition, to even a mode called “success” where you start your little character form school and try to get o the Bigs. You can arrange teams to make your own custom teams and play a user created league or season. The variety of options actually almost becomes overwhelming, which I wasn’t expecting.
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One of my main complaints with the Wii as a whole, aside from lack of titles and fear of the controls being just a 15 minute fad, is that the Mii’s which everyone spends a lot of time creating aren’t utilized as much as they should be. Looks like Nintendo heard our cries and is starting to incorporate them into future titles.

We already knew that Mii’s would show up as playable charcters in the new 2k sports title MLB Power Pros, but now after reading a buddies site from across the pond, we see that perhaps we could see some Mii action in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Good for the Mii’s, I can’t wait to whoop some Sonic ass using my Hulk Hogan Mii!

[Via Wii Wii]

Most people that have managed to find a Wii are in love with Wii Sports. particularly with the bowling and the baseball. We have already seen some other iterations of the bowling games, but now Wii Baseball gets some competition with MLB Power Pros.

MLB Power Pros is a Japanese title that focses on pick up and play baseball using super cute little characters. Of most interest to me in this title is the ability to put your Mii’s into baseball games; I want to make a cartoon version of myself to play firstbase for the New York Yankees. Stay tuned for a full review of this title coming soon for the Wii. MLB Power Pros is also available for the PS2 if you don’t have a Wii yet.

The BIGS is an over the top good time on a baseball field. Once you start playing The BIGS you will se a lot of similarities with 2k sports other franchise baseball game MLB 2k7, but don’t get disappointed and think it is the same game as the visual similarities quickly fade away and you see that this game stands alone in many ways. Definitely fast paced and geared for quick pick up games. (standard games are set to 5 innings in The BIGS)

Presentation and Graphics: Visually this game is impressive and looks really crisp in HD, same style as MLB 2k7, but it does tend to steer a bit more to the cartoonish side at least in the character models. The characters themselves all look pretty buff, but what I do like are all the unique batting stances and the options that are available in the create a rookie section. You can customize your player very nicely with add-ons like what bat they use, shades, height, size, glove, nickname, etc. I also like the animations when you hit homeruns off the scoreboards and sparks go flying all over just like in The Natural. 4 of 5

Sound and Music: This game has a solid soundtrack, and really goes big with the songs that are available. The songs are so good that at times I will leave the game running and just listen to the soundtrack while I look stuff up on my computer. 4 of 5

Gameplay: The gameplay was surprisingly intuitive to grasp, but very difficult to master. I had to put the game to Easy in order to not get whooped by the computer in the early onset, if not the computer would jump all over me and score a ton of runs. The gameplay strays away from MLB 2k7 and really tries to go for a more arcade feeling, which works nicely. The pitches are based off of timing a pitch meter and the hitting is broken into a power and a contact swing, so sluggers like Giambi go exclusively for the long ball while Ichiro is a doubles hitting machine.

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These aren’t free, so get ready to pony up some MS Points for 6 classic stadiums for MLB 2K7. Currently these are available for the Xbox 360, and I’d image the PS3 versions will show up later this week during the regular Thursday update of the PlayStation Store.

For 800 MS Points ($10 US), you get six classic stadiums: Sportsman’s Park (St. Louis Cardinals and Browns), Forbes Field (Pittsburgh Pirates), Griffith Stadium (Washington Senators), Shibe Park (Philadelphia A’s and Philles), Polo Grounds (New York Giants and Mets), and Crosley Field (Cincinnati Reds).

Personally, I don’t see the point in paying for new stadiums in sports games. It doesn’t really add much to the gameplay (unless you get something like the classic Yankee Stadium where the outfield wall is about 500ft away from home plate). But hey, there’s a lot of people that disagree with me and will gladly spend the money for these stadiums.

You have the option to get all 6 stadiums for 800 MS Points, or you can pick them up in packs of 2 for 300 MS Points Each (note the 100 MS Point discount for buying them all together).

Let me preface this by saying I’ve never really been a big fan of first party sports titles. There’s always been less features, worse graphics, and not so friendly gameplay. MLB 07: The Show for PS3 changed my feelings completely. From the crisp graphics of players and stadiums, to the fluid gameplay mechanics, this could be the best baseball video game I’ve ever played. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of MLB 07: The Show for the PS3:

Presentation and Graphics: This game puts MLB 2K7 to shame. 2K Sports claimed they have “Signature Style” for most of the players, and the did a decent job. But Sony one up’d them. Player faces are spot on, their batting stances, swings, pitching and throwing styles are also on the money. The stadiums are very richly detailed and extremely crisp. Scoreboards keep score and are dynamically changing, just as in real life (where MLB 2K7 just showed some big orange numbers there in most stadiums). The one place where the game needs some help is collision detection. There’s a few times where you will run through another player, or the ball will go through the stadium instead of landing in the upper decks. There was one small thing that annoyed me with the graphics. In the stands, there are roughly 5-6 fan models that look and act exactly the same. When looking at the crowd, you see hundreds of white shirt women sit down at the same time, followed by hundreds of red shirt men, etc. It’s a small thing, but in this generation, it’s something that should look good as well. 4 of 5

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I’ll make this brief: this is the best baseball game I’ve ever played. Period.

Seriously, from graphics to gameplay mechanics, this game makes MLB 2K7 look like it was made by a kid in his parents’ basement.

Expect a full review in the next couple days…

2K Sports announced today that The BIGS soundtrack was going BIG or going HOME! They got every heavy guitar riffing band they could scrounge together and threw them on their soundtrack, to compliment their hard hitting new title.

Here are the Tracks:
· Stone Temple Pilots – Plush
· Screaming Trees – Nearly Lost You
· Jane’s Addiction – Ocean Size
· Killing Joke – Millennium
· Rollins Band – Tearing
· White Zombie – More Human than Human
· Midnight Oil – Dreamworld
· Fu Manchu – Hung out to Dry
· Motorhead – Ace of Spades
· The Stooges – Down On The Street
· Primus – Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
· Blue October – Somebody
· Satellite Party – Insanity Rains
· Highbench – Satisfied

The BIGS is coming this summer with crazy game play in the vain of MLB Slugfest, with some sweet online play as well, for all systems, so stay tuned for some Blitz style baseball folks. Hold on to your peanuts, cuz the BIGS are taking you downtown, PLAY BALL!

Ok let me start off by saying that this update was way overhyped for what it brought to the table. It has some nice features, mainly the downloading functionality has improved, which is real nice. You can now download demos and things while playing games, I was playing MLB 2k7 and downloading the Forza Demo. There is also a new blade for the market place, which should shave a few seconds from finding it the old way.

The other main feature that everyone was waiting for was the messaging feature and let me say that I am thoroughly underwhelmed. I see no point in this feature other than leaving messages for people while they are playing games, but you could already do that. I tried the messenger funciton out last night and it is a bit of a pain to set up, and typing with the soft keyboard stinks! I guess this is negligible if you have a USB keyboard, but I think people will much prefer to use the new Microsoft TID device (mini blackberry on your controller).

What I really want to see for the next update would be group voice chats. That would be a real nice feature to have since sometimes you want to talk to some buddies in a group instead of flipping back and forth from private chats. Come on MS hook a brother up!

Today Sony released a few new trailers for MLB 07: The Show for PS3 showing the new pitching interface, umpire personalities, and the Road to the Show. This looks much deeper than MLB 2K7. Can’t wait to play this one next week.

Here’s a video that shows the new pitching system in MLB 07: The Show for the PS3.

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