Visually the game is without a doubt very pretty. Finally, the developers have had time with the PS3 hardware to create a game unique to the system and not just a port over from the PS2 with HD capabilities. The textures are dramatically increased with new cloth textures for the jerseys, new bump mapping for everything from stadium design to the indents and pine tar on the helmets. The players themselves not only look impressive on the field due to fantastically fluid animations such as leaping over balls in the infield, falling after a miss judged fly ball, or wincing and arguing after a bad called third strike, but a great portion of the player's faces are dead on accurate. Some developers will just focus on the superstars and leave the scrubs facial pallets alone, but not SCEA as they have recreated a good 90% of the player's faces to look spot on. With a sport like football, it's not as important as the players are generally hidden by facemasks, but in baseball the player's face is in plain sight, so you want them to look as close to the part as possible for the fans. It's not just the players who have seen a big upgrade, but the stadiums have as well. While I would have liked to see more homerun celebrated themes like the smoke stacks going off at GABP in Cinci or fireworks, the stadiums otherwise look fantastic and are recreated in physical polygons. What this means to you is that balls won't magically disappear through the wall or scoreboards anymore. Even the crowd gets into the action as they will gather up trying to get to that foul ball hit behind the third baseline or put up Ks in the outfield to root on their pitcher who is firing bee-bees. Another big visual bounce is the bullpens are actually in motion when you have a guy warming up. This attention to detail is just one of the examples of the love SCEA has put into their franchise. There are plenty more, believe me as I can write an entire article on the visual presentation alone.

Audio once again brings the heat as you can expect to hear radio broadcast quality from the 3 man team of Matt Vasgersian, Rex Hudler, and Dave Campbell. The commentary not only keeps you up to date in the progress of the day's game, but you'll even hear things that matter throughout the season, like a player's series average or a rookies first MLB home run. The Show 08 even sports a new feature called My MLB Music, which allows you to upload MP3's from your XMB and listen to your music during the menus. Maybe next year you'll be able to use this feature for batter and pitcher walk up music or HR celebrations. The game's ambiance and sound effects are also top not and brought to you in THX sound. From the splintering of a broken bat, to the roaring of a crowd on an 0-2 count in the bottom of the ninth, you can almost smell the beer on the guy's breath next to you it sounds so real.

Of course none of this means didly squat if the game plays like junk. Thankfully MLB 08: The Show delivers once again with a baseball game that is much like the game of baseball, simplistic enough in procedure to pick up and play, but with enough depth and complexity that it will take years to master and perfect. Let's face it, getting baseball games right is a challenge as there are so many possibilities that the little white ball can create that making the game accurate is one thing, but getting it right is another. The Show gets it right. The batter pitcher interface, while not dramatically changed over the last few years, adds enough tweaks to wonder why a certain idea like a batter pitcher analysis wasn't introduced till this year. Now you can see what the meat on the mound through to you back in the first inning if he set you down on strikes, or what is most thrown pitch is to better guess what he may throw on a 3-2 count. Even better is if you are pitching you can find a batters hot and cold spots, or maybe that he swung at a nasty breaking curve in the dirt. Seriously you can get that deep this year.

The interface itself remains the same with the swing meter for pitches, which has the meter moving slow for better pitchers, or fast if they get rattled, thus leading to a chance to toss one in the dirt or leaving it hanging for someone to take it yard. Batting also keeps the same feel with zone hitting. To me, this is the only way to do it. You can have all the gimmicky swing stick ideas you want, but when you throw this baby on All Star, you have to contend with nine zones to aim and swing at. Your timing and accuracy in these zones not only project where you will park the ball, but if you guess incorrectly can lead to a swinging bunt if you are not careful. To be fair, baseball isn't the flashiest game on the planet, so why should the mechanics of pitching and hitting be gimmick filled, when the true life of the game comes after the ball is in play.

I do have to admit that sometimes the animations for the fielding may start too soon, which may lead to a bit of hesitation and can cost you a crucial extra base, but for the most part everything works as you want it to. What's more, like in real life, the ball is alive so expect it to squirt away from a catcher, bobble off the glove of your second baseman, or take a weird hop off the mound into center field. If you care about realism, accurate box scores, and the possibility of a 2 hit shut out or even a 13 run shellacking, the game of baseball is totally random and unpredictable, and thankfully you can expect the same efforts from MLB 08: The Show.

There are oodles of modes and options to choose from this year that you'd could play this game for years. The quick modes like exhibition, rivalry, manager mode, and online are here, including 30 team leagues online, leaderboards, live roster updates weekly, and even an options to upload sliders from someone who believes their sliders deliver the best challenge. The meat of the game however, comes in the bigger modes such as Road to the Show, Season, or Franchise.

Road to the Show 2.0 as they call it is a bigger and better version of the one man career mode that is totally addicting and challenging too boot. You create a player from either a fielder or pitcher and you play as that player and no one else. You begin with a certain amount of points to build your attributes with and then you are tossed into a spring training tryout. In this mode you only play the plays that involve you, whether it's in the field or at bats, the rest of the game are simulated. The challenge lies when you are trying to earn points to improve your player's ability. It's not good enough to have a good batting average or era, but how you react in certain situations. If you are batting and the third base couch calls for a hit and run, you better make contact or you fail this objective. If you are pitching with a man on first and the manager wants you to enforce a ground ball, you better do it or you fail that objective. Stringing these successful objectives together lead to point totals you can use to train your player. If you do well enough in spring training you are signed to a contract. You may start off in the majors if you do well, or you may have to take your lumps in AA to find your stride. In the end you want to end your career in the show and make it to the hall of fame.

Franchise is back and is literally unchanged, but this is a good thing as you will find no shortage of things to do here. In Franchise mode, you take over the team, play every at bat, pitch every pitch, and take care of financial situations such as ticket prices, promotions, and TV contracts. You are the GM and you better deliver the goods or the owners will let you hear it. Granted if there are some aspects of this mode you would like the CPU to handle, you can toggle these options as well. One big change in this mode is a player's ability or inability to break out of slumps. Now you can see how well a player is doing by a color coded arrow indicator telling you if a player is hot, ok, or cold. It is up to you to keep the player hot and his momentum up, or get them out of a slump which like in real life can be hard to do. The franchise is the most in depth mode of the game and will eat up most of your free time. Thankfully for those of you like me with a busy schedule, you can finally save in the middle of a game and come back to it at a later date or time.

While I wish there was a home run derby and single A rosters, there is little I feel is missing from the game. There is a ton of single player modes and online play for those who feel they own the CPU.

What more can I say that hasn't been said already. MLB 08: The Show raises the bar once again and delivers the most complete baseball experience money can buy. What's more it can make dreams come true as you can live a fantasy of having the Royals win the World Series, if you are so determined. There is only one baseball game to own this year and it is on the Sony consoles, so if you own a 360, it may be time to go out and purchase a PlayStation 3 if only to play the best baseball has to offer. Not only is the Show worth 60 dollars, but without a PS3, it may be worth $460... but that's just me. I for one can't settle for mediocrity, I have to have the best when it comes to baseball, and MLB 08: The Show is simply the best.