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|  | | Release: | UK 05-03-2013 | | NORDIC 05-03-2013 | | US 05-03-2013 |
| Platform: | PS3 | Online: | TBA | | Genre: | Sport | Age: | RP | | Publisher: | .TBA | Storage: |  | | Updated: | 13-01-2022 | EAN: |  | | Language: | | | |
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 | | Fans of other teams might wince, but Sony’s long-running MLB: The Show baseball sim is almost New York Yankee-like in its ability to deliver a playoff-caliber product every year. For the Yankees, neither age nor injuries nor bad free-agent signings seem to slow them down, while The Show seems immune to both its competition and the ever-increasing age of the console it runs on. Can MLB 13: The Show keep its Yankee-esque streak of success going in 2013? Well…does a Cubs fan cry in October?
With The Show, two things immediately leapt out at me: the visuals and the gameplay. The former are again capable of fooling passersby into thinking it’s a real baseball telecast from afar. Player faces, animations, and stadium details are just that good, and interface details are convincingly TV-like. I enjoyed bolstering this illusion using the “Broadcast” camera mode, which closely replicates the perspectives you see when watching a real ballgame on TV, but there are also plenty of more traditional video game views, such as one that lets you pitch from the catcher’s perspective.
Regardless of camera angle, I was impressed at the way every player’s batting stance, pitching motion, and signature gesture - no matter how small - is accounted for and replicated. It’s an amazingly nuanced display of realism that captures a sport built on a mountain of unwritten rules and potential scenarios. Except one, I noticed: The Show's baserunners will not automatically run on the pitch in a 3-2 count with 2 outs in the inning.
And it wasn't until I looked a bit closer that significant imperfections started to show. Stadium crowds, for example, look almost 8-bit in some ballparks, which is incredibly jarring compared to the convincing player models. Second, the returning three-man commentary crew doesn’t sound particularly connected to what’s happening on your virtual field. They just sit back reciting obviously canned lines that convey the same level of natural emotional reaction to your on-field antics as Siri reading last night's box scores. And I saw a number of instances of player clipping, where a baserunner would momentarily merge with a fielder - a clear violation of both MLB regulations and molecular physics.
Occasionally, that problem extends beyond illusion-shattering and into gameplay-breaking, such as the time I witnessed Diamondbacks centerfielder Adam Eaton go through the outfield wall like the ghost of the Kool-Aid Man in an effort to run down a deep fly ball that ended up (correctly) bouncing off the fence. What should’ve been a double went for an extra base because my outfielder was stuck outside of the gameplay space.
Errors like those, of course, only rarely interfere with the rock-solid gameplay that's earned this series great scores for the past three years. Pitching feels great however you like to control your throws, whether it’s pure analog, simple button press, or the Pulse Pitching added last year. The latter is my method of choice; the timing minigame based on a pitcher’s real-life control and in-game fatigue adds an extra element of skill to throwing. Same goes for hitting: variety is laudable, with a fair mix of broken bats, dribblers, simple groundouts, line drives, popups, and homers that happen whether you pick buttons, zone-based, or (my preference, because it feels the most like a real swing) pure analog. Even fielding is fun, thanks to MVP Baseball 2005-style throwing meters that let you make slow, easy tosses or risk a quick zinger to first if you’re rushed.
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