This is the first year in videogame baseball history where two titles are delivering competing career modes. With MLB 2K10 making its first run at 2K Sports' My Player mode, Sony's MLB 10 needs to up the ante with its Road to the Show (RTTS) career offering. I recently flew down to San Diego and sat in a conference room at Sony for an entire afternoon, playing nothing but Road to the Show (and one exhibition game against a developer who handed me a loss). I quickly realized I wasn't just goofing around with a rehashed version of last year's career mode. No, instead I took advantage of the all-new catcher position which is something that MLB 2K10 can only dream about until next year.
The creation mechanic is just about the same as you remember from '09. You design every detail about your player, from his throwing delivery to his batting stance to what the commentator will call him in different situations. Heck, this year's creation goes as far as to allow you to set start and end times for audio tracks that will play as your player walks up to the plate or cranks one out of the park. As if that wasn't extensive enough, you can even set fan cheers, jeers and chants for different instances throughout the course of a game. I'm not exactly sure how they could expand on this list of options for next year's game, but they'll find a way.
During the process of creating your fledgling star you also have the ability to select how much of each game you'll take part in. You can view every fielding play, every batting play, the entire game or something called "Result Play" which shows you the end result of every play. What does that mean exactly? Well, instead of seeing every pitch leading up to a hit, you'll only see the hit itself. If it's a 3-2 count and your guy gets K'd at the plate, you'll only see the final pitch that sends him back to the bench. Not the preceding five pitches. There's also the option for "Classic" viewing which only shows plays with which you were directly involved. Thankfully any of these options can be changed at any time in-game or in your Road to the Show menu.
After you've proceeded past what can be a very lengthy creation process, it's time to actually take the field. For me, that meant catching my very first game. Or so I thought. As it turns out, the career mode in The Show begins much like the My Player mode in MLB 2K10. At least it did for me. My player was tossed into a bottom-of-the-ninth situation with two outs, a tie game and a man on third base waiting for a chance at scoring a run. All I had to do to make that happen was get a hit. Simple enough, right? Well, I struck out wonderfully and received no stat bonus and completed no goals. Boohoo.
This brings me to my first major difference when comparing this year's two baseball career modes. MLB 10 is a very organic play experience. There are no in-game prompts that signify your current goal and there are no pop-ups letting you know that you've just completed a task or earned points. Instead, if a man is at third and you're up at the plate, your active goal will naturally switch to calling for you to drive in a run. You can always access your goals by pressing the d-pad which will show you both active and long-term goals, but the game doesn't beat you over the head with tasks and requirements. It's much more of a "go out and play ball" affair than its competition.
As with most career modes, you won't start off in the majors. Instead your player begins in double-A and you must work your way up through the ranks in order to make it to the MLB. From my experience there's a huge drop off, as there should be, when moving from the majors to double-A. My shortstops booted easy grounders, outfielders missed fly balls that they should've caught and other frustrating tomfoolery that was perfectly in line with what you'd expect from guys who just couldn't cut it in the big time.
Thankfully my player was entirely under my control when behind or at the plate. The new catcher dynamic is interesting and gives you nearly total control of the incoming pitch, less the power used to throw it. It's extremely gratifying to strike out a guy on pitches that you call. Why? I really have no idea, but it is. You assign pitch locations not to a specific spot, but instead to nine segments of the strike zone or eight outside zones if you want to get the hitter to chase a pitch. My only real complaint about calling pitches is that there isn't quite enough feedback to let you know if you're calling a good game. You'll get bonus skill points for calling a "quality start" but there are no indications from your pitcher if you're doing so. I'd like to be called to the mound if he doesn't like the pitches I'm calling or be shaken off repeatedly. Instead there's nothing.
Thankfully there are other restraints built into Road to the Show to ensure that you play good baseball. If you aren't playing your position – which isn't really a worry if you're a catcher, but it's more pertinent for other positions – your teammate grade will suffer. Same goes for running the bases. If you steal without a green light from your manager (a new system for this year's game), then you'll get benched. Speaking of being on the bench, you'll have a first-person view for what's going on during the game if you select to watch everything. It's a viewpoint that expectedly changes when you make your way to the on-deck circle. There are so many of these little touches in MLB 10 that it's tough to list them all, but the finite details of this game impressed me in the few hours I spent with it.
The impressive level of detail isn't confined to the field of play. Instead you'll get the same treatment when trying to progress your player and even as you scroll through different menu options. The interactive training modes (aside from being able to assign points to different attributes) allow you to take to the field and complete different goals to progress different aspects of your player. If you foul off a pitch during the batting drill, you'll get a plus for your vision. If you take a ball properly, you'll get a positive point towards your discipline. It's the fact that you get these points organically without moving through throngs of menus that makes the training special in MLB 10.
There are also two new training games for you to enjoy in the form of baserunning and fielding mini-games. While I didn't have time to try these out for myself, fielding was explained to me to be an exercise in taking the proper position when playing grounders and fly balls. It all sounded very authentic to what I'd imagine pro shortstops and third basemen go through. If you take an improper run at a ball – meaning that the angle you take isn't optimal for getting to the ball quickly – the game will correct you and show you the proper path. The hitting training I went through was tough with my unpolished rookie, but I'm sure it'll get better as time goes on. He spent most of his time whiffing at the ball as I struggled to get the timing down for different pitches.
Little details like the authentic feel of the different training modes are really what makes MLB 10: The Show's Road to the Show mode so special. They've added in things like the Futures game and Home Run Derby to the All-Star break with all the appropriate fanfare that comes along with it. They've also included the ability to be traded without your consent in RTTS, something that MLB 2K10 is sorely missing in the authenticity department. The Show even gives you what's called a Transaction Handbook that explains every one of the wonky MLB transactions that you could be presented with in the game.
My Road to the Show player never made it close to the majors, but that doesn't mean I didn't have fun building up his stats and putting him through the paces as a catcher. While it is extremely rewarding to strike a guy out from behind the plate, I do wish that there was a bit more feedback to let you know if you're helping or hurting your pitcher with your decisions, but what's currently included in RTTS's newest position isn't bad.
For our full review of MLB 10: The Show, stay tuned to IGN as its March 2 release date is right around the corner.
