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Developer: SCEA
Publisher: SCEA
Release Date: March 4, 2008
Systems: PS3 (reviewed), PS2, PSP
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site
0:00 I played
MLB 07 a bit after I
reviewed it for lunch about a year ago, but the last time I
really got into a baseball game was back in the NES days.
0:01 I'm downloading a 36 MB update. I'm reeeeeally getting tired of this, Sony.
0:05 The update is installing. The download wasn't quite as bad this time.
0:06 "2007: Year of the Milestone" flashes across the screen. "In 1989 Sammy Sosa made his major league debut..." He was chasing the "600 club" re: home runs, and he got it in a fetching Rangers uniform. Some nice full-screen game footage here, then an abrupt transition to a legalese loading screen and the title. Gives the game a good sense of history.
0:08 After some longish initial loading, the game asks me to create a profile. An old-timey baseball radio announcer comes on in the background -- nice touch -- then transitions into the song "Low Rider." Not as nice.
0:09 Live game scores scroll across the bottom of the screen. Too bad it's nine in the morning in the East and no one's playing, yet. Let's get this show on the road with, er, Road to the Show mode.
0:10 The default name for my player is "Joe Random." I like this so much that I decide to keep it!
0:11 There are 2,840 "announcer names" that I can choose for Mr. Random. I can just imagine the voice actors saying all of these names over and over until they were just right. It must have been hell, especially when they had to pronounce ones like "Theofanopolous," which is what I end up with.
0:14 My virtual player chews gum as I choose his stats. It's off-putting, to say the least. I try to make him as much like me as possible, to prove I could actually be a starting pitcher in the MLB. Hey, it could still happen!
0:15 I can adjust the forehead wrinkles on my character. This seems a little bit over the top, and yet, I can't stop playing around with it!
0:17 Putting blemishes on my character makes me realize how few pro athletes have pimples.
0:19 The background music switches to a radio clip of Texas putting up 30 runs on my hometown Orioles. Cry. I'm liking the varied music in general, though -- from Maroon 5 to techno/rap, it's all good.
0:20 I could literally spend all day playing with crow's feet and eye bags, but I need to play the game at some point, so I just throw some points onto the pitching stats and start.
0:21 My Orioles are ranked near the bottom on every metric. Not that they deserve to have a higher rank, but still, it hurts.
0:22 There is a mind-boggling array of options, including Sixaxis fielding controls, which sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard. OFF!
0:23 I can even control the umpire consistency! They really have thought of everything, but I don't want to think about all this stuff. Play ball!
0:24 The system simulates my team's schedule until I'm set to start as pitcher. The Orioles rack up two losses before I have a chance to pull them out of their slump.