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Day One: Initial Impressions

I will admit that online play is usually not at the top of my priority list, at least when it comes to baseball games. I would rather spend my time wheeling and dealing within the confines of a franchise mode than battle it out with unknown opponents.

Still, I jumped into a couple Play Now games last evening, looking for something that might encourage me to devote more time to online baseball. Unfortunately, in my limited online time, I have not seen anything that’s going to addict me quite as much as the great offline gameplay -- the new XP system is not going to do it.

It is hard to judge an online game in its first few days of existence -- this is even more true when considering my relative inexperience. However, during the couple of games that I played, I did not have a good time.

In all of the games, my timing was way off while at the plate -- so much so that in one game the opposing pitcher (Sabathia) racked up over 15 strikeouts. I finished that game with only two hits, but I had at least three sharply hit outs.

Still, the majority of my time was spent futilely flailing. I will take some blame, as I became increasingly less patient as the games went on. However, most of the time I felt like the game did not quite represent what was really happening. For instance, my swing feedback usually indicated that I was "very early." Yet, I had the instinctive feeling that I was behind everything. If I told myself to swing earlier, I usually made better (or at least some) contact.

It also seemed that, batting from the default catcher view, pitches disappeared a bit earlier than they should have as they tracked towards the catcher. I’m not sure this has much to do with gameplay, but it looked odd.

Again, I can probably take some of the credit for my poor performances, but it’s telling that my opponents suffered the same fate. In the aforementioned 15 strikeout performance by Sabathia, I actually struck out 13 with Halladay. The game was lost on a solo home run in the second inning. After that early home run, it was pretty much no-hit baseball. In real life this type of game is exciting and tense; however, in the virtual realm, these types of games are frustrating and boring. This is especially true when it is a repeated experience.

I’m not ready to write the online mode off, but the quality of the gameplay, for some reason or another, is not as consistent or stellar as playing offline.

I did not have a chance to check out co-op play yet, but I’m glad it exists. I hope we continue to creep towards a 9-on-9 game similar to what’s available in other sports. An online Road to the Show would be incredible as well.

I also briefly dabbled with the Challenge of the Week. I had hoped this would be something like Madden Moments, but it’s more of an arcade experience, not unlike the hitting drills in the MVP series. While I wasn’t that good, the mode was fun while it lasted. Sadly, after the first time it costs (real) money to continue to play. Of course, if you set the high score, you’ll be rewarded with tangible prizes, which is nice if you are lucky enough to win.

With the inclusion of online leagues, there is a nice complement of online features -- down to the changing rosters and downloadable slider sets. It just seems at this point that this is not the best way to play the game.


Check in on a daily basis this week as I begin taking an even deeper look at the various game modes and offerings in Sony's newest baseball title. These impression articles will culminate with the final review and score early next week.