Ben-DutkaWe awarded MLB 08: The Show the Best Sports Game of 2008, and while it was a difficult decision (the competition was stiff), it's still a prestigious honor in our eyes. What's more, we believe this year's entry could very easily snag the award yet again.
More and more information continues to come to light, and the latest revolves around the impending game's visual capability. The DigitalFoundry blog has many compare-and-contrast screens up, featuring the differences between MLB 09 and its predecessor. Now, while last year's effort was indeed impressive, this year's will push the boundaries once more: not only will we have native 1080p support, but the game will actually run at a silky smooth 60 frames per second while viewing that resolution. In comparison, MLB 08 only ran at 30fps in 1080p. The article mentions other drawbacks in last year's installment, too, including depth of field, which is "retained and improved in both 720p and 1080p modes on the new game." You can also see a marked improvement in the crowd rendering, with a significant dose of added detail and clarity. The crowd already was pretty damn amazing in MLB 08 , but the developers aren't sitting back and churning out another rehash. Oh no, they're steadily working to deliver the single best baseball simulator in history and at this rate…well, it looks like it's gonna happen.
We're excited about this, because it seems to have been a loooong time since we've had a baseball sim that's worthy of such praise and general attention. It's unfortunate that it will always be in the shadow of Madden , but the informed readers should be well aware by now: The Show is an absolute must for sports fans.
Related Game(s): MLB 09: The Show
