Major League Baseball 2K6

If there is anything that I have always disliked about baseball games on consoles, it’s that they are very rarely as good as the NFL or NBA games. Sadly, MLB 2K6 follows that trend as it doesn’t quite deliver the enjoyable experience a great baseball game can.

There are some things that MLB 2K6 achieves and I was very impressed with the amount of content this game provides; there are tons of different modes and a great amount of gameplay options in front of you. Everything from managing a team to playing on the field can be done in this game. This overwhelming amount of content successfully increases the game’s longevity.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the quality of the game. The graphics are sub par and the audio is nothing special; coupled with the occasional graphical glitches and bugs, the game ends up looking like it wasn’t finished.

There are definitely some interesting things about MLB 2K6’s gameplay. If you are a baseball fan, with patience, you will eventually get hooked on the game and it will have you coming back occasionally. If you aren’t a baseball fan, there is no way you will like this.

On the field, MLB can get fun once you get into the game and learn the controls. The “Create a Player” feature will have you caring about your player’s stats and how many homeruns he hits or how many strike-outs he throws. For the most part I was pretty happy with how the game did its job on the field, but at the same time it never really provided anything new we haven’t seen before.

Off the field there are a great amount of options that provide a different gameplay experience on its own. You have the obvious trading players and managing your starting line-up, but there are other great features that MLB 2K6 gives you. For example, you are able to manage your budget and even purchase “Insider Edge” scouting reports on the opposing teams. Scouting reports will help you strike-out batters by showing you their weak spots, they will automatically shift your outfield based on the player’s hitting preferences and from the offensive point of view you will see the opposing pitcher’s choice of pitches and the possible locations.

Basically, I think once you get used to the game and learn everything about it, the gameplay will have you coming back. I was more than happy with the off-the-field features and it was more than enough for any baseball fan.

At first I wasn’t too happy with the control scheme of MLB 2K6 and I still think it could use some tweaking, but after learning the controls, I feel they do a pretty good job. This is definitely not a “pick-up and play” type game; reading the manual and learning the controls is a must. Every single little thing you can do in baseball can be done in this game and each one of those actions has its own button or combo assigned to it.

The batting is controlled by the right stick, where timing your swing becomes crucial to hitting the ball successfully. Winding the stick back will time the batters kick; pushing the stick up will have the batter swing the bat. Getting the timing right is a good representation of real-life baseball since balancing your weight is important to getting the most powerful swing.

The pitching is controlled by the 4 face buttons and an optional 5th right bumper button; depending on how many pitches the pitcher possesses. The typical choices include pitches like fastball, curveball, split finger, and breaking ball. The pitching is pretty easy and standard, for a baseball game.