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By Josh (19th May 2008)

This year's version includes a wide variety of new content and game play options that will entice any gamer, whether you are deeply in love with baseball, or like myself, impartial to the sport.

From the opening menu, you have the ability to dive right into a multitude of game types. You have the familiar ones, such as exhibition, franchise or a home run derby. But my favorite option by far is the ability to create yourself in the game. With the wide variety of customization, you can almost do an exact replica of yourself. From there, you have the option to jump right into a major league team or you can develop your game by starting off on the bench of one of ninety minor league teams. After playing the game for only a few days, it became apparent that like in real life, it takes time to increase your player's abilities and performance. In the beginning of your career, you can opt to have whatever stats you want. To keep things realistic, I made myself with below average numbers in the hopes of having the ability to increase them as I played it out. Over the next few days, I found myself throwing more strikes, and my pitching ratings were going up, all bit slowly.

In addition to the new game play types, there is a few new ways to actually control your players. New to MLB 2K8 is the Swing Stick 2.0. The new version of swing stick allows for much higher control over your bat. Allowing you to have virtually infinite swinging patterns, you can make split second decisions on where you want your hit to go and how hard you want to hit it. In previous games, you just pressed a button and waited for the pitch to release it. Now, you have to time it perfectly for the type of hit you want. A split second difference can cause a line drive down the third baseline or an easy out to the center fielder. The ability to choose how you hit the ball adds to the gameplay immensely. Now you have the ability to use strategy instead of relying on pure luck to get those runners in.

One feature even better than the revised swing stick, is the new pitching system. With most games, you press a colored button until the power meeter is in the zone, then you release it. But with MLB 2K8, you have full control over the pitch. Using the right joystick, you can throw virtually any pitch you want, where you want, and how you want; it is all up to the player. Only with MLB 2K8, can you experience the feeling of throwing the pitch perfectly and watching as the batter becomes shocked and confused as your pitch glides around his baseball bat. On the other hand, this system does not leave much room for error. If you are even slightly off the path, the ball may hit the dirt, or even worse, the batter. It takes a while to learn all the tricks and techniques to it, but once you do, you feel as if you are right there throwing the ball yourself.

The multi player modes are pretty much the same as in the past. You have the basic offline multi player mode that supports only two players competing against each other on the same system. You also have the online multi player which is just a port of the offline mode except that you are playing with someone over high speed internet. Although the online mode is fairly basic, it incorporates a list of records across all of xbox live. Records you strive to beat like .74 ERA or .800 batting average. It spices things up with a little competition to add to the gameplay.

The graphics haven't changed much either since last years edition. MLB 2K8 is 2K's second in a three part series to overhaul their game. Last year, they worked on graphics immensely, so this year, they didn't change that much. Although the players and the scenery look amazing, the rest of it could need some work. For example, many of the cut scenes before games and between batters gets a little choppy and seems to lag quite a bit in some spots. Sometimes, the ball will even go in and out of the wall while rolling along side it. Similar to that is the players will occasionally run right through each other, but that is probably a physics issue. Other than that, and the zombie like blobs of onlookers in the stands, the game looks wonderful.

As for the audio department, its just like any other sports game. You have Jon Miller and Joe Morgan doing the announcing, which is at some times incredibly inaccurate. Many times I would hit a ground ball to the outfield, and they would make some comment on me making an infield single. Other times it would be the complete opposite. They would mention it going into the outfield when in reality the short stop had jumped and snagged it for an out. All in all though, the rest of the sound effects and announcing is realistic. The crack of the bat when you nail one into the stands, the umpire, and most of the reporting, sounds just as if you were watching a game on ESPN.

Overall, Major League Baseball 2K8 is a solid buy for even the amateur sports lover. Although a few aspects of the game, such as franchise mode and the visual transitions need some work, this is a solid title. With a wide variety of game types, online and off, everyone will be able to find their own niche. So, if you want to play a few exhibition games, or create yourself and jump into an entire career, this game is for you. Welcome to the game of the future.