MLB 08 The Show

While the rest of the world warms up for March Madness, Sony has its eyes set on all the hot dogs, over-priced beer and ump heckling that comes with a new season of baseball and MLB 08 The Show, the latest entry into its long running baseball franchise. We got our hands on a copy of the PSP edition and jumped on-deck to see exactly what this year’s handheld homerun hitter has in its bull pen.

Like last year’s game, there’s plenty to do - modes like Exhibition, Manager Mode, Career (Road to the Show) and Season will keep you busy until opening day. In particular, Road to the Show, which challenges you to create and raise up a player from benched zero to homerun hero, looks like it will offer more position-specific depth via a deepened, attribute-driven progression system that rewards you for completing tasks designed for your type of player. For instance, you’ll be in line for a starter’s position as a pitcher if you throw a certain amount of strikeouts (or especially if you throw a no-hitter, or five) or you’ll get called up if you turn a fledgling short-stop into a playmaker and stop a certain percentage of ground balls.

Above: All images are from the PS3 version