MLB 2006 from 989 Sports

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Franchise. Franchise mode is Season mode, with a plethora of GM options to handle. There are full AAA and AA squads to handle as well. When playing games in franchise, you can choose to play the AAA or AA game as well as the MLB game. A very nice feature of the minor league games are the minor league All-Star games and thier playoff games.

When you choose a club, you are given a multi-year contract offer and a set of goals to meet. You may not make it through the length of that contract if you don’t start meeting some of those goals early on. For instance..I was offered a 5 year contract to run the New York Mets. My goals were....have a winning pct of .410 at the end of the contract- Win a division title- provide an aerobic room for players- host an All-Star game- have a league MVP- have a starter in the All-Star game- win 350 games- have the league ERA leader- have a team BA of .230 for three years- have two pitchers with 10 win seasons in a year. Nothing too lofty and I did make it to my third year(not winning the division yet). In franchise, as well as the options available in season mode, you also have the ability to handle financials, rehab players from injury, banking training and more. This could be setting prices for concessions, shirts, hats, putting in new seats, putting in training gear, upgrading team transportation and much, much more. It is a lot to handle and you do have the choice of letting the CPU handle anything and everything if you like. You have to keep the team in the black...running at a loss means taking out loans and that is no way to keep your job. It will also have an impact on re-signing your players and signing free agents. You must also have to keep your fans happy both with prices of seats, concessions and facilities as well as putting a good team on the field. Attendance will suffer and it will effect your bottom line. It’s a lot to juggle and playing in franchise mode will keep you extremely busy.

Career. Career Mode is a great way to put a new spin on a baseball title. You start out by creating a player and giving him some modest attributes. You will earn more points to put towards your abilities as the game goes along. You will be competing for a job against the others on the team. You are given a set of goals to accomplish during spring training. Meeting those goals means landing a spot on one of the clubs. Either the AA or AAA and in rare instances the major league club. There are a couple of really nice features in playing out your career.

To begin...while playing through spring training, the manager will leave notes in your locker evaluating your performance. These are usually obvious(like he congratulates you when you go 3-4 in a game, lambasts you for giving up 8 earned runs...etc.) but it does add a fun element to the game. You in turn are given a chance to interact with your manager(asking him for more playing time..etc) your teamates (reacting positively or negatively), the media(bringing out team woes in the papers) and the GM (demanding a trade). All of these actions will have some sort of bearing on the game.

For instance...when in Career mode, you do not make any decisions in the ballgame. It’s up to the CPU manager. While you do still play the game like any other...your “character” may not be a starter...and it’s up to the CPU manager to decide when and if he comes into a game to pinch hit..relieve a starter or if you are a starter when you get the hook. Complaining about playing time may get you a start or two...but you better produce!

You do get to work your way up the ranks. Perhaps you will become a starter on the squad or perhaps a player on the MLB squad will get injured and the starter on your team will get the call up(or you might!)...and you must take over the starting spot. Do a good job..and maybe the original starter will ride the pine. I’m not sure if you can get traded in career mode, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Playing the game in career mode is a nice new way of looking at a baseball title.

Now onto the most important aspect of the game............ The Gameplay.

All other things aside, if the gameplay is not there, then none of the other options really mean anything. Well, I’m happy to report, that with MLB2006 the gameplay is excellent. I’ve played all three games this year, and I consider it to be the best of the bunch. There are certain things you must do in order to reach this level of gameplay. One thing involves adjusting the sliders. I play on Veteran setting. I shut off the strike zone, hot/cold zones and pitch cursor. I use automatic baserunning and assisted fielding with automatic throwing shut off. For the sliders I have the User contact down four notches from default and User power down three.
For the CPU I have the contact up two notches and the power up three. The arm strength is down to one click above the lowest for both User and CPU. Arm accuracy is three clicks above the lowest setting. Errors are three clicks above the lowest setting(both User and CPU) and baserunning aggression is three clicks from the highest setting. Injury frequency is set at halfway for both.

When playing with those settings...I have seen a multitude of different outcomes to my games. I had a game last night where, Tim Hudson of the Braves had me no hit through 6 2/3 innings. The announcers were well aware and talking of it. He also had me striking out at an alarming rate of 14 batters to that point. I finally broke through with a hit and it was acknowledged by the announcers....which by the way is done very nicely by Matt Vasgersian and Dave Campbell. Into the ninth I still had not scored a run...and Hudson was still in there chucking after 111 pitches. I finally scored a run on a walk and two hits in the ninth and the CPU brought in a reliever(Kent Mercker..the were leading 7-1 at that point).

The pacing and flow of the game are very, very nice and it gives you a pretty good “at the game” feeling. Adjusting the audio helps in that department and I put the crowd way up and the announcers down a little. That “crack of the bat” sound...that is way too loud on default is easily remedied by turning the sound effects way down. Because it is a PS2 game...the colors and graphics are a little washed out...but it looks great. Ballparks are done very nicely and the player models are top notch. The presentation is a definite step above MVP....and a notch below MLB2K5. There is a “hurry up” feature that cuts out the extra scenes to speed up a game...which will last you over an hour if you play everything out.

The computer AI, while not perfect(and I believe that it has more to do with some player attributes being incorrect) is very good. It will bring in relievers when it’s supposed to(too much for some users, I hear!) pinch hit, steal....all the things you would expect from a manager to do. As far as some people reporting that the pitchers hit in bunt situations...or hit and then get pulled in the next inning when coming up to pitch...it is a simple fix. They are rated too highly in contact and power and too low in bunting. Tone ‘em down on contact and up on bunting...and the problem is solved. Overall....I think you will find the CPU AI to be a good challenge.