As spring returns and temperatures are rising for many parts of the US, it’s the sign that the new MLB season is about to start. MLB 10: The Show continues the series’ dominance of the genre with a promise to fix the lag-filled online and many other additions to make this an enticing product for baseball fans on the PS3.

The biggest change for MLB 10 is in the online play, as Sony San Diego has put a lot more work into fixing the lag-filled online play that has affected their PS3 outings for the past few years. It’s not a 100% lag-free experience, but the online play is far better than in years past. We mostly had games where the better player would win and not the player that could best overcome the lag, which is great for those that have tried to play online before.

MLB 10’s headlining career mode, Road to the Show, received some good upgrades to help add to the experience. You now have the option to take batting or pitching practice before getting into the game, which helps when you need to work out some kinks before getting to the action. Playing as a catcher now allows you to actually call the pitches for your pitcher on defense, though this position is only for skilled players that can call pitches since it offers no help for newbies nor can you turn it off. Road to the Show’s in-game presentation has been beefed up so that you can press up on the d-pad to see what your current goal is in the game and your progress in your long term goals, which is great when you’re concerned about meeting those goals and need to make the most of every opportunity you can get.

Another big addition to MLB 10 is the return of the home run derby and the debut of the All-Star Futures game for the Road to the Show and Franchise modes. Rather than being a generic home run derby, the mode here tries to capture the feel that you get during the All-Star break, though it falls short in its presentation by focusing less on your big home runs and more on seeing All-Star teammates enjoy those home runs. The All-Star Futures game is the minor league version of the All-Star game, so that’s a potential highlight for your Road to the Show player before he reaches the pro level.

The Show’s batting now feels a lot better than in MLB 09, where you had to be very precise with your swings to get hits consistently. Other than that, the controls feel as good as they did last year with little to no changes in that department for anyone hoping to see analog stick-based controls to match MLB 2K10’s offering. There are still some bugs to be found in the game after two pitches, though everything in the day-to-day gameplay is solid at this point.

MLB 10 does a great job of presenting the sport of baseball on the PS3. The players look and move around very well, though clipping is still rampant and there are some odd animations that the game points out in its “Show-motion” replays. The developers have added a lot more of the little things to the game, like thunder sticks, fans reaching over railings for foul balls, home run counters, and more that also come with a new presentation mode that offers a more realistic pace that you would see if you were at the ballpark yourself.

The commentary in MLB 10 does a good job of being entertaining for a baseball game, though it could use some more personal stories for more players rather than discussing things in just general terms. The audio portion of the game still offers the option to customize the music you hear in the menus with a larger potential playlist and the option to take out the commentary if you just want to continue listening to music while you play. The soundtrack is more of your typical rock and alternative music that is easily supplanted by the custom soundtrack feature.

MLB 10: The Show offers a great game of baseball that has a few rough spots, but has enough additions and enhancements to its biggest modes (Road to the Show and online multiplayer) to make it a worthy upgrade for fans and newbies alike. There’s very little reason to not get The Show over MLB 2K10 if you have a PS3 since the latter is in a rebuilding phase while the former is building upon a solid foundation. As far as the other versions of MLB 10, it seems to be clear that they are pretty much just roster updates with minimal improvements over MLB 09, so purchase those versions with that in mind.

Final Score: 9 | Recommendation: Buy It

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