PS3

Okay, a note for anyone searching Google: the US (or USA) version of MLB 2K7, also known as Major League Baseball 2K7, on the Playstation 3 video games console does work fine on a UK console. I know there have been conflicting reports online. General opinion seemed to lead to the conclusion that it would work, but I could find no confirmation. And some people were assuming that 2K Sports would lock it, as they did with the 360 version. So, if you’re searching Google looking for confirmation, here (probably on page 132 of your results) is that confirmation. It’ll probably only work if you’re using HD, so anyone stuck with an old standard-definition set might be out of luck, but anyone with an HD-Ready television is all set.

Right, okay, that’s my good deed done for the day. It’s very good indeed, too, by the way. Changed a bit from the demo. Seems to look a bit nicer, some options that were on by default in the demo are off in the full game, but it’s basically the same. Which should be pretty obvious, I suppose.

Anyway, I set up a profile and set my options. Played as the Astros against the Giants. I lost, badly. 15-0, I believe. Oddly, my pitcher, who pitched until he was nearly dead because I forgot to warm up anyone to relieve him, never got tense like all the pitchers did in the demo. I wonder if that’s something I need to turn on? But I wasn’t so bad at pitching really. Fielding was more the problem there. I just kept stepping over the ball and throwing to the wrong base. But I was okay. Batting was where I was really awful. One base hit in the whole game. One. In fact, I was so bad at hitting the ball that I thought I might be missing something, so after the game I tried a couple of home run derbys. I didn’t have any trouble hitting the ball there, even with Astros players.

I think I might need to turn the difficulty down a bit.

Anyway, the game’s great (apart from an odd lack of autosave and a million different save files – profile, options, game, even a separate save for the bloody music settings! – that all have to be dealt with in different places) and I’m very glad I can play it. I know the 360 version got (slightly) better reviews, but that’s not region free, so for UK baseball fans PS3 1 – Xbox 360 0.

Tried this again this morning. It really is brilliant. I was maybe a little harsh about how it looked last night. The presentation is great and generates just the right atmosphere and the player models and clothing are okay – it’s just the textures and lighting that really lets things down. It’s very much stuck between generations.

As for how it plays, I enjoyed it much more this session – and not just because another home run won the game for me, in the bottom of the eighth this time.