I saw a few of the assorted baseball games at E3, and got to play
this one for a good while at the Sony Sports bar (one of the
"must visit" places at the show).  At the time that I saw and
played the game, it looked close to complete, with perhaps a few
minor touches to be added to the game.

Much of my recent time had been spent playing Triple Play '98 and
finding it more and more frustrating as I played it.  Not because
the game wasn't good, but mostly because there were still areas
that EA should have taken care of and didn't.  Sure, the varying
crowd sizes are neat, and the 2nd guy in the booth calling color
commentary is nice, but those were additions that weren't needed,
while the underlying game play still needed other enhancements
and fixes.

As things worked out, my son finally finished playing through his
season of the game, just at the time that Sony's MLB 98 made it
to the stores, so off I went to take advantage of Electronic
Boutique's Trade in 3 and get the game for free offer.

That all having been said, time to move on to whats good and bad
about this years offering from Sony.


Good:

* More realistic looking players than in Triple Play
* Hits to the outfield that are hits, not put outs (as in Triple
Play)
* Smooth and fluid motion of the players on the field
* Nice diving catches (where appropriate) that look like the real
thing
* Ability to change batting stances and left to right facing
orientation
* Shorter load times than in Triple Play
* Actually came out during the Baseball season this year 8^)
* Nice batting and pitching cursor modes

Bad:

* Grass fields and stands that don't look quite as nice as they
do in Triple Play
* No varying crowd sizes
* No second man in the booth (only one play by play man)
* Controls that take a little longer to get used to (in some
ways) than in Triple Play
* No trivia game during load periods (as in Triple Play)
* Came out after Triple Play '98
* No multi-tap support (only allows for two players to play)
* Fewer calls on the sound track


On to the good stuff.....

Where to begin?  That's a good question.  How about the fact that
this year's game actually came out during the season, and not
after it as last years version did?  Though it still was after
Triple Play '98 had come in and collected a lot of money from the
PSX community, at least this year it wasn't after the season had
come and gone.  Relatively speaking, it's no where near as bad as
last year when it seemed that Pennant Race would never be
released.

Relatively speaking, this years effort gives a close race to
Triple Play '98 and in quite a few ways is the better of the two. 
Triple Play '98 has more eye candy and extra little features, but
it's not as realistic as MLB 98 is, and doesn't give as good a
game in a one against the computer as MLB 98 does.  MLB 98
actually lets you get a single on fly balls to the outfield
(unlike TP 98 where you get thrown out at first because the
outfielder rifled the ball back to first base before you could
get there [no matter how hard or much you hit the turbo button]). 
MLB 98 also allows you to get a Double or Triple on occassion,
which you'd never see at all in TP '98 while playing against the
computer.

The players in MLB 98 also look smoother and more realistic than
those in TP '98.  The players look nice in TP '98, but the
players in MLB 98 look just a bit better.  There seem to be
ripples in the uniforms, and the use of lights and darks on the
uniforms make the players look better than the cubist's dreams
that are found in TP '98.

Also on the plus for MLB 98 are the diving catches that come up
more realistic than the standard fare found in TP '98.  It's not
that those features aren't in TP '98, but they are more readily
apparent in MLB 98 and help to show the game off in a more
positive light than TP '98 does.  (It seems that TP '98 depends
more on their extra features than MLB 98 does).

Something that my memory says was in last year's TP '97, but
isn't in TP '98, was the ability to change the player stance at
the plate, and directionalize to some extent.  Though TP '98 lets
you try to change the direction of the hit by holding down the
appropriate buttons on the d-pad (left or right), you can't open
or close the player's stance at the plate.  All of this is
possible in MLB 98, and is very nicely integrated.

Also on the plus side for MLB 98 is that Sony has minimized the
load times as best as possible, so that you aren't stuck waiting
at a "Loading" prompt all the time.  Though EA gives you their
Trivia Games and "Did you know" tips to help alleviate the load
time problem, less wasted time is better, no matter what. 
(Besides, after a while, you've seen all the tips and played
through all of the trivia games).

The pitching cursor and location modes are also nice for
controlling the game.  The pitch can be directionalized as to
where it will cross (hopefully, remember, not all pitches are
that easy to control) the plate.  This adds a great level of
realism to the pitching modes.

The same holds for the batting modes in the Veteran and All Star
Levels of the game, where a batting cursor is used to home in on
the pitch as it crosses the plate.  The better you are aiming the
batting cursor, the better your chances at hitting the ball. 
Again, much more realistic than other games where the only
influence you have on hitting the ball is timing the ball as it
crosses the plate.


Where it lacks --

As alluded to above, MLB 98 doesn't have all of the little extras
that TP '98 does.  It doesn't have the trivia games and trivia
tips, and it doesn't have the varying crowd sizes.  It also
doesn't have the fake advertisements that are done by the
commentators during the game as TP '98 does.  If you have to have
those extras, then hand your money to EA and enjoy TP '98.

As far as playability goes, it does seem to take a little longer
to get used to the controls in MLB 98.  It's not that they are
difficult, but there seem to be more controls and more
possibilities, which make it take longer to learn everything in
MLB 98 than it did in TP '98.  This isn't that bad, but it's
something to be aware of.  Of course, once you memorize the
controls, you don't care anyway.

TP '98 also beats MLB 98 in some ways just by having "better
looking" graphics and detail in the grass fields, and stadium
backgrounds in general.  This is hard to really quantify, and is
probably more a matter of personal taste, but it seems to be
readily perceptible.

The sound track also doesn't seem to offer as many possibilities
as are found in TP '98, but as with just about all of Baseball in
general, eventually it all is repetitive anyway.  (As someone
else already pointed out, "It's Foul" will become very familiar
to you).

EA also has the upper hand in multi-player Baseball, with support
for multi-tap and up to 8 players.  Sony provides support for 2
players, but not the free-4-all that EA has provided support for. 
Of course, in reality you don't often get to collect that many
players together anyway  (who has the room, money for the tap and
extra controllers, and/or that many friends?).


End recommendation....

Personally, this is my Baseball game now.  EA had their chance,
but TP '98 had too many minor frustrations (and major ones too
for that matter, getting thrown out at first on a consistent
basis being one of those) for me to keep it.  I expect eventually
I'll run into some with this game also, but at least it might
take a while for that to happen.

I'm still waiting to see what this year's Bottom of the Ninth
winds up like, but for now, this game is curing my urge for
Baseball on my console systems.


Until I can afford to pick up another program for my favorite
game system -


Rating: 9/10


Barry Dowell


Vital Statistics

Genre:  Sports/Baseball
Game Format: 1 CD for Sony Playstation
Publisher: Sony
Audience: K-A (Kids to Adults)
Players: 1 or 2 (no multi-tap)
Memory card: 1 - 4 blocks
Street price: $39.95