Major League Baseball 2K6 [X360]

Before I get into describing MLB 2K6's qualities, merits, and faults, I need to bring up a serious issue that many players are encountering with this game. During the review process, MLB 2K6 completely froze four times, forcing me to restart my Xbox 360 and causing me to lose any reward progress I had made that game. This isn't an isolated case, and there is an official statement by 2K Games addressing this issue on the game forums, as well as a message on the technical support line stating that 2K Games is aware of the problem and is working on a solution. At GameSpy, we review games based on the retail box copy that is sent to us, and our score reflects the crippling and extremely frustrating bug that made its way into this release. It is quite possible that you may not encounter any freezing issues with your game, but consider yourself warned.

MLB 2K6 offers up a wide array of game modes for you to explore, enough to keep any fan going through baseball season and beyond. You have comprehensive Franchise and GM Career modes, your basic exhibition options, and even the World Baseball Classic. For the first time you can pit Fidel Castro's Cuban team against Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan team in an all-socialist/communist championship game. The create a player feature allows you to create the likenesses of your favorite little league players or co-workers, and to keep you entertained while you're playing a couple online matches, you can even rip your own soundtrack if you tire of hearing the modest tunes provided, like the pair of songs from Belle and Sebastian.

The visuals in MLB 2K6 leave something to be desired, for a number of reasons. A careful eye to detail will pick up on the slightly jittery frame rate that keeps the motion of a player's bat from looking smooth and natural. The facial modeling isn't up to par with what we've seen in other sports titles, and many of the big-name players don't bear a proper likeness to the actual athletes. The incorrect uniforms are also used for a few of the teams, and some of the team logos look like they were added in a sloppy way, either stretched our of proportion or clipped to make them fit into a menu screen. There's also an interesting glitch effect that often occurs when the camera zooms in on a player: the cloth of their shirt will suddenly bloom out, almost as if a draft blew in from underneath like Marilyn Monroe's scene in The Seven Year Itch.

When you play the Franchise and GM Career modes, you're urged to make use of Insider's Edge, the game's scouting report system. Much like a subscription to your favorite gaming website, Insider's Edge offers you benefits at a cost. The price on individual scouting reports varies based on the proximity to your next game against that team on the schedule, so you can get better deals by purchasing reports in advance. If you get a report on a team's star batter, for example, you'll learn what parts of the strike zone are hot and cold for them, their first pitch tendencies, and all sorts of other useful information that will give you that necessary advantage come game time. The same is true for pitching reports, so you can get ready to either ease back and sit on the pitch or come out swinging on a full count. This emphasis on player scouting translates nicely into gameplay, as you receive certain useful advantages when facing scouted players. Your catcher will recommend pitches that the opposing batter is susceptible to based on situation, and generally, you'll always want to purchase reports for the opposition's pitcher and best batters.