Play ball! Get ready to get down and dirty with MLB 2K9. Unbelievable attention to detail features amazing content such as each player’s different batting stances, unique pitching windups, and swings. Adding new commentary and gameplay improvements, MLB 2K9 is a vastly new ballgame. Featuring radical graphics enhancements, you’ll often wonder if you weren’t seeing the game live. Even the non-player characters, such as coaches and ballboys, move more natural. With updated rosters included in the game, your favorite team will have its current roster. Amazingly enough, MLB 2K9 automatically updates the roster by getting all current information online and incorporating it into the game..

You can suit up against your friends and play them online or off. You can skip the regular season and go straight to the playoffs with any eight teams you want. There is also an online competition to see who the best team of online players are. Ranked Quick Matches allow you to compete for prizes.

But over the past few years, many baseball fans have had to tolerate poorly designed games. With no great baseball titles out this decade, the 2K franchise has finally released a title that shows some nice improvements over last year, but still has some significant AI issues and bugs. Like all professional sports games, a new title must be released every year to remain fresh. And this short amount of time for development and testing does not allow for significant improvements on an already flawed franchise title.

Casual gamers may not notice some of the problems with MLB 2K9, but those who seriously delve into the expanded features, such as the franchise mode will begin to find the bugs, while not evident at first, soon begin to pile up nearly ruining the experience. MLB 2K9 is an enjoyable game for a casual fan, but those who are really dedicated to baseball are certain to find the bad AI annoying.

Available on Xbox 360. PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP