Xbox 360

Major League Baseball 2K6

Buy. Clear your schedule, break up with your girlfriend and quit your job, then buckle up for a 162-game season in your own personal field of dreams.

Overall, MLB 2K6 is a worthy replacement to the beloved MVP MLB franchise. While there are some occasional hiccups and glitches and the fielding is off, these are all issues that can be ironed out over the next year - the game is still pretty fun to play. Provided a patch is released to fix the glitches and the other issues are taken care of before next year's edition, the new version has a chance to be the best ever.

If I only owned an Xbox 360 and I wanted to play the most current baseball game, would I have a choice? No, I wouldn’t - it’s MLB 2K6 or nothing at all. Having MLB 2K6 as my only Xbox 360 MLB fix is actually a pretty good thing, although I was hoping for better. MLB 2K6 for the previous-gen box is just too close on the back of this game’s spikes for me to fall deeply in love with it. The asking price is justified, but do realize that previous-gen MLB 2K6 players are getting more for their money than you are.

The replay value isn’t very high for casual fans of the sport, and I suspect not even hardcore fans will spend copious amounts of time with the title. MLB 2K6 just doesn’t do enough right to keep you coming back for more. Gamers have brought up the question many times about how developers/publishers would make a game if their’s was the only one on the market. Would they take their foot off the pedal and get a little complacent, or would they keep on trying to push the envelope of realism? Sadly, in the case of MLB 2K6, it seems as though the former is the case. 2K6 doesn’t hit it out of the park this year. Take 2 Interactive only manages to hit a routine double.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball 2K6 for the Xbox 360 just falls short in many aspects that could have made this a real winner. It is a collection of really good ideas that is held back by its various bugs, less than stellar graphics and control problems. If you’re a fan of the sport and really need to check this game out then do yourself a favor and rent before you buy otherwise wait for next year to see if 2K Sports manages to release a stellar game for the 360.

Major League Baseball 2K6 is a great game as far as the gameplay mechanics go but it really skimps on the razzle and dazzle. We are most likely to be forgiving considering that this is a handheld game but we can't help but expect more because we know it's possible. I don't want to have to be making excuses for a game and if things aren't improved for the '07 season then the crap is really going to hit the fan.

As a game, MLB 2K6 feels more than competent, but it fails to excel. Much like last year’s Cubs, it has its shining moments, but in the end you’re left with the distinct feeling that it could have been so much more.

MLB 2K6 is basically a visual upgrade of the current-generation version of the title, but not even the graphics are a dramatic improvement and there is little to separate this from the current-gen version. MLB 2K6 is a game of nice touches, but it's still only a three-tool player. You'll love gripping and ripping with the Swing Stick, and the new pitching system is enjoyable thanks to pressure situations and payoff pitches. Inside Edge is the most significant addition to the game, and we hope to see scouting play a part in the genre in the future. But control problems with baserunning and fielding, along with a lack of general polish, keep 2K6 from being the great game it's trying to be. It's a smart game off the field with the Inside Edge and intelligent franchise mode but, in the end, MLB 2K6 is a decent baseball title and a strong base to move forward with the MLB license.

In reality, it's not like Xbox and Xbox 360 fans have any other choice. Because of Take 2's exclusive license with Major League Baseball, this is the only official baseball game that will be released this year. For what it's worth, MLB 2K6 is an amazing foundation, and if Visual Concepts is able to improve the gameplay across the board, Take 2 will have a classic, best-of-all-time game on their hands in 2007.

In the final analysis, Major League Baseball 2K6 for the Xbox 360 is a good baseball sim that's taken down a few pegs by its lackluster presentation and gaggle of embarrassing gameplay bugs. Diehard sim fans may be able to forgive the rough spots and doldrums because the stats-focused gameplay is so sublime and because all of the numerous play modes offer so much to dig into. Everyone else should probably take a pass and hold out for next year's game.

Where the game has been severely improved over its last title on the Xbox, on a next-generation system, the hardware is not effectively utilized to make this game a viable choice over its cheaper Xbox cousin. Instead, we have a game that suffers from the same freezes and glitches as the cheaper game and doesn't even look all that great. Do yourself a favor and stick with the original Xbox version, it'll be worth the money you saved.

In the end, MLB 2K6 is an enjoyable baseball game. However, there are just too many weaknesses in almost every facet of the game that just holds it back. If you must have your next-generation baseball fix, MLB 2K6 is your only answer. Sadly, it will not be what you are looking for.

If you are a baseball fan, you should rent this title since there isn’t any other choice out now for the 360. There is some fun to be had once you get used to the game.

MLB 2K6 features a good amount of modes besides the career modes with exhibition play, home run derby and World Baseball Classic. Considering there are some new things in this year's title, like the hitting method, a tutorial mode would have been very helpful. And what is with the current-gen graphics on a next-gen title? If you are able to hold out for the next Xbox 360 baseball game, MLB 2K6 is not worth the $60 price tag. The game can be enjoyable but isn't worth the price that they put it out for. This is especially true since some of the things feel rushed to make it out in time for the start of baseball season.

I don't know what happened here, and I really don't care. Did the shifting release dates affect development? Did 2K Sports simply bite off more than it can chew? Did MLB exclusivity make unexpected demands on development? While theories will abound, at the end of the day it is this simple: 2K Sports is charging $60 for a game that does not work. That's inexcusable, and it can’t be looked past. As I look through the OS review archives, I see our lowest score is a 2/10 ... but at least those games didn't crash after 10 minutes of play. I'll give Major League Baseball 2K6 for the Xbox 360 one point for a good tech prototype that contains some interesting ideas, and leave it at that. Perhaps a patch would change this rating, and I may revisit the game at a later date. No patch will excuse what 2K Sports has done here, though.

In the end, if you only have the Xbox 360 as your console, MLB 2K6 does play a fairly solid game of baseball, provided you have all your sliders in place. But for me, the best baseball game again this year is still 989's MLB 06: The Show. They just have all the fundamentals in place and is the place to be if you are looking for the most accurate representation of the great American classic. I hope that 2K will learn greatly from the mistakes they have made this year and look to give gamers a reason to be happy next season.

Major League Baseball 2K6 is an interesting if flawed baseball game that happens to be available for twenty dollars less on the current-gen systems. If you own either of those, you’d have to be crazy to buy this game for the 360, because all you get for the extra twenty dollars are some disappointingly jaggy graphics. Save your bat for a better pitch.

Wrapping up the whole package are all the season and franchise options you'd expect, a clever inclusion of scouting reports from renowned stats service Inside Edge, and even a mode for recreating this year's World Baseball Classic. And then there's the Live online play. The ESPN license may be gone, but 2K Sports continues to do online league play right, complete with the online website it sets up for every league that forms. And it's on the strength of its multiplayer that you'll be most interested in playing MLB 2K6 for a full season. Playing against a real person, the strength of the pitcher-batter face-off carries the game; playing alone, you're more likely to send this one down to the minors before the end of the season.

There seems to be some tweaking still needed to perfect this version of the successful game series. The non-user-friendly interface, complicated navigation and overall lack of expected evolution that should have been come with a XB360 game, takes away from the excellent commentary and damn good soundtrack. The VIP profiling is very well worked out, as usual, but the game-play itself isn't a neat and tidy package. There's a bit of frustration at first, but once you get used to the interface you can actually have a good, fun game going. It's a matter of patience to "get to the good stuff" and "deal with the crappy part" if you get my drift. If you loved MLB2k5 you may be quite disappointed in 2k6, but it's definitely a matter of expectations that come with the XB360. And that expectation is perfection.

It's not too late. Kush Games and 2K Sports have a chance to make things right. Offer a download that fixes the bugs, prep a World Series Edition for the summer with fixes and some new additions, or, hell, just start from scratch and make a true defining next-gen baseball experience for next year. It's not like anyone else is going to anytime soon, since they're the exclusive rights holders. But to sit back and let gamers experience this and try to justify the $60 price, it simply can't be done. Major League Baseball 2K6 is a failure that should be avoided, especially in favor of Major League Baseball 2K5: World Series Edition, available for $40 less. Sure, the stats may be old, but that's the complete baseball experience. All this game ends up being is a complete mess. Class dismissed.

All things considered, MLB 2K6 is a severely flawed game that could have been far better had it undergone further testing. The freeze bug is absolutely crippling and has even caused retailers like EBGames and GameStop to reduce the amount of money they'll offer for the game in trade-in value. When the bugs and glitches are fixed in a forthcoming patch, MLB 2K6 will probably be remembered as a competent, fun game with decent visuals, some AI flaws, and some really great innovations in batting and pitching. Still, it's important to let game companies know that they can't release unfinished products, and no amount of patches and hotfixes can make up the loss of $60 to those who are experiencing severe playability issues after they went and picked this up on day of release. Caveat emptor, indeed.

When looking for the baseball game to get this season, look no farther than your PS2 collection. Take out MVP 2005, update the rosters, and enjoy. If you need a game specifically for your hot new 360, you'd be better just waiting for the exclusitivity deal to end and picking up the next Electronic Arts baseball title.

It's a travesty of the highest magnitude, which should cause Major League Baseball 2K6 to go down as one of the most infamous video games of all time. And adding insult to injury, Take-Two was awarded exclusive rights to this year's MLB license. This should clearly illustrate that it's the gamer who really gets screwed by these deals.