Sports fans, what could be better than the Highlight Reel from MLB 09: The Show, where the game chooses the most significant plays and presents them back to you in a television broadcast presentation style? How about the ability to choose your own plays of the game, your own camera angles, and present them in a highlight reel fashion with your own personal touch? Move over ESPN, in MLB 10: The Show, the new Movie Maker feature allows you to do just that! Be the cameraman, the editor, and the overall director of your own personal highlight reels.

With the new Movie Maker feature in MLB 10: The Show, save up to 10 of your most memorable plays of the game. You can do this by using our extensive Replay Filter System, sorting those highlight quality plays in any order that you desire. You can show your offensive feats first, including every double, triple, or home run from the game. Followed up by your defensive gems, including diving catches, clutch strikeouts, and double or triple plays!

The user has total camera angle freedom by using our free-floating camera controls to place the lens exactly where you want it using close-up or far-out perspective angles to capture the action in any way you see fit. Need some help from the experts? Then go ahead and choose from 10 unique Camera Presets, already built into the Movie Maker.

You can set up to three Edit Points for any play to capture the action from different camera perspectives, editing at the start and finish point of any play. The Movie Maker can also be used at the Post Game Menu, or at any time during your current offline game. The feature works in any of our gameplay modes, including Road to The Show, and from the Post Game menu of any completed online game. After you finish editing your movie, save it to the Hard Drive, and share it as you see fit, the only limit is your imagination!

Welcome to The Show!

Aaron Luke here to bring you the next chapter in our series of MLB 10: The Show posts. This installment will focus on the enhancements we’ve made to “Road To The Show” (RTTS). We’ve targeted several aspects of the mode for improvements, and think you’ll like what you find in this year’s edition of RTTS.

We’ll begin by discussing player creation. This year’s PS3 Create Player system has received some new accessory additions, giving you even more options to customize. You can now select a variety of color settings to nearly every part of your player’s gear. Among many other options, you can customize three areas of your glove with different colors, set both the barrel and handle colors of your bat, and customize your shoe colors. We’ve also added a field to the General tab that will allow you to determine whether or not your player was born in the U.S. This will determine which roster you would appear on if your player were to be selected for the All-Star Futures Game.

After finishing up your player’s look and deciding whether to enter the draft or select your team, you’ll notice on entry of the mode that your season begins right at the start of the Double-A season. You will no longer start out in Spring Training and have to square off against MLB-caliber players. We’ve changed this flow to better mimic the real world, and to make an invite to Spring Training something that’s earned. Plus, to give you a good head start right out of the gate, we’re giving you some training points to help you get through your initial advancement goal set.

Now that you’re in the mode, you should take note of some new options this year that will certainly change how you experience games. The new Game Watch and Game Completion options will certainly change how you play RTTS games, as they’ll now give you the ability to determine how much of the game you want to view. Set your Game Watch option to All Pitches if you want to see every pitch of the entire game; All Fielding if you only want to see your at-bats and be a part of every fielding play; Result Play if you want to expedite your games to see only the final pitch of an at-bat while on either offense or defense; or Classic if you prefer the old style and only want to see plays involving your player.

Game Completion is similar to Game Watch, however it only takes affect after you’ve been removed from a game. So if you’re a starting pitcher, this option will let you see what your bullpen does with the runners they inherited from you. This option has similar settings as Game Watch, so you can set it to All Pitches, Result Play, or Off. When any of these options are set, and you’re on the bench waiting for your next opportunity, you’ll also notice a new custom view from the dugout.

We’re very excited about these new options as they really add to that feeling of suspense as to whether the ball will be hit your way or not. Now, more than before, you’ll need to be on your toes in the field.

Among other options to note, we brought back the classic L1/R1 baserunning controls for you old-schoolers. The RTTS Baserunning option will default to New, but if you prefer the single button press style controls, be sure to change it to Classic. We’ve also added in the ability to take pregame batting practice when you’re in the starting lineup for that game. You can step into the cage and take ten swings to help get your timing down before game-time. You won’t receive any training points or attribute improvements, but this will definitely help get you into a nice rhythm. To ensure you participate in batting practice, set the Pre-Game Batting Practice option to On. Lastly, we’ve added a new Mound Warm-Up feature that will give relievers a chance to throw eight warm-up pitches on the mound, after coming out of the bullpen. Just like pregame batting practice, you won’t receive any training points for this, but it does give you the chance to get a good rhythm before facing live hitters.

Moving on to other new game features, one area of focus for us this year was to emphasize fundamental baseball. As a result, we came up with two new systems that are sure to reinforce the notion of “team first.” First we created a new mistake-tracking system that keeps tabs on what you do during a game, and will penalize you for not playing smart baseball. If you do things like throw to the wrong base, forget to cover your base on a force out, or get caught stealing with the pitcher batting to end of the inning, you will receive training point penalties. To combat the “me first” motto a lot of RTTS players have taken when on the basepaths, we’ve created a new Green Light system. When you first start out with a club, you’ll have the Green Light. From there, it’s up to you how you handle it. If you’re a slow runner, and you take the risk of stealing and get caught, there’s a good chance your manager will take away your green light. Continue to steal without it and you risk getting benched for a game or even losing your spot in the lineup. Once the green light is removed, you’ll have to improve your speed and baserunning ability to a level that satisfies your manager in order to regain it.

For you stat-heads, we’ve created a new career stat-tracking system that keeps tabs on your stats versus every team. We aren’t tracking every stat, only the top-level stats. For position players, we track total games played, average, at-bats, hits, home runs, runs batted in, walks, and strikeouts. For pitchers, we track your games played, won-loss record, ERA, innings pitched, hits allowed, home runs allowed, walks allowed, and strikeouts. You can view these stats at any time during the game, or in the front end. When in a game, access your career stats by pressing the select button. The in-game display has even more detailed stats than the front end, as you’ll get a breakdown of your stats versus every pitcher or batter on the opponent’s roster. The front end will display only your total stats versus each team in your current league.

We’ve also done some polish on the overall game flow and information presented when in a game. This year, you can now access your stat-based advancement goals at any point during a game. To do so, press up on the D-Pad and you’ll see both your stat-based advancement goals as well as your current dynamic goal. We’ve also altered the flow for presenting dynamic goals when pitching. You’ll no longer be taken to the “presentation land” to get your goal screen. Now your goal will appear out of the score bar, and the game flow won’t be interrupted. If you missed the goal display, you can press up on the D-Pad at any point to check if you have a dynamic goal.

Not only have we included the new Catcher Calling the Game mode to RTTS, or the new Pitching/Fielding trainings (post coming soon), but also we’ve put a big emphasis on a lot of little things that have a big impact on the mode. As stated in a previous post, the All-Star Futures Game and Home Run Derby also find their way into RTTS. We’re very excited about this year’s offering, and hope you are as well. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I wish you all the best of luck on your Road To The Show.

Hey everyone, Greg Batalucco here to bring you the next installment of MLB 10: The Show posts. This entry will focus on the realism and experience within our stadiums.

Beginning with last year’s version of The Show, we wanted to make the game even more accurate. In MLB 10: The Show, we have taken it further and added more to your gaming experience. New for this year’s edition are real-time players in the dugouts and bullpens, fireworks, rally towels, thundersticks, working digital and analog clocks, and much more. All these realistic enhancements to the game make MLB 10: The Show feel and sound like you are actually at the ballpark. Throughout this post we will focus on the stadium enchantments and how they make The Show come alive!

Real-Time Players in The Dugout and Bullpen
New to this year’s version of The Show is having the dugouts and bullpens full to capacity in real time. What this means is that players will be seen in actual game time sitting on the bench, standing, leaning on the railings and moving around. The players will even react to the action on the field, so if a foul ball comes in the dugout, they will quickly move out of the way. You’ll also see bullpen activity – with pitchers getting up, stretching and starting to loosen up. Managers will be seen giving instruction to the bench players and calling out to the fielders in play. This realism gives you, the user, the element that you are involved in a real-life baseball game.

Stadiums Experiences (Fireworks/HR/splash counters/clocks)
Last year we added quite a bit to the stadium experience, but this year we wanted to make MLB 10 stand out even more. We set out researching how the stadiums looked, finding the little nuances of each stadium. If you’re going to include fireworks, they have to look and sound real. Each fireworks explosion is designed to recreate the actual fireworks display that is seen when the home team hits a homerun or wins the game.

Another area of detail with the stadiums was adding in the famous Home Run Splash Counter in San Francisco. This also includes a special Splash Camera which follows the ball as it splashes into McCovey Cove. Also added to our stadiums are working clocks which show the actual time from game start until finish. There are digital and analog clocks throughout the stadiums, so check out the time as you play the game.

Crowd Detail (Reaching over the rails, thundersticks, rally towels, detail)
This year we added so much more to our crowds and their animations. The crowd in MLB 10 will now react to a ball hit into the stands either on foul balls or home runs. They will also reach over the railings to try and grab a ground ball that is hit into foul territory. Play The Show and you may actually see a fan take a tumble over the wall. Another thing we wanted to spruce up is crowd accessories. We decided to add in thundersticks, rally towels and the ever-present “cowbell” in Tampa. These little touches of realism add up to make MLB 10: The Show a home run!

Final Thoughts
As you can see, we went into the making of MLB 10 asking the question, “What can we do to make this game more realistic?” Our community and fans wanted even more detail and realism. If your favorite team, stadium, or crowd does things a certain way, we want to make sure it’s reflected in The Show. This attention to detail is what makes us stand out. From new fireworks, splash counters, thundersticks and more, we want you to feel the sights and sounds of real live baseball. We appreciate your feedback and will always listen to our fans as we try to make the best game possible. Thanks for your time and we hope you enjoy MLB 10: The Show and the realism we bring to you.

Aaron Luke here to bring you the next edition of the MLB 10: The Show posts. This entry will discuss the additions made to the MLB All-Star Week festivities.

When we set out at the beginning of the year, one area we knew needed to be addressed was the addition of the Home Run Derby. As we began to dive into the feature, we thought rather than just offering it as a stand-alone feature (which it is), why not include it into all season-based modes’ MLB All-Star Week festivities. Now when you’re playing in Season, Franchise or Road To The Show, you’ll have the opportunity to play in the Home Run Derby.

When playing the Home Run Derby, you have the choice to set which players are controlled by player 1, player 2, or the CPU – except in RTTS, where you only get to control your created player. You also will have fast-forwarding abilities, in case you want to skip the CPU-controlled player’s at bats.

After tackling the Home Run Derby addition, we thought why not go all-in and include the All-Star Futures Game as well. So, we’ve done just that. Now you get the full All-Star package. The All-Star Futures Game is available in both Franchise and Road To The Show – and just the same as the derby, in RTTS you will only have the opportunity to participate if your player was selected.

As you can see, we’ve paid a lot of attention to offering you as much of the MLB All-Star Week festivities as we can. These enhancements are available in all of our season-based modes, with the exception of the All-Star Futures Game, which is available in Franchise and Road To The Show only.