I've put 6 hours into 'Road to the Show' and I have to force myself to stop playing. It is the most addictive game I've played in a long time.

Completely agree. I watch X-play (which is the "G4" review, which is a whole other topic), and they should not be counted in reviews, imo. However, I too have played MLB Power Pros and enjoyed it quite a lot. But as you say, this is a sim game and it's the best sim game ever made. X-Play clearly needs more reviewers or doesn't understand what improvements are if they say this is the same game as last year.

Also, this is a new year, and for the most part all series improve every year. Right now MLB 2008: The Show is the best baseball game to play. You get the full updated rosters and a lot of awesome features as well as improved gameplay. Oh, and the graphics are far better than last year and better than 2K this year.

Edit: 2K also doesn't have a career mode from what I hear, which makes the X-Play review baffling. I get the impression they didn't play the 2 games enough.  I play NCAA Football every year and 90% of the time I'll sim the games in Dynasty mode.

 You're right, let's never discuss what game is the best again...

No one ever tell me Super Mario Galaxy is the best because somebody else somewhere might disagree. 

only on certain model ps3s =))

 Injury prone because of "not missing a game for the first several years of his career?" Right...I think it has something to do with something he was doing that could have effected his bones. 

I question whether or not you've played 2k7 or The Show 07 if you think the physics are better on Power Pros or any other baseball game that came out before those two--seriously. Elaborate more on the physics deal, I may be misreading it. 

I honestly don't know where you get off thinking the skill system on Power Pros is the realism "every other baseball game seems to lack." Seriously, play MLB 2k7-2k8 and MLB The Show 07-08 and realize why I'm not able to take your statement seriously.

And regarding the "risky" closer; they have good days and bad days, so anything is possible.  

MLB Power Pros came out after 2k7 and Show 07. By like... 6-7 months i believe.

Like I said i haven't played the 08 versions, but they'd have to have improved a lot from the 07 version.

Show 07 had physics worse then 2k7, and 2k7's physics on the next gent games were based on the Playstation 2 version which lead to some errors that made the physics pretty unrealistic since they hadn't really uptaded or tweaked their physics engine and didn't account how things would be effected by the new systems.

While Power Kun Series tweaks it's physics yearly.

By physics i mean things like how a pitch plays off the bat. For example how a late swing effects a pitch, or how it effects a pitch when you don't quite hit the sweet spot of your bat... wind effects. etc.

Also as for "Good days and Bad days"

That doesn't differentiate between the bitchers that always seem to give up a run or two, yet always get the save vs the guys that always seem to give up a run or two.

Heck it doesn't even give good enough variance between starters who give up two or three runs a game and people who sometimes are perfect and sometimes get blown up for 8 runs a game.

The game even takes into account "spirit" during the game. Those plays that crush people actually crush the other team and hurt their performance... etc.

For a good review to be more familiar with the game.

My mistake on the before part, but either way, both 07 games had better physics than Power Pros. The late contact between a bat and a pitch--it's all there. Even how a ball lands, how the wind effects fly balls, and the crowd's mood during the ups and downs of the game. Both 07 games do a lot better than Power Pros in the realism aspects. Like I said before, Power Pros is more of an arcade game than it is a sim, so of course one would expect the 07 games to be much more in depth, and one could also expect the 08 games to be even more realistic.

As far as the relief pitching. I'm not sure if you're familiar with reliever by the name of Trever Miller, but he's not very good these days. He would always give up four to six runs on a relief effort in the 07 season, but one day he saved a game against the Mets without even giving  single hit. That's real life, by the way. So if anything could go in real life, I'd expect it to be the case in a game too--especially a sim. I'm not disregarding what would be more probable, but one can't disregard the possibilities on certain games.

I'm quite familiar with Power Pros, I mean I have a Wii too and I also played a game against the Devil Rays with the Rockies (embarrassing loss, but I beat the Yankees later). So I got tons of choices between baseball games, and I gotta say The Show 08 takes the cake. Last year it was 07 until 08.  

Good news leo-j, MLB 08 The show is the highest rated baseball game this gen for now:

gamerankings:

MLB 08:The Show - 84.4%

MLB Power Pros - 84%