By: Terrence Nelson
—
It’s that time of year when the grass is frozen, the wind is blistering and most people’s TVs get more of a work out than they do. Now, escape with me to the smell of freshly cut grass, deeply inhale the 75-degree air and walk carefully so you don’t spill your favorite over priced draft beer of choice! It will soon be Spring in the gaming universe with the March 6, 2012 release of MLB 12 The Show for Playstation 3 and Sony Vita.
MLB The Show has been the flagship baseball gaming franchise the last 12 years. The Sony Computer Entertainment team has continued to innovate both the animation and game play each year without skipping a beat, and 2012 is no different as several new features have been added to an already ridiculously detailed gaming platform.
MLB 12 will feature the primary source of MLB bloopers and near-bloopers in player collisions all over the field. Each player will have a new rating attribute called “collision awareness” that will dictate their aversion ability in regards to on field collisions.
For example, in terms of defense, collision awareness will dictate whether Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano will collide when fielding a fly ball over 2nd base. Offensively, it will enable savvy base runners such as Jose Reyes to avoid collisions by sliding around tags and even spiking (a.k.a. taking people out). Having a low collision awareness rating will have its down sides, such as players dropping fly balls, runners missing bases and fielders missing tags.
Developers have re-worked the “ball physics” in order to make gameplay more realistic. This enhancement will result in increased ball speed off the bat, more topspin on groundballs, and more movement in high motion pitches. Yeah, that’s a lot to swallow, but it seems as though the new ball physics will not favor offense or defense, so all things will remain even. You may have to become more instinctive and quicker to react as a result, so the jury is still out on how it will affect your gameplay.
For the mobile gamer, Sony has also added one of the greatest enhancements in sports gaming history. Gamers will be able to share all games, seasons and stats on their Sony Cloud, which means gamers will be able to share games between their home-based PS3 and Vita. You will be able to play seasons or online games from any location without using different profiles for each platform. Vita users can sign into their profile from any Wi-Fi connection and pick up games where they left off on their home PS3.
Check out the MLB 12: The Show reveal trailer and gameplay action below!
For updates on the MLB 12 The Show, go to TheShowNation.com and follow them on Twitter @Playstation
