Dankodefense has no idea what he is talking about. This game is excellent.
Other than that though I would say I disagree with everything else he said. The first thing he mentioned that made his dislike the game was the unresponsive controls. I have not noticed this in any game I have played and not even in the demo. If this did happen to him that's too bad but I can safely say it has not reared its ugly head on my system even once. I hit the button to pitch and I pitch. I hit the button to swing and I swing. Perhaps he just wants to be better at a game that made itself slightly more difficult.
"You must now use the left analog stick to adjust where your swing will cross the plate" This was said as a complaint. To me that is the idea of hitting a baseball. If you are really playing baseball, you don't just swing and hit the ball every time. You have to watch the ball and aim your swing. To complain about something so obviously keeping in tune with the realism of the game seems kinda silly. It doesn't make the game unrealistic as he claims. It makes it MORE realistic. " This makes any pitch with good movement almost impossible to hit unless you have already guessed correctly" Again, that is the idea of baseball. You think the hitter knows what the pitcher is pitching every throw? I would say since he is not in fact the pitcher that he does indeed guess every time. This just seems logical to me. I can't see how you can say this again is unrealistic when it is the only way to be realistic.
Once again it sounds to me as though he was not very good at playing the game and decided to give it a bad review because he wasn't good at playing it. "...they have tweaked this game making extra base hits seemingly non-existent." Really? You have not been able to get an extra base hit? I have. I have a few times. Seeing as though you say that hitting is too hard, I can see how you can't get an extra base hit. You have to be able to hit the ball before you can get a double or triple. Your inability to hit the ball does not make this a bad game, it makes you a bad player. Don't give the game a bad review when its actually everything you say it is not, only you're just not good at playing it.
He then proceeds to say how pitching is a downgrade from last year. I fail to see this as it seems about the same only maybe a little harder to hit your marks on the meters perfectly. It moves quicker, making it harder to throw perfect pitches every time. I enjoy the added realism in this as only the best of the best pitch great most of the time. Even when you do hit the meter right on it may not go where you thought it was going to. This doesn't happen all the time, but I found it does this mostly when you allow your effort on the pitch to go into the red. If you keep it green or yellow it will likely go where it is supposed to.. These are all things he found to be "unrealistic" To me, these are things that make it more realistic.
Guessing where the ball is gonna be is a part of hitting. I am guessing he has never actually played baseball before. Pitches that don't hit the spot every time is just a by product of people being imperfect. These small touches that are complained about are what make this game fun. You have to play well to win. You have to pitch well to win. If you keep swinging at balls, the computer will continue to throw balls. Its just the way the game is played.
MLB 09 The Show is easily the best video baseball game ever made. Yes, this is my opinion and yes others will find their interests lead them to think otherwise, but if you are gonna bag on a game, at least point out things that are wrong with the game and not things that happen that you just aren't any good at figuring out. That's like saying Jeopardy is a stupid game show cause you can't get any of the answers right, when in reality its just that you are not smart enough to know them.
I apologize for making this review more of a response than an actual review but my review of this game can be summarized in one sentence.
This game IS baseball.
So go out and buy it and enjoy it. Learn how to play it and you will find its the best game of ball to hit a console ever. Its even better than my beloved MVP 05. I will prove this to myself by playing all 162 games of my season, then winning the world series. Something I did not do with MVP 05 ( I sold my Xbox so I could put the money towards my 360 and never got around to the playoffs)
Thanks