By the time of this game's release, I was very deeply into the game of baseball, and I was very much hooked on the previous "MLB: The Show" games. "MLB 10: The Show" is a game that, now that I think about it, may have had some of my most playtime hours of any video game ever, and hey, it was a pretty fantastic game. I was ready for whatever "MLB 11: The Show" threw at me, and with so many new, unique features, I was very excited to give the game a whirl. Just as much (if not more) than "MLB 10: The Show," this game took a lot of my time, and I was totally okay with that.
The standard aspects of the "MLB: The Show" series are on full display here: the gameplay is tight with a decent challenge without feeling overwhelming, the visuals are absolutely photorealistic, and the overall presentation is very lifelike. As I said, though, this game introduced a lot of new features at the time that I had plenty of fun with. For starters, the Pure Analog Control system was a neat idea, giving the gameplay a boost in realism to sit alongside the realism of the graphics. I also thought the co-op mode was solid fun, as was the Challenge of the Week online mode (even though I never actually won anything in it). The QOL tweaks to Road to the Show were welcome, and as someone who enjoys some motion control in my baseball games, using the PlayStation Move in the Home Run Derby was awesome, and something I sunk a lot of time into. And as useless as it seems, I did spend a bit of time playing the game in 3D which was purely superfluous, but still kinda cool to see the way the game used depth in the baseball field.
I would say my biggest negative with the game, though, is that the Pure Analog controls can feel a bit finicky. Specifically on the Analog Hitting, which I get, because they wanted to go with something a bit more "realistic" in terms of timing in comparison to the "Major League Baseball 2K" games, but it does take a lot of getting used to. Also, at least at the time, I kinda wished the game used the PlayStation Move for more than just the Home Run Derby mode. I'm glad that at least got fixed in the next few entries.
Overall, though, "MLB 11: The Show" made some excellent improvements to the formula of the series, and was another winner for PlayStation in the world of baseball. Again, do I recommend it as much with what we have today? Unless you're curious, maybe not, but even so, this was one of many excellent entries that helped establish PlayStation as the place to play when it came to baseball games.
Final rating: 9 out of 10 "Awesome"