As expected, the Xbox 360 version of Major League Baseball 2K6 flaunts nicer visuals and livelier audio than either of the versions of the game that are available for the PlayStation 2 and the older Xbox. It also benefits from a slightly better variety of play animations and cutaways. That's the good news. The bad news is that the jump to the 360 hasn't done much overall to spice up the game's halfhearted presentation. Many player faces are still inaccurate, the same replays and play animations still recur frequently, and, although the animation is more fluid in this version, the players still look a little jittery while they're running. To further complicate matters, the Xbox 360 game also suffers from a greater frequency of minor bugs and AI quirks than its so-called "last-generation" counterparts do. None of these rough edges are deal breakers on their own, but, taken together, they conspire to severely drag down what is otherwise a deep and feature-rich baseball sim.

Although the visuals are crisp, the presentation lacks personality.

Without a doubt, the graphics put the high-resolution capabilities of the 360 hardware to good use, at least in the technical sense. The player and stadium models are heavily detailed and everything has a sharp, vibrant look. Scoreboards and signs behind the outfield, which automatically update with line scores and dynamic advertisements, are perfectly legible from behind the plate. Finer details--such as skin tones, facial features, clothing, dirt, and turf--look more textured in the Xbox 360 version, as contrasted with the comparatively muted details found in the versions available for the PS2 and the original Xbox. Player faces look disturbingly human, although, for every face that actually matches a real player's, there's another that's completely wrong. On the one hand, Pedro Martinez and Alex Rodriguez look like the guys you see on TV every couple of days. On the other hand, Manny Ramirez doesn't have his knotty dreds and Ichiro Suzuki looks like he's an Italian-American.

The crowd in the 360 game is especially impressive. Every last spectator, from the fans behind the plate to those in the upper deck, is a complete 3D model, which is quite the improvement over the cardboard cutouts and low-poly people normally found in the seats in most sports video games. Individual spectators stand up, wave, and fidget in their seats. In certain views, you'll notice pizza and beverage vendors walking the concourses. After a home run, the cutaway viewpoint will show the person who caught the ball celebrating their catch. It's also very cute how spectators fight over foul balls that are hit into the stands.

When compared side by side with the PS2 and original Xbox versions, the Xbox 360 version looks smoother in motion and has a wider variety of play animations and cutaways. Players still look a little jittery when they run, but individual plays are silky smooth. On the whole, the variety of different plays is good. Routine throws from the infield to first all look the same, but there are plenty of different animations for double plays, outfield catches, and non-routine plays. It really is like the difference between night and day when you see how many different shoestring catches and athletic grabs happen in this version of the game compared to the others. There are also more instant replays, crowd cutaways, and player-reaction shots to see in the Xbox 360 game.

Some player faces are exact, some are downright bogus.

That's not to say that replays, cutaways, and reaction shots are a frequent occurrence. They're not. After most plays, the viewpoint simply switches right back to the hitting or pitching view. When a snappy catch or a tide-turning play happens, the odds of the game celebrating it with an instant replay or a camera cutaway are fairly low. Perhaps one out of every three plays gets the broadcast treatment. That's ultimately the biggest problem with Major League Baseball 2K6. While the game flexes the system's technical might, it doesn't do a good job of celebrating all of the subtle nuances that make the game of baseball so much fun to watch at the ballpark or on television. Batter walk-ups and post-strikeout reactions are the exception rather than the norm. Players walk off the field when the inning is over, but they don't walk back to their positions or pass the ball around after an out is made. In terms of visual atmosphere, local sports channels do a better job of making baseball seem exciting than this game does.

Thankfully, the audio portion of the presentation fares much better. ESPN's Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, arguably the best commentator team in baseball today, have the in-game play-calling duties. Some of their calls don't convey the proper level of emotional response, but they make up for it by keeping up with the action and having a lot to say. Additional comments and dialogue were recorded specifically for the Xbox 360 version of the game, allowing the pair to offer commentary and insight into offbeat situations and plays that they generally gloss over in the other versions. The crowd and the stadium public address system do a bang-up job of ratcheting up the volume in response to close plays and home-team highlights. Additional atmospheric audio was also recorded for the Xbox 360 game, adding more pep to the already lively stadium environments. There's a satisfying range of miscellaneous baseball-related sound effects, but all of the different musical snippets, crowd comments, umpire calls, and stadium announcements are what ultimately give each ballpark an authentic and exciting auditory atmosphere. It's just too bad that the visuals can't convey the same degree of personality as the audio does.