MLB 2006 is not nearly as good as this years competition. The only thing that saves it is the excellent carrer mode.

User Rating: 6.4 | MLB 2006 PS2
MLB 2006 is not nearly as good as MVP 2005 or Major League Baseball 2K5. It attempts to do so much and fails. The game is far worse in most categories. If it weren't for the RPG-styled career mode, this game would be a total flop.

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty sad compared to other current baseball games. The only good thing about the controls is that they are responsive. Besides that, they are not that great. The dive and jump buttons are the two R shoulder buttons. This is awkward because you can easily press both at the same time and mess things up. It's so much easier to have those controls mapped to the right control stick. When fielders do an underhand toss, it takes them a long time just to throw a high, arching throw. The other parts of throwing get frustrating also. To make matters even worse, the loading screens are so long. They usually take around 30 seconds to a minute.

Graphics: The graphics are not nearly as good as the other baesball games. The animations are nice at first, but they are awfully repetative. It's also nice to see them try to get realistic stadiums in the game, but MVP and 2K5 do it so much better.

Sound: Overall, the sound is just not good as the other two games. The soundtrack is slightly better than 2K5, but not as good as MVP. The soundtrack just does not remind me att all of baseball. The commentary during games is hit or miss. Sometimes it sounds extremely realistic. Sometimes it sounds like they have no idea what the heck is going on. But most of the time, it is just average and repetitive. The sound effects of the crowd and the ball game are just plain average.

Value: I just played this game so much. It wasn't because of the gameplay or graphics. It was because of the great career mode. It was the only thing the other baseball games don't have. I love RPGs and it's even better when it's blended with other genres (like sports). The career mode was the only reason I played MLB 2006 for more than 2 hours. I thought that it was very well done.

Tilt: Overall this game was ok. It is definitely the worst baseball game on the market. If you don't like RPGs or career modes, don't even bother getting this game. Without career mode, this game sucks. It can't stack up to this year's competition of MVP 2005 and Major League Baseball 2K5 (especially the XBox version of those games). Only get this game if you like the RPG-styled career mode.