While I appreciate the relative civility of the discussion, let's keep it on topic. No more griping about the griping about the griping about the griping, please. Thanks.
Jeez, gripe much?
I would say that I think The Show has hit that awkward spot many great sports sims hit... and that's sticking with the proven gameplay/engine that works, and the inevitability of that gameplay/engine being called stale.
It happened with hockey. People tired of EA's NHL thought Sega's NHL 2K2 engine was amazing and loved it for a few years... but by the time 2k7 had the same underlying gameplay, people thought it felt stale and were clamoring for 2K to scrap the whole thing and build a new engine from the ground up. EA did that with NHL 07 and got accolades (and sales) the past few years, but now since NHL 11 is the same basic gameplay/engine, I see a lot of comments about how EA's NHL is feeling stale.
I don't know if it's a sense that a company is resting on its laurels, or an unrealistic expectation that developers scrap what's been working for them and rebuild games from scratch, or just people having a certain cyclical attention span for games (maybe game engines only have like a 4-5 year shelf life before people want something new). But I don't think it's the fault of the developers. If MLB 08 was so great, they were obviously going to build on that for 09.. and 10... and 11.
Personally I think a lot of people don't know what they want. They loved MLB 09 but were pissed that MLB 10 looked and played a lot like it. They loved MLB 10 but are complaining that '11 isn't an entirely different, rebuilt experience.
I don't understand the complaints that this video looks/plays too much like previous years' games, when those games have been considered some of the best baseball sims ever. Why would they scrap so much of works (and works well) for the game? It is their job to keep building on it year after year, and that's what they've done for MLB 11. If someone wants to go play MLB 2K11 for a change of pace or to play baseball on a different engine, then that's great. But don't complain about SCEA not arbitrarily changing the base gameplay of their game, when that's the exact thing that brought success (and you) to this series to begin with.
PROS--Improved lighting;Improved animation;Improved stadiums;Total camera control;Pure analog everything;More options for incorporating music (i.e. base hits, runs, all 9 innings, etc.);Added rain element (very under-rated--this will be an incredible addition) and more!!
CONS--Commentary leaves a little to be desired, however, I'm sure the addition of Karros will help alleaviate some of this.
VERDICT--Best Damn Baseball Simulation of our Time...PERIOD.