Swinging for the Fences...Well, Trying Anyhow,

MLB 2k10, by Visual Concepts/ 2k Sports, is available now. It shows some improvements in graphics and user interface over last year's product. That's good news because last year's product was, in a word, terrible.

MLB 2k10, like its predecessors, invests heavily in the considerable manipulation of the right thumb stick and controller buttons for pitching and hitting, calling it "Total Control Pitching" and "Total Control Hitting," respectively. It is like learning the mambo for your fingers. I'm sure the producers think it makes the game unique, but it really just makes for busy work and extra timing that makes it difficult to use. That's why the game producers are running a sweepstakes that offers $1 million dollars to the first person to pitch a perfect game. If there is a taker for the grand prize, they will surely earn it.

On a better note, the control interface for fielding seems a little smoother than in past years. You don't have to remember too many button/stick combinations.

The overall graphics and frame rates seem to be significantly improved over last year's game (which was horrible). Colors are richer and brighter, and stadiums seem to be fuller with more detail.

Features include My Player, which enables users to create a player to work up from the minors to the majors and, ultimately, superstardom.

MLB Today is another feature, which integrates real-time stats of players so that the commentary is up to date.

MLB 2k10 marks the 10^th anniversary of the franchise. Their continued survival, in my opinion, will revolve around keeping the batting and pitching controls smooth, as well as further improvements of the graphics. To that end, this year's game made significant improvements.

For those with only the Xbox 360, MLB 2k10 is the only baseball video game available. For those with both the Xbox 360 and Playstation systems, MLB 10 The Show is available.

For the latter, The Show is a significantly better game with better graphics and smoother controls.

MLB 2k10 is available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DSTM and Windows PC. It is rated E for everyone. Prices vary per gaming platform.