The Show 09 = IMPOSSIBLE!
Playing a game against the computer on any level (rookie, veteran, all star etc) are all impossible. Good luck trying to win a game. I started a season against the computer on veteran and I have lost 13 straight games (most of them have been blow outs) and have no wins at all! Flash back to my record on the Show 08, where on veteran level, I have 67 wins and 10 losses.
The computer really owns you and it seems to get all the breaks. For example, there is a ''bad luck'' factor working against you in this game when you play against the computer. My catcher will throw the ball away or let a pitch get by him 3 or 4 times in a game and the A.I. will totally take advantage of that. Come on, I know this happens in baseball, but 4 times in one game?
The A.I. will not swing or chase at any pitches outside the zone, and it will manage to hit everything you throw when you put the ball in the zone. Even if you try to keep the ball down and away, the A.I. will find a way.... If you're lucky to have a runner on base with nobody out, the computer will shut you down. Most of the hits you struggle to get will be singles. Meanwhile, the computer is able to hit through the cycle, have multiple home runs, and get doubles and triples with ease, and has a uncanny ability to get freaky ''bloop'' singles just out of your players reach over and over again. None of those hits ever come easy for you. This game is so one sided in the computer's favor.
Don't even bother trying to follow the ''guess pitch'' feature. It's 100% misleading and completely useless. You can guess the pitch is going to be a fastball (and be right) and the computer shows you that the location of the fastball is going to be low and out of the zone and tells you not to chase it. Then you get the pitch and it ends up being a curve ball in the middle of the plate! It's almost like to computer lies to you.
They really made this game way too hard to enjoy playing. The hitting is so frustrating. It really isn't fun to play when you know you don't have a hope in hell to make comeback or win. Most of the games that I played my team was always down by a few runs in the first or second inning. Sure, you can play online and win a game against a human player which is fun, but the whole point of baseball is to play 162 game season and follow your stats. Baseball has always been a comeback game, even teams in the majors who are down 6 runs can come back and win, but with The Show 09 the only thing to comeback to is losing! I can't imagine playing 162 games of this game.....it's way too frustrating and unfair.
Don't get me wrong, The Show 09 is beautiful looking but that doesn't make it better than The Show 08. The most important part of any game before graphics, sound, A.I. etc is game play, and The Show 09 fails in that category. Yes, the game is totally the most realistic baseball game ever as Sony has been advertising, but that's not a good thing. This game is simply too hard and too unfair to continue wasting my time playing. Playing against the computer on The Show 09 feels a lot like a high school baseball team with cracked bats playing against a juiced up 1929 Yankees with corked bats. Not exactly fair is it? I was going to sell off my copy of The Show 08, but now I think I'll keep it. It lacks the polish that 09 has, but it was a baseball game that was fair, but most of all it was fun to play.