2K Sports is supposedly fixing the issues found in its latest game, Major League Baseball 2K6. If the company squashes the bugs, we will re-evaluate the product and score it accordingly.

I should teach a seminar one day. I know I'm not much of a teacher, and I could probably do without ever trying to grade any kind of hand-written reports for accuracy and such, but I just want to sit down with someone and basically talk to them about what makes a video game tick. I'll tell you what DOESN'T make it tick, and that's quickness. Quickness is an easy way out when a developer could do so much more with a game, but doesn't either because a. they have no time, b. they have no energy, or c. both. Here, it's hard to say what applies for Major League Baseball 2K6 for the 360, but any way you look at it, it's a big-time failure.

I know, I know, the same studio that made NBA 2K6 shine like a golden apple instead delivers us another one, just like NHL 2K6 and College Hoops 2K6 before it. But Major League Baseball 2K6 surprisingly ends up a little bit worse, due to the fact that the game has several technical problems with it. First of all, it features a series of bugs and glitches that make the effort feel utterly rushed. And then you have the graphics, which gave the promise of next-gen excitement from so many early screenshots for the game, but end up being nothing more than glossed-over and ported from the Xbox and PS2 versions, available on the market for $20 cheaper.

But the real unforgivable thing here is that the game freezes. This is something you'd think that the testing department would catch like right away, but somehow they were asleep at the wheel. Or asleep on the highway. Oh, well, the point is, they were asleep. Three different times out of my several testing sessions with the game, the action stopped and forced me to reset my Xbox 360 to start all over again. This doesn't bode well with a match-up between the Red Sox and the White Sox, and forces the game to lose much of its momentum. Worse yet, 2K Sports has acknowledged the problem, but offered nothing in the way of solution. That's like saying you've got a defective ice cream cone and the only advice they give you is to eat it up before it melts. Yeah, real helpful.

That's too bad, because, aside from that, the game is workable. It features the boisterous General Manager mode and World Baseball Classic that the previous version did, making it an ideal pick for those who want everything out of their baseball game. The pitching and hitting interfaces are genuine, with the use of an analog stick coming into play for the batting that makes it feel so much more natural than anything EA Sports has attempted, and the pitching, which puts you behind the mound, has terrific feeling with a variety of things coming into play. Throw too many power pitches and you actually begin shaking- your pitcher becomes rattled. Very cool.

But, again, flaws come up. The AI involved with the fielding and baserunning needs some serious work in this version. Way too often, I've missed an easy up-the-field ball because the runner went the wrong damn way, or let a pop fly slip right through my fingers as the opposing team ran in a couple of crucial runs. This is far from the brilliance I experienced in last year's edition, and it left me disappointed that this wasn't fixed for what was supposed to be the more superlative version on the market.

Worse yet, the commentary seems to get a slight bit more repetitive here, and, coupled with the average presentation and the bugs, it just makes it that much more of a disappointment. You'd think for a $20 price bump and the new technology at hand, some more effort would've gone into making Major League Baseball 2K6 the superlative version on the market, the one everyone looks to as they sigh and play on with their current system of choice. But it's a joke, really. The only reason I'm giving it any decent rating at all is because, WHEN it works, most of the gameplay system is fine, the modes are thorough, and the online play is decent. That is, WHEN it works.

It's not too late. Kush Games and 2K Sports have a chance to make things right. Offer a download that fixes the bugs, prep a World Series Edition for the summer with fixes and some new additions, or, hell, just start from scratch and make a true defining next-gen baseball experience for next year. It's not like anyone else is going to anytime soon, since they're the exclusive rights holders. But to sit back and let gamers experience this and try to justify the $60 price, it simply can't be done. Major League Baseball 2K6 is a failure that should be avoided, especially in favor of Major League Baseball 2K5: World Series Edition, available for $40 less. Sure, the stats may be old, but that's the complete baseball experience. All this game ends up being is a complete mess. Class dismissed.