Lately I’ve been playing a lot of the baseball game I have on PS3, and mostly online. There is something about playing a human opponent that is so much more satisfying than playing the computer. The game still has some network related kinks, but the gameplay is downright solid. All you need to see is me pumping my fists after getting a groundout in the bottom of the 9th to secure a 2-1 win. It’s awesome.

The game is ultra-realistic when you’re playing another human because you can get inside their head. For example, early on you can start to figure out what type of player they are. Some people have zero patience and swing at everything. Even if the pitch is in the dirt, they still swing. In my most impressive outing yet I struck out a guy 22 times in a game. It’s so advanced that you can fool people. Sometimes I’ll throw a fastball pretty far outside so that it’s unhittable, and a decent player will lay off the pitch. But then the next pitch I’ll come back a little closer to where the ball is just outside the zone, but the previous pitch makes it look like a strike. Usually people will swing, and if they don’t miss, they get horrible wood on the ball and make an out.

In addition to the batter/pitcher duel, sometimes games are downright intense. In my last game I went down 1-0 early to the Phillies. I was putting men on base, but I was having a horrible time capitalizing. I eventually put a run across on a double-play ground out and made it 1-1. Lowe had pitched a good 7 innings for me, so I brought in Olmedo Saenz to face the lefty with 1 out and nobody on. He left a pitch out over the plate and the Killer Tomato put the ball over the fence, 2-1 Dodgers. Billingsley held it in the 8th, and Saito came in for the 9th. Everything was great in the 9th until Ryan Howard doubled with 1 out. Next batter grounded out and Howard took 3rd on the play. With the tying run at third and 2 out Saito was able to induce a groundout to win the game 2-1. It was awesome.

So far I’m 19-6. You can see my online profile here. Unfortunately you can’t see all the fun statistics that you can in the game, like ERA, k/9, HR/game, etc, but they do show your average. I’m batting .318 as of this posting, which is pretty good if you ask me.