(2K Sports)
Xbox 360

To riff on Yeats, "Making games is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." Major League Baseball 2K7 is full of bells and whistles—lifelike players, enough sports stats to give Joe Torre headaches—but it doesn't light my fire. Even the game's big new trick (you have to move the control stick one way to step into the pitch and then the other way to swing) doesn't really satisfy. Has anyone at 2K Sports ever swung a bat? Hitting is about picking a bat, testing the wind, rocking back, twisting the body, and unleashing. I bet that Wii controller looks pretty good right now.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game—with reservations. It's a deep console sim with MTV-like cut scenes for dramatics. But it also has soul-crushingly boring TV announcers (Joe Morgan, anyone?) and a crowd full of faces and that repeat just a bit too often. While last year's 2K6 had some decent upgrades, 2K7 often feels like programmers were asleep at the wheel, err, keyboard. A story mode might have been nice. Take me through the lives of some legends, from Babe Ruth to that guy Adam Greenberg, whose career nearly ended after he was hit by the first pitch during his first rookie at-bat. Whatever. Just surprise me. I'm running out of Yeats quotes.—Harold Goldberg

LINKS
• Read all about it, nerd
• 2K Sports online