This game was played on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. No notable difference in performance or graphics was noted.

"Look what I found!"

Edgar Allan Poe was greatly underappreciated during his own lifetime. Yet despite the lack of a large following or far-reaching celebrity, the troubled writer kept on cranking out stories of the whacked-out and macabre until his premature and alcohol-fueled death in 1849. It wasn't until after his passing that his fame grew and he was finally appreciated for the genius that he was. Sure, I could simply end my review of 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K9 on that note, but as a serious gaming journalist, I'm not about taking shortcuts.

What does the misunderstood life of one of America's greatest writers have to do with a baseball videogame? Three words: "Total Control Pitching." Last year, MLB 2K8 introduced a revolutionary way to get the ball from the pitcher's mound to home plate. Borrowing from games like Fight Night and Skate, development tied everything -- from the placement of the ball to the speed and accuracy of the pitch -- to the analog sticks. Initially, I found the game's pitching controls to be beyond challenging. Yeah, it was cool when you were occasionally able to perfectly time and execute the three or four elements that had to happen for your curveball to end up where you wanted it to end up, but these flashes of coolness were grossly outnumbered by the amount of times that you didn't do everything quite right. If your timing or thumbsmanship were off just slightly, your pitch would end up getting drilled into the stands.

Despite my initial impressions, I stuck with MLB 2K8 and its steep learning curve, and eventually grew to appreciate the hell out of the pitching interface. The rest of the game was far from perfect -- especially when compared to Sony's MLB 08: The Show -- but the pitching was perhaps the deepest and most rewarding of any baseball game I'd played up to that point.

This is gonna be close.

And -- finally -- that brings us to Poe. Instead of sticking by its guns and waiting for the world to grow to understand the genius of the pitching scheme, developers for this year's game did a complete 180 and dumbed the pitching down to a far more simplistic and less rewarding level. I realize that Poe died still troubled by his personal demons, while the folks at 2K will go on to make plenty more games, but I think you understand my point.

The way that MLB 2K9 plays out of the box is the polar opposite of the way MLB 2K8 played out of the box last year. It's still a stick-centric experience, but the demands the game puts on your stick skills have been lessened in just about every way. And that sucks a lot of the fun and challenge from it.

The pitching system that made MLB 2K8 so challenging -- and frustrating -- still forces you to follow prescribed "gestures" with the right stick to pull off certain pitches, but the timing requirements have been cut in half. Instead of having to time your gesture (an up, down or circular movement with the right stick) and then time your release, all you have to do is wait until an on-screen meter fills, and then perform the gesture. You can tweak the controller setup to revert to a style similar to last year's arrangement, but it still doesn't feel the same.

At the plate, things have also been made more forgiving. This time around, instead of having to time your "step" -- when your batter loads his weight onto his back leg -- and then time your swing, now all you have to do is time the swing correctly. You still have to step, but your timing doesn't seem to be as important.

Ichiro doing what he does best.

In the field, the default game lets you use the face buttons (in addition to the right stick) to pick which base you're throwing to. You still have to keep an eye on your power, but it oversimplifies what was another very demanding part of last year's game. You can use the stick if you want, but since there's no option to toggle off the face-button-fielding, you'll probably stay with the far more friendly buttons.

I'm genuinely bummed out that 2K Sports has pulled such an about-face in terms of how this year's game is played. You can go under the hood and kick some of the difficulty level back to where it was last year, but that still doesn't capture what made 2K8 so interesting.

Where development has better luck is in the overall presentation of the game. Visually 2K9 still can't deliver what Sony's MLB 09: The Show throws onto the screen, but it's an improvement over MLB 2K8. Players are a little bit more recognizable. There's a definite drop-off in quality from the between-pitch and replay graphics to the actual gameplay graphics, but this is still the prettiest game in franchise history. One very nice touch is how clean the screen is now. Instead of having your entire arsenal of pitches on-screen when you're pitching, all you see is what your catcher called for. You can still call up your complete repertoire, but not having it constantly in your face gives the game a cleaner look.

The audio has improved as well. Joe Morgan and Jon Miller have finally been retired after too many years of repeating the same things over and over. Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips now man the booth and give the series a fresh sound.

The Freak about to deliver.

You now can skip having to play through an entire season, and jump right into a Postseason mode if you want, making every day feel like October. But one thing that didn't make the cut this year is the Situation mode that let you create any scenario and then play through it. That was a great way to get some adrenaline going when you didn't have enough time to play an entire nine innings. Otherwise, last year's Franchise and Home Run Derby modes return. Online, you can play a simple exhibition game against a total stranger, try to move your way up the hierarchy of online gamers in a ranked match, or join a league.

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I was expecting bolder things from Major League Baseball 2K9. Last year's offering raised the bar on innovative uses of the analog sticks in a baseball game, and I was hoping that the outside-the-box thinking and development would continue with this year's release. Instead, though, 2K9 delivers a watered-down take on what made 2K8 so interesting. If you're a baseball fan and only have access to an Xbox 360, you can tweak the game to make it a bit more entertaining than the default settings offer; but if you're a PS3 owner, once you check out MLB 09: The Show, you'll be saying "nevermore" to 2K9.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.