It was back in October 2006 when 2K Sports first took the lid off their baseball game title, The BIGS (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP). Fast forward to today, the game now has a cover athlete and some of its features have also been divulged, now may be the best time to report an interview.

Over at Gamespot, they had a short chit-chat with Blue Castle Games' Jason Leigh. He talked about the game's development (which is going really well or so he says) and how they are creating an over-the-top arcade baseball game while still being true to a sport that is rich with tradition thanks to Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth among many others. To that, Jason said that:

Baseball is already an exciting game, so our focus was how to make the coolest stuff happen all the time. The BIGS is very much a solid representation of baseball, but taken to an entirely new level. The first thing that you'll notice with The BIGS is that it has a really cool arcade pace. There is minimal downtime, and everything feels faster and snappier. We put a lot of effort into our animation system to make sure that there is a lot of style and athleticism with the catches and throws. The players really do feel more heroic, even when pulling off routine plays. When they start to pull off the big moves--diving catches, double plays, wall catches, etc.--we really made sure to pay that off with bigger animations, audio, and presentation.

He also discussed the game's league challenge mode (which has now been renamed as "rookie challenge"). Basically, this mode will let you in on the usual "zero-to-hero journey" - you're in charge of harnessing a rookie player's talents, from spring training to being the World Series MVP. Spring training would include building your player's skills by using minigames as their training ground.

Once you've proven your mettle, you'll earn your playoff spot and all of a sudden your rookie would be carrying his team on and to the World Series. It's a long way to the top, so it's nice to note that there are some unlockable rewards - sunglasses, batter ditties, bat graphics, tattoos, and you can choose your rookie's nickname or moniker.

The BIGS on the Wii would use both the Wiimote and Nunchuk - and of course, you get to swing it like a bat and throw it like you would a baseball. Leigh also said that they are already in the final stages of refining the control scheme. Xbox Live Achievements like "get X strikeouts, get X home runs in a game...and pitch a perfect game" would also be put in place. Unfortunately, The BIGS won't be in the PS3 Home online service...well, "not this year" says Jason.

You can check out the full interview by clicking on our read link below.

Not set to be another MLB game, The BIGS from 2K Sports and Blue Castle Games (PS3, Xbox360, Wii, and PSP) is bent to set itself apart from all the other baseball titles. With outrageous power-ups, and special effects for fielding, pitching and batting, the upcoming title is shaping up to blaze up the charts.

2K Sports' president of visual concepts, Greg Thomas had this to say about the title:

With The BIGS, we want to take the baseball genre to new heights and redefine what a baseball video game can be. The BIGS has the fast learning curve of an arcade game coupled with deep play mechanics, amazing visuals, and hero-like presentation of real MLB players that will keep gamers coming back for more. The BIGS will showcase dramatic highlight reel moments at every at-bat, creating a truly epic baseball title.

We'll see how the visuals go in this baseball multi-platform videogame, hopefully when 2K decides to give us more than screenshots (*cough* videos *cough*). The BIGS screens today feature the different MLB stadiums - fans should recognize some landmarks on them - and the players. Anyway, there hasn't been any news of the exact release date but we'll keep you posted. For the meantime, check out the screenshots.

The rest of the screens right after the jump!

The lone screenshot from last November was the first look we had of 2K Sports' newest major league baseball game The BIGS. This time we've got the newest batch of screens for your eyes only.

The BIGS, aka MLB: The BIGS, is a multiplatform (Xbox360, PS3, PS2, PSP, and Wii) sports title developed by Blue Castle Games. It features online capabilities for up to four players, minigames to train the players (we imagine it might be like Virtua Tennis), and power ups. As far as the visuals go, we really can't complain. We're intrigued as to what the batter and pitcher are doing in the middle of a busy city street but we've yet to see those outrageous special effects.

We'll quit with the prattle now and keep our noses peeled for more info on this. The BIGS is slated to slide on the shelves in June 25 (according to Wikipedia). Check out the screens for now.

More screenshots come after the jump!