Major League Baseball 2K12 Game Modes Reviewer Impressions

Feature Article

Submitted on: 03/13/2012 by Phil Varckette

My Player

New this year in My Player is Player Roles. The roles are Slugger, All-around, Speedster, Utility, Ground Ball Pitcher and Closer. Whatever role you chose directly affects your starting attributes. From there, just like previous versions, you must earn your attribute points by doing what is asked of you on the field. This could be something like “get a base hit” or “put the ball in play.” You can also earn points by successfully fielding balls, stealing bases and scoring runs.

One of my biggest complaints with the mode is the fact that when I am running the bases and a ball is put into play I can barely see where its going. I have a hard time knowing if I should be legging out to the next base or if I should be waiting to see if the ball drops in. 2K definitely needs to think about working on the camera if there is a MLB 2K13 (which is looking unlikely).

Overall the mode is fun. It should keep you entertained during your quest for the majors.

MLB Today Season Mode

This new mode is basically MLB Today but behaves like a season mode. You play the games as they happen day to day. The rosters automatically update and the pitching rotations are set. The difference between the two modes is the fact that it keeps your record, standings and stats into account. Your game basically replaces that days real life game, stats and all. If you miss a day it simulates that game for you. You do have a chance to go back and play a game you missed or did poorly in if you turn the “One and Done” setting off. The mode seems like it could be fun and also seems to be well executed.

Online

Basically smooth as butter for me. Not much you can say other than that. I honestly don’t think I experienced any lag in the games that I played. There might have been an instance on a foul ball or two but that was it. Kudos to 2K.

State Farm Home Run Derby

There are two modes within this mode. There is classic home run derby and there is something called Best of the Best. In this mode you choose eight players. Each player gets three outs. The homerun totals are added up and the players with the most move on until you have a winner.

My only issue with Home Run Derby is the camera. As soon as you hit the ball, a graphic comes on the screen telling you if it’s a home run or an out. It totally takes away any suspense. To top it off, the camera cuts off the home run before it lands. This is mind boggling to me. I want to see where the ball lands. That’s part of the fun in home run derby. Overall its not bad. I can’t see myself coming back to it much though.

Franchise

The meat and potatoes for most sports gamers. To start us off, you have your standard fare. How many user controlled teams, difficulty level, number of games, fantasy draft and everything to the playoff formats to your minor league playoff formats. The coolest thing about Franchise this year is that 2K had the foresight to include an option for the new MLB playoff format.

Once you select your team, you can then set what you want to control. This is things like roster management, injury management and pitching rotation management. You can also set these options for your minor league clubs as well.

Once you have all of your settings in place, it's time to play ball. You are greeted with an MLB.com layout which features news from around the league. You also access your schedule from here.

After playing as many games as I could get in over the past few days, I have seen some anomalies. Lineups get wacky after injuries when you let the CPU handle them. I also saw a ton of injuries in my first season. It seemed like every few games I had an injury to deal with. I was also offered a lot of trades. Most of them were reasonable. I did notice that free agents tend to re-sign more often than they should. Maybe taking a hometown discount is back in style. As far as stats go, they seemed normal to me except one thing that really stood out. In one of the seasons I simulated, Hanley Ramirez won the NL MVP with a .256 average and 11 home runs. Very strange to say the least.

It would take me all night to get into every little nuance of franchise mode. There seems to be some issues present that detract from the experience again this year. Hopefully 2K will rectify these with a patch.
Overall, I think you can have fun with Franchise mode if you are willing to overlook some wonky things and have the time and effort to put into it.

Be sure to check out my full review coming soon.

Major League Baseball 2K12 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 MizzouRah @ 03/13/12 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool


	You don't have to insult. I've never played the game. I didn't see any option at all and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure it out. Sorry that you are so much better than me because you found the options. You must feel pretty good about yourself!

C'mon man.. did you really play the game? It's not that hard to find the other hitting and pitching options.

# 2 Money99 @ 03/13/12 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool


	You don't have to insult. I've never played the game. I didn't see any option at all and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure it out. Sorry that you are so much better than me because you found the options. You must feel pretty good about yourself!

If you go into the controller options you can click one of the trigger buttons and it'll go to classic hitting.
I think the gesture-pitching is the best form of pitching on the market. And I feel hitters-eye is far more realistic than guess-pitch.

2K has it's issues, no doubt. And if you're used to The Show it might be tough to play anything else.
But I'm really enjoying 2K12. I find it's easier out of the box and the game is just plain fun.

# 3 timmymvp6 @ 03/13/12 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool


	Am I going to get in trouble for being honest? I'm not trying to be funny or even annoying. All I know is I saw this game at Red Box the other day so I thought, "Why not?" Now if they had The Show I would have grabbed that but I had to take what they had. I want my $2.16 back please! This was the worst sports video game I have ever played. I'm not even kidding and I've played some bad ones in my day. There was nothing I could do with it. I hate the way I have to pitch and hit. I'm sure it works for some people but why not give us the option to use old school controls if we want. I don't want to spend 4 hours trying to learn how to swing a bat in a video game. The game looked goofy and cartoonish. Nobody looked right outside of Justin Verlander. You can't even get David Ortiz right? Come on! Now I know I'm spoiled because I play The Show and it's such a great game but how is MVP 04 better than this game? The ONLY thing that I took away that was positive was the commentary seemed refreshing but that might be because The Show is getting a little stale in that department. Guys must like this game, I don't see how, other than you have an XBOX and it's your only option. I'm not a fanboy. I really wanted a reason to like this game.

i agree I have The Show it is so much better and the controls in 2K12 are confusing. I have done a power swing with Pujols and he barely hits the ball close to the warning track. I hope this is 2K's last year making baseball games.

# 4 kashmir28 @ 03/13/12 05:55 PM

Never got why 2K needed to put their own spin on the Derby, but the format is at least bearable compared to the awful camera presentation during the Derby. The only balls you see land are one hit directly to center or to the very close right or left of center. Considering the year or two when 2K's homerun collision detection was non-existent, when was the last year 2K actually had a Derby setup worth playing?

# 5 TheNumber35 @ 03/13/12 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timmymvp6


	i agree I have The Show it is so much better and the controls in 2K12 are confusing. I have done a power swing with Pujols and he barely hits the ball close to the warning track. I hope this is 2K's last year making baseball games.

Smh...this is a 2K forum first off, and I believe that the first rule of these forums is that there can be no mention of "The Other Game"

Secondly, Not to sound snide or like I'm trying to be rude but can we please think and give something a fair chance before we criticize? Play for more than an hour before we rule this "the worst game ever". And while some people may not like the 2K controls, saying they are confusing is the wrong word for it. The controls are very intuitive and can be learned in a half hour or so. And if that's not for you, there is an option to go to classic controls which is quite easy to find. Too difficult for you is the correct word you were looking for, which is fine...just don't deceive individuals who haven't played the series yet into thinking they are confusing, as they aren't.

Thirdly, I want to talk about the bolded part. You take issue because you couldn't hit the ball to the warning track with Pujols on a power swing...let me tell you something: there is more to hitting a ball than swinging for the fences every time. You can't guarantee a power swing automatically makes the ball travel further and not include factors such as timing of the swing, and the pitch you swing at. Any baseball game that lets you do that without taking those factors into account is an unrealistic one. You have to actually time the ball out and swing at good pitches to drive the ball. If the logic presented in this post was true, guys like Pujols would just "Power Swing" every time and hit 100+ HR in a season. If you want that, go play The Bigs 2.

My issue is with people who played the game for less than a day critcizing it. Whenever someone who hardly touches a game criticizes it, I really draw issue to it. All I hear is this:

And I hope they make 2K13, because this year's title is a solid improvement on year's past and I think VC is really making excellent progress considering how awful 2K9 and 10 were. 11 was decent and 12 is pretty good, has definite replay value in my opinion (and in the opinions of many respected people around this site)

Rant over, sorry for being that guy but the last comment really rubbed me the wrong way and I don't want people representing this game in a negative light without giving it a fair chance. And no, I'm not a 2K fanboy (because I know that's the first defense coming for people)...I was one of the most critical people of them last year and in year's past. Give them some credit instead of undeservedly bashing them into the ground.

EDIT: I just re-read this rant lol, wanted to make it clear I AM NOT talking about the reviewer here, he did an excellent job and I am not implying he didn't give this game its fair chance, I'm referring to the others here

# 6 Money99 @ 03/13/12 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockitOldSchool


	Thanks Money99. I went into the options menu and it was very limited. I even backed out of the game and went into the main option screen and there was nothing. I didn't take it any further than that since it was only a rental. I already turned it in. If I happen to pick it up again at least I know how to do it. I thought the pitching was ok. The hitting was what really bothered me. I don't care much for the stick hitting.

No problem. I don't care for analog hitting either.
I think if you try it with classic hitting where you only press "A" you'll see quite a bit of hit variety and HR's.

Have fun with the other game. It's very well done. But maybe if you get bored, or feel like trying something different, give 2K another shot.
The flaws have been well documented, but there's some fun gameplay under the hood.

Good luck and go Tigers!

# 7 davis420 @ 03/13/12 09:21 PM

This game has it's problems as most games now days. Overall, I like playing it for a change of pace. The announcing is top notch. Some of the players are awful looking but I'm willing to look past that when I'm playing. I just switched to classic hitting this year with MKHarshs' sliders and rosters and the game plays good. I just wish you could take his rosters into the MLB Today mode.

# 8 tril @ 03/14/12 09:47 AM

2k12 is solid as usual. At this point in time there is no need to compare this title to the other game. and who ever said that the control schemes are difficult on 2k, Id like to add that they are basically the same in the other title (analog controls). and the more basic contola are available also
The qualit of graphics is better than average on the PC. The ball physics and the new pitching feature is a great plus. its actually as good as pulse pitching. the new fielding spot is also well executed.

I like 2k12 as well as the other the title

# 9 ROSStafarian @ 03/14/12 11:07 AM

Yeah I gotta disagree here, im fairly new to baseball games (I was a huge EAsports fan, NCAA baseball 06-07 and going way back to tripleplay) so last year I had that baseball itch come back so I gave MLB2k11 a shot and was fairly disappointed but being a huge NBA2k fan I gave this year another shot and I hafta say i was impressed and its pretty hard to put the controller down and walk away from this game. Most the time that's a sign of a good game.

# 10 willIam9387 @ 03/14/12 04:10 PM

2k12 on the PC is a blast to play and a pretty solid baseball title. Yeah it has bugs and plays awkwardly from time to time, but overall this is one of the most fun baseball games I've ever played and too me that's most important and the sole reason I buy videogames is for the fun factor.

# 11 GuyinPA75 @ 03/14/12 10:47 PM

I really am enjoying 2k12. The pitching is stellar as last couple years. Batting not too shabby. Having to set your feet for fielding is pure genius move. Truly adds another level of play to the game. And YES the hitting distribution is much much much better this time out.

Only thing that hurts this game is the online. Most people just abuse the game and exploit everything they can. Plus it is sooo lame to play against either, Yankees, Rangers, Phillies, nearly every game. I only use the Pirates (being a real fan that supports a team that never does much).

Its not the games fault online is horrible -- its the scrubs that play as they do to ruin it for everyone else. But they can really put some work into online if 2k13 happens.

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