MLB 2K8 Game of The Week: Red Sox vs. Rockies

[brendanrfoley]

Yeah, about the bullpen management...

I can say, with relative confidence, Francona would probably leave Okajima in to face Holiday in that situation. Tito has a slow hook and Okajima is a damn good reliever.

The Sox also use Paps in 1 inning save situations as much as possible. It wasn't until the playoffs the rolled him out in the 8th on a regular basis.

[Spectre]

I'm excited- this game seems to be playing nicely. As someone who was very frustrated by 2K7, I think this one has made great progress.

There's no way I'm making any judgments of how the game looks after seeing that compressed video.

[stealyerface]

Quote: Originally Posted by brendanrfoley

Yeah, about the bullpen management... I can say, with relative confidence, Francona would probably leave Okajima in to face Holiday in that situation. Tito has a slow hook and Okajima is a damn good reliever. The Sox also use Paps in 1 inning save situations as much as possible. It wasn't until the playoffs the rolled him out in the 8th on a regular basis.

I am assuming the game made the switch for the Righty-Righty matchup, and I agree, with Holliday hitting 50 points higher against Rightys than Leftys, Oki probably gets a crack at him.

On the other hand, it is nice to see the CPU bullpen stray away from the conventional programming of the closer ONLY being put in in the 9th. I know that Mo gets called on a lot in the 8th to clean up the mess the rest of the Yankee bully gets into, so by at least allowing that type of thing to happen within the game, I am okay with it.

SYF

[dodgerblue]

Quote: Originally Posted by brendanrfoley

The amount of criticism is overwhelming to me, at this point, considering most of us haven't played 2K8 at this point. Those who have played it, across the board, say it's a much better experience. What happened to all those who said... "keep the graphics, just fix the gameplay" ? Now they're lurking in this forum saying... "Blah! It looks the same as last year!" It seems to me like Kush did spend a great amount of time fixing gameplay issues. So why are we complaining again? I watched this videos and liked what I saw. Smooth animations, good hit variety, etc. There was not an over abundance of homeruns, and there were no repeated leaping catches at the wall. I think we all agree those were some of the biggest problems last year. Maybe it's because we don't have a demo, maybe everyone is just cranky. Who knows. But every one of these 2K8 threads dissolves into one of two things... "Bat sounds suck" or "The Show is better." Enough already. I'm here to talk 2K8, under the hood, and how the game plays. And from what I've seen, it looks like it PLAYS a better game of baseball. That's enough to get me stoked.

You took the words out of my mouth!

[Dlas26]

Quote: Originally Posted by stealyerface

Well, aside from the Nitpick Nellies trying to stir the crap pile, I saw what looks to be a darn good game of baseball. The Redsox fans here will attest to the fact that the mannerisms for the pitchers and batters are spot on. The stances, pre-bat routines (as much as we could see as he vaulted through most of them) the strike out reactions, everything to me looked right on. Pedroia beating the throw on the grounder down third, and the way he turned back towards the ump to see if he got the call was perfect. Lugo does hit homeruns from time to time, and the ball he hit out in the 5th was right in his wheel house. No issue there. To the guys who keep saying that Pap coming out in the 8th with two outs to get a 4 out save or a hold is a glitch in the AI... Watch a Redsox game sometime. Whiny nitpickers. Overall, this video got me more excited about next week than any so far. A close game, a gaff in the outfield with the two fielders looking at the ball and no one making the play, Ellsbury taking third with good baserunning, the umpire obviously giving the low strike throughout the game, a couple of nice pitch sequences by the Rockies, and the curveball was definitely fooling the big hitters for the Sox.... On the crowd noise/ambiance argument.... Although it is the same people who are the biggest chirpers about this, I saw plenty of crowd interaction and cheering and booing in the right spots during the video. I heard more noise on two strike counts, Manny's chant, J.D. Dreeeeeeew when he was at the plate, nice cheering for the strike outs of the Rockie players.... I am not sure what the chirpers are looking for other than a fight of something to complain about. I had the crowd cheering at the right spots, and I am sure some of the crowd interaction would be a bit more raucus if the scene were to have been able to play out a bit more. At least a replay or two of some of the infield outs that resulted in the third out anyway.... I saw some nice reaction when Drew crossed the plate with him slapping his hands together, the crowd reacted accrdingly with the DP the Sox turned in the ninth.... I am not sure what some of the whiners are looking for, but if this is a 90% build, I sure am excited for what the 100% finsihed product will offer next week. We saw two HR from that bast**d Holliday, a shot off the Monster for a double, a grounder get beat out by Pedroia, some nice SS work by Lugo, a miscommunication in the outfield for two runs, a shot to almost tie it by Papi in the 9th with a great catch at the wall (no wall climb), and in all, a very entertaining close 1 run ball game. I think now with the release so close at hand, it is time for the little trolls to head back to Show land, and figure out how to stir the shizit pile someplace else. I love reading the posts by guys who have 6 under their belts, and a grasp of the English language that suggests that perhaps a bit more time working on those 8th grade studies and less time trolling gaming sites would be a fresh direction to work on. We know you like the Show, we know you played baseball all your life (yeah okay), and we know that anything 2k is not awesome. Thanks for your valuable insight, now head on back under the bridge and see if you can finally catch those pesky Billy Goats Gruff you have been chasing since Grimm wrote about you all those years ago. You are no longer welcome here. SYF

Damn finally someone who is standing up for this game

[Spectre]

Quote: Originally Posted by dodgerblue

You took the words out of my mouth!

Not only that, but people are willing to say the graphic look "meh" based on a video that has been compressed down to a miniscule level.

I'll trust the words of OS guys who have seen the full game in action (Z, for example) who said the game looks "beautiful" rather than the hyperbolic statements made by most on this board.

[Pared]

I just watched that play in short center over again where they dropped the ball...

You guys are kidding yourself if you think that was "miscommunication" amongst the fielders. The user, controlling the CF, wasn't in the right spot to catch the ball.

Now you can take this one of two ways:

1) The catch animations will have an issue in that they don't trigger when they're supposed to, causing you to drop the ball. Not good.

or

2) The game will penalize the user for not being in the right spot almost perfectly.

Take it as you will... but in no way was that a "miscue" by the outfielders.

[Dlas26]

Have you noticed that there is a HUGE troll problem here at the 2k sports board and on the show board there is a relatively low troll population.........I think that this shows that most 2k fans dont go around trying to damage teh reputation of a game to prove that our game is better;