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

[Pared]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rebel10

Just to be fair, MVP was a three year project from MVP 2003, and MVP 2003 was a great base to build the series from. MLK 2K6 and MLB 2K7 were not a good base to build the series from, they had fundamental flaws in gameplay that had to really redone and rebuilt. The core gameplay of MVP 2003 and MVP 2004 had some flaws, but was a good core gameplay that they could then use to focus on the rest of the game... the engine was strong. I do not think that the MLB 2K engine is strong, I think that it's weak and should be redone... but there just isn't enough time in a year to redo it. I'm still probably going to get MLB 2K8, well, I will definitely get it because I need a baseball game and only have a 360... but there really have to be a lot of significant improvements to 2K7 to make it a worthwhile purchase. I'm not going to make my final decision until I have the game, but after some mixed previews and some disapointing videos, I am feeling some deja vu with last year... which really disapointed me.

You raise some good points... but if you go back and look how much better MVP2004 was over MVP 2003 then I think we're following a very similar route.

I personally enjoyed the heck out of MVP 2004... especially on the PC. MVP05 just took it to another level. If they really worked on the in-game logic and focused on the gameplay (which is what they have been saying all along) I think many a baseball gamer should be happy.

What's nice is there is at least some alternative, unlike football. Even if you have to get a PS3 and you're a 360 only guy... there IS an alternative for something this year.

I still wouldn't worry too much. I'm less than enthused with the videos but I know I had fun for a short while with 2k7. The franchise bugs and some gameplay quirks were my biggest peeves... as I'm sure it was the same for some others. I really think they addressed that this year.

And if you hated the commentary in 2k7, it can only be at least slightly better in 2k8, right? Try and be positive here. At the least you turn it off much like last year, similar to what someone else posted.

[ab713]

Quote: Originally Posted by specialman

Perhaps some insight? How do you not think this is a strong base to build off? Seems fine to me.

I think his point was that, with MVP 2003, EA started from scratch and built a solid gameplay foundation to move the series along towards MVP 2005. Even though 2k8 is the second year of a three year cycle, it is using code based off of at the very least 2K6, which was a terrible game. I'm pretty sure a lot of the code might even be older then that.

[PVarck31]

Kushgamer said they got rid of most of the old code and re-wrote it.

[lived]

One thing that worries me. A lot of singles and homeruns. The CPU had over 10 hits yet only managed 3 runs.

[ehh]

Quote: Originally Posted by pjv31

Kushgamer said they got rid of most of the old code and re-wrote it.

That's interesting, the game largely seems the same from 2K7 from the vids even though BB said the game "feels" entirely different. I know next to nothing about video game code, but wouldn't the graphics/animations, etc be part of the code? Or does code just apply to gameplay?

[PVarck31]

Quote: Originally Posted by ehh

That's interesting, the game largely seems the same from 2K7 from the vids even though BB said the game "feels" entirely different. I know next to nothing about video game code, but wouldn't the graphics/animations, etc be part of the code? Or does code just apply to gameplay?

I am pretty sure the code has nothing to do with the graphics.

[Betterai]

Just want to calm a few people down

This is a preview build, I've stated that many times...any quirks you see now will not be in the final build

The vids were compressed, converted and whatever transitions they go through before being posted on the net......I would not judge the game based on the quality of those videos.....

I will post some HD videos later this week, but they will be super short....

DJ Rhude

[Rebel10]

Quote: Originally Posted by specialman

Perhaps some insight? How do you not think this is a strong base to build off? Seems fine to me.

As some of the interviews have suggested prior to 2K8's release, a lot of the code was four, five, and six years old, perhaps older as Brinkman suggested. Components of 2K6 and 2K7 felt fundamentally broken, hit selection, the physics of the ball and the bat and where balls would go after being hit, fielding elements, suspect base running components. Many of these can be tightened up, but similar to how Triple Play 2002 (which came out, remember, 2 years before MVP if my memory serves me), the mechanics of the game feel wrong... and I think that most people would agree with me about this, at least people who play a lot of baseball games over the years.

Now, I do not think that it's a lost cause so to speak. They can tweak and patch and rewrite a lot of the code to get it up to snuff, but it seems like they're doing this every year. MLB 2K7 was supposed to be "A Whole New Ball Game," which was an obvious reference to that MLB 2K6 was a horrible mess, and 2K7 was the re-emergence of the series, however aside from many of the basic flaws being fixed and the game being cleaned up, core aspects of the gameplay were goofed up (those that I mentioned above), which made for other elements to be overlooked (the broken manager mode where you could not substitute players, roster management, etc).

Most reactions to MVP 2003, the first, were of surprise. Triple Play was such a poor game that nobody was expecting EA to rebuild and completely revitalized their series... and they did. 2K7 did not ditch 2K6, which I think that it had to do to really move forward. 2K8 seems like they've started to ditch 2K6, by dumping a lot of the old code that Brinkman mentioned in interviews. However, it's three games deep into the next gen series... how long do we have to wait until they're back up to the quality of the products made four years ago? And by then, are we going to switch to the new batch of consoles and then the same excuses will be made? When MLB 2K11 appears on the Playstation 4 and the next 360, is it going to be the same story as MLB 2K6, where the game inexplicably falls in on itself and then we have to have another "three year project," before the game is up to the bar set three or four years before?

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm trashing 2K8... I'm not, I am hopefully optimistic for 2K8. However, 2K7 wasn't the "whole new ball game" that was talked about, it was an improvement of a really bad game from the year before, but when you're building on a shakey foundation (which we can all agree, 2K6 was a shakey foundation), adding more floors is not going to necessarily make anything better. With 2K8 trashing a lot of the old code, this game may be the solid foundation that the series needs, but it will be depressing to know that MLB 2K10, or whatever it is called then, will be the next baseball game to capture what another series did some five or six years previously.

Hopefully that explains my position a little bit better, and I don't want to sound like I'm trashing the series. I have a strong fondness for Brinkman, having had the opportunity to get to tap into his mind a little during the development stages of MVP '06.