Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[Bwnarrow3]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpcool202020

OK, so I opened the game and slid it in my Xbox 360. The first thing I did was clear my cache and download the update. I turn the fielding view to arial, and I turn the strike zone off (other than that, I keep out of box settings). I start up a play now game with the Cards vs. the Cubs. Here's what I found: 1. Framerate issue: I'm not sure what other people are seeing, but I have zero framerate dropping issues. I am using a 1080i setup, and I did not experience any slowdown after a ball was hit anywhere. There are a few hiccups now and then during cutscenes and replays, but other than that, no problem. I see now that this issue has been blown way out of proportion. 2. Atmosphere/Presentation: As expected, the presentation is very similar to last year, with only small changes here and there. I would suggest to turn up all the croud and atmosphere volume because tat helps make the game feel better to me. Nothing to write home about, but not a game killer either. 3. Gameplay: Pitching is amazing. I love the different pitch motions, and the system is not as hard as people keep saying. Just run the tutorial for 5 minutes an you'll be on your way. I will say that I believe the difficulty should actually be raised through sliders because through 9 innings I threw zero meatball pitches. Basically, all of my pitches went in the general area that I intended. I'm sure the slider guru's will help here. Oh, and gotta love the actual pitch signals from the catcher. Batting is much better than last year. The hit variety is amazing, and you can now make contact with anything near the strike zone. This will make for more foul balls and higher pitch counts. However, this is also an area where the slider guru's will have to help. We'll need even more foul balls, and less contact from the user side. The cpu side seemed pretty good though. Again, I was using out-of box settings. Oh, and you can actually check swings. Fielding is 1000 times better than last year, and actually reminds me of that one game called MVP 05. I'm in love with the arial view. The throwing mechanics feel natural, and just right. Don't think I'll ever be able to go back to just pressing buttons again. On the cpu side, they seem to make good decisions when it comes to fielding and throwing the ball. Baserunning is much better as well, as many people here have stated. 4. Graphics/Animation: Here is the only place where i see a slight problem so far. And I do mean SLIGHT. The resolution did take a slight hit this year (grass, player faces, etc.), however it still looks pretty good overall. I remember seeing one guy on here post that the game reminds him of PS1. Haha. That guy should tryout for Comic View. The animations on the other hand are smooth and look really great. I've already seen a few animations that weren't in last year. Overall, I'm impressed with this game, and dare I say, I think it's better than 2K7. I never played The Show so I won't try to compare, but I must say that anyone who liked last years game at all will love 2K8. With all the gameplay enhancements (which is what we wanted, right?), and the franchise upgrades (controlling cpu rosters, and full minor leagues), this game is pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be. What's with all this negativity? This game plays great out of the box as well. Can't wait to see what the slider guys can do with this. And don't get me started on the full rosters, minor leagues and all. I may be playing this game for a long time. I'd give this game an 8.5 out of 10 so far. And that's just leaving room for the presentation and graphics improvements that should take place next year. I may post some more impressions later as I find new things. Peace.

Wow, what a great review. The same thing happened to me. I think you only have an issue with the framerate/graphics if you have zero-tolarance for them. Some people, like me, don't notice the things like that. I agree about not seeing hardly anything wrong with this game, and I agree with the 8.5/10.

[bigfnjoe96]

Quote: Originally Posted by FootballForever

Joe I know your trying to help make the game better, but Your shouldn't have to take you HDD off and then change settings to make the game run better, this was just a bad apple put out, it seems like Take Two and 2Ksports knew the game had issue and still released like it is, it's not the worst thing in the world, but it kinda seems they ripped us off a bit.

I now this FF & believe I'm very mad that they allow this game to ship without double checking to make sure the game info is caching correctly with the System Hard Drive. How they allowed this slip is beyond me..

[scott4171]

Ok, I started to play more games and starting to like the pitching and getting used to it. However, I customized my own sliders and I have CPU power and contact pretty low and they are still hitting home runs. WTF. Can anyone post good sliders for this game. I also wanna go deep in the count when I am hitting. Is their a thread going to be put up for good sliders pitch count etc...SOme how the glitch isn't happening anymore when I am playing in 1080i wierd...lol Its ony slighly better then 2k7 I think

[Sportsforever]

After reading these impressions earlier today I almost didn't pick the game up on my way home from work, but I went ahead and gave it a shot and wow...glad I did.

I started up a game and I was intent on seeing how the frame rate was. Instead, I got caught up in trying to figure out how to pitch and I realized I had played two innings without checking out the frame rate, which obviously is good since I hadn't noticed it. In fact, for me the game is SILKY smooth from the behind the pitcher camera. From the behind the plate I only get a very slight reduction every so often, but it is so slight I don't even notice it. Honestly, 99% of the time the game is SO smooth it reminds me of 2K4 the way it runs. I am on a 60 inch Sony 1080P(and running it at 1080P).

I have gotten about 10 innings in and I am very impressed...feels like MVP to me and I have seen stuff that has made go WOW.

Couple of things I've seen:
- Braves @ Reds and the batter hits a foul pop fly down the RF line. Francouer comes over to the wall, leaps up, and catches the ball out of the stands. Very nice.

- Brian McCann on 1st and Matt Diaz at the plate. Diaz hits a ground ball to 3B and they go to turn two...I go in hard at 2nd with McCann who takes out the 2nd baseman as he is trying to take the ball out of his glove. The ball pops out and rolls into short RF as Diaz is able to race into 2nd. Beautifully done.

- Tex at the plate and he hits a line drive that is just rising towards CF...I'm thinking homer or at least a double. Griffey goes back, on the dead run, leaps and catches it at the top of the wall...I jumped up in disbelief and had to watch the replay.

- Encarnacion hit a long drive down the left field line that was hooking, hooking...and hit the foul pole bouncing back into LF. There were no indications it was going out...Miller was like...it's hooking, hooking, and GONE.

- I did get to a 3-0 count and the CPU didn't throw it down the pipe..it was a fastball up and away.

- I simmed a month into franchise and didn't see one big name player traded (a bunch of minor leaguers) and none of the lineups were jacked up (in fact, they looked pretty close to the opening day lineups).

I played a lot of 2K7 and enjoyed it and I must say this game so far is LEAPS and BOUNDS ahead of it. I'm sorry folks are having framerate issues, but I am seriously amazed at how smooth it is after reading everything on here that I did. I'm headin' back to the ballpark...

[bigfnjoe96]

Quote: Originally Posted by Damanjinx

hmm it wouldnt surprise me one bit if this is the case, tell me if im on the same page bigfnjoe, basically when your playing your hard drive is basically scanning everything so just in case you make a good play ect...it stores it in the hard drive for Inning Highlights, Player Highlights ect.. so that is causing the frame rate problem....i can see that, can you turn on Cut scenes and see if you still have the same lag... Probably still since the harddrive is determing what players are on the field to do the cutscene.. but i love cutscenes couldnt care less about the inning highlights and that crap. Thanks

You got-it buddy

[The GIGGAS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sportsforever

After reading these impressions earlier today I almost didn't pick the game up on my way home from work, but I went ahead and gave it a shot and wow...glad I did. I started up a game and I was intent on seeing how the frame rate was. Instead, I got caught up in trying to figure out how to pitch and I realized I had played two innings without checking out the frame rate, which obviously is good since I hadn't noticed it. In fact, for me the game is SILKY smooth from the behind the pitcher camera. From the behind the plate I only get a very slight reduction every so often, but it is so slight I don't even notice it. Honestly, 99% of the time the game is SO smooth it reminds me of 2K4 the way it runs. I am on a 60 inch Sony 1080P(and running it at 1080P). I have gotten about 10 innings in and I am very impressed...feels like MVP to me and I have seen stuff that has made go WOW. Couple of things I've seen: - Braves @ Reds and the batter hits a foul pop fly down the RF line. Francouer comes over to the wall, leaps up, and catches the ball out of the stands. Very nice. - Brian McCann on 1st and Matt Diaz at the plate. Diaz hits a ground ball to 3B and they go to turn two...I go in hard at 2nd with McCann who takes out the 2nd baseman as he is trying to take the ball out of his glove. The ball pops out and rolls into short RF as Diaz is able to race into 2nd. Beautifully done. - Tex at the plate and he hits a line drive that is just rising towards CF...I'm thinking homer or at least a double. Griffey goes back, on the dead run, leaps and catches it at the top of the wall...I jumped up in disbelief and had to watch the replay. - Encarnacion hit a long drive down the left field line that was hooking, hooking...and hit the foul pole bouncing back into LF. There were no indications it was going out...Miller was like...it's hooking, hooking, and GONE. - I did get to a 3-0 count and the CPU didn't throw it down the pipe..it was a fastball up and away. - I simmed a month into franchise and didn't see one big name player traded (a bunch of minor leaguers) and none of the lineups were jacked up (in fact, they looked pretty close to the opening day lineups). I played a lot of 2K7 and enjoyed it and I must say this game so far is LEAPS and BOUNDS ahead of it. I'm sorry folks are having framerate issues, but I am seriously amazed at how smooth it is after reading everything on here that I did. I'm headin' back to the ballpark...

You're really making me want to drop the 60 bones for it.

Are you on 360?

[Sportsforever]

Quote: Originally Posted by The GIGGAS

You're really making me want to drop the 60 bones for it. Are you on 360?

Yup...I will also add that I think the graphics are as nice as last year. The grass textures aren't, but you quickly don't even notice it. I am curious why everyone else isn't getting the game to play as smooth. So far I'm loving this game.

[chris68pj]

I gotta say, I spent all day at work agonizing over the comments I was reading on here and afraid to come home and play this game.

Boy, I'm I glad I didn't listen to what most of you were saying.

I just got beat 10-1 in my first game and it was far more rewarding than any other baseball game I have played.

I'm running it on the 360 in 1080i, downloaded the update, and cut off all the "extras" like highlights and cutscenes (not because I thought it would help, I always do this) and I had NO ISSUES WHATSOEVER WITH THE FRAMERATE.

The controls to this game give it so much life that I honestly didn't notice (and totally didn't care about) the reduced graphics and textures. Gameplay is what it's all about for me and this game delivers. Controlling outfielders is 100 times better than it was last year and the baserunning controls work much better as well.

Pitching is fun for the first time in a long time and the hit stick seems to work better even though I'm still trying to get the hang of the "step" part and I doubt I'll ever draw a walk until someone posts some improved sliders.

Sure the commentary sucks and the intros are the same, but so far this game run circles around 2K7 right now (which isn't saying much) as it is, so I can only imagine how good it could be if they managed to put together a patch to address some of the issues a lot of other people are experiencing.

I highly recommend that anyone who is on the fence about this game get it immediately UNLESS you are nothing but a graphics and commentary whore.