Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[RunN1st]

Ok, guys. I picked it it up for the PS3 this evening since they had a used one at Gamestop...

I think that the PS3 accidentally got burned from the Wii version. This game hurts to look at... It's beyond atrocious.

That's all I have to say. I really feel for anyone that purchased this as a new game.

Good luck!

[cocobee]

Has anyone made custom ingame music ditties for players or stadiums? If so, how is it ingame? Does it really add to the atmosphere? If you have a ps3, did u just put your music on a flash drive and put it on the HD?

[ghostrider76]

Quote: Originally Posted by cocobee

Has anyone made custom ingame music ditties for players or stadiums? If so, how is it ingame? Does it really add to the atmosphere? If you have a ps3, did u just put your music on a flash drive and put it on the HD?

The only custom player music I put in so far was for Konerko - "Harvester of Sorrow" by Metallica. And it transitions over very nicely

[SportsorDeath]

I just got the game (Xbox 360 version) a couple hours ago. Despite reading 60 pages + of impressions that were largely unfavorable today, I still had to go buy it just because I am such a sucker for baseball games. I figured even if I wasn't blown away by it, I would at least love the hitting and fielding.

Anyway, I have only been able to play one game so far, but here are my impressions:

-I really like the new pitching system. For some reason, I was able to grasp it very quickly. I went into the tutorial for maybe two minutes and was on my way. I threw only 4 or 5 meatballs the entire game, and while all of them were punished, not one of them left the yard. In fact, neither team went deep in the game.

-Hit variety is fantastic, and the hit stick seems fine to me. Much improved from last year's game, imo.

-Fielding is excellent. The combo of using the stick to throw w/ meter, and just the overall feeling of control is real nice. I loved seeing so many throws to 1st go in the dirt.

-I played on the default difficulty (pro?), and my game was far different from the scoring fests a lot of you have had. No HR's (as I said before), and I got blanked 4-0. Even though I got tooled, it was actually refreshing, especially considering I was expecting a high scoring game going in.


-The dreaded frame rate issue is very apparent to me. I cleared my cache in advance, did the update, turned off ball trail and any other extraneous crap (though for some reason the ticker stayed on even after I turned it off), yet the choppiness was on full display. Any time a ball was put in play it reared its head, sometimes worse than others. Honestly, I can live with it. It bothers me, but not to the point that renders the game unplayable-for me, at least. I do think it is somewhat inexcusable that the frame rate is this shoddy on a retail copy, but I have seen far worse things make it to a final copy of a game before.

I really hope that the framerate problem is somehow able to be addressed, because I really feel like there is an excellent baseball game here, or at worst, the makings of one. As someone who has both games now, I have to say that the Show is the much more polished product, and overall is just a better game. However, there isn't as wide of a gap between the two games as a lot of these impressions would lead one to believe. While the Show is polished, there are things in that game that annoy me greatly- things that I MUCH prefer in 2K8.

For anyone who has liked the 2K series in the past, I think 2K8 is a no brainer. It is hands down a better game of baseball than 2K7. It's just going to be a question of how much the framerate thing will bother you. Some say they haven't seen any problem, and while I don't know how that is possible, the level of annoyance will definitely differ.

[SportsorDeath]

Quote: Originally Posted by ericdrum

When pitching what do I need to control to not put so much effort into the pitch? My pitchers are wearing out a bit too fast.

Your effort will be the first movement you make with the stick, so it would be down for gas, up for a change, etc. Hold it in that direction for less and you will have less effort on it. Basically, just watch the circle and make sure the outer part doesn't expand all the way out before you initiate the next movement.

[ericdrum]

Quote: Originally Posted by jim416

Can anyone try the classic pitching and classic batting? Last year there was a slight delay from the time you pressed the swing button and the batter swung. Has that been tightened up. Not interested in the new system and would like to hear from someone on this.

I tried it only for one inning and it didn't seem to delay. I've only been using hit stick 2.0, but the button did feel pretty good and natural.

[DSheppard]

I wrote a huge post on another board, but ill keep myself to a couple bullet points here.

There are 3 things i wanted from 2k8 this year.

1. Gameplay up to snuff. Accomplished, hitting physics combined with pitching controls is a big step up.
2. Presentation improved with audio and such. Massive failure. Not only is what i wanted improved not better, but the graphics are significantly worse. The field textures are a joke compared to last year. A joke. Everything is lower res. Where are my cool cutscenes from 2k7? Most of them have disappeared. Really, i think this is ridiculous. Trade off graphics, resolution and presentation for a barely noticeable framerate improvement with the HDD off, and horrible frameate in the OF with it on. while pitching its fine but the improvement isnt worth the downgrades at all. Im a 360 only player who was very open to this game and i am very disappointed in this aspect. Some people need to be fired, honestly.
3. I wanted a compelling new feature like road to the show was. Just something thats "advanced" from games of 5 years ago. The pitching is close, but man... why dont we have fully realized homerun derbys, world series presentation and such. Minor leagues are nice but the stadiums aare often poorly done and as someone who can name the top 40 rangers prospects its hard to make anything from the pseudonyms.. i highly question how many prospects are actually represented.

ok im rambling.

i will sum it up and say the gameplay accomplished what i wanted which is huge, but i am significantly disappointed in many other aspects. Its not a terrible game thats a ripoff or anything, but 2k has failed in my opinion.

and for gods sake will they improve the ligting in night games? day games still look good with nice shadows and such, but night games look quite poor. Obviously you arnt going to have strong shadows on the ground in night games, but the lighting is just ugly.

[ericdrum]

Quote: Originally Posted by SportsorDeath

Your effort will be the first movement you make with the stick, so it would be down for gas, up for a change, etc. Hold it in that direction for less and you will have less effort on it. Basically, just watch the circle and make sure the outer part doesn't expand all the way out before you initiate the next movement.

Okay, so start the second motion sooner to take the mustard off it? I think I got it.