Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[metal134]

Got the game. For those of you who want to hear about walks, pitch counts, franchise, etc. and don't give a rat's *** about framerates and whether or not people high-five each other at the plate, this review is for you. Here are some early impressions:

I was really worried when people kept saying that they turned the CPU throw stirke sliders all the way down and still saw 90% strikes. Well, that was the first thing I adjusted and, when I turned them almost (not quite) all the way; the result? Less than 60% strikes and about 7 walks. However, it peeves me that they didn't put in a human pitcher control slider. The only thing you can do is make the meter more difficult and, while I haven't tried it, methinks it will only result in more meatballs. It remains to be seen whether or not we'll be able to issue walks, though. Last game, I threw a good amount of balls (only 62.5% strikes), but every time I get down 3-0 or 3-1, I just end up either coming back to get the out, or throwing a meatball and getting hammered. Maybe once I get better at the pitching mechanic, more of those misses will be balls and thus, walks will ensue. Pitch counts looked pretty good, too. I forget the exact count, but last game, I got about 120 something pitches from each team.

I only gave franchise mode a quick glance, but it seems solid. There were a lot of trades, but nothing that I thought was a stretch. The only thing, though, is they were all one for one trades, so it doesn't look as thought there will be any "trade this superstar for two or three top prospect" type deals between CPU teams. I kind've rushed to sim a season, so I didn't notice if there were any lineup glitches. When I get more time, I'll check that out. The simmed stats looked pretty darn solid. Both team stats and player stats. I'll go over them more in depth later, but the only statistic that looked off to me was strikeouts. Johan Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez led the league with 159 Ks. Kind've a bummer but all the other stats looked pretty good (at least on the surface). The draft sucks. It is bare-bones and I didn't see any scouting options (I may have missed them, but I doubt it). There are no trades during the draft. It's basically a draft system from sports games 10 years ago. No draft day activity, no scouting. When I get a chnace, I'll sim some more seasons to see how player progession is.

As long as we can get user issued walks (and good all around stats) and there turn out to be no game crippling bugs in franchise mode, I will spend a lot of time with this game.

[bigfnjoe96]

I just got suicide squeezed by the RAYS.. Crawford lay-it down & Baldelli scored... I was totally caught off guard. So shocked that I couldn't even throw Crawford out...

[Spectre]

Question guys, have you gotten any good sliders to get the computer to take a good amount of pitches. I'm starting to really get into the demo but one thing that bugs me about it is the fact the AI hacks away early in the count at a pitch if its somewhat decent.

The only other big gameplay gripe I have right now is getting a little more variability with hitting spots. I know there's a meter difficulty slider, does it just cause the green circle to collapse faster? If so, then it won't cause meatballs because that's just a function of the gesture (which I've gotten really good at already!).

I just lost 1-0 in the 5th to the Sox when Youk yanked a Jimenez pitch over the Monster.

I can't stress how much I love this pitching. Also, those pics look outrageous joe. That Zambrano pic looks life-like

[metal134]

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectre

Question guys, have you gotten any good sliders to get the computer to take a good amount of pitches. I'm starting to really get into the demo but one thing that bugs me about it is the fact the AI hacks away early in the count at a pitch if its somewhat decent. The only other big gameplay gripe I have right now is getting a little more variability with hitting spots. I know there's a meter difficulty slider, does it just cause the green circle to collapse faster? If so, then it won't cause meatballs because that's just a function of the gesture (which I've gotten really good at already!). I just lost 1-0 in the 5th to the Sox when Youk yanked a Jimenez pitch over the Monster. I can't stress how much I love this pitching. Also, those pics look outrageous joe. That Zambrano pic looks life-like

I'm working on it. I haven't messed with the take strikes slider, but I have raised the take ball overall slider and the take ball ahead slider. Not a whole a lot, but the CPU has taken more balls, but still not enough for me to walk anyone, so I'm going to jack it up some more. I left the take ball behind in the count slider because I still want to be able to get ahead 0-2, 1-2 and have them chase (that's kind've the purpose of getting ahead in the count, lol!). But I'll try some more tweaking and let you know what I see.

[DocHolliday]

Quote: Originally Posted by metal134

Got the game. For those of you who want to hear about walks, pitch counts, franchise, etc. and don't give a rat's *** about framerates and whether or not people high-five each other at the plate, this review is for you. Here are some early impressions: I was really worried when people kept saying that they turned the CPU throw stirke sliders all the way down and still saw 90% strikes. Well, that was the first thing I adjusted and, when I turned them almost (not quite) all the way; the result? Less than 60% strikes and about 7 walks. However, it peeves me that they didn't put in a human pitcher control slider. The only thing you can do is make the meter more difficult and, while I haven't tried it, methinks it will only result in more meatballs. It remains to be seen whether or not we'll be able to issue walks, though. Last game, I threw a good amount of balls (only 62.5% strikes), but every time I get down 3-0 or 3-1, I just end up either coming back to get the out, or throwing a meatball and getting hammered. Maybe once I get better at the pitching mechanic, more of those misses will be balls and thus, walks will ensue. Pitch counts looked pretty good, too. I forget the exact count, but last game, I got about 120 something pitches from each team. I only gave franchise mode a quick glance, but it seems solid. There were a lot of trades, but nothing that I thought was a stretch. The only thing, though, is they were all one for one trades, so it doesn't look as thought there will be any "trade this superstar for two or three top prospect" type deals between CPU teams. I kind've rushed to sim a season, so I didn't notice if there were any lineup glitches. When I get more time, I'll check that out. The simmed stats looked pretty darn solid. Both team stats and player stats. I'll go over them more in depth later, but the only statistic that looked off to me was strikeouts. Johan Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez led the league with 159 Ks. Kind've a bummer but all the other stats looked pretty good (at least on the surface). The draft sucks. It is bare-bones and I didn't see any scouting options (I may have missed them, but I doubt it). There are no trades during the draft. It's basically a draft system from sports games 10 years ago. No draft day activity, no scouting. When I get a chnace, I'll sim some more seasons to see how player progession is. As long as we can get user issued walks (and good all around stats) and there turn out to be no game crippling bugs in franchise mode, I will spend a lot of time with this game.

Dude now that was an impression. Hats off to you for that review. You manwhiched that bad boy.

Hopefully the pitching issues like strikes and balls can be rectfied a bit.

Badass review.

[ericdrum]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigfnjoe96

I just got suicide squeezed by the RAYS.. Crawford lay-it down & Baldelli scored... I was totally caught off guard. So shocked that I couldn't even throw Crawford out...

San Diego suicide squeezed me. I was so shocked I couldn't react.

[bigfnjoe96]

Just got hammered again by the CPU. Geez I haven't won a game yet. 0-4

[metal134]

Quote: Originally Posted by DocHolliday

Dude now that was an impression. Hats off to you for that review. You manwhiched that bad boy. Hopefully the pitching issues like strikes and balls can be rectfied a bit. Badass review.

Yeah, I kept waiting and waiting for someone to tackle these issues, but I realized that that probably wasn't going to happen.