Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[HK-47]

I've had the demo since yesterday and here are my impressions:

The BAD:

The first two games I played were low scoring, with the final scores being 3-0 & 2-1.The Red Sox won the first game and I won the second.But in the third game, the A.I CRUSHED every pitch I threw at them!I don't know why they suddenly could hit every pitch.
I've only been blown out twice in about 8-10, 3 inning demo games, but when these blow outs did happen, the A.I hit everything!Is it like this in the full game?I don't think my pitching is to blame, cause I was good at the new pitching controlls my first game.The main reason I lost my first game was because of fielding mistakes I made(the new controlls felt weird at first).



The graphics are not as good as 2k7's, but they are not horrible.They just look a bit more cartoony.The look of the grass is a major eye sore though.(It reminds me of a SNES baseball games grass.)


The A.I pitchers throw way too many strikes!(some say tweaking the A.I piching sliders fix this, others say it don't)


Hitters shoes turn white as soon as they get on base(is this in the final game too?).


Fans hardly make any noise!Not even for walk off wins!WTF!


Framerate stutters while fielding!(Heard about the patch, so this shouldn't be an issue soon)




The GOOD:

Great new pitching and fielding controlls!I love them!


The swing stick seems greatly improved.Love the amount of hit variety and the increase in foul balls(you were lucky if you saw ten a game in 2k7).


The fielding feels so smooth, but it doesn't look as smooth as it feels.At times it looks too fast paced(sliders can probably fix this).
Saw some nice animations...
I robbed Manny of a hit with Matt Holiday.It would of bounced off the Green Monster if Holiday hadn't jumped to grab it! I had to watch the replay of that one!It looked so nice!


A.I pitchers seem to keep their pitches lower in the zone than in 2k7.In 2k7 you would often see the A.I throw sinkers at the top corners.


Take out slides and outfield collisions look great...Except for one collision I saw that involved Manny and Ellsbury.They collided and fell, but as soon as Manny hit the ground, he zipped back up at the speed of light. *EDIT* Just saw a nice collison at home plate!Tulowitzki(me) slammed into Varitek, but Tek held on and Tulowitzki was called out. : (




I will definitely buy this game if some of the bad stuff can be fixed via patch or sliders!

[ExtremeGamer]

We posted our review at WhoNeedsRules.com

It got a 6/10.

http://www.whoneedsrules.com/2008/03...h-mlb-2k8.html

[MizzouRah]

Quote: Originally Posted by jonesymojo

I still can't believe that the names of two Cubs starting players are mispronounced by the home PA announcer. Aramis Ramirez- should be R-Rah-miss, not Air-a-miss Felix Pie- should be Pee-ay, not PIE!!!! He is not set on a windowsill to cool, he is an underachieving Cubs phenom!!

It's funny that Miller will say it right and then the announcer chimes in right behind him and says it wrong.

[Jistic]

Picked this game up yesterday for 8 bucks, thanks to some gift cards my wife got from work!

I played two games and don't really see what all this outrage is about. In fact it's pretty comical looking back at this thread now. It may just be a lot of PS3 versions, I dunno.

Anyway, getting right to the frame rate issue. I played my first game w/out signing out of my VIP just to see how bad the frame rate was. And it was noticable....but slightly. Second game I did sign out to see the difference, and there was one for sure. The game was VERY smooth with that workaround. I will look forward to a patch for that.

Gameplay was very fun. I love the pitching mechanics. I also used the swing stick, which I suck at. The thing that was funny is both games I played were 1-0. This was just on default pro. I did hit a 3B with Derrick Lee, but hitting was a challenge for both I and the CPU. The other thing that sliders need to change is the amount of web gems by the fielders, especially the 2nd baseman. This was also an issue last year that was very fixable.

What I did love was the hit variety and the amount of foul balls. I had one moment when I fouled off like 4 in a row and the crowd actually started to get loud, was pretty cool. Otherwise though, the crowd is pretty "meh".

All in all I need to get much better at the swing stick, not gonna abandon it yet, and need to try out some sliders. I think the game is very fun, and plays a very good game of baseball. Haven't touched franchise yet though.

On the 360, at least, I think the chicken littleing was uncalled for. I can see the alarm over frame rates before the work around was found, but really it isn't that bad. But around here we loves us some hype!

[Jistic]

Quote: Originally Posted by MizzouRah

It's funny that Miller will say it right and then the announcer chimes in right behind him and says it wrong.

I noticed that too. And I also laughed cuz my wife calls him PIE. Then again we call Theriot, Ryan-the-riot.

[MizzouRah]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jistic

I noticed that too. And I also laughed cuz my wife calls him PIE. Then again we call Theriot, Ryan-the-riot.

lol

[sportyguyfl31]

I like the game..the framerate issue is overblown. I dont understand the pitching at all. I'm missing and have no clue why. the tutorial is useless..and is it me? or can you not reposition the catcher or move the mitt?

[BobbyColtrane]

I really am enjoying the game but I have a few questions/comments -

How do you turn off the ticker at the bottom of the screen?

Is there any way to turn on hot zones like MVP?

Is there any way to quickly see the pitch count besides going into the stats?

I wish there was a feature like MVP that showed all the pitches during thrown to a guy and there location.