Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[MizzouRah]

I've been home for the last 3 days sick and I really have put in a lot of time with this game today. First impressions are the opposite of last year for me, but after playing many games, 2k8 kills 2k7 in every faucet of gameplay.

Take the manual and flush it down the toliet, they must have written that up before actually making the game this year. The in game tips/tutorials are your friends! Study them!!!

Swing stick 2.0, I love it! just before the pitch, pull back - from there forward swings the bat straight, RS to the left and you can attempt to pull one, to the right and attempt one down the line, opposite field (rh hitter), in between.. you get it. I've had hits all over the place now that I understand what I'm freaking doing. The only bad thing is , I don't strike out much at all. Hopefully a slider thing.. but damn do hits FINALLY feel realistic with the 2k series!

I love when I have a reliever warming up in the pen, as soon as he's warm, I get a chime and a pop up telling me so! I love all the different throws that are made, very few are perfect. I love the fact I can pitch 4 shutout innings with Wainwright and I'm working the new pitching system with perfection, then BAM! just like that give up 3 runs as I get over confident and I'm not making perfect pitches anymore. I also love it when I forget to call off my LF and he runs into me as the ball drops between us. Everything is quick thinking in this game and I like that.

You all know I hate walks in a video game, that's just me and on Pro, I'm getting fun games. Just lost to Oakland 6-3, they had 11 hits, I had 8, they also had an error on a pb that allowed me to advance to first base and keep a drive alive. The game is fun, very far from being perfect, but very fun for me.

Some of the presentation gets cutoff and I wish they would have smoothed those out a bit, but for a 9 inning game of baseball, I will NEVER go back to 2k7, not in a million years.

There are some neat things like watching the camera pan after an inning in New York.. it goes past the subway and climbs over the top of the stadium as you can see the players tossing the ball around as the next inning is about to start. VERY COOL

I'm babbling, sorry...... once the rosters come out after opening day, I'm ready to start a franchise!

[Village Idiot]

Quote: Originally Posted by BadKermit

I just wanted to comment on this. I still haven't gunned anyone down, but I have never played a baseball game which makes relay throws from the outfield so exciting. I'm practically rising out of my seat to watch the relay throws. I can imagine when I finally nail someone that it's going to be VERY rewarding.

I've done it once so far. It was great.

Now if only the crowd could react properly.

[TopDog]

Quote: Originally Posted by ronnyballgame

Hey, I have been changing all the name and whatnot to prep up my franchise, and I have played an exhibition game already and I am in the middle of my 1st franchise game, and I am loving it, trying to find a good setting in between Pro and All Star, so far, in the bottom of the 5th inning I am losing 4-2 to Washington.

For anybody just starting the game, stay far, far away from All Star UNTIL you learn how to pitch. I got the game and tried to jump straight in and every meatball (which was basically any pitch but the fastball) was getting hit out of the park. I'd be good for a couple of innings and then they would explode for 5 or 6 runs at a time.

I bumped it down to Pro, but once I started getting a hang of the pitching, i was able to throw shutouts with ease. I finally gave up when in a game against the Phillies I was pitching a no hitter in the 10th inning with Santana while the only hit I got off Cole Hamels was a first inning leadoff double with Reyes.

I'm back at All Star and now that my hitting and pitching have improved, I'm getting some very good low scoring games.

[Bat]

The computer hits too many pop flys.

[Diesel3649]

This game is better than 2K7 in almost all areas, but there are a few things that are bugging me.

The AI pitchers not throwing enough balls is iritating. I have all three throw strikes sliders at zero, and in the three games I have played since, Joba threw 81.6% strikes, John Patterson threw 77.2%, and Roy Oswalt threw 79.4%. Thats simply not enough balls. Part of the problem, in my opinion, is a lot of the BS strike calls that the umpires make.

My other main issue is that, again in my opinion, like last year, the computer has a great deal of difficulty scoring without hitting homeruns. I have raised the AI's batting skill, and contact sliders, while lowering their power. I want the computer to hit, singles, doubles, triples, and homeruns, I want them to string together hits in order to manufacture runs, and they simply can't, and believe me, it's not my brilliant pitching. In the three games I have played using BFJ's slider set, I have given up 22 hits, 7 of them homeruns, now 2 where on meatballs, ohh well my bad there, 5 where not. It's not the amount of homeruns that bothers me, I can lower the power slider more, but without those 7 hr's, the computer would have only scored 3 runs in three games. That's not enough runs that did not come by way of the hr. That raises a red flag to me.

[The Gamer]

Diesel, I think the fix to see more hit variety from the cpu is lowering the human fielder speed and increasing the cpu runner aggression.

[Cheeser12]

Quote: Originally Posted by Diesel3649

The AI pitchers not throwing enough balls is iritating. I have all three throw strikes sliders at zero, and in the three games I have played since, Joba threw 81.6% strikes, John Patterson threw 77.2%, and Roy Oswalt threw 79.4%. Thats simply not enough balls. Part of the problem, in my opinion, is a lot of the BS strike calls that the umpires make.

Same here....only been able to work 1 walk in 4-5 games with all sliders at 0. Maybe the patch will address it.....hopefully.

Also agree that umpires call too many borderline pitches I've had a lot of "WTF?" moments when batting.

[sportyguyfl31]

Okay, I just sat down and played 2 games with my mets ..really bearing down on my pitching.

I played 2 Mets-Yanks games on All star

1st game with Pedro: 5IP, 7H, 3ER, 5'ks...but then I completelly screwed up the game with my bullpen..as I accidently Intl. Walked a batter and the floodgates opened.

2nd game I just lost 3-1.

I used Santana..his line was 7 IP, 7H, 3ER, 1K
Duanar Sanchez: 1 IP, 1K

For the CPU:
Wang: 8IP, 4h, 1ER, 0 k's

I enjoy the game a lot..I dont get the negative gripes. I'm struggling hitting more then 2k7 though..and Im not sure why..the swing stick seems a lot more sensitive..I'm constantly getting "Late Step-Late Swing"..and that hardly ever happend (the late step) with 2k7..and I played 2k7 with the pitch speed maxed out.

I also noticed that when pitching..I was able to pinpoint my pitches much better with the circle fully expanded or near close to it. It's when I tried to take something off, and just lay a ball in there..is when my meatballs are occuring. Is anyone else noticing this? As a result,im going max effectiveness on darn near all of my pitches.

The one glaring thing for me though is that it is impossible to work a count. The CPU just hardly ever throws a ball out of the strike zone, so the game basically comes down to the CPU pitcher's pitch ratings vs. your reaction, since you are more then likely going to get pitches to hit every at bat.