Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by jim416

The game has so much potential and time could have been better served working on the main core rather than a card system. Amen. I've felt this way about all the baseball games. Fix what is broken first, fix the glitches, then add stuff. But, the card system probably hyped sales. That's the real bottom line.

Exactly...I'm under the impression that the way they view their product is that:

"We're going to gain more sales by adding new features, then we are going to lose by not fixing what is broken."

But for all we know, the people who created the card system may have not even been involved with other aspects of the game and it may have not made a difference.

I think it's important to understand that a lot of times, we are in the cross of two, three or four different agenda's. You have your fans who want it their way, the developers who think the fans don't know what they want and in turn want it their way, the executive officers and board of directors who want it first and foremost to be as cheap as possible and profitable and the marketing department that wants it to be fresh so they have new something to promote.

Somewhere in the middle, you get a game which has some expected and refreshing changes, some unexpected and unnecessary features and is slightly broken.

[bangpow]

I have to disagree with a couple comments in this review.

I don't recall MLB 2K7 all that great and even though the game looked better, it played far worse than MLB 2K8, even with 2K8's frame rate issues. Also, MLB 2K7's controls were laggy and not responsive at all.

I think 2K8's gameplay is a huge improvement over 2K7's. Is it perfect? Nope, not at all, but I feel like I am actually in control of my players this year as opposed to last year.

The announcing doesn't bother me as much and I guess I would rather take a downgrade in graphics if it means an upgrade in control and responsiveness.

Sure, there aren't as many people in the stands, the crowd needs some serious work, and they do need to kind of react to foul balls, but again, I have a feeling that was done to improve the FPS, even thought that still needs work.

I would probably give it about a 7-7.5 right now, but will reserve judgement if they happen to patch the framerate issue.

[MildlyPsycho]

I think 6 is a fair score as you really hit the mark on the positives and negatives. I really think that this game could be a 7 if it wasn't for damn crashes and glitches with framerate.

[bangpow]

Oh, and I haven't had the game crash on me once....yet.

[Zackdawg]

I think the distinction between gameplay, graphics and presentation is often an artificial one. I'm a franchise gamer -- I play for immersion in the experience. When the game crashes, it takes me out of the experience of running a franchise. When the game fails to conform to real baseball, as in the case of AI-controlled teams never stealing, it takes me out of the experience. When the tv-style presentation stutters so badly that it is a pain to watch, it takes me out of the experience. Frame-rate stutters do the same thing as does the mismatched or just plain inaccurate play-by-play. While I agree that what is classicly defined as "gameplay" is not nearly as buggy as the rest of the product, the result is the same -- I become aware that I'm playing a bad piece of software and lose immersion in the game.

[fistofrage]

Why is all of 2k's commentary horrible. In NCAA College hoops, you could be up by 2 and they'll say you are up by 19. Now I'm hearing this? I don't know programming, but I would imagine that lining up the commentary with things like the score and where the ball is hit should be relatively easy.

I think we are finally seeing harsh criticism against 2k sports because in years past, they were "the people's champion" the freedom fighters the one's that went against all odds to fight the evil tyrant EA Sports. They were our voice and they listened to us. They were Robin Hood, fighting for the good of sports sims gamers. That was until this year. Now instead of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, they're robbing from us, producing subpar games and going bankrupt in the process.

[ehh]

On the field I think the game is an 8 out of 10, everything else is about a 4 out of 10. Personally I weigh the former much more than the latter, but trying to speak for everyone in general I'd say 6/10 is pretty accurate. However, the notion that this game took one step forward and two back is completely BS to me. This game took a huge step forward this year.

[backbreaker]

Why do people say "if 2k had more time" they would have done this to improve the game. That isn't a valid argument, because they did have time the usual Feb. to Feb time, this is not foreign to them. I don't buy the time argument at all. If you were to say something about prioritization, and how they design a game then I would listen.

One company had Feb. to Feb. to develop its game and another had May to Feb to develop its game, its all about design and priorities. Start with a great pre-production analyze your plan and tune the "F" out of it.

Poor Planning vs. Proper Planning, again 2k is not new to this process.