Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

[Eddie1967]

Quote: Originally Posted by baa7

I agree with the pitching - adds a lot of excitement. But what's the difference between pressing a pressure-sensitive button for fielding, and moving a stick in one direction? It's the same principle, just mapped to different controls.

I guess it just feels like you have to work harder using the sticks for the control and all but I can see your point.

[brendanrfoley]

Here are my impressions after several games (about 8 or so)...

PITCHING
Total Control Pitching is the best pitching mechanic I've ever used. Pitching is fun and challenging. I believe there's something immensely satisfying about a perfectly executed pitch -- especially when it fools the CPU. It just feels right.

CPU hitters do have a tendency to swing too much early in the count. But I've fixed that with sliders. I'm seeing the CPU hit a great variety of liners, choppers, dribblers, pop-ups, etc.

HITTING
The hitting model is very MVP-ish. Some don't like it, and I understand why. But I do. I'm seeing lots of variety. Doubles, triples, homeruns, etc.

The biggest problem with the hitting model is two-fold. On default (All Star) settings, the CPU does not throw enough balls. That problem is intensified by VERY forgiving umpires. Through my first 6 games, I drew 1 intentional walk. And I'm very patient.

But there's an easy fix. I went into sliders, and lowered CPU Throw Strikes Overall, Throw Strikes Ahead, and Throw Strikes Behind. Zeroed all three out (and only those three). During my next game, I drew 5 walks and saw several hitters counts (2-0, 3-0, 3-1).

That picked up the rest of my offense as well. I wasn't hacking to "protect" when down in the count... and there were men on base when I did rope a double. I actually earned back-to-back walks. Millwood (the starter) allowed 5 runs in 6 innings. 90 pitches, 36 balls. The next reliever to come in threw 36 pitches over an inning and a third, 20 of which were balls. VERY pleased.

FIELDING
Fielding to me is "okay." I like the analog throw meter, but I don't think it's the be all, end all some people do. I've also found diving stops VERY hard to time. It's serviceable, but it doesn't feel 'exciting' to me.

SOUND/PRESENTATION
John Miller's commentary actually isn't bad. But Joe Morgan's is awful. He says nothing specific, EVER. It's 9 innings of... "The shortstop made a great play there." Or... "He tried throwing a strike, but it was a ball." Gee, thanks Joe. But again, I like Miller. He gets excited at the right times, etc.

The crowd noise isn't awful. But it isn't good either. It's just 'there'. They need to work on this.

GRAPHICS
Just as a disclaimer, 2K8 is my first 'next-gen' experience. I know it doesn't look as nice as The Show (or even 2K7), but I still think it looks pretty damn good.

There are times it's awkward looking... but there are times it's beautiful. And the game looks better while actually playing it. The crowd behind home is a little blocky, but I spend 90% of my time looking at the pitching meter. 2K8 could look better -- but I don't think the visuals detract from the game.

As for the framerate, there are serious hiccups with VIP on. And the postgame highlights rarely run smoothly. It's the games biggest drawback, honestly. But if I log out of my profile, the game runs as smoothly as The Show did last year on my PS2. And that's not bad.

All in all, I'm very happy.

[Lisa_Bonami]

As much as I like this years innovative controls, it would have also been nice if the game also incorporated a basic simple one button, one step pitch system option as well that the player could use whenever they wanted a break from the whole analog pitch system.

One thing I loved about The Show was whenever I got bored from dealing with all the gimmicky meters, I could just use a simple aim and throw system that basically just relied on the pitcher's attributes to determine the results of the control and velocity. And I could just enjoy a scaled down simpleness of gameplay and various attributes to determine results...and it was also fun when I needed a break.