MLB 2K9 First Hands-On (Gamespot)

[GTheorenHobbes]

If they are able to pull off 60 fps, I'll buy it along with the Show. It would be nice to have 2 quality baseball games to play.

[Pared]

Ha, the gloves remind me of the Bud Light commercials when the guy is playing softball at first.

I've said things continue to sound good but we'll have to wait and see the game in motion first. That was one of the biggest problems with 2k8.

Finally, that looks nothing like Jose Reyes. At all.

[therizing02]

I LOVE the fact that there will be no "new exciting big features". When that happens, the dev team usually goes back to fine tuning the game and adding the "little things" that are often overlooked by the developers.

However, my biggest concern will probably not get addressed until someone gets to play more than an inning with this game.

Meatballs and the ability to basically throw a strike whenever you wanted. The ease of pinpointing location with any pitch regardless of a pitcher's rating has plagued baseball games since High Heat. HH was able to replicate the intensity of the pitcher/batter battle like no other.

Some days pitchers are just "off". Some days pitchers are "on". I'd like to see baseball video games replicate this. While easing the pitching controls for 09 may sound good in theory, will it be too easy to throw strikes? When we try to make it more difficult by changing sliders, will all misses be meatballs that end up going 450ft. PLEASE TELL ME 2K YOU HAVE FIGURED THIS OUT! NOT EVERY MISSED LOCATION IS A MEATBALL!!!

The best case scenario for me would be to use the classic pitching meter, select the pitch and location, and throw. The CPU determines if the pitch will be a ball or strike based on above everything else, the pitchers ability to throw the selected pitch. Other factors to consider should be the game situation and how a pitcher performs in that situation, variable umpires, whether the pitcher is on/off that day, and the batter's ability to read pitches. Is it that difficult?

I just don't want my "stick skills" to determine whether or not a pitch is a ball or a strike.

[dorismary]

Gloves / mits look fine to me
Reyes is also passable but like they mentioned these are probably from old builds
Eitherway 2k/vc is taking this in the right direction ..... How do you go from 2k7 and turn it into 2k8 I really hope they will now build and add on each year . Classic stadiums this year ?

[Blzer]

I think the problem that people have with going to more simplistic controls is that it will be even easier to throw strikes while pitching and make contact while hitting.

I would agree, but then there's the matter of the game being 60 FPS (meaning a larger array of hit variety and perhaps a more precise timing window) and the possibility that, hey, perhaps VC will finally include an option to hide the ball cursor while pitching? I really hope that they do. I also hope there's a Variable Pitching option like 2K3 and 2K4, where even if you hit your spot like intended, it still has a chance of missing just a bit.

I still don't like the style of hitting, though. I wouldn't mind as much if fly ball and ground ball influence were out of the equation, but I'd still much prefer zone hitting altogether. It saddens me that true zone hitting isn't actually in this game (at least for the swing stick).

[bigfnjoe96]

Nice honest preview from Gamespot.

Pitching:It sounds like it's been tighten, yet simplified. Though I loved having to time your release when pitching, @ times it did seem unrealistic when you missed timed your release, including MEATBALLS.

Hitting:I'm not sure if the writer understood what he was doing. He mentions you don't have to time your back-swing, yet he mentions you can push the R-Stick down & hold your back swing stance. We'll you could do the same thing in 2k8. Since he didn't mention anything about Step Influence I'm gonna say it's still in the game until I hear other wise *plug for Chase to check to see if it's still in the game*

Fielding:Seems like they haven't changed too much with fielding, which is fine with me. I just hope Fielding Ratings play a bigger part in the game. Meaning if you sux on the field , your making amazing diving stabs like a seasoned Gold Glover

Inside Edge/Sabermetrics:I've never really used IE because it never felt like it tied into Player Ratings. If VC has found a way to implement IE/Sbaermetrics that makes Player Ratings more realistic this could help a lot with realistic Stats & hopefully realistic Fielding which I've complained about forever.

You can control up to 30 teams in your franchise:

Presentation: In addition, all of the cutaways during gameplay--from the crowd, to the players warming up in the batter's circle, to the bat boy running up to home plate will be real-time renders, not pre-rendered cut-scenes.

I am totally stoked about this feature. Imagine NO CUT SCENES

Card Feature: I'm glad they've simplified this feature. Hopefully they offer some nice goodies for unlocking cards..

Though I'm liking what I've read, I'm gonna stay cautiously optimistic, until more info hits the airwaves..

[Motown]

Does this game have HR Derby & World Baseball Classic? thanks

[brendanrfoley]

I get confused at times about what people on this board want. Let me explain...

Since 2K8's release, we begged Visual Concepts to focus on the core baseball experience. It seems they have to a great degree. Taking what VC says at face value, for now...

The pitching interface has been streamlined and improved. For all the complaints about "meatballs" last year, they seem to have been removed. If the developers have made it more difficult to throw strikes in return (by hiding the pitch cursor or some other manner), it should deliver a great experience.

On the hitting end, it sounds like little has changed... except the promise of greater hit variety. 2K8's hitting engine was brand new, and wasn't too bad. It appears VC tweaked and enhanced it... while adding a MVP style swing influence (which was in last year's version, by the way).

The addition of Sabermetric stats is wonderful news, as well. OPS, RC, RC/27, ISO etc. A developer wouldn't implement these stats unless they were striving for a realistic experience.

As for the visuals? It may not look as "pretty" as The Show. But, if it looks like the Longoria screenshot in game and moves at a silky smooth 60fps, it is going to look very nice.