MLB Bobblehead Pros Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (XBLA)

[jyoung]

Pitcher stamina is balanced out pretty good at the beginning of a season. A #1 pitcher like the Brewers' Zack Greinke can go the full 9 innings if you keep his pitch count low.

But the majority of starting pitchers I've seen tire out much quicker. It's all based on the individual player stamina ratings and in-game pitch counts.

However, once you get about 100 games into the first season, you've leveled up most pitchers' stamina rating to the point that everyone in your rotation can go the full 8 or 9 innings. This is definitely a flaw to the season mode.

Each pitcher also has a "recovery" rating that determines how many days' rest he needs to refill his stamina bar after an appearance.

The more pitches a player throws in an appearance, the further down his stamina bar will drop after the game, and the more days he will need to recover.

I think the recovery ratings are fine in this game, it's just the stamina ratings that tend to get a bit out of hand over the course of a long season.

[jyoung]

Just finished an incredible game 1 of the World Series!





With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Corey Hart hits a walk-off home run to complete a six-run ninth inning! Brewers were trailing the Yankees 8-2 heading into the eighth inning.

[DJ]

Can you do a Fantasy Draft in this game?

Is the difficulty/sliders similar to the Power Pros 2008 setup?

Can you customize season length, and are you able to play multiple seasons?

I'd really like a baseball game on my 360, but can't go back to 2K11/12.

[jyoung]

There is no fantasy draft, but the rosters are fully editable once you unlock the editor by buying the Bobblehead Battle DLC pack ($5). If you don't buy the editor, you can still move players around via trades, but you won't be able to edit players to your liking.

There's a lot of customization to the difficulty. Everything from pitch speed to the amount of cursor assist is editable. Plus you can tweak how intelligent the CPU's hitting, pitching, fielding and baserunning are.

Season mode is locked to 162 games only and lasts for 5 seasons total. It took me about a year of real time to complete one season. I started it last July when the game first came out, and just now reached the World Series. You can have up to four different season files going at once.

I would've gladly paid $30 - $40 for this game, but the fact that its only $10 for the base game + $5 for the editor DLC makes it a great deal and much more fun than 2K baseball IMO.

[DJ]

I'll probably get that editing pack. I won't make all of the off-season moves, but I'll get all the big-name players on their correct teams.

Good to hear about the difficulty; sounds just like PP in that you can tweak different aspects of the game to your liking.

I'll have to play the demo again, but for $15, I think this will be a better investment than 2K11/12.

[ComfortablyLomb]

If you have a PS2 or Wii then I can't recommend Power Pros 2008 enough. The rosters are obviously several years old but the game is much more complete than what was released on 360. There's a very long thread about it on this forum. It's an all-time great baseball game.

[DJ]

Quote: Originally Posted by ComfortablyLomb

If you have a PS2 or Wii then I can't recommend Power Pros 2008 enough. The rosters are obviously several years old but the game is much more complete than what was released on 360. There's a very long thread about it on this forum. It's an all-time great baseball game.

I do have a PS2 and have PP 2008. That thread, and specificially several of your posts, have been quite helpful. I need to bring the system back up from the basement (I have a TV down there, but I rarely use it) so I can get back into the game. It is a lot of fun.

[jyoung]

Here's how my season turned out:

Spoiler

Brewers beat the Yankees 4-1 in the World Series.

Coincidentally, they actually did predict the Orioles to win the Al East.