MLB 2K8 News Post

Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

01:24 AM - February 26, 2008 by Steve_OS

Matt Blumenthal had an opportunity to demo Major League Baseball 2K8 this afternoon. His official writeup of the event will be up later this week, but we wanted to get some quick thoughts up here for you guys.

This game looks beautiful, the player models have improved but the real leap is in the animations. The animations move silky smooth and there is no need to worry about herky jerky animations of the past anymore.
I'm impressed with how intuitive and fresh the analog controls are. The pitching takes a little time to get the hang of but the new mechanics add a whole new dimension to the pitching model.
The baseball cards feature is surprisingly cool, expect me to have more on that later on this week.
In-game saves are officially in the game this year.
Check swings don't seem to be a chore anymore. They are now accomplished by pulling back on the right analog stick - no more right trigger necessary.
Stadium-specific animations are in. The Yankee Roll Call was mentioned specifically.
There should be plenty of foul balls this year. I saw several in the few at-bats I played.
No spring training games this year.
I counted eight unlockable classic stadiums. I think more might be available by default as well.
No co-op play
You will have the option to make trades for CPU-controlled teams in franchise mode, but you won't be able to edit their rotations and lineups.
It was suggested to me that the demo is done and has been submitted. If that's the case, it's in Microsoft's hands now.
I will hit on a few of the big questions from the forum here.

Game: Major League Baseball 2K8Reader Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 74 - View All

Member Comments

# 341 DaoudS @ 03/03/08 09:53 PM

just 2 things will decide as to whether or not i get 2k8.
1. More follow through animations on hits
2. A great franchise mode (no lineup bugs, no excessive free agents, etc.)

# 342 Motown @ 03/03/08 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	Watch out for T-Rex and his tiny arms!They got claws!

cheap shot bro

nuthin' wrong w/ The Show.

2K impressions right?

# 343 HK-47 @ 03/03/08 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motown


	cheap shot bro nuthin' wrong w/ The Show. 2K impressions right?

lol,I actually like The Show, but I love ragging on the tiny arms the players have.I make fun of 2k too!

Mainly the atomic blast bat sounds.

# 344 Motown @ 03/03/08 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	lol,I actually like The Show, but I love ragging on the tiny arms the players have.I make fun of 2k too!Mainly the atomic blast bat sounds.

.

.

.

j/p

Can't wait to see next year's models man

k...back to 2K impressions

# 345 Tully @ 03/03/08 10:15 PM

So can you hit with the camera angle from the pitchers back?

# 346 Bahnzo @ 03/03/08 10:15 PM

I personally hate all you people who have the game early.

Did I say hate....I mean envy.

# 347 Knight165 @ 03/03/08 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lived


	The funny thing is all the features everybody had thought were not in bat sounds, custom music, batter views, Lineup changes all made the retail cut. I guess it was just bad marketing on 2k's part for not releasing the info

Has this been confirmed?
I still haven't seen anything definitive on this(it very well may be out here somewhere...I've been haphazard reading all the new threads between the forums....so I apologize if it's a definite)
Last year this was one of the biggest killers for me. I can live with so-so lineup logic...but 2K7 was just horrendous.

M.K.
Knight165

# 348 The Gamer @ 03/03/08 10:21 PM

pjv31, at some point could you edit a fake player to an actual player and verify that the announcers and p.a. announcers say the correct name? thanks bro

# 349 HK-47 @ 03/03/08 10:21 PM

Some dude on the Gamespot forums(MLB2K8 360) said that he called 1-800-4-MY-XBOX and they told him the demo will be released tonight.

"According to 1-800-4-My-Xbox demo is out tonight"

"A long with some other stuff I didn't bother listening to. If you call 'em they'll read off their little list thing." - Agnostic420

# 350 PVarck31 @ 03/03/08 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Gamer


	pjv31, at some point could you edit a fake player to an actual player and verify that the announcers and p.a. announcers say the correct name? thanks bro

Yeah I can do that. I will edit the fake Adam Miller to the real Adam Miller.

Ok guys I'm gonna head out to walmart to see if i can score it earlier that midnight, if not I estimate I will be back around 1:30am to give impressions.

# 351 HK-47 @ 03/03/08 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Gamer


	pjv31, at some point could you edit a fake player to an actual player and verify that the announcers and p.a. announcers say the correct name? thanks bro

It will probably be like the past 2k games, where theres a list of first and last names to choose from that Jon,Joe and the P.A announcer will actually say.

Only names on the list will be said.If the name isn't there, you'll have to type it in, but they'll call him by his orginal fake name or uniform number(created player).

# 352 Splitter77 @ 03/03/08 10:30 PM

can you bat from the pitcher view in the final version??

# 353 bowlerguy92 @ 03/03/08 10:44 PM

Meh, by the time you get back I won't be too far away from just having my own copy.

# 354 CS10029 @ 03/03/08 11:36 PM

So without reading through all 40 pages... Does someone have the game on this site?

# 355 SPTO @ 03/03/08 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CS10029


	So without reading through all 40 pages... Does someone have the game on this site?

A few people do, wish I was one of them but I should get my copy by tomorrow

# 356 CS10029 @ 03/03/08 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPTO


	A few people do, wish I was one of them but I should get my copy by tomorrow

I read back through like 5 pages. Is everyone being smart and just playing it? Im trying to figure out if its gonn a suck like it did a few years ago, where my experience with 2K was putting it in my 360 and taking it out to return it.

# 357 HK-47 @ 03/03/08 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CS10029


	So without reading through all 40 pages... Does someone have the game on this site?

Yeah, "kiz5" has it.He answered some questions too.

He even posted a pic of him playing it.

# 358 HK-47 @ 03/03/08 11:52 PM

Someone has it over at the Gamespot forums too...Heres what he has to say about the game.

"Hey Everyone, after about an Hour & a half with the game,

here are my early Pitching impressions,

The new Analog stick pitching is difficult, especially when playing in Higher Difficulty settings,
put it this way, on All star mode, if you don't accurately hit the analog directions correctly, you'll
throw a "Meatball" pitch that will more then likely end up outta the park, in one game I had the Yanks chase AJ Burnett after 2 Innings, he allowed about 6-7 homers, now again , it was clearly my fault, and there were times that I really wanted to switch back to the precision pitching controls from last year, but then I finally K'd someone and I'm going to try & adapt to the new controls,

Hitting early Impressions:

In about a total of 2 full games & one 3 inning game, I managed to hit ZERO homeruns, thats right..
not one, I was hitting with the blue jays lineup, which has 3-5 guys that can go yard, so the potential was there, I was also swinging with the power sing motion with the hit stick 2.0 feature (similar to last year ) and only managed about 6-8 hits, all singles, minus one Frank Thomas double (of all players) so , it actually may appear that the long ball affect from last years game has been scaled down, but again, it's probably too early to fully judge.

Fielding impressions:
again i'm still getting to know the controls, but as you all know you now throw the ball with the analog stick, which you can hold back longer to get a stronger throw, another actual cool feature was when your chasing fly balls, once your outfielder turns away the ball spotting on the field disappears until your player turns back around to look where the ball is going, pretty cool, also in my short time with the game I did not see any outfield wall scaling or anything that was ever so present in 2K7, not to say that it won't happen, but it didn't in my 2 & a half games.

Graphics appear to be very similar, but there is a loss of resolution that I personally found very
noticeable, atleast compared to last years game, the grass in particular doesn't look as true to life as it did in 2k7, the crowds pretty much look the same as well...

Overall I think this actually is a better game then 2k7, but who knows, maybe a few more games
& my opinion will decline, or perhaps I 'll get a hang of the pitching mechanics & I'll only have good things to say , either way, its not worse then 2k7, soo..thats a good thing right?

My rating, based on my time with the game would be about an 8/10

hope that helps."

# 359 Blzer @ 03/03/08 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiz5


	Something I just noticed while starting up a Franchise... "Edit CPU Rosters" - "When on, you can edit the rosters of all CPU teams. If you would like to trade players among CPU teams, turn the Force Trades option on." I've never seen a game that had that before!

Well, let's see... there was WSB 2K3, ESPN MLB, MLB 2K5, MLB 2K6, MLB 2K7...

Just harpin' on ya, man. Hopin' you're havin' a fun time with the game!

# 360 JT30 @ 03/03/08 11:55 PM

6-7 HRs in 2 innings off meatballs? You gotta be kidding me

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