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

# 361 MizzouRah @ 03/03/08 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JT30


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

Yeah.. that's the one thing that bothers me. I was hoping most "off" pitches would be passed balls and balls in the dirt.

# 362 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	Yeah.. that's the one thing that bothers me. I was hoping most "off" pitches would be passed balls and balls in the dirt.

Ya I hear ya.. I am concerned that with a screw up with the pitch stick, a meatball will be thrown and then jacked out of the park.

# 363 Knight165 @ 03/04/08 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	Yeah.. that's the one thing that bothers me. I was hoping most "off" pitches would be passed balls and balls in the dirt.

Could be that he was making mistakes by grooving them too, right?

M.K.
Knight165

# 364 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knight165


	Could be that he was making mistakes by grooving them too, right? M.K. Knight165

I dont know.. it didnt sound like it from his post...

"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"

The whole meatball thing resulting from analog stick error is just stupid. I dont understand it.

# 365 pdawg17 @ 03/04/08 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	Yeah.. that's the one thing that bothers me. I was hoping most "off" pitches would be passed balls and balls in the dirt.

The only thing I would hope for is that he was missing incorrectly the same every time, thus causing pitches up in the zone...

It's only one guy giving a review but when comparing to the Show, I see very few - if any - "ho-hum" reviews about that game...

# 366 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:08 AM

kiz5 said he was playing on the pro difficulty.Maybe thats why there was so many home runs.

# 367 jfsolo @ 03/04/08 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	Yeah.. that's the one thing that bothers me. I was hoping most "off" pitches would be passed balls and balls in the dirt.

We'll see soon enough, but the meatballs probably come from the I don't know what the hell I'm doing "off" pitches. If after a couple of days of playing the game, a large number of people are still giving up a ton of homers, well then maybe its a problem.

# 368 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	kiz5 said he was playing on the pro difficulty.Maybe thats why there was so many home runs.

He was playing on All Star according to his post.

# 369 BBondsRod @ 03/04/08 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JT30


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

I think I might be the only one who actually likes this...I want to feel some punishment for messing up. Baseball games in the past seemed to have arbitrary results -- sometimes I would throw a perfect pitch, and the other team would hit a homer, and other times I would throw a horrible pitch, and they'd swing and miss. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm happy there is a punishment-reward system for an individual's mastery of (or lack of) the controls.

# 370 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JT30


	He was playing on All Star according to his post.

I know he said pro somewhere.I think when he was talking about his game versus the Rays.

# 371 dmbfan1970 @ 03/04/08 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBondsRod


	I think I might be the only one who actually likes this...I want to feel some punishment for messing up. Baseball games in the past seemed to have arbitrary results -- sometimes I would throw a perfect pitch, and the other team would hit a homer, and other times I would throw a horrible pitch, and they'd swing and miss. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm happy there is a punishment-reward system for an individual's mastery of (or lack of) the controls.

But in the big leagues there are a TON of mistake pitches that are not hit for homeruns. You should not be punished 100 percent of the time. Perhaps more like 25 percent. I know there is a meatball slider so I am not too worried yet.

# 372 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiz5


	The computer won't stop spraying the field! I've been mainly up the middle, but I haven't really tried hitting down the lines. Playing on the out of the box settings. Pro I believe?

He was playing on pro.

# 373 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	He was playing on pro.

What? What the hell is this then??

".... 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..."

# 374 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:27 AM

I was looking at some of kiz5's post and he said he saw an option for customizing batter intros!I hope he wasn't just seeing things!

# 375 SportsGamer2K6 @ 03/04/08 12:29 AM

I picked up the game on Monday afternoon at a gaming store in Downtown Toronto. Here's some quick impressions:

- The menu interface could be better. I don't like the font they used throughout the menus - it's too small at times.

- There is a Jan. 20 roster update when I checked online. Could change tomorrow though.

- I don't know why Aaron Hill is rated only a 72?!! WTF!!!

- A lot of the generic photos of players look bad.

- The in-game presentation is worse than last year. I hate the new camera angle used to show the upcoming batter. Gone are the close-up face zooms of the upcoming batter.

- Graphics actually look a bit worse than last year. The animations though have improved greatly especially the fielding.

- I don't like the slight stutter (load) after each batter - you'll see what I mean when you play the game.

- It seems like most of the commentary from Jon & Joe in 2K7 was reused here.

- Pitching will take sometime to get used to. You'll throw a lot of meatballs when starting.

- Franchise Mode doesn't feel that much different aside from having Minor League teams. It's basically the same thing with a new interface.

- Overall, the game isn't much of a great leap from 2K7. A little disappointed honestly, I guess I was expecting great things. Anyways, The Show is awesome though!!!

# 376 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiz5


	I'm running a Samsung HDTV. I believe it's the main tv for XBox gaming, so it's definitely not an issue with the tv. The computer won't stop spraying the field! I've been mainly up the middle, but I haven't really tried hitting down the lines. Playing on the out of the box settings. Pro I believe? Right now, it's 9-5 Tampa, against myself, Seattle; in the 7th. 9 runs on 19 hits for TB. 7 hits for 5 runs for myself. Kazmir for 5 Ks, and Hernandez for 4. Realistic so far. Some are the same, but there's some that are really, really good. Noticed one on a line drive that hit the pitcher, and replayed it to hear it again. Yep, there's A TON, and I mean A TON of custom soundtracks available, for basically everything. Between innings, home runs, in between pitches, etc., etc., etc.

Heres the whole post.

# 377 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportsGamer2K6


	I picked up the game on Monday afternoon at a gaming store in Downtown Toronto. Here's some quick impressions: - The menu interface could be better. I don't like the font they used throughout the menus - it's too small at times. - There is a Jan. 20 roster update when I checked online. Could change tomorrow though. - I don't know why Aaron Hill is rated only a 72?!! WTF!!! - A lot of the generic photos of players look bad. - The in-game presentation is worse than last year. I hate the new camera angle used to show the upcoming batter. Gone are the close-up face zooms of the upcoming batter. - Graphics actually look a bit worse than last year. The animations though have improved greatly especially the fielding. - I don't like the slight stutter (load) after each batter - you'll see what I mean when you play the game. - It seems like most of the commentary from Jon & Joe in 2K7 was reused here. - Pitching will take sometime to get used to. You'll throw a lot of meatballs when starting. - Franchise Mode doesn't feel that much different aside from having Minor League teams. It's basically the same thing with a new interface. - Overall, the game isn't much of a great leap from 2K7. A little disappointed honestly, I guess I was expecting great things. Anyways, The Show is awesome though!!!

Any opinion on the presence of meatballs in the game? Probably the dumbest thing ever incorporated into a baseball video game.

# 378 JT30 @ 03/04/08 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	Heres the whole post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	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."

Ok I was talking about this..

# 379 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 12:40 AM

lol... kiz5 is the only one that has it here.Wait, now that other guy has it too.All three people who we know have it are from Canada!!!!!

kiz5,sportsgamer2k6,gamespot kid.

# 380 PVarck31 @ 03/04/08 12:52 AM

Gentlemen I have bad news. I went to Wal-Mart and they didn't have it. I did get the Show. However I don't think I am going to play it until after I play 2K8. Once again I'm sorry.

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