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

# 761 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 03:15 PM

How are the custom soundtracks?Can you use your own music for home runs and other stadium releated sounds?

I've only heard someone add it to batter walk up music...And that was the dude here on OS who has the beta copy.

Someone needs to truely confirm this by actually adding there own songs to be played when home runs are hit,walks are drawn etc!

# 762 SeaNNyT @ 03/04/08 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lived


	HOw's the crowd atmosphere. Loud at right times etc.

Hardly ever loud.

# 763 Hoos @ 03/04/08 03:17 PM

Well it only took me 2 innings to form my initial and final impression:

THIS GAME IS TRASH!!!

The graphics are a HUUUUUUUUUGE downgrade from last year!!! Started @ 1080i and then went to 720p - garbage at both settings!!! I feel like I'm playing a PS1 game

It's not my TV because everything else I have looks fantastic. This game is bull****!!!!

Stutters are as bad as reported, actually worse than reported!!!

Don't believe me?? Rent it and see for yourself. Worse video game purchase I have ever made. Last 2K baseball game that I will ever a buy....what a shame!!! So glad I bought the PS3 and the "other game".

Save the "fanboy" comments because I am about as unbiased as they come.

No wonder 2K kept this game under wraps and delayed their demo!!! I don't buy the whole MS delay for 1 second.................UGGGGHHHH, I feel like I need to throw up

# 764 skeem @ 03/04/08 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HK-47


	How are the custom soundtracks?Can you use your own music for home runs and other stadium releated sounds? I've only heard someone add it to batter walk up music...And that was the dude here on OS who has the beta copy. Someone needs to truely confirm this by actually adding there own songs to be played when home runs are hit,walks are drawn etc!

You can add custom music for solo home runs, 2 run hrs, 3 run hrs, grand slams, end of inning, end of game to name a few, even bringing in a pitcher

# 765 bluengold34_OS @ 03/04/08 03:18 PM

Just to let people know, I bought the PS3 version...and it was a stuttering mess.

I loved how it played, but the framerate was bad, and it only supports 720p, nothing else.....someone said it was developed in 1080i, well it may have been developed in it, but it wasn't released in it. Overall a fun game, and thank god the Gamestop guy let me bring it back and exchange it for a 360 version.

Not knocking the game, I think I am going to love the game as it seems to be a lot of fun, but PS3 buyers beware

At least for me........I am not trying to piss off any other PS3 owners, just wanted to give some people the heads up on what I was experiencing.

# 766 bowlerguy92 @ 03/04/08 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoosier4974


	Well it only took me 2 innings to form my initial and final impression: THIS GAME IS TRASH!!! The graphics are a HUUUUUUUUUGE downgrade from last year!!! Started @ 1080i and then went to 720p - garbage at both settings!!! I feel like I'm playing a PS1 game It's not my TV because everything else I have looks fantastic. This game is bull****!!!! Stutters are as bad as reported, actually worse than reported!!! Don't believe me?? Rent it and see for yourself. Worse video game purchase I have ever made. Last 2K baseball game that I will ever a buy....what a shame!!! So glad I bought the PS3 and the "other game". Save the "fanboy" comments because I am about as unbiased as they come. No wonder 2K kept this game under wraps and delayed their demo!!! I don't buy the whole MS delay for 1 second.................UGGGGHHHH, I feel like I need to throw up

Your an idiot.

# 767 Hoos @ 03/04/08 03:19 PM

Oh yeah, Hello EBAY !!!

# 768 HK-47 @ 03/04/08 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UNC_Pete


	One game impression: Setup: Hitachi 51 RP-HDTV (1080i) Component + digital audio All-Star

I heard 1080i makes the framerates bad.720p is overall better...Especially for gaming!

# 769 stealyerface @ 03/04/08 03:20 PM

Well, two games so far, and i love the game. I LOVE the fact that as a pitcher, if you mess up the pitch, you have a chance to get abused. I also the love the fact that it is not a sure thing that a meatball will get battered for a homerun. So you know you messed up the pitch as soon as you release it (just like in real life) and you just cringe waiting to see if it get whalloped (just like real life). Mini Review after two games:

NY Yankees 17
Boston 5

My very first game, I go all in with no tutorial, All Star, and turn all of the stuff that I do not want to see during the broadcast. No strike zone, no hitting overlay, no ball trail, no nothing. I am hitting with the Wide-Zoom setting, and pitching behind the pitcher camera. Pitching is awesome. Seriously. You are working to concentrate on making good pitches, but you have to be VERY careful of your timing. I struck out the side with Dice-K in the second inning, and was making great pitches. I love the catcher calling the pitches and location for me, but I can shake him off and reposition the spot with the A button. As you can tell from the score, I faltered horribly in the late innings, but actually had a nice 2-1 lead going into the 5th. Giambi went on a tear and ended up hitting two bombs, but honestly, they were my fault for terrible pitches. Timlin got shellacked, but i left him out there to mess with the camera and stuff. Hitting feels good. The manual is wrong. There is no pull back and let go. You push forward, and it feels like it needs to. The CPU threw a lot of strikes it seems, either that or I was so ramped up to try and hit the ball, I swung too much. Either way, I got torn up bad from the 6th inning on. I LOVE the pitching. There is an almost invisible green circle that shrinks as you power up the pitch. I finally realized that if you want to ramp one up and go for some extra uumph, the accuracy area is diminished. Hmm... that makes sense. But if you are trying to paint that outer edge, you can take something off the speed, and enjoy a little more forgiving control. Effing awesome. Pitching is great, just great, I just tried to throw everything too hard to begin with, and I suck at it. Manny and Papi go big fly back to back, and you guys have to see the animations for the homeruns. Perfect. manny's hands fly up... very nice.

Second game. Another tweak and try kind of game, and I get annialated by Cleveland 25-6. I got Youk's card with a Monsta shot in the 8th, but the game was all but over by then. I pitched Beckett in this one, and there is HUGE difference between Beckett and Timlin. Plus, with Dice-K in the wind up, you have to wait for his motion as the circles for power get bigger. Beck;s motion is faster, so they mimicked the pitcher's motion with the timing of the circles. Great job. Umpires had totally different strike zones for the two games. One guy gave me the outside while the other guy would give low strike. Very nicely done.

Presentation is not the turd that everyone somehow made it to be. I played on the Broadcast setting, and could still hear the crowd cheer when they should have, and they even yelled at my guys when we were getting crushed. The baserunning speed seems to be very good out of the box, and guys that should get doubles were getting them. Do NOT pitch to Travis Hafner or Victor Martinez if you have any hope of seeing the balls again. Seriously, these guys can crush it, and you will need to be very smart.

I know this is all over the place, but i am typing as i think of stuff. So far, two games under my belt, i got crushed, and i am itching for more pitching.

Heading to Yankee Stadium right now for another Red Sox-yanks matchup. And i am about to unleash Wakefield's knuckle ball on the Yankee linup. More to come later, but so far, I really like it.

SYF

# 770 El_MaYiMbE @ 03/04/08 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluengold34


	Just to let people know, I bought the PS3 version...and it was a stuttering mess. I loved how it played, but the framerate was bad, and it only supports 720p, nothing else.....someone said it was developed in 1080i, well it may have been developed in it, but it wasn't released in it. Overall a fun game, and thank god the Gamestop guy let me bring it back and exchange it for a 360 version. Not knocking the game, I think I am going to love the game as it seems to be a lot of fun, but PS3 buyers beware At least for me........I am not trying to piss off any other PS3 owners, just wanted to give some people the heads up on what I was experiencing.

Is the 360 version NOT stuttering like the PS3?

# 771 budsticky @ 03/04/08 03:21 PM

Here are my thoughts after one game on 360. Mind you, this is only a quick impression after a single game with the default settings as they are when you turn the game on. Also, I can't compare to last years game as I never bought it. And I apologize if I hit on points that have been beaten to death. I haven't had time to comb through the 40 plus pages that have been added to this thread since I last looked this morning:

-Pitching interface is pretty cool. It takes some getting used to but I like it. I got to 3 ball counts but never walked anybody. Mostly I went with what the catcher called. A couple odd things I noticed...I was the Yankees with Wang, and Posada was calling for a lot of sinkers way up in the zone. Not realistic. Of course you don't have to follow his calls but I thought that was curious. I also had some trouble throwing pitches with similar gestures. For example, the fastball and cutter are very similar. With Mo I would try to throw a cutter and threw a fastball instead several times. Again, this was my first game so maybe I'll get better.

-I'll have to wait and see on hitting. I pretty much suck at it right now. The right analog thing is new to me for hitting. I had one homer from Posada, a double, and a few singles. As I get better at hitting I'll be able to judge more. Sorry, not much help on that I know. I didn't draw any walks and got some real borderline pitches called for strikes against me. We'll have to see if some other umps have a tighter strike zone. I also probably swung at way too much garbage since it was my first game.

-Fielding is cool. I'll admit I did screw up and try to throw with the buttons a couple times, resulting in easy singles for my opponent. What can I say, habits are hard to break. And one time after I tried to press B to throw to first I panicked and overthrew with Jeter and the ball went sailing past first..so pretty neat touch there. I also had an error which was no fault of mine. A hard bouncer took a hop and ate up A-Rod. So I'd say based on the very small sample size of one game the fielding is pretty spot on for me...however:

-Computer fielding. I don't know if it's just this one game but they were beyond flawless. There were 5 highlight reel plays on the infield with diving stops where the fielder got up and threw my guy out. So far I'm a little worried that the cpu will make all the plays...but time will tell on that. I wonder if anybody else who has the game yet has seen this.

-Presentation is ho-hum as everybody expected. No surprises there.

-Graphics are also average at best, and I have noticed a lot of the stuttering that I've seen talked about here. Mainly it seems to be on batter walk ups and in-between plays. I haven't really noticed any problems during actual game play so I guess that's not a killer for me. Still though, with the great graphics in The Bigs I expected more. Like maybe a less over the top graphical version of The Bigs where not everybody was jacked up and muscular. The facial models are also pretty bad in this game IMHO.

We'll have to see how this one turns out for me with repeated plays. It's too soon to tell now, but I just wanted to throw out my 2 cents after finally getting to play this game.

# 772 Thadeus @ 03/04/08 03:21 PM

The more I play it, the more I like it. The fielding is great, the framerate is good enough, and no way the graphics are bad. The animations are much improved as well.

# 773 Pared @ 03/04/08 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowlerguy92


	Your an idiot.

Nice. Really necessary.

# 774 Hoos @ 03/04/08 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowlerguy92


	Your an idiot.

Yeah, real nice. It's my opinion. Don't care if you like it or not.

I don't see how anyone can not see how vastly different this game looks to 2K7!!!!

To each their own I guess.

# 775 Direblaze @ 03/04/08 03:22 PM

people with the game please correct me if i am wrong.

The gameplay is goood but the framerate take away from this right?

# 776 bluengold34_OS @ 03/04/08 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El_MaYiMbE


	Is the 360 version NOT stuttering like the PS3?

I am not sure yet as I have not thrown it the 360, just wanted to jump on here real quick as I know a lot of people are getting to buy are at least think about buying this game for the PS3

# 777 SPTO @ 03/04/08 03:22 PM

I'm getting the game later in the week. I've decided to be cheap and wait for the store my mother works at to get it so I can get a really good discount. So adios for a few days.

# 778 thornie @ 03/04/08 03:23 PM

So wait... Let me try and get everything straight here... The game stutters and flutters like crazy on the PS3 and is only minimal on the 360? People are writing things that completely contradict each-other and no one is stating what system they are playing on.

# 779 Str8_A @ 03/04/08 03:24 PM

I cancelled my order on Amazon....only because I wanted to play the game right away LoL. After reading the posts here I had to see what all this fuss about framerate issues.

I've only played homerun derby, and I must say the Swing Stick is so much better than last year. I never used the Swing Stick last year, but will be using it primarily from now on.
I noticed when swinging early I pulled the pitch, and swinging a bit late I went opposite field. Exactly what I wanted in hitting.

I did notice a bit of choppiness on the field, but only cause I was looking for the framerate issue. About to play my 1st game w/ my bro(SF).

From what I played so far, I know for sure I'm gonna enjoy this game regardless of the framerate issue.

# 780 speels @ 03/04/08 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluengold34


	Just to let people know, I bought the PS3 version...and it was a stuttering mess. I loved how it played, but the framerate was bad, and it only supports 720p, nothing else.....someone said it was developed in 1080i, well it may have been developed in it, but it wasn't released in it. Overall a fun game, and thank god the Gamestop guy let me bring it back and exchange it for a 360 version. Not knocking the game, I think I am going to love the game as it seems to be a lot of fun, but PS3 buyers beware At least for me........I am not trying to piss off any other PS3 owners, just wanted to give some people the heads up on what I was experiencing.

Hi Blue,

I did not want to read this whole thread and from your other thread I know that you are a pure gamer and love baseball. So my question to you is this:

In YOUR opinion, so no one thinks you are a fanboy

, which game do you think is better.
I don't need reasons why or why not the game is good, but in your opinion as a baseball fan and a gamer, which game are you going to spend more time with?

Also, PS3 is sooooo far behind with 2K sports, that it is ridiculous.

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