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

# 1521 jorge380 @ 03/06/08 08:05 PM

it seems the forum viewing for both games is evening out,just two days ago it was 2 to1 MLB2K8 forum.

# 1522 Bat @ 03/06/08 08:28 PM

I lowered pitch corners, throw strikes ahead and the accuracy ones all to zero and just had 3 walks. There was a good amount of balls.

# 1523 bigfnjoe96 @ 03/06/08 08:33 PM

What's up everyone. A little FYI After a nice amount of testing I have posted my Sliders in the Slider Section. As always feedback is appreciated ENJOY

# 1524 Brophog @ 03/06/08 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowlerguy92


	I absolutely CANNOT win on All-Star.

Then just play on pro.

The biggest difference in the levels is sliders, so why the big fuss over All-Star. Every time a new game comes out so many people have to play on a certain level and if that isn't working out, they let it ruin it for them.

I don't care what level I play on. I'm going to tweak the sliders to what works for me and have fun playing it. Some games that's the highest level, and some it isn't, and I rarely care either way.

Some games, imo, just play better on a lower level, even if you need to handicap the sliders for difficulty. If you otherwise like the game, I'd drop down to pro, and mess with the sliders that you think make the game too easy for you, and just find something you like.

# 1525 jonesymojo @ 03/06/08 10:50 PM

I still can't believe that the names of two Cubs starting players are mispronounced by the home PA announcer.

Aramis Ramirez- should be R-Rah-miss, not Air-a-miss

Felix Pie- should be Pee-ay, not PIE!!!! He is not set on a windowsill to cool, he is an underachieving Cubs phenom!!

# 1526 Rios.n.company @ 03/06/08 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonesymojo


	I still can't believe that the names of two Cubs starting players are mispronounced by the home PA announcer. Aramis Ramirez- should be R-Rah-miss, not Air-a-miss Felix Pie- should be Pee-ay, not PIE!!!! He is not set on a windowsill to cool, he is an underachieving Cubs phenom!!

OMG are you serious......? its a v-i-d-e-O-G-a-M-E get over it.

# 1527 Village Idiot @ 03/07/08 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brophog


	The biggest difference in the levels is sliders.

Actually, once you move a slider, the term "level" doesn't even apply anymore. It's amazing how many people have yet to grasp this - i.e., there is no such thing as "All-Star" or "Pro" sliders for this game; if you change something, the "level" automatically becomes "custom."

# 1528 Knight165 @ 03/07/08 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rios.n.company


	OMG are you serious......? its a v-i-d-e-O-G-a-M-E get over it.

He does have a point though.
When recording the audio....there is only one thing to get correct..and that's the pronunciation.
Heck....there is a game out there that says my name....it's not easy to pronounce looking at the spelling(just about every teacher who first called it out got it wrong!)....all they asked for was the phonetic spelling and they got it EXACTLY right.
Attention to detail....makes a big difference. Being sloppy doesn't show much pride in your product.

M.K.
Knight165

# 1529 longshadow11 @ 03/07/08 12:51 AM

The more I play, the more I like. I'm getting the hang of pitching and it is very satisfying striking batters out. Graphics aren't as bad as people are saying except on PS3. 360 looks better; it seems brighter and maybe better textures. 2K8 is fun and I'm liking some aspects of it more than The Show. I can't believe I just wrote that.

# 1530 pistonpete @ 03/07/08 01:22 AM

i'm glad you guys are enjoying this game, but as much as i hate to admit it, i can't get past the underwhelming graphics. and it just feels arcadey to me. i can't put my finger on it, it just does. i play on a 1080p pj, and mlb 07 looks amazing on it. i just can't accept the graphical hit this game took after seeing last years game. anybody that says its beautiful this year is being a bit too forgiving. its not ugly, but 2K really spoiled me with last years graphics. so much so that this game is going to be traded in or put on ebay. i'd rather play last years game and the show 08. i know some here will call me crazy, but that's the way it is. the graphics downgrade is compounded by the almost photorealistic (yes, i said it) look of the show 08. not to mention the solid gameplay of the show. again, these are my impressions, not a bash on 2K's effort or a lovefest for the show; i am glad the framerate workaround makes the game a blast for you guys, especially those that don't have a ps3. btw, the framerate workaround works for 2K7 as well. anyway, enjoy.

pete

# 1531 jonesymojo @ 03/07/08 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rios.n.company


	OMG are you serious......? its a v-i-d-e-O-G-a-M-E get over it.

Here's the thing. These guys are starters. Not bench riding specialists or middle relief-goatee-clones. In fact, Aramis is one of the top 7 or 8 third basemen in the game. So to have his name mispronounced two years in a row is, in my mind, a massive oversight.

# 1532 Marino @ 03/07/08 01:27 AM

i have to say at first this game was so frustrating that i went to gamestop to see how much a ps3 was...but then i thought better of it and now personally i think mlb 2k8 is the best baseball game i have ever played and top 5 all time behind cod and ff and mgs of course...i just love this game and hopefully the patch will fix the framework so i can actually watch replays during the game and stuff lol

# 1533 Direblaze @ 03/07/08 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marino13882


	i have to say at first this game was so frustrating that i went to gamestop to see how much a ps3 was...but then i thought better of it and now personally i think mlb 2k8 is the best baseball game i have ever played and top 5 all time behind cod and ff and mgs of course...i just love this game and hopefully the patch will fix the framework so i can actually watch replays during the game and stuff lol

Lol yeah i skip right to the gameplay(which is more fun then it people make it seem) it took me twelve games in allstar to win my first. And just won my second

. This games would be way better with a framerate pacth.

# 1534 Marino @ 03/07/08 02:11 AM

personally for me i can take a graphics hit bc i base it on gameplay...and plus this game looks better than mlb 07 the show on ps2 from last year...mlb 2k7 was hard for me to play bc although it looked nice it didnt seem realistic...hopefully 2k9 will b the total package and get rid of the crappy announcers as well...or at least new material

# 1535 HK-47 @ 03/07/08 03:10 AM

I've had the demo since yesterday and here are my impressions:

The BAD:

The first two games I played were low scoring, with the final scores being 3-0 & 2-1.The Red Sox won the first game and I won the second.But in the third game, the A.I CRUSHED every pitch I threw at them!I don't know why they suddenly could hit every pitch.
I've only been blown out twice in about 8-10, 3 inning demo games, but when these blow outs did happen, the A.I hit everything!Is it like this in the full game?I don't think my pitching is to blame, cause I was good at the new pitching controlls my first game.The main reason I lost my first game was because of fielding mistakes I made(the new controlls felt weird at first).

The graphics are not as good as 2k7's, but they are not horrible.They just look a bit more cartoony.The look of the grass is a major eye sore though.(It reminds me of a SNES baseball games grass.)

The A.I pitchers throw way too many strikes!(some say tweaking the A.I piching sliders fix this, others say it don't

)

Hitters shoes turn white as soon as they get on base(is this in the final game too?).

Fans hardly make any noise!Not even for walk off wins!WTF!

Framerate stutters while fielding!(Heard about the patch, so this shouldn't be an issue soon)

The GOOD:

Great new pitching and fielding controlls!I love them!

The swing stick seems greatly improved.Love the amount of hit variety and the increase in foul balls(you were lucky if you saw ten a game in 2k7).

The fielding feels so smooth, but it doesn't look as smooth as it feels.At times it looks too fast paced(sliders can probably fix this).
Saw some nice animations...
I robbed Manny of a hit with Matt Holiday.It would of bounced off the Green Monster if Holiday hadn't jumped to grab it! I had to watch the replay of that one!It looked so nice!

A.I pitchers seem to keep their pitches lower in the zone than in 2k7.In 2k7 you would often see the A.I throw sinkers at the top corners.

Take out slides and outfield collisions look great...Except for one collision I saw that involved Manny and Ellsbury.They collided and fell, but as soon as Manny hit the ground, he zipped back up at the speed of light.

*EDIT* Just saw a nice collison at home plate!Tulowitzki(me) slammed into Varitek, but Tek held on and Tulowitzki was called out. : (

I will definitely buy this game if some of the bad stuff can be fixed via patch or sliders!

# 1536 ExtremeGamer @ 03/07/08 08:37 AM

We posted our review at WhoNeedsRules.com

It got a 6/10.

http://www.whoneedsrules.com/2008/03...h-mlb-2k8.html

# 1537 MizzouRah @ 03/07/08 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonesymojo


	I still can't believe that the names of two Cubs starting players are mispronounced by the home PA announcer. Aramis Ramirez- should be R-Rah-miss, not Air-a-miss Felix Pie- should be Pee-ay, not PIE!!!! He is not set on a windowsill to cool, he is an underachieving Cubs phenom!!

It's funny that Miller will say it right and then the announcer chimes in right behind him and says it wrong.

# 1538 Jistic @ 03/07/08 09:38 AM

Picked this game up yesterday for 8 bucks, thanks to some gift cards my wife got from work!

I played two games and don't really see what all this outrage is about. In fact it's pretty comical looking back at this thread now. It may just be a lot of PS3 versions, I dunno.

Anyway, getting right to the frame rate issue. I played my first game w/out signing out of my VIP just to see how bad the frame rate was. And it was noticable....but slightly. Second game I did sign out to see the difference, and there was one for sure. The game was VERY smooth with that workaround. I will look forward to a patch for that.

Gameplay was very fun. I love the pitching mechanics. I also used the swing stick, which I suck at. The thing that was funny is both games I played were 1-0. This was just on default pro. I did hit a 3B with Derrick Lee, but hitting was a challenge for both I and the CPU. The other thing that sliders need to change is the amount of web gems by the fielders, especially the 2nd baseman. This was also an issue last year that was very fixable.

What I did love was the hit variety and the amount of foul balls. I had one moment when I fouled off like 4 in a row and the crowd actually started to get loud, was pretty cool. Otherwise though, the crowd is pretty "meh".

All in all I need to get much better at the swing stick, not gonna abandon it yet, and need to try out some sliders. I think the game is very fun, and plays a very good game of baseball. Haven't touched franchise yet though.

On the 360, at least, I think the chicken littleing was uncalled for. I can see the alarm over frame rates before the work around was found, but really it isn't that bad. But around here we loves us some hype!

# 1539 Jistic @ 03/07/08 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah


	It's funny that Miller will say it right and then the announcer chimes in right behind him and says it wrong.

I noticed that too. And I also laughed cuz my wife calls him PIE. Then again we call Theriot, Ryan-the-riot.

# 1540 MizzouRah @ 03/07/08 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jistic


	I noticed that too. And I also laughed cuz my wife calls him PIE. Then again we call Theriot, Ryan-the-riot.

lol

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