Official Xbox Magazine has posted their MLB 2K12 preview. Not a whole lot of info here, with a few screenshots mixed in.
Quote:
For instance, batters will round first base after hitting a clean single rather than running through the bag. Gloves have been given detailed stitching and an appropriately leathery texture. And an outfielder who catches a flyout to end an inning will carry the ball in with him or flip it to the fans in the seats instead of throwing it to second base. Best of all, fielders with plenty of time to throw out a runner on an easy grounder will casually flip the ball over to first rather than always rifle it over as if the World Series depended on it.
As for more important improvements? Last year, we cited a lack of hit variety, repetitive play-by-play commentary, and lack of home runs as persistent annoyances in 2K11. Visual Concepts is directly addressing those issues with revamped ball physics (meaning far fewer soft lineouts to infielders) and an additional 80 hours of new audio commentary on top of what’s already there.
Very true, but with 2K it was a bit more than that.
When 2K's NFL series was canned, most of that team went to NBA and started building from the ground up. It's translated into arguably the best franchise in sports video games.
With MLB, the ship has changed hands too many times.
But you can tell how much better the game has gotten since VC took over.
I hope 2K continues making ball games and allows VC to build a new engine when the new consoles come out.
I firmly believe when that happens, we'll have the baseball equivalent to their NBA series.
It will be interesting to see if they even stick with baseball. They gave up on hockey which I thought was a stronger game for them compared to baseball.
I just hope they added 10-15 clean cut-scenes and smoothed out some on-field animations. Those were really the only 2 drawbacks on 2k11 for me.
Also, last year's game had 2 great things that no one ever talks about: the new hit camera, and the awesome detail and variety in batting stances and between pitch routines. Both of these things surpassed the competition imo.
Hopefully this is not 2k's last version. Competition is good for everyone. And makes a better product.
I'm sure someone else will step up and make a MLB licensed game.
I agree competition is great for all of us, but IMO, 2K hasn't given 110% on their baseball series in a long time. I am not saying it has or hasn't improved and I understand there are reasons for this, but regardless of all of that this game is not on par with other top sports games in terms of overall quality across the board.
2K isn't trying to hide anything, they just have nothing to show, unless you want to see Videos of base runners rounding bases and the catcher getting out of his stance smoother. I'm not impressed but I'll still buy, I have no other choice to get my MLB fix.