MLB 2K11 Review - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

MLB 2K11 Review

Posted on April 12, 2011 at 07:34 PM.

(9)

This review is written after playing almost 50 games of the retail copy. It deals exclusively with offline gameplay and does not touch My Player. There are many improvements to 2K11 over 2K10. There is no question that 2K11 is vastly superior to 2K10 in many ways but it still has some significant errors. Unfortunately the reputation of being a buggy and unfinished product is earned and 2K11 lives up to its past errors.

UNFINISHED AND BUGGY

There are some issues with this game that go beyond differences of opinion. There are flat out errors and omissions in this game that should not exist. Some of these include the absence of fatigue in franchise mode! You can play game after game but will never see your players fatigued in the following game! You have to exercise proper discretion in using your starters, bullpen and rotating your regular players otherwise you would never need your bench. But 2K11 made it sure you would need your bench in that injuries in franchise mode are absolutely absurd on the default settings. Get ready for a significant injury almost every game so you need to turn it down to the lowest setting or off as a result. What is worse is that if you do see a pitcher injury, sometimes the injured pitcher stays crumpled on the ground next to his replacement. I�ve seen a switch hitting cpu batter bat from both sides of the plate since he thought he was facing both pitchers on the mound! But don�t worry. If you use the in game save feature all in game injuries are removed when restarting so you can cheat your way around it. Just playing a few games in franchise should make these issues obvious but the development team somehow missed them. This really hurts franchise mode along with the fact player options are still missing. You can send veterans down to the minors rather than having to cut them. The Show has had this for two or three years already. The game does feature rehab assignments and disabled lists but you don�t have complete control over them.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

The commentary is excellent once again. The amount of dialogue for seemingly every player in the game is very impressive. This is great for MLB Today but they need to reduce the amount of player specific audio played throughout franchise games. It gets too repetitive to hear the same thing said about each player almost every game. There are a few audio gaffs as well. Sometimes the audio lags behind and may repeat itself but overall this is the best commentary I have ever heard (note: I don�t play NBA 2K). All three announcers are fluid and it feels like a true three man booth.

I personally think the graphics are good on the game. The player faces are still poor (very poor for some players) and some animations are still rough. The player models are quite a bit better than last year; particularly the legs and the stadiums look great. Dev team, please make the players rounding the bases smoother next year! It�s the most obvious issue in the animations department and it detracts from the good things in the game. The frame rate hiccup on fly balls is an issue and needs to be smoothed out.

PITCHING

I love the gesture pitching and with the control slider you can really play with this to create a situation where you walk the cpu which was very rare in 2K10. Walking the cpu isn�t just about control though as it is a two part issue. One, you need to make pitch control realistic so you can�t paint corners. Two, you have to have the cpu offense dangerous enough so that you won�t give in when you fall behind as most gamers do. Then you try to balance that with strikeouts and extra base hits and it�s something that can be difficult to balance. With sliders this is something that can be fine-tuned pretty well.

The cpu hitters have a nice variety to them. The dangerous hitters stand out as do the patient ones. Contact hitters are dangerous as well. You will see players take called third strikes and other pitches in the strike zone but still chase a realistic amount of balls out of the zone. A mistake pitch is often hit hard but not every mistake is crushed as you can slip them by even the best of hitters. In short, it is pretty realistic.

Another positive to the game is the variable strike zone. Balls that nip the strike zone are no longer automatic strikes. You are at the discretion of the umpire which really helps to shrink down the strike zone and induce more walks. While on the mound you also have Inside Edge data that shows the hot and cold zones of each batter along with how they hit versus various pitches. It is excellent and useful information.

There is one area that needs adjusting. There aren�t enough ground outs, particularly for the cpu. Too often the cpu batter will get a hit or strike out. While you can get realistic run totals you will find that your team will lead the league in strikeouts while still having a lousy opposing batting average. Sliders cannot fix this as it�s an issue with the game�s engine. Part of this may be related to the contact vs. power swing I will discuss later.

I have a few pet peeves. One is that moving fastballs break too much. Cutters and two seam fastballs have more lateral movement than sliders in this game. I would like to see that toned down a little. The other area that I would love to see is individual pitch confidence rather than just an overall confidence meter. Plus I don�t like the fact that a mound visit automatically calms a rattled pitcher. It�s not a bad mechanic but I think it could use some work. Lastly, some elite pitchers have custom animations out of the stretch. This is nice but you can�t skip past them and it can lead to longer games when using someone like Justin Verlander.

Overall pitching is a lot of fun and strength of 2K baseball.

BATTING

I love the default batting camera and how it allows me to read pitches. I love the bat off the ball in this game and this area is the biggest improvement from 2K10 to 2K11. There is a lot of hit variety, way more than 2K10. You will see infield pop ups, both fair and foul, that you never saw last year. Opposite field power has been toned down but is still a little too powerful. I think the game makes it a little too hard to pull pitches on the outer half so they leave the extra opposite field power in to compensate. It does keep the game balanced and fun so this is a very minor complaint.

There are a couple of issues that I think still need work. There is too much of a difference between a contact swing and a power swing. The power swing is FAR more powerful than the contact swing. Swinging contact will really help you with singles but very little power. The gap is just too large. It�s not as big as last year�s game but I would like to see the gap reduced. The other issue is the cpu never bunts for hits this year. You will see them sacrifice runners over but you will never see Ichiro or Chone Figgins attempt bunt singles this year. Hopefully the second patch will address this.

FIELDING

This is an area that has some strengths but still has issues despite it being a point of emphasis this year. First, the fielding isn�t really analog as the controls work exactly the same as buttons. How hard you push the stick or what direction you hold it doesn�t really matter. That�s not necessarily a bad thing as I don�t push the stick in perfect angles but it�s something that should be noted and some may not like.

I love the difference in the outfielders and I love the zoomed out 2K9 fielding camera (you have three options plus some zoom edits now) when tracking deep fly balls. However the new fielding circle makes catching routine fly balls a little too difficult with poor outfielders. I can understand trying to differentiate between the good and bad defensive players but it can get frustrating depending on your camera angle. It does make defensive outfielders more valuable when they have largely been useless in past video games.

Infield defence is still automated as good infielders will make great diving plays without even pushing a button. I do think this is realistic as those hard shots are instinctive. You can�t expect a gamer to make that play completely on his own.

The errors are poorly tuned on the default levels as you rarely see an error. You have to really crank up the �gathering error� slider to see booted balls but when you do the dropped fly balls and liners happen too often. The balance between an infielder booting a ball and an outfielder dropping a pop fly needs to be adjusted. You simply don�t see enough booted grounders in the game (or ground balls period). Throwing errors happen more often but only for the computer. Once you learn the system you should never make a throwing error. As long as you stay in the green range of your throw meter every throw will be on target regardless of their defensive abilities and sliders do not correct this. It really takes away from this part of the game and needs to be fixed. Casual throws still miss their mark in MLB but not in MLB 2K11. The weird thing is that it appeared better in the demo and the retail version ended up worse.

BASE RUNNING

Base running is also improved from 2K10. Stealing was very difficult for me in 2K10 but new sliders allow you to adjust this to your liking. The cpu runners will take advantage of you missing the cut-off man so you have to be careful. The default settings are poor as base runners are too fast and outfield arms too weak � the exact opposite of the issues last year. Sliders can help you offline but for online users or gamers who don�t like sliders, you will find far too many singles that turn into doubles along with an abundance of triples. The cpu isn�t quite aggressive enough when going home. On singles to the outfield, too often a computer runner at second stops at third.

There is only one camera for base running after you hit the ball. I have adjusted and now enjoy the new angle on the default settings. You can play a little with the zoom and height if you want but a traditional camera is not available. This was a mistake and some may be annoyed.

COMPUTER MANAGEMENT

This is the weakest part of the game and I don�t see enough of an improvement from 2K10. The cpu manager yanks the starting pitcher far too early. As soon as he gives up three runs there is a strong chance that he gets yanked even if it�s the second inning. That�s way too soon. Sometimes they leave the first reliever in too long. Pinch hitting and bullpen management is weak. They also seem to remove great players for defensive purposes too often in close games. I know I would never remove Josh Hamilton from a close game but it happens quite a bit.

VIP AND SPORTS BLOG

There are two very cool features that most reviewers don�t even mention about this game. The VIP feature tracks all your hitting and pitching tendencies. It has a ton of stats from hit charts for left and right handed batters to how many strikes you throw when behind or ahead in the count. It�s only drawback is that you can�t take screenshots of this or load them to a server for others to view.

The sports blog is back and identical to last year. You can upload all of your box scores from franchise mode and then use the 2K servers to track your team and player stats online. This can be viewed by everyone on the web and you can write stories and include any uploaded videos or screenshots from the game. A very simple and nice way to share your franchise stories with your buddies.

OVERALL

There are definitely some bugs and annoyances in this game. The errors in franchise mode are hard to overlook. It�s not a perfect simulation of baseball but it gets a lot more right than wrong. The bottom line is that the pitching and hitting have really improved and the game is a lot of fun. Fielding has also improved but still needs work as does the cpu AI.

2K does a great job of making ratings matter for all the players but still give the user a ton of control in the game based on stick skills. This is often a tough thing to balance as a game that is too ratings based may feel scripted or boring. A game that is based too heavily on stick skills feels too arcade but that isn�t the case here. The result is a game that is an absolute blast to play and one that I recommend.

Final Score: 80/100 (without the franchise bugs this would score in the upper 80s but I can�t ignore them).

Comments

# 1 Cardot @ Apr 12

Thanks Rudy.

# 2 Dazraz @ Apr 12

Thanks for the review. Very in depth, informative & most importantly honest.
I haven't picked up the game yet but I plan to soon. Hopefully the Franchise can be remedied with a patch.

# 3 mac8204 @ Apr 12

These are the types of reviews that should be done for every game. Great job!

# 4 NAFBUC @ Apr 13

very insightful review Rudy.

thanks

# 5 AndyP @ Apr 13

Great review. Like you, I like the gesture pitching. For me, it brings the correct amount of challenge to pitching. I also enjoy being able to draw a walk from the CPU. That 3-2 pitch is sometimes out of the zone.

# 6 stlstudios189 @ Apr 13

I have been sitting on this game since I bought it day one waiting on a patch

# 7 rudyjuly2 @ Apr 15

@Cre8 No question I would tell you to buy 2K11. It's a much better game. When I see reviews that say it's not that different from 2K10 I just laugh. 2K11 is not a perfect game but the hit variety in 2K10 was pretty weak. It's so much better in 2K10. You had too much pitch control in 2K10 as well once you got used to the gesture pitching. I would walk about 1 batter every 10 games. With 2K11 I issue over two walks per game (MLB average is over three but I give in a little too much). The biggest reason is the pitch control slider and the variable strike zone - two things that never existed in 2K10.

As for fielding, 2K11 has errors. While not tuned well on default levels they still exist. No errors exist in 2K10 so you could play any player at any position without penalty. Plus you have three different camera options in 2K11 with height and zoom adjustments. 2K10 had one close up camera view for fielding which some, myself included, didn't like all that much.

2K10 was a fun game but it had too many errors or omissions to stand the test of time. 2K11 improved a lot in all major areas except for cpu management AI. That still needs work. As my review outlined, 2K11 has issues but it's a MUCH better game than 2K10 whose flaws really hurt the game over the long haul. If you only want to play a handful of games here and there you might enjoy it. But I would really encourage you to buy 2K11 instead.

# 8 Riotboy @ Apr 20

Great review. I will stay away from this game like the plague, too bad they don't have the Show for the 360.

/bummer