MLB 2K9 Demo (PS3) Impressions - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

MLB 2K9 Demo (PS3) Impressions

Posted on February 26, 2009 at 10:54 PM.

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I�ve never played a 2K baseball game before. I downloaded the 2K8 demo on the PS3 last year and couldn�t believe how ugly and choppy the game was. I was stunned and deleted the demo after an inning of gameplay. After reading that VC was taking over the development of the series and seeing some really nice looking 360 videos, I still had huge doubts over how much one game could improve in a single year on the PS3. Especially since they hadn�t released any PS3 videos of the game.

Well, this demo really surprised me as to how much better it was than last year. The game looks great, the player models look good, the lighting looks good and it just seems almost impossible to believe that the game could be this much better looking than the piece of crap I downloaded last year. The player faces aren�t the best but overall I was impressed. The frame rate was fine. Some choppiness in some animations but nothing like last year�s disaster. The game looked good.

I really like the real time presentation. I think both the Show and 2K9 have great announcers although I do think the commentary in 2K9 does a really good job of making it feel like a true two man booth with Thorne and Phillips actually communicating with one another. The Show�s threesome is great and isn�t very repetitive after many games but you don�t get the feeling that they are aware of each others� presence. I saw fans go for foul balls in the stands, which is nice. I know some people were bitching about the organ but having never gotten sick of it I like it. I�ve always been a sucker for organ music at ball games.

The other thing I really liked was the fielding camera. I liked how it was dynamic, staying low on plays in the infield and getting deep and high on fly balls. I got the feeling that I could track down fly balls without a marker since I could still usually see the ball. The Show really needs to add something like this. On deep home runs you can�t follow the ball but I do like this angle. The camera does make it hard to judge how high a ball is hit to the outfield but overall I thought this was a real positive.

It is a shame though that the demo has virtually no options other than substitutions. I�d have liked to play with the camera angles, especially the batting one since I didn�t like it that much but what can you do. I know some people love r-stick pitching and hitting but I don�t. The default controls were simple though and really felt more like a button system so I didn�t mind it. I do know the retail version will have two or three options for people. I have no clue how to hit a cutoff man and I think at the end of three games I might know how to run the bases but I really didn�t care. I just wanted a taste of the game and the demo did that. I don�t like the ball trails or the dust balls kicked up by players either.

I never noticed any fielding glitches or problems that people were saying but I only played nine innings. I saw balls get over outfielders heads, drop in between players and I saw Rollins hit a ball into the right field corner that was easily a double and he almost could have taken third on me. The outfield feels huge although the camera angle may be fooling me a little. I do think the outfielders look really slow out there but the net result was a nice amount of extra base hits. I did notice an abundance of errors though.

Pitching to the cpu felt very arcade like on the default settings. How much I suck at the game or don�t know the game makes it hard to judge. Plus sliders might fix this but in three games I think I saw the cpu take 1 or 2 pitches. At least on the default demo settings I don�t think many hardcore gamers would consider this a sim. But I did find it fun. I lost all three games (two as Philly) 6-2, 6-1 and 2-1. I saw plenty of HRs as well � too much imo.

While I didn�t like the hitting angle, I did like the feeling of hitting. Things felt good to me and I actually liked it better than the Show. I�m a terrible hitter in the Show and often my timing sucks. I was better here and I liked it. I never tried to influence any hits so I have no clue how that works or not. Even though I never scored a ton of runs, I did enjoy hitting. Having the same bat sound effect on every type of hit from a blooper to a home run is disappointing though. Maybe they can patch that.

Overall, I�m a newbie to 2K baseball and have bought the Show the last three years. I only buy one baseball game and that will be the Show �09 this year as well. On the default settings, 2K9 felt too arcadey to me although maybe different difficulty settings and slider adjustments would fix it. Plus I only played nine innings and still suck. I have no clue as to how the AI will hold up in this game over the long haul but I did have fun playing the demo. It honestly was better than I ever expected and I think next year could be a really good alternative to the Show. But for this year I�ll stick with the game that I know well. The Show is a seasoned veteran while 2K is the brash up and coming rookie that still lacks some polish. One more year and I think the 2K vs. Show debates could approach crazy levels.

Comments

# 1 Mr. JDM @ Feb 26

i just downloaded & played 3 games of 2K9 & theres really no comparison between the 2 games. '09 The Show is much better in EVERY aspect. & like i said in another post, i'm not partial to 1 game over the other. i was open to possibly buying 2K9 this year if it was a good game....thats def not happening. MLB The Show '08 is even better than 2K9. I dont care how much of an improvement they made over 2K8...its not even close to The Show. Like you said, hopefully next year will be better for the 2K series. I dont know what the guys at SCEA can possibly do for The Show '10 to make it better than this yrs edition.

# 2 DubTrey1 @ Feb 27

If your looking for patches to remedy some of he issues you mention here - well, don't hold your breath. The bat sounds issue has been the norm for quite some time now.

# 3 zeroice @ Feb 28

The game developers of PS3 have had a chance to work with the system for some time, so you will see alot of games that might have been pure crap last year..

# 4 rudyjuly2 @ Feb 28

I played a couple more games today. I really like the dynamic fielding camera and I also think the graphics are pretty good other than the player faces and the dust balls everywhere.

Pitching is very different from the Show. The breaking stuff doesn't move as much and you really have to target your pitches outside the zone (which seems wider) as the cpu will smack the ball all over the place if it's in the zone.

# 5 rudyjuly2 @ Mar 2

I saw some foul balls off people's legs the other day. I also saw a baserunner try to get out of the way of a tag. Very nice.