MLB 2K12 Demo Available Now, Post Impressions Here

[ericdrum]

I've been having fun with it. I'm definitely picking it up on PC. 30 bucks is a steal.

Funny thing at the end of an inning: Holliday caught a high deep fly out in the corner for out number 3. He turned around to throw the ball into the crowd. He throws and "PING!", right off the foul pole!

[DarkFudge]

Quote: Originally Posted by nemesis04

I only played a few games but I was expecting more with the new ball physics to be honest. Ground balls start out ok but after a few bounces they basically stop bouncing and just glide along the grass and just keep going.

LOL...you pretty much nailed it exactly what I was dissappointed about. Ball physics in general are terrible(still) Its as they modeled the physics of a marble interacting with a frozen turf or actual concrete. And its been like this since 2K9. 2K8 had such great ball physics. Batted balls in the air had loft, realistic trajectories and slices, spins, and bounces.....It all seemed to have dissappeared since 2K8. And in 2K12, yes they added a bit more variety to the types of hits but they almost feel a bit canned as if the designers said lets just add in some more random types of hits and the most appropriate swings rather than real variety as a result of a much more detailed ball collision model with the bat and swing physics.


Another thing that is driving me crazy (on the PS3) is that they seemed to have the camera pull away to a wider view behind the batter a split second right before he actually makes contact with the ball, I guess to give you a wider and more cinematic view of the action but the problem is that it is a but choppy and stutters at times and actually ruins the flow of the game and also ruins the sensation of actually making contact with the ball somewhat because of how poorly it transistions at times!

Another thing that has dissapointed me is also alot of the timings and balance of things is still off such as runners advancing from 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home and being gunned down by howitzer armed precision outfielder throws. Players also lack a sense of weight and feel very light and airy when controlling them in the field.

Also many of the transition animations for a fielder moving from a fielding a throw to a planting then throwing or running to a bag transition still feels very robotic, sped up and lacks fluidity from time to time.

Player Models are still shoulderless looking throw backs to something out of the High Heat 2004 era...in fact much of the gameplay has that High Heat 2004 feel to it and not in a good way.

Overall I feel that this game should have and could have been more refined after a full year of work on it.....The game is still very playable which makes me even more mad that they just couldnt have made this game more realistically polished and natural looking because it can be fun to play in a way that I actually dont get from The Show. But it still has that Microsoft Arcade 800Points Full Purchase feel to it and I just still cant take it serious enough when I play it.

[beecravey7]

I played the demo on the ps3 and overall I thought it was pretty fun. I did notice a couple different times that on a base hit the cpu hit, the game cut to the next batter coming up right as my outfielder was picking the ball up off the ground. WTF? hope it is not like that in the full version. Also, on a several shots hit up the middle, the shortstop reaction time to make the play on the ball was r3tard3d fast. The fielding throw meter is awesome.

[Skyboxer]

Well I'm happy with the demo for the most part. Main thing is it was fun. Went ahead and pre-ordered the combo pack since I never did get NBA game.

[dolemint]

I liked the demo. Played two games, one as each team. The first game I hit 3 homers in 4 innings with Texas, which was worrisome. Seems people complained about lack of power last year and they may have overcompensated. OR it could just be a difficulty level issue of the demo being set too easy. The follow up game I lost but didn't hit any dingers, but I was also intentionally screwing around to see what was different. We'll just have to wait and see.

Some positives and negatives:

GRAPHICS
+ New graphic overlays are nice looking.
+ I did notice new animations for the catcher, baserunners, and fielders.
+ Shadow jaggies seemed reduced in close-ups compared to last year.
- Some animations (including new ones) looked awkward still.
- Mild slowdown on foul balls still exists.

I didn't expect them to reinvent the wheel graphically so the minor additions are welcome but I didn't have my hopes set too high either.

PITCHING
+ Overusing a pitch will turn it yellow/red, meaning the CPU hitter's eye will pick up on it more. Nice feature.
+ New stats for pitch location. Too early to tell how important this will be but if executed properly, this will be a good addition.
+ High curve balls don't break as drastically as regular curves, so it's nice to see that realism included.
- I still was not in danger of walking people. I got in a couple 3 ball counts, but missed gestures look to go down the middle instead of out of the zone.

FIELDING
+ I actually did a wall climb on the first game. I never successfully did this maneuver in 2k10 or 11. Felt good.

Jury's still out for me on the throwing until I get used to it. Initially had a couple of awkward moments that simply be the learning curve. But my second baseman throwing over the 1st baseman's head was just weird to see, as was a little lob throw that took too long to animate.

HITTING
Seems largely identical. Like last year, I was able to work a couple of walks, which was nice. Noticed a few IBBs which I'll have to bite my tongue on until I get more games in.

[Rattler17]

So i just finished playing 5 games, i wont 2 and lost 3 as which is better than i expected having been on the show for many years now. I personally love the experience and really took it all for what it was with no expectations.

Likes:
I love the flow of the game, i thought it was really well put together and if there had been some commentators it would have been superb. I thought the fielding animations were rather well done considering where they were last season, the same goes for the swing animations and the fielder movements. The new pitching engine is a B**** and i love it, really makes you pay attention to what you are doing and not just looking for a blue box and throwing a pitch.

Dislikes:
It really felt like the outfield was rather small, and the ball was either a homer or it was a fly out which felt like i had just hit a bowling ball as hard as i could. The players running the bases while looking pretty good didnt seem to put ANY effort into the run despite moving rather quickly (felt as so they were out for a morning jog). Really minor one but umpires call the foul balls way too fast. Before you even cut to field view for the hit he has yelled foul which was kinda of annoying on balls that were close down the line.

Well that was my take on the game, some may agree some may say I'm out to lunch to play this game on the PS3. All the being said I'm taking the game as it is.... a shell of the actual game released to tide the masses over for a week until launch. As for the people saying it looks bad....yes compared to the competition it doesn't look top notch but 2k has always gone with the arcade graphics so i really didn't turn it on expecting to see Josh Hamilton's twin looking at the camera.

[Cavicchi]

Quote: Originally Posted by JustinVerlander35

I have played about 12 games or so, and this demo has assured me I am not going to buy it. Still running into problems with fielding. Here are a few examples: A runner was stealing on me, and Mike Napoli threw wild over Kinsler's head. The ball flew into centerfield and Josh Hamilton felt the need to run right past the ball and into the infield. None of my fielders made an attempt to run after the ball that was just laying in centerfield. Both runners scored and I just re-started the demo. Second problem I have faced is sometimes the fielding AI gets very lazy. A groundball was hit to David Freese. Not a line-smash, just your run-of-the mill roll over on a breaking pitch groundball. Freese takes one step and just stops. Lets it roll past him and it barley broke the outfield grass. Also have had problem with base running as well. Game feels like it is running very slow. Don't know if it is just because it's a demo or there will be framerate issues again. There was a few pluses though! Sometimes the computer AI did play great defense. Furcal robbed me a few times of base hit. Some of the stances have been fix and look more fluid through the whole swing. Graphics are still pretty bad, but looked a bit more refined. I don't know if it was me but it was hard to hit homers. Some of the new presentation is OUTSTANDING!

Were you using auto fielding?

[kubankaos]

Played a game on the PS3 and enjoyed it. I saw some improvement, but somethings were the same as well.

I think in the 5 inning game I just had, there were only maybe 5 foul balls? I wish there was more.

But I liked the fielding improvements.


So overall I enjoyed it and I didn't care much for the PS3 version last year anyway. I have pre-ordered the PC version. Should still be a fun game hopefully.

For anybody interested...my background.

I bought the PS3 just for the Show in 2K8 and have bought every version of the Show since then and will purchase again this year as well.

But last year, I bought 2K11 for the PC and I ended up playing that more than the Show last year. I had a blast with it. I really like playing at 1920x1200 vs 720p, for me it feels like the difference between wearing glasses and not. Also I love the loading times on a PC vs a console. So I'm secretly hoping 2K11 to be better for me this year as well.

With that said if the Show's physics are really overhauled and all that good stuff, then it's going to be really tough to decide. It's a nice problem to have for sure.