MLB 2K13 Announced with Cover Athlete David Price, Arrives March 5th

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by tonadom

They can't "go back" to MLB 2K7. MLB 2K7 was developed by Kush Games and when they left - unfortunately - MLB 2K7 left with 'em ( this is also a reply to the post above wondering why the graphics declined ). Things changed after MLB 2K7 because I'm guessing 2K and Kush had a disagreement.

lol...someone clamoring for Kush to return. That's a first!

Actually, Kush didn't "leave" they were closed. Kush (which was actually renamed to "2KLA" before it closed) was owned by Take Two when it developed these baseball games. And people have a skewed memory of this series it seems. Kush did more to put this series in the mess it got in than VC when they took back over.

Kush was sloppy and had no focus which is part of why the series had to be rebooted by VC in 2K9 and 2K10 to begin with (To be fair, Brinkman leaving was a big part of it too, though he was part of the messy transition from 2K7 to 2K8). They had all these issues while the license was still a priority for 2K to boot.

The reason 2K8 (still developed by your beloved Kush, which wasn't closed until they had already begun work on 2K9) looked like crap is because they didn't build a solid foundation with 2K7. They built from the outside-in and made it a great looking, well-presented, choppy, and simple game. When they went in to address issues with game play and frame rate, they realized they couldn't get it running properly with 2K7's visuals and had to scale back...way back. They were too ambitious with the visuals in 2K7 (admitted by them, I believe) and 2K8 in all it's ugliness was born...lol.

[Behindshadows]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

lol...someone clamoring for Kush to return. That's a first! Actually, Kush didn't "leave" they were closed. Kush (which was actually renamed to "2KLA" before it closed) was owned by Take Two when it developed these baseball games. And people have a skewed memory of this series it seems. Kush did more to put this series in the mess it got in than VC when they took back over. Kush was sloppy and had no focus which is part of why the series had to be rebooted by VC in 2K9 and 2K10 to begin with (To be fair, Brinkman leaving was a big part of it too, though he was part of the messy transition from 2K7 to 2K8). They had all these issues while the license was still a priority for 2K to boot. The reason 2K8 (still developed by your beloved Kush, which wasn't closed until they had already begun work on 2K9) looked like crap is because they didn't build a solid foundation with 2K7. They built from the outside-in and made it a great looking, well-presented, choppy, and simple game. When they went in to address issues with game play and frame rate, they realized they couldn't get it running properly with 2K7's visuals and had to scale back...way back. They were too ambitious with the visuals in 2K7 (admitted by them, I believe) and 2K8 in all it's ugliness was born...lol.

Actually 2k8 was made by someone named Blue Castle...Kush was gone after 2k7....And yeah I can agree and disagree with the way it played, because they tried the analog stuff with 2k7 and it wasn't good...I switched back to classic and it was fine. I do know you had more control on the outfield in 2k7 and the cutscenes didn't stick like they do in the later games. 2k7 had it's issues.

But other titles of BB Games I won't mention here have proved you can get graphics and gameplay.

No reason after 5 years they couldn't get back to 2k7 level of visuals and have current control systems. Also Kush got the color palettes right! Why is it no matter what game VC puts it's hands on, Red becomes Pink...and so forth...Navy Blue is grey, etc?

We just want the best for this series, and one reason competition is considered so much better is because of the lack of the visual attraction. Gameplay is good, Presentation is Perfect / Flawless, and gameplay modes are plenty....Even the PC version's online was great.....

But visually it's a ugly bitch with a nice personality.....lol

We need that portion to be fixed.

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by Behindshadows

Actually 2k8 was made by someone named Blue Castle...Kush was gone after 2k7....And yeah I can agree and disagree with the way it played, because they tried the analog stuff with 2k7 and it wasn't good...I switched back to classic and it was fine. I do know you had more control on the outfield in 2k7 and the cutscenes didn't stick like they do in the later games. 2k7 had it's issues. But other titles of BB Games I won't mention here have proved you can get graphics and gameplay. No reason after 5 years they couldn't get back to 2k7 level of visuals and have current control systems. Also Kush got the color palettes right! Why is it no matter what game VC puts it's hands on, Red becomes Pink...and so forth...Navy Blue is grey, etc? We just want the best for this series, and one reason competition is considered so much better is because of the lack of the visual attraction. Gameplay is good, Presentation is Perfect / Flawless, and gameplay modes are plenty....Even the PC version's online was great..... But visually it's a ugly bitch with a nice personality.....lol We need that portion to be fixed.

No, 2K8 was still made by Kush. They just changed their name to 2KLA. As I recall, Blue Castle came in to help finish it, but the game was still primarily developed by Kush/2KLA.

And I agree 100% about the visuals, especially the color palette. VC is terrible in this regard on this series AND NBA2K (though, to be clear, the colors were bad in 2K8 as well, where the Red Sox "red" was actually maroon). Graphics should be much better at this point. You can punch them up a lot on PC, but it still has that overall "cartoony" feel in a lot of ways (except for the stadiums. I think some of them are fantastic).

I also 100% agree that you can have both graphics and game play and am certainly not saying that they couldn't have gotten back to 2K7 levels of player graphics. My point was that 2K7, as good as it looked and as much as I liked it, would not have made a good base, as it was, from all indications, poorly designed at its core.

Really, the issue comes down to poor planning and poor design. As I said, they essentially built the game backwards. Plus, by the time VC took over and landed on a direction, it was pretty much too late. That said, I think, aside from visuals, VC has helped the franchise a lot in terms of focus and quality. The series was a joke a few years ago. It's at least viable now. Hopefully they come back stronger next gen, as I do like some of what the 2K series does.

Ugly bitch with a nice personality sums it up pretty well though...lol. I agree that they need to fix that. I just don't see it happening this gen (if at all).

[tonadom]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

lol...someone clamoring for Kush to return. That's a first! The reason 2K8 (still developed by your beloved Kush, which wasn't closed until they had already begun work on 2K9) looked like crap is because they didn't build a solid foundation with 2K7...

My beloved Kush ? All I'm saying is they put more effort into MLB 2K than VC does. If that makes me a target on this forum, then fire away. I really don't care. It's what I think.

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by tonadom

My beloved Kush ? All I'm saying is they put more effort into MLB 2K than VC does. If that makes me a target on this forum, then fire away. I really don't care. It's what I think.

lol... I did not make you a personal target nor do I represent this or any forum, so you should be free from targeting there as well.

The "beloved Kush" comment was light-hearted as you had the timeline of their involvement wrong and it's simply rare to find anyone who has followed this series actually praising Kush's job with it. So, if you took that wrong, I apologize. I wasn't arguing your opinion about effort (which you never mentioned in the post I quoted anyway). You implied the graphics went down hill when Kush "left." I simply responded to your incorrect information about that and explained the nature of VC taking over development.

Now, as for "effort" I think it's impossible to quantify in this case. Kush had the game when it was a priority and before nearly every 2K Sports franchise started dropping due to finances. VC was given a partially-started game to reboot and has had their budget and focus reduced each year. Hell, 2K9 didn't even have a dedicated team for it at first. That's not to say that VC has done everything right. Far from it. It's only to point out the circumstances are far different. That's really not an issue of developer effort, that's a broader issue of corporate priority.

I don't think anyone is saying that the MLB 2K series has been everything it could, or even should be. Ultimately though, my opinion on the two developer's respective contributions aside, it's not even an issue of VC vs Kush. If you look at when the promise of the series started to fade, it's not in-line with a developer switch, it's in-line with 2K making cuts across the board. Nothing either Kush or VC could really do about that. 2K put itself in this position regardless of who actually worked on the game by a knee-jerk overpay for the license and not having a clear plan on how to transition the franchise to this generation.

[pistolpete]

It's taken me two years but I absolutely love 2k11 on the 360 now.

[MSNemitz]

Im sorry if this was already asked, Im at work and couldnt read through all the pages. Will MLB 2k13 have an online Franchise like NBA2k13's Online Assosication ???

[tvman]

Quote: Originally Posted by MSNemitz

Im sorry if this was already asked, Im at work and couldnt read through all the pages. Will MLB 2k13 have an online Franchise like NBA2k13's Online Assosication ???

So far nothing new has been announced.