Major League Baseball 2K8 360 Impressions

Matt Blumenthal had an opportunity to demo Major League Baseball 2K8 this afternoon. His official writeup of the event will be up later this week, but we wanted to get some quick thoughts up here for you guys.

• This game looks beautiful, the player models have improved but the real leap is in the animations. The animations move silky smooth and there is no need to worry about herky jerky animations of the past anymore.
• I'm impressed with how intuitive and fresh the analog controls are. The pitching takes a little time to get the hang of but the new mechanics add a whole new dimension to the pitching model.
• The baseball cards feature is surprisingly cool, expect me to have more on that later on this week.
• In-game saves are officially in the game this year.
• Check swings don't seem to be a chore anymore. They are now accomplished by pulling back on the right analog stick - no more right trigger necessary.
• Stadium-specific animations are in. The Yankee Roll Call was mentioned specifically.
• There should be plenty of foul balls this year. I saw several in the few at-bats I played.
• No spring training games this year.
• I counted eight unlockable classic stadiums. I think more might be available by default as well.
• No co-op play
• You will have the option to make trades for CPU-controlled teams in franchise mode, but you won't be able to edit their rotations and lineups.
• It was suggested to me that the demo is done and has been submitted. If that's the case, it's in Microsoft's hands now.
• I will hit on a few of the big questions from the forum here.