MLB 2K9 News Post

Major League Baseball 2K9 Video: Tigers @ Indians

01:11 AM - February 19, 2009 by Steve_OS

After playing with the sliders even more, I am confident we will be able to tweak the AI to swing at balls inside and outside the strike zone. I'm seeing more strike 3's "looking" as well as swinging. Here is a new Major League Baseball 2K9 video, that shows a little bit of it. After capturing the video, I went ahead and took control of the Indians and mowed down the AI batters, striking out 4 of 6, before calling it a night. Enjoy.

Game: Major League Baseball 2K9Reader Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 38 - View All

Major League Baseball 2K9 Videos

Member Comments

# 21 DaveDQ @ 02/19/09 06:38 AM

So, I guess you can remove all the graphics for pitching? The gesture selection and big circle graphic is nowhere to be seen in this video. That'd be nice.

# 22 BigBlue @ 02/19/09 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	So, I guess you can remove all the graphics for pitching? The gesture selection and big circle graphic is nowhere to be seen in this video. That'd be nice.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe the only reason you didn't see the gesture selection and big circle graphic was because Steve was not controlling the pitching. It was AI vs AI.

It certainly would be nice to be able to pitch this way as well. We'll see.

BigBlue

# 23 BigH2k6 @ 02/19/09 08:05 AM

Excellent news

# 24 BigH2k6 @ 02/19/09 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandmac


	SLOW DOWN!!! We'd like to see the presentation as much as the game play. Please allow the broadcast elements to play out for those considering the game! The user just buttons through every cut-away.

Take it easy. There has been other videos that show the living world atmosphere. I'm pretty sure the objective of this vid was to show as many at bats as possible without creating a monster of a video. Therefore, Steve may have skipped over these intentionally to shorten the video.

# 25 BigH2k6 @ 02/19/09 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baa7


	I think I saw one strike where the batter watched it go by, the rest were swinging strikes. Nice to see deeper pitch counts. But the real problem remains flyballs. Four flyballs, zero groundballs in that vid. It looks like Steve lowered the Power slider, resulting in "looping" flyballs. But as I said before, this is the #1 issue with this series, and there's no fix for it other than lowering ratings. Sliders won't do it.

Actually, it was 2

.

one was in the first at bat I beleive and one in the last

# 26 rudyjuly2 @ 02/19/09 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blzer


	And is Steve Phillips Canadian? In every video I've seen, I swear that he's slipping into an accent a bit. It sounds just a wee bit different from how he sounds on TV, that's all.

Do you mean he's sounding more awesome?

I can't view this video at work and I'm dying to see some Tigers footage of any baseball game. Maybe Steve could put this video on the OS TV link on the main page?

I can actually view those.
Edit - I'm an idiot. It IS on the OS TV now (am I blind or did it just change). Thanks Steve!

I do LOVE the pitching camera angle from the Lincecum videos. Hopefully the Show can add a camera angle like that next year.

# 27 DaveDQ @ 02/19/09 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigBlue


	Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe the only reason you didn't see the gesture selection and big circle graphic was because Steve was not controlling the pitching. It was AI vs AI. It certainly would be nice to be able to pitch this way as well. We'll see. BigBlue

I agree.

# 28 tmac55 @ 02/19/09 09:30 AM

Great to see the Tigers in some videos, unfortunately Verlander continues to give up runs lol

The video was nice and a couple of the batters took some pitches very close to the strike zone, so like Steve said, we should be able to tweak that along the way.

# 29 boomhauertjs @ 02/19/09 09:39 AM

Thanks for showing the Jake (it will always be Jacobs Field to me - I refuse to call it by that other name).
I'm glad Steve showed that you can speed the game up. I sometimes enjoy watching the Real Time stuff, but if I'm in hurry to get a game in, it's nice to be able to skip all of that.
I'm a little concerned about the flyball/groundball ratio. Controlling infielders is one of my favorite parts of a video baseball game, so I'll be disappointed if the ratio is out of whack.

# 30 ehh @ 02/19/09 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	So, I guess you can remove all the graphics for pitching? The gesture selection and big circle graphic is nowhere to be seen in this video. That'd be nice.

In 2K8 I think you could press one of the triggers to hide the pitching menu, can't remember for sure though.

# 31 Trevytrev11 @ 02/19/09 10:04 AM

Really liked seeing Verlander struggle there. He was trying to be too fine and fell behind in a lot of those counts. Very realistic...a lot of drawn out at bats and a lot of pitches thrown by Verlander.

# 32 thornie @ 02/19/09 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevytrev11


	Really liked seeing Verlander struggle there. He was trying to be too fine and fell behind in a lot of those counts. Very realistic...a lot of drawn out at bats and a lot of pitches thrown by Verlander.

I agree, that's what I loved about this video. On the downside, baa is right, too many looping flyballs that drop and no ground balls through the hole.

# 33 Jimbo68 @ 02/19/09 10:48 AM

What I would really like to see, but I didn't was when there were multiple baserunners, Verlander NEVER even turned his head towards any baserunner. Not even to keep them honest. Perhaps he was just super focused on the batter?!

# 34 Trevytrev11 @ 02/19/09 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thornie


	I agree, that's what I loved about this video. On the downside, baa is right, too many looping flyballs that drop and no ground balls through the hole.

Yeah, I noticed that too. It was only one inning, but it's been one inning in several different games now.

# 35 Trevytrev11 @ 02/19/09 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baa7


	Has any baseball game had that?

Not that I can recall...at least with any purpose, but as I think about it, it's something that could be added to provide some additional reality to the game.

Thinking out loud for a one player game:

During the pitcher vs. batter sequence, instead of showing the picture baserunner as well as the little stick figure guys in the diagram, why not close all of that stuff off and force the pitcher to check runners and then force the game to show visuals to let both parties know what is going on (in real life a runner typically knows when a pitcher is looking at him).

Don't show the picture in pitcure base runner unless the pitcher presses a button. This would then pop up that box, the pitcher would turn his head and it would be semi-realistic...or maybe the picture in picture is always there but very fuzzy or unclear until the pitcher turned and looked.

For a runner at second, It'd be pretty cool if when you turned to look at the runner on second, the camera would pan/zoon out as the pitcher turned his head 180 degrees.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread on this topic.

# 36 ehh @ 02/19/09 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baa7


	Has any baseball game had that?

I don't think the CPU has ever done it.

I remember when the user could first do it 2K3/4, it was so damn cool. I would check the runners before every pitch, just looked so cool especially when pitching from the behind-the-pitcher cam.

I was also funny as hell to do the the look-over with Mussina while he was doing his stupid dip thing from the stretch, he looked like he was auditioning for a role in the Exorcist, lol.

# 37 The Living Legend @ 02/19/09 12:56 PM

Well for me i liked video, i mean it a mere video and nothing more.. I mean ive seen plenty of real baseball games were there was nothing but flyballs. and the fact its to hard to see if there is going to be ridiculous amount of grounders or fly balls cause there is to much to influence on the user.

# 38 spankdatazz22 @ 02/19/09 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maynard


	i agree....if it comes next week then its a good sign. i keep going back to 2 games that didnt have a demo before release. 2k8 and rainbow six vegas 2. Both had so much promise based on the previous years game, and both were a huge let down for various reasons. i made the mistake of buying both on their release dates

While I understand your perspective given prior history, I don't think the demo release date means much of anything other than [those making the game] planned ahead to release the demo early. I think we on message boards tend to read far too much into these things. Last year NBA Live released their demo like a month before the game released and you had people forecasting doom and gloom for NBA2K9 because they weren't being shown much media or a demo. I think the demo ended up coming out a week prior to release. Obviously a demo isn't going to be fully representative of what the final game will be, many/most just give you a general idea to what the game will be. Anytime I play any demo I go into it with that mentality. A great demo doesn't guarantee a great game anymore than a poor demo (or no demo) guarantees a bad game. Have to take all info - demo, video, impressions, various write ups - and give them the appropriate weight when making a decision on a purchase.

Thx for the vid Steve; as with the others really enjoyed it. Love how the game is shaping up; definitely looks solid

# 39 Blzer @ 02/19/09 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baa7


	Has any baseball game had that?

World Series Baseball 2K3 had it. In fact, when you held the L-trigger (because that is like the "shift modifier" to pick off a runner, pressing a face button afterward), they would look over to the lead runner as well. It was pretty cool. The AI would do it automatically.

# 40 SwinginAs12 @ 02/19/09 01:40 PM

Does anyone know if you can play spring training like The Show?

- demooooooo?

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