I'll tell ya, maybe it's because I have already been spoiled by a fantastic game with MLB 2006 last year and again this year with The Show that I simply didnt give MLB 2K6 enough attention this year. As soon as I got the game on it's release date, I quickly shelved it after only a few quick games.
I just could not get into the gameplay with its stilted animations. Nothing in the gameplay felt very fluid.
But just this past weekend, I decided to pop the CD in again and start up a franchise very similar to my existing one I have running in MLB 2006 The Show. Now my expectations were already low due to my previous experience. After playing with it a few days and really getting into my franchise and delving into all of the depth and cool features it has to offer from a management level, I have gained a new found respect for the game.
However, at the same time, it also saddens me more to think that this game has such depth and well thought out franchise development, only to literally drop the ball on that actual field with its gameplay.
I really enjoyed sifting thru the different areas of the Franchise mode such as the coaching screens, reading about what my players are thinking about, analyzing all the different bar graphs that affect their morale. The Inside Edge offers a whole new level of scouting. From a management/owner/franchise perspective, this game offers so much depth and info to really bite into.
It's really a tragic shame that this game starts to fall apart and you completely become detached from how polished this game is once the action takes the field. I really think that 2K Sports needs to make it the highest priority to address the actual on field gameplay next year such as:
1. Use better motion capturing techniques that more fluidly simulates the range of motions for fielding, swinging, pitching, throwing. As it is now, the player animations dont look much better than they did since WS 2K2 and they pale in comparison to Sony's much more fluid MLB 2006 series.
2.Build a larger library of player models with varying degrees of sizes and builds. Too many players like carbon copies with just different faces mapped.
3. Tweak the throwing and ball physics to render more realistic arcs and trajectories.
4. work on the quirky baserunning logic that has players doing some very questionable things on the basepaths.
5. Add more realistic fielding errors
6. Add some more occassional flukes and odd occurrances that made All Star baseball such fun to play.
7. The AI should scrap and play more 'small ball' to manufature runs. Many games feel very homer enduced that result in most of the run production.
8. Give the players a much larger library of player specific batting stances and pitching windups. It seems like every player has the same hunchback wind up from the stretch and only a few different full windups for the entire league.
These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head....but the main thing is number 1. Work on creating a much more fluid and realistic looking and feeling game of baseball on the field and that should make a world of improvement right there.
I just could not get into the gameplay with its stilted animations. Nothing in the gameplay felt very fluid.
But just this past weekend, I decided to pop the CD in again and start up a franchise very similar to my existing one I have running in MLB 2006 The Show. Now my expectations were already low due to my previous experience. After playing with it a few days and really getting into my franchise and delving into all of the depth and cool features it has to offer from a management level, I have gained a new found respect for the game.
However, at the same time, it also saddens me more to think that this game has such depth and well thought out franchise development, only to literally drop the ball on that actual field with its gameplay.
I really enjoyed sifting thru the different areas of the Franchise mode such as the coaching screens, reading about what my players are thinking about, analyzing all the different bar graphs that affect their morale. The Inside Edge offers a whole new level of scouting. From a management/owner/franchise perspective, this game offers so much depth and info to really bite into.
It's really a tragic shame that this game starts to fall apart and you completely become detached from how polished this game is once the action takes the field. I really think that 2K Sports needs to make it the highest priority to address the actual on field gameplay next year such as:
1. Use better motion capturing techniques that more fluidly simulates the range of motions for fielding, swinging, pitching, throwing. As it is now, the player animations dont look much better than they did since WS 2K2 and they pale in comparison to Sony's much more fluid MLB 2006 series.
2.Build a larger library of player models with varying degrees of sizes and builds. Too many players like carbon copies with just different faces mapped.
3. Tweak the throwing and ball physics to render more realistic arcs and trajectories.
4. work on the quirky baserunning logic that has players doing some very questionable things on the basepaths.
5. Add more realistic fielding errors
6. Add some more occassional flukes and odd occurrances that made All Star baseball such fun to play.
7. The AI should scrap and play more 'small ball' to manufature runs. Many games feel very homer enduced that result in most of the run production.
8. Give the players a much larger library of player specific batting stances and pitching windups. It seems like every player has the same hunchback wind up from the stretch and only a few different full windups for the entire league.
These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head....but the main thing is number 1. Work on creating a much more fluid and realistic looking and feeling game of baseball on the field and that should make a world of improvement right there.
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