2K8 Brinkman Interview

[Pared]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Good thing they rewrote the hitting engine.... the code there didn't allow for much variation. Interesting considering some of us mentioned it last year but others insisted it was fine. According to the developer, they didn't think it was fine either.

[RedLine]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

I was reading the interview again speculating on some of the new game mechanics that Brinkman referred to and came across this quote regarding baserunning:

"Baserunning was one area that people had some issues with, and it was an area that we spent a lot of time focusing on. I don't want to say fixing, but addressing the issues as well as adding a new mechanic to it for user control."

Overall I liked the baserunning controls for last year (with the new superimposed image of the bases) and the removal the speedburst mechanic for the runners.

So I was thinking about his quote and what they might change or add and I think the new mechanic for user control might be Take Out Slides. That was one omission from the baserunning last year that would have been nice to have.

Anyone else think the same, or do you have some other interpretation of the quote?

[Blzer]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Well, like I said once earlier, baserunning controls were just screwed up. In MLB 2K5, once the ball went off the bat you would be the batter, for no confusion. In 2K7, sometimes at random they would choose the lead runner just to laugh in your face. Also, this and 2K5 both allow you to predetermine how far you want to send your runner before they even reach the next base. Well, in 2K5, a simple push to the left on the D-pad would advance all at least one extra base. I don't believe this was the case in 2K7, but perhaps I'm mistaken. And then when you want to choose which runner you want, you would press a face button that they're assigned to in their own little window. In 2K5, the face button doesn't change. In 2K7, any time you go to the next base, the face button for the runner changes. Then the last issue is in sliding... the controls are just off. In 2K5 it was simple because your baserunning interface were on the corners on the screen, so pressing opposite the direction your runner is headed would be a feet first slide, the direction toward would be head first, and then you could do hook slides (feet first or head first) depending on which way you press the button. In 2K7 it doesn't work the same, and I believe there's only one mapped out scheme for that.

Of course, when I say 2K5, I also mean 2K6... but I just want to make sure 2K6 (at least for Xbox) had all of the same stuff, because I'm not positive.

[Blzer]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Good thing they rewrote the hitting engine.... the code there didn't allow for much variation. Interesting considering some of us mentioned it last year but others insisted it was fine. According to the developer, they didn't think it was fine either.

One other thing that will just improve hitting overall is the framerate. If you think about it, with 30 FPS, I bet we didn't have any more than 5 frames to time with. If they are following the MVP model at all (and if you watched any of the tutorials in MVP 2005 you will notice the colored balls and how they represent the timing window). Basically, they showed the frames in which a ball could be hit. Based on the hitter's attributes and the sliders, your window would range from either bigger or smaller.

The way the colors work (at least from what I remember) is each frame had a color assigned to it: white was a miss, yellow was a foul ball, light green was weak contact, and green was good contact. Anyway, if they're doing this for 2K7, it would be cool if they added a contact slider (increase/decrease light green), a good contact slider (increase/decrease green), and a foul ball slider (increase/decrease yellow). I'm very interested in said foul ball slider, though. I just REALLY hope the number of foul balls are improved.

[superjames1992]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Yeah, they have playable minor league teams!

[RedLine]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Well, like I said once earlier, baserunning controls were just screwed up. In MLB 2K5, once the ball went off the bat you would be the batter, for no confusion. In 2K7, sometimes at random they would choose the lead runner just to laugh in your face. Also, this and 2K5 both allow you to predetermine how far you want to send your runner before they even reach the next base. Well, in 2K5, a simple push to the left on the D-pad would advance all at least one extra base. I don't believe this was the case in 2K7, but perhaps I'm mistaken. And then when you want to choose which runner you want, you would press a face button that they're assigned to in their own little window. In 2K5, the face button doesn't change. In 2K7, any time you go to the next base, the face button for the runner changes. Then the last issue is in sliding... the controls are just off. In 2K5 it was simple because your baserunning interface were on the corners on the screen, so pressing opposite the direction your runner is headed would be a feet first slide, the direction toward would be head first, and then you could do hook slides (feet first or head first) depending on which way you press the button. In 2K7 it doesn't work the same, and I believe there's only one mapped out scheme for that.

Of course, when I say 2K5, I also mean 2K6... but I just want to make sure 2K6 (at least for Xbox) had all of the same stuff, because I'm not positive.

Just to clarify Blzer. 2K7 added the Advance All, Retreat All commands mapped to the left and right bumpers and that worked well. The baserunner queueing was still there with the right and left triggers and I think the way it work was improved over 2K6. Also, the sliding controls were better too, with push up for head first, up right head first outside base, etc.

I was mostly happy with the baserunning controls in 2K7, but they did take some time to learn. I would have liked the auto baserunning to be smarter because it would have made playing with less experienced friends a lot easier, that way they didn't have to worry about the manual controls so much.

Take out slides would be nice, so I would like to see those added this year. We'll see.

[RedLine]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

The way the colors work (at least from what I remember) is each frame had a color assigned to it: white was a miss, yellow was a foul ball, light green was weak contact, and green was good contact. Anyway, if they're doing this for 2K7, it would be cool if they added a contact slider (increase/decrease light green), a good contact slider (increase/decrease green), and a foul ball slider (increase/decrease yellow). I'm very interested in said foul ball slider, though. I just REALLY hope the number of foul balls are improved.

I played MVP 2005 a lot and liked the colored pitch type feature. I don't know if this is trademarked or anything but something like it would definitely help me recognize the pitches better. That was one thing about 2K7 that I found challenging. Maybe the improved frame rate will help too.

[Spectre]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Good thing they rewrote the hitting engine.... the code there didn't allow for much variation. Interesting considering some of us mentioned it last year but others insisted it was fine. According to the developer, they didn't think it was fine either.

He was straight honest about it- I think virtually anybody who played the game noticed some odd stuff when the bat hit the ball i.e. pitches that should be jam-shots (inside pitches) taken out of the park to the opposite field.

[Blzer]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Oh yeah, I forgot to complete my thought about framerate. Anyway, with 60 frames per second, it would make for more hit variation, and perhaps less misses because of the hiccups involved in it.

Thanks for the clarification, RedLine.

[RedLine]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Good thing they rewrote the hitting engine.... the code there didn't allow for much variation. Interesting considering some of us mentioned it last year but others insisted it was fine. According to the developer, they didn't think it was fine either.

I wonder if this new hitting engine will result in more foul balls? Or at least give us a slider that controls the amount.

I know I struck out way too much in 2K7, it seemed either there was either solid contact or not. Therefore the pitch counts seldom went deep for me or the CPU. So I would welcome more fouls--but maybe not everyone (i.e., the casual game) does.

Combined with the new hitting engine, I'm very interested to find out how the user batting mechanics change in 2K8. That is, will an improved swing stick return, or some other zone hitting (i.e., True Aim) approach be added.

[mjb2124]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

He was straight honest about it- I think virtually anybody who played the game noticed some odd stuff when the bat hit the ball i.e. pitches that should be jam-shots (inside pitches) taken out of the park to the opposite field.

Yep. That was one of my main gripes about the game. Too many times I'd hit a ball and the result didn't match where the ball hit the bat. Or I'd be pitching to the CPU and throw a nice pitch and the result didn't match what should have happened (ie: sinker low and away to a RH hitter with little power that was golfed out to LF).

[thmst30]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Damn, this is gonna be one hell of a year for PS3 baseball games. The Show and now this game seems to be shaping up REAL nice. Can anyone tell me why we have two solid baseball games giving all their effort this year, COMPETITION. Thats why NFL 2K5 used to get so much better every year, thats why NHL 08 got so much better this year, thats why NCAA Football and Madden both still suck. I almost forgot how competition for sports video games can propel a game forward so incredibly fast. In two years this game has gone from unplayable to potentially great.

[tree3five]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Damn, this is gonna be one hell of a year for PS3 baseball games. The Show and now this game seems to be shaping up REAL nice. Can anyone tell me why we have two solid baseball games giving all their effort this year, COMPETITION. Thats why NFL 2K5 used to get so much better every year, thats why NHL 08 got so much better this year, thats why NCAA Football and Madden both still suck. I almost forgot how competition for sports video games can propel a game forward so incredibly fast. In two years this game has gone from unplayable to potentially great.

100% agree

[Ivanhoe]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

The 90 playable minor league teams and authentic minor league stadiums, which I don't believe has been done before.

Go Brinkman, very nice to hear.

I read the part about the 90 minor league teams, but I didn't see anything about authentic minor league stadiums. Is this true? If so, I am so hyped!

But, in MVP they had a few minor league stadiums for AAA and AA. And only 1 stadium for A ball.

Either way, this game sounds great!

[Saber]

Re: 2K8 Brinkman Interview

Yep. That was one of my main gripes about the game. Too many times I'd hit a ball and the result didn't match where the ball hit the bat. Or I'd be pitching to the CPU and throw a nice pitch and the result didn't match what should have happened (ie: sinker low and away to a RH hitter with little power that was golfed out to LF).

Regardless of sliders I also noticed that human controlled batters tended to just barely clear the wall with their homers, thus getting robbed by the computer, where the computer generally puts it a couple rows up with such prolific power hitters as Jason Kendall.