Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

[Eski33]

Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

I definitely don't expect perfection. I hope that's what they're striving for (though impossible), but I never want to over-hype video games.

MLB 2K9 does a lot of fundamental things wrong, and they have been wrong since Kush adapted the title five years ago. Small things such as bat sounds, ball and ground physics, hell even generic stances have been terrible (and far and few between to boot). I'm expecting them to capture the game of baseball, I don't think that's too much to ask.

What's worse is this year they removed things. You want to talk hyping features? How about assuming features would remain in the game for the next year. Exhibition, editing generic stances, step influence... I mean even visual aids such as the pitch cursor, contextual swing feedback, names under players and meters... we can't turn these things off. They are annoying to look at and they are visually degrading.

The worst change/addition probably has to be the fielding camera. Considering balls put in play are the other half of the reason we watch baseball games, it is a monstrosity to look at (as well as the N64 baserunning windows). To my knowledge (or best guess or what have you), I'm going to safely assume this was their way to get the game running at 60 FPS this year. Let's hope there are at least options next year where the framerate stays stable.


I don't blame VC for this first go-around, but things better start looking up for next year. If not, you're right... many people won't ever be satisfied. Look around you, this game is no better than a 7, and even that's being generous. Yes, it's playable as opposed to last year. Yes, it's on PC. But if someone could truly pinpoint the beneficial difference between this game and last year's game from a baseball playing standpoint, I'd be willing to listen. Until then, I think and hope that argument is best reserved for next year.

The worst thing a game can do to a player is to make the player "hope" that a routine play is made. There is nothing worse than playing a game, enjoying it then something happens that ruins the experience.

If you are playing in a close game and something cheap happens that shouldn't, it hurts the immersion. I found myself in a couple of close games, fielding ground balls and "hoping" the first baseman would stay on the bag so as not to extend the inning. No matter how you slice it, that is bad!!

[gZusLuvsU15]

Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

I feel this game is worth the $20 I paid, thanks to the erroneous price in a Gamestop magazine that I found at CheapA$$Gamer that I took to WAL-Mart and got it price matched! It definitely allows you to pok past some of the flaws more easily.

[StormJH1]

Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

Not sure I advocate that, but I did buy a new copy of MLB 2k8 about a month ago for $5 (GameCrazy), and was able to trade it in to GameStop for $6.25. So, in essence, somebody paid me $1.25 to suffer through that game, which sounds about right to me!

You guys are arguing two separate points, and then confusing them for one another.

Point #1: Our "expectation" of a game is based on exepecting more and more progression on realism, and this is judged based on the best available alternative (in this case, The Show).

Point #2: Our "expectation" is that a baseball game, regardless of graphical quality or other content, should function at its basic level like a real BASEBALL game.

When the demo came out, the concern was Point #1. You could debate whether or not this was an evolved game, or how it matched up to The Show (an irrelevant debate for 360 owners, IMO).

But Point #2, not Point #1 is the reason that scores for this game are going DOWN. I'm sorry, but if you put out a game that fails on a regular basis to represent things that normally happen in a baseball game, that's a failure. I'm referring to things like 1B tagging a base, OF's catching flyballs headed right toward them, etc. You can go back to every halfway decent baseball game over the past few decades, be it RBI, Hardball, World Series Baseball, or MVP, and ALL of those games simulated baseball in a way that 2k9 cannot, in its present form. If a patch can address that, then great! But until that happens, we can't assume we're getting anything more than what shipped in the box.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

I've yet to notice any over-aggressive AI hitting.

We are hard to please. No question about that. But the fact you've never seen any over-aggressive AI hitting tells me you might be far too easy to please. :wink:

[gjb01]

Re: Why the $60 you spend will never please you.

I agree to a certain extent in that people want things for nothing. If anyone is familiar with the iPhone App Store market, you can see people expect games on their iPhone for $.99. That's insane.

But, for a $60 game, and having control over the MLB license, what 2K has produced for baseball console video games is absurd and awful. There is simply no excuse. They will NOT get my money this year, and just 10 minutes into the demo I knew it was the same garbage as past years.