MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

[dodgerblue]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Impressions:

The game is fun, but it is ugly.
2k does some things well here though. Commentary obviously is a major selling point and adds so much to the atmosphere it can't be overstated.
Fielding is very fun. I like the throw meter and how it changes based on how well your defender is set.
Animations are a mixed bag, they are better but the running animation is still kind of strange looking.
The colors are off in general everywhere. Dodger Stadium the blue is too dark when it was fine in 2k10 and 11. Don't know why they changed it.
I like the size of the outfields and the hits to the gap.
I can't wait till they fix the framerate for the ps3 because it is almost unplayable right now.
Love analog pitching and hitting in this series, 2k nails analog imo.
Right now I give it about a 7.

[Radja]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

this is honestly one of the first games i have ever given impressions from on the first day, mostly because my water pump on my car broke.

so i am the 15th person to say the game is ugly. playing as the reds, the game actually looked worse this year with cueto than last season but at other times the game looks better. if you have ever played the show, it is not even close though.

immediately, i felt 2k must have used mkharsh slider set. default pro feels exactly like his set.

i think this season it will be easier to use the analog hitting. pitch regocnition for some reason feels easier. while i still swung at a few bad pitches it felt like i was fooled more than just hacking away.

clearly hit variety is much better. it is noticeable immediately.

the pitching is just as fun if not more fun. so if you are a fan, you will fit right in.

i was pleased they patched it immediately and already had 2, two, official roster updates out.

while i did not play the MLB Today game for today, i can see that being a lot of fun. i just may not have the time to fully use it if i play a franchise and play any other of my games.

after 4 innings of my first preseason game against the rangers, they subbed the pitcher which is exactly what they should do. my roster was a mix of regulars and backups which was nice.

i pulled a pitch with rolen that would simply not have happened last season.

since i did not have inside edge, defense was tough, but it added realism.

finding your previous AB Pitches is simple a D-Pad click away and a very very welcome from last season. i played about 100 games in 2k11 at least in part and this would have helped my win a few close ones i lost so i love this feature.

this is definitely an improvement over last seasons game. if there are no game killing glitches, this will be a lot of fun.

[Radja]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

one more thing, there are way more fly balls and foul balls (human) than last season.

last season, the fly ball was rare. the most common hit was the weak liner to the SS and 2B. so far, i had a couple innings of just fly balls to the OF's.

[rckabillyRaider]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

No bugs/glitches thread so I guess i'll post it here. Not sure if it has been mentioned,but if you save your game before finishing it and come back to it later, both pitchers stamina are full again. If I recall correctly, wasnt that also an issue in previous years? I didn't buy last years game.

[Tomba]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Player models and faces are ugly.

Stadiums and lighting are NOT.

That's one of the things that have been improved on the 360 version for sure.

Again game is so fun that it doesnt matter after a whle

[Randiesel75]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Player models and faces are ugly.

Stadiums and lighting are NOT.

That's one of the things that have been improved on the 360 version for sure.

Again game is so fun that it doesnt matter after a whle

Agreed. That's the reason I made the switch this year from the other game. Sure, if I wanted a prettier looking game I could have gone the same route as previous years. But with the stale presentation and awful announcing, I needed a change and I am having a really fun time with this game. Just startEd my MLB Today season and won my first game spring training game, woohoo.

[dolemint]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

medlinke - I really enjoyed your impressions. Just to share a couple thoughts on your "cons"

You have to wait for your pitcher animation to come to a stop to begin you pitching motion control. I hate this because it just eats up time. Maybe there's a way to change that...but it's truly annoying while you're waiting for the pitcher to come to a rest.

A little annoying but it's handled MUCH better than it was last year. Some pitchers last year had an unusually long "rest" animation with players on base. What would happen is I'd start a motion when I shouldn't and the game inputs would suddenly turn on -- Meaning I'd throw a crap pitch. At least this year, inputs won't be "turned on" midstream if that makes sense.

Team ratings all seem pretty inflated.

Yeah but at least they're all inflated across the board.

Pitch ratings going up or down really doesn't seem to do anything. It's not been noticeable. I had Verlander's Fastball up and it affected the velocity a bit, but did nothing to make it lights out for the AI batters even when nibbling the edges.

I like it so far. Any less subtle would risk the game becoming arcadey. If you manage to punch out a few people with a heater, it'll add up but not get ridiculous. But give up 4 or 5 hits early with the same pitch, the effectiveness could drop as much as 10 points or so. I like that the velocity isn't impacted much, it's more about how effective the pitch is to the opposition.

[davis420]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

I have to agree that the game has some problems. The running animations are awkward and some of the players look like they got hit with the ugly stick.Having said that , all I've played have been play now games but the game is FUN. Sometimes you have to overlook some things.It's just like NBA2K, that game looks good but I have a hard time enjoying it, this game looks kinda bad but I have fun playing it.Overall, it's probably the best 2K baseball game I've played.Hopefully, if we get another patch that fixes some of the animation issues, I think we have a pretty solid game.

[matthewk]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Bought the PS3 version last night and got in a couple of games.

- Framerate is not fixed on the PS3. Massive stuttering almost every time the bat makes contact with the ball. It's so bad it affects my fielding. This needs to be fixed or the game is going back and I'll play 2k11.

+ Lighting is much better. Last year on both @k11 and the Show, the shadows made the game too dark. This year you can see the shaded areas, but it's not overdone.

- I miss the quick transitions after pitches form last year. Now I have to press X to skip the between pitch animations. I could use hurry up mode, but I still like to see things like batter walkups.

- I'm not a fan of the new pitching feature. If my curveball is working, let me keep throwing it until it gets hit. Don't penalize me before anyone has even touched it. I feel this feature is a bit overdone.

? Not sure if it's a bug or my controlling runners, but twice I bunted with a runner on first and saw the runner continue past second and try (and fail) for third.

[AllJuicedUp]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

one more thing, there are way more fly balls and foul balls (human) than last season.

last season, the fly ball was rare. the most common hit was the weak liner to the SS and 2B. so far, i had a couple innings of just fly balls to the OF's.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! That is one of the first things I noticed (that and the rediculous color of the yankees blue... wtf is that, are you kidding me? So glad I got this on PC so someone can fix that ridiculously crappy color selection. What a joke)

I spent a lot of time tweaking sliders last season and one of the most frustrating things was the foul ball rate. It was literally impossible because fouls were tied to the power slider in hitting. The lower that was vs the cpu pitcher effectiveness (or for CPU batters the lower their power slider was vs how good the human was at filling the bubble when pitching), the more foul balls. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get foul balls even close to their real life rate w/out completely nerfing hitting.

IRL around 20% of all pitches result in foul balls. In 2k11 that number was closer to 5%, which made it impossible to get realistic pitch counts (around 140-160 pitches per game). And to me, realism begins and ends at the pitcher/battle dual. It doesn't matter what else you do if you can't get that right.

With the increased foul rate with default sliders, I should be able to get that number pretty close to real life while not totally butchering hitting power.

My other big issue w/ the pitcher/batter duals last season was that cpu batters chased pitches out of the strike zone at an unrealistically low rate (thats not my opinion, its fact based on an unhealthy amount of in depth testing lol). About 35% of all balls thrown are swung at IRL, while in the game that number was around 25%. I guess since foul balls were so low that helped them work counts, but nevertheless it was one more thing that took away from the experience. So right off the bat, it seems cpu hitters swing a little more freely on good breaking pitches out of the zone. However, they still almost never swing at 4 seamers out of the strike zone (they'll chase a 2 strike high heater sometimes, but they take a very unrealistic amount of pitches on the black).

My other initial impressions, I have to find a batting camera I like. I loved last years w/ 6 height, but I'm not a huge fan of the default this year. Chasing a lot of pitches (could just be rusty too).

Hit distribution is also hugely improved, they didn't lie about that. I love it! It is really night and day. That said, why are the cpu infielders super human year after year, its frustrating as hell to have to completely nurf the infielder speed just to get ground balls to get through once in a while. I don't get why 2k continues to make these stupid game design desisions, as something like this really does effect the entire game.

I also love the new throwing mechanics, especially being able to branch out of a throw. It's a thing of beauty on a soft grounder with a man on to start towards 2nd for the double play, pull it back when you realize you probably wont get the guy, and go the safe route and get the man at 1st instead.

This are my very very early initial impressions. Overall, I think the improved/tightened controls and gameplay will make this game very enjoyable, but there are still quite a few head scratchers in both gameplay design and the visual side (seriously, that Yankee blue makes me want to stab my eyes out, wtf lol) that are really unnecessarily holding it back.

[DrPhibes]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Well, after playing this game for like 5 hours I will say this:

I have not run into 1 glaring derp in this game that make it unplayable until a patch is released in a few months like from years past (EXAMPLE: Last years rob HR-counts as an out and as a HR glitch, I never even got to use the patch because I traded the piece of trash in after 3 weeks because that kind of huge bug is inexcusable and a game killer).

This seems like an extremely solid game and something that will hold my attention. Now, if a game killing bug like the above mentioned is found.. then this game will be shelved in favor of other games... but for now 2K has something of mine it hasn't had since ESPN MLB 2K5... my gaming attention.

Putting aside the typical OS high standard nit picking - player faces, not having Bernie Brewer go down the slide (although they do have the custom HR affects like HOU-train, MIA-gay fish thing, NYM-Apple, MIN-light up logo.. so that is a plus) wrong shades of blue, and the fact that they STILL don't have the Rockies black vest/black sleeve combo in this game (even though that has been Colorado's most worn set over the last 6 years and they even went to the WS wearing that set, nevertheless I digress)... this just feels like after years 2K has finally given the 360 an above average title.

I have traded in 2K10 and 2K11 after about 2 weeks each of the last 2 years. Maybe this is the year I have a baseball game for the entire MLB season. Maybe, just maybe (and the fact it came with NBA 2K12 insures I will not be flipping this game).

Is MLB 2K12 a world class sports gaming experience like the game it is packaged with? No, but anyone who is purchasing MLB 2K12 thinking it is going to blow minds and be the best ever is delusional and a fool. MLB 2K12 is what it is: a pretty good game that, although doesn't have anywhere near the polish of the great games, is still a pretty good game..and..well..2K has a 360 owner/baseball fan like myself by the balls so I literally have no other choice.

[lnin0]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

I love the game but it does feel like a slightly improved 2K11. The combo pack deal really helps ease the cost of entry because $60 would be too much for what boils down to a large patch.

Two things that PISS ME OFF

POSITION playser on the F'n mound!!!! I thought this was FIXED? Why do I EVER EVER EVER have to see my position player standing on the mound after a pinch hit, the manager coming out and pulling them and then my actual pitcher getting subbed in. WTF - thought this year was about the 'little' things? Just put a blank screen up or the 2K logo background during the message and swap so I don't have too see that bushleague looking transition.

Player specific replays. During the game most of the replays are improved and I see them using the press box camera so you get a better view of the hit or catch, whatever. HOWEVER, when there is a replay for a specific player - for instance at the end of game rundown or during the game when they highlight something earlier in the game - WHY is it always the same CRAP replay of the guy running to first. Not a replay of the actual hit or field but a close up of a dude running to first....again WTF. How many years 2K!!! This bushleague stuff is uncalled for year in and year out.

[Cavicchi]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

Seems like too many errors happening in the game. Jose Reyes is rated contact of 90 against Lefties but his hot/cold zones don't look like for someone with high contact rating. I believe there were 2 hot and the rest looked cold zones.

I haven't started a franchise, so not much to say except so far it's enjoyable for what it is. But, I do wish they could cut down on those errors, even for CPU teams.

[Radja]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

just playeed another game of texas vs reds using mkharsh new roster.

on groundballs to the 1B when the pitcher covers 1st base, last season the 1B threw it at the pitcher pretty hard, this season he tosses it. votto tossed it to latos covering and while it was a little high it was a toss.

another pet peeve from last years game was the runner not running out ground balls. if they were thrown out quickly they sometimes would just turn around halfway up the basepath. i threw out kinsler pretty quickly and he still quickly jogged through the base.

there are more bobbles also. both kinsler and andrus bobbled some really hard hit balls but still got the runner. andrus bobbled a hit up the middle and he grabbed it in the air behind him and threw my guy out. it was pretty nice.

i also had a ball hit my pitcher and it rolled off him towards 1st. and philips was able to make a play. last season, it was tough to gain control of the position players if that happened.

[Radja]

Re: MLB 2k12 - Impressions Thread (PS3/X360)

i am really impressed so far. nothing is world shattering, but the game is fun. quite honestly that should be first and foremost. i played a lot of last seasons game simply because it was fun....... with mkharsh sliders and rosters. without them it was *&^%*&$%#$%#%!!!!

i think this is the first game in a while where there are not huge problems right off the bat. 2k did a good job of polishing last years game. graphically this game needs work but gameplay is more important and it is solid. truthfully, if they continue this may start to challenge the show for overall best after a couple more years. (i play both games)

this season i think any patch will be more of a tweak than a wholesale repair. any sliders will be tweaks not global edits and massive sliders adjustments.

good job so far 2k!!!!!