The MLB 2K9 Developers Are Listening

[Salhus]

I'm excitedly cautious about what VC is going to do with this upcoming title

[BadKermit]

Quote: Originally Posted by wrigleyville33

1. I say start from scratch. Since VC is running things now, I say you just throw 2k6, 2k7, and 2k8 completely in the waste bin. Find a new engine, new commentary, new player models, the whole 10 yards 2. Find a tv license. Go with some kind of network, maybe fox (get the nation wide fox broadcast or the regional fsn broadcasts...) or maybe even the upcoming mlb network. We all know you have the money. Use nfl 2k5 as a reference for presentation, if an old gen game could do it, you could too. 3. I honestly don't find a career mode nesesary yet. You guys need to perfect gameplay and animations first. Then maybe work on the little features like career mode. 4. Maybe try making a baseball game for once. Have you ever thought of doing that? I swear I don't think any of the developers of the previous 2k showings have a) ever seen a baseball game or b) know what realism is. 5. The little things. I'm not talking about card trading or any of those wasteful features. I'm talking about in game. The little things that are in stadiums, in the weather, the player's actions. These little things are what really make a game authentic to me. Whether it is the field wearing down, the ivy in wrigley being dead in april and slowly turning green into summer, the simple actions the players do in reaction of a play, realistic emotional fans. Basically look to mvp 05 and what the show does with realism. I have to deal with 2k, because I really don't feel like dishing out 460 bucks for a video game. I'm a die hard cubs fan, and neither game has provided me with an authentic wrigley field yet. Infact, the stadiums in general sucked in 2k's offerings. I could honestly create a more authentic stadium with zmod (mvp baseball 2005). I have been working on tropicana field for mvp baseball, and it really isn't that hard to make a stadium look like its real life counterpart. YOU just have to put in a little effort. Last, make a pc version. So if your offering sucks, we (the modders) can fix it or make it feel like baseball.

I couldn't agree more with everything you said. If they didn't have time to do it this year, I hope they at least put a part of their team on building a new engine from scratch in time for next year. It may not be likely, but it's necessary. The engine is just a complete mess, and instead of building on an old, busted engine, they need to start over.

[Blitzburgh]

1). The option to have pitching to be like shooting a free throw in NBA2k. Pick the pitch, then pull back and hold and release at the right time.

2). no frame rate issues

3). better than 2k7 graphics- which would be incredilble if accomplished at 60 fps

4). better color palette

5). batting practice & pitching practice ( give us a chance to throw a few pitches when we go to the bull pen to learn the pitchers release points.

6). new commentary

7). 3rd person fielding cam

8). ability to draw a walk

9). no meatballs

10). new stadiums & surroundings with much greater detail. They have alwys looked out of place and cartoonish ( PNC Park - sky scrapers).

11). quick steal button 2k4 had this!

[raidersbball20]

I'm sure this has been said before, but tone down the jerseys in the wind. Sometimes it is not windy and the jersey is all over the place. Even in domes.

[Rebel10]

Maybe I'm the only one that's noticed this for three years, but after two consecutive years of a broken manager mode... it's about time that mode is fixed. In 2K7 and 2K8 if you had "warmup pitchers" turned on, you could not sub them out or make any pitching roster changes while batting... this is ridiculous. It's a daily occurence in a baseball season that a team will take a late lead and then warm up a different pitcher than the one they had warming up ... it makes the game impossible to manage in "manager" mode. Now, I play a lot of manager mode because I only play about 1/4th of the games in a season. It made manager mode unseable, especially because the warmup mechanism was so quirky... if you went one batter too much for warming up, the pitcher was pretty much killed in stamina and useless. The ability to turn off warming up in the options was great because it was a workaround to this problem, but really, fix the problem... don't add a work around.

I had a giant list I had posted in the past, about 3 weeks after 2K8 came out, but it's lost somewhere on the anals of the internet.

I disagree about more presentation. You should be able to get through a game in 25 - 35 minutes, not 55 - 65 minutes like has been the norm. There are 162 games in a season, plus possibly 28 more games in the post season, and spring training... that amounts to almost 200 games a season in Major league baseball... having each game take an hour because of silly cut scenes and what not, that don't give you any information in the game draws it out much too long.

The core gameplay needs to be fixed as well, although 2K8 was a step in the right direction. Movements need to be more intuitive and you have to feel like you have more control over the action. I was thankful that 2K8 fixed the fielding problems from 2K7 as well as adding a few new things into the throwing in the field... these were welcome changes. The fielding in MVP 2006 was essentially perfect, even with the experimental throwing while in the field -- if you had a great defensive fielder on your team, he played like a great defensive fieldier... it made a huge difference. Since MLB 2K6 almost every defender plays the same... a great defensive 2B doesn't provide much more of an advantage over a mediocre defensive 2B.

Base running needs to be simplified and more intuitive. 2K8, again, was a step in the right direction... but steals need to be easy to call, leading off and on should be quick and responsive. Switching between runners, controlling individual runners, and then controlling all runners needs to be quick -- basically, and I hate to sound lik a broken record, MVP 2006 had baserunning down perfectly... copy it.

Like others said ... the trading card / insiders edge is a total gimmick. It's annoying to have to "buy scouting cards," and all of that stuff... as if it adds an additional layer to the game. It really doesn't. These are MLB teams, they have scouts, there's only 30 of them... it might make sense to have some advanced scouting options for the minor leagues, but you shouldn't need to purchase David Ortiz tendancies or have to purchase CC Sabathia's stats/attributes. Maybe a young rookie or something. Not to mention they were almost completely meaningless. Power up 2K8 and go down 0 - 2 in the count, every time it tells you there's like a 0% chance the pitcher is going to throw a strike... he almost always throws strikes... 9/10 times it'll be a strike. Now maybe they go off of your tendancies or something, but when the insiders edge -- this big marketed feature -- is wrong 9/10 times... it's useless.

I liked the pitching interface... I thought it was challenging and really added to the game last year. It felt good. Though, mistake pitches should not be instant home runs... most of them are simply balls out of the zone, not "meat" pitched right down the middle at 91MPH.

I wish the game would just steal everything good about MVP 2005/2006... the manager mode, the simulation mode, the fielding, base running, etc... With 2K8's pitching, more varried hits, more walks, etc.

For something that'd be great fr me would be an online franchise, but I Doubt that'll ever happen. Game makers have been content puting online leagues in their games for 5 years and don't seem like that'll ever change (save NCAA Football 2009 and NHL '09 -- the Online Dynasty is the top mode of any sports game I've played in years). I don't buy the excuses that might come up at a conference room table... "well, how can we handle 162 games, with 5 games a week, etc," like that couldn't be worked out within a day's brainstorming. How about flexible weeks, as long as teams aren't playing each other, you can go through a week befre "Advancing." It's better than nothing. NCAA '09 was given a handful of issues to work through with handling an online dynasty, and they sat down and hammered them out and the mode worked very well, especially for a first effort. Take their cue.

I haven't picked up MLB 2K8 since about 3 weeks after it came out, so I'm sure I forgot lots of the reasons why I shelved it and put it on Amazon in April or May... but yeah. Those were the ones I remember.

[boomhauertjs]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rebel10

I disagree about more presentation. You should be able to get through a game in 25 - 35 minutes, not 55 - 65 minutes like has been the norm. There are 162 games in a season, plus possibly 28 more games in the post season, and spring training... that amounts to almost 200 games a season in Major league baseball... having each game take an hour because of silly cut scenes and what not, that don't give you any information in the game draws it out much too long.

That's why I love High Heat. I can get through a game in roughly a half an hour. At least give the option to turn off the features to keep the game moving.

[SLagonia]

I signed up just for this thread.

I noticed one common theme in this thread. Yeah, there's a few requests for gameplay or frivolties, but there's one thing mentioned over and over again; Franchise mode needs to be deeper.

More and more, games are moving away from their core market, and more toward the casual gamers. This works for the majority of projects because hard-core Halo fans will buy the next installment reguardless of whether it was made for them or the casual gamer, while the casual gamer will only buy games marketed to them. They don't want to be immersed in a story, have complicated controls or sift through back-story, they just want to shoot things.

But sports are unique. You have options - If you don't like 2k9, you can buy The Show. Hardcore gamers are not to be taken for granted.

Yet, they are. People like me who like to run twenty seasons in franchise mode want more depth, more storylines, more personality... And we keep coming up empty.

I've been a 2K fan since... Well, since MVP went belly-up. Both 2K and The Show had similar options, and so I went to 2K because the gameplay was far superior. The mechanics were excellent, the fielding needs a little work, but is ok, and the whole experience was just more realistic.

But this year... Well, there's almost nothing about the new game online. It seems to be a big secret, but what little has been released seems to promote the fact that things have been 'simplified.' That's not a good word... Pitching has been simplified, hitting has been simplified, franchise mode has been simplified... I don't want to hear that. It was too simple as it was! This is nothing but a further move toward casual gamers.

Meanwhile, I look over to The Show - Several waiver options, salary arbitration, 40-man rosters... WOW! They really expanded their franchise mode!

When I think back, I realize that I've had all of this before - All-Star Baseball used to give it to me eight years ago. They also gave me a Expansion mode, which was the most fun I've had in a baseball game since. Why is it these features can't be done on 2K9? Why can't we get a little something?

We seem to lose features as time goes on, and it's all in the interest of being 'simplified.' 2K, if you're listening - WE DON'T WANT SIMPLIFIED! WE WANT TO HAVE FUN AGAIN! Stop making games for the casual fan, because they're not buying your game anyway. WE ARE!

[jeffy777]

Quote: Originally Posted by SLagonia

but what little has been released seems to promote the fact that things have been 'simplified.' That's not a good word... Pitching has been simplified, hitting has been simplified, franchise mode has been simplified... I don't want to hear that. It was too simple as it was! This is nothing but a further move toward casual gamers.

I totally agree. I don't want a "Simplified" game. I like games that actually have some depth to them and games where it's actually a challenge to beat the AI. For instance, I liked the controls in 2K8 because they have a bit of learning curve and it took atleast a little while to master the pitching, fielding, and batting compared to other baseball games.

If they are really going to simplify the controls, then I hope they atleast give us options to turn the advanced controls on for those who want more a challenging experience.