What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

[Plache]

This thread is in response to the "what makes 2k more fun" thread that was moved and ultimately closed...........so, let's try this.

What do you, a gamer, think is both good and bad with 2k baseball. Feel free to go down memory lane with this topic. How has the series improved and regressed over the years? What do they do right, and where is there room for improvement. Where is this series headed?

My personal thoughts on how 2k is moving along with baseball:

Pitching and hitting are what 2k does best. Pitching controls are spot-on and nearly perfect for a baseball game. The "batting" patch of 2k11 really moved this game in a good direction, especially online and almost totally eliminated laggy h2h games online. 2k12 kept the same approach, but upped the difficult slightly in both hitting and pitching controls. I love how you can gain control of certain pitches, but also how you can also lose the same if you abuse the pitch and it starts to get hit. I'd love to see the same for batters and pitches they hit. Commentary is spot on and offers a good variety of in game soundbites from the announce crew. Fielding is sometimes frustrating, but the throwing meters offer a good challenge if you don't have a gold glove fielder.

2k12 has some horrible lag with foul balls, and some bigtime lag in certain stadiums with runners on. Miami comes to mind off the top of my head. Online this can be brutal. Animations are sometimes slow to respond, and the crowd is often lifeless. Too often outfielders are either super-human, or super stupid in their reaction to fly balls.

Fixes for 2k13: fix the fielding animations so they don't seem so canned. Reaction time in the outfield needs to be drastically improved, as well as reactions to base runners. Ground balls need more life in the infield, in 2k12 ground balls often died in the infield resulting in easy outs that really shouldn't have been so easy. Defensive diving in both the outfield and infield need to be toned down drastically, and please for the love of God: get rid of the auto dive in the outfield. The game looks like it was developed for PS2/XBOX.

Online fixes: make players pick their pitcher BEFORE going to the lineup screen, many gamers use different lineups against LHP and RHP and when one has a set lineup only to have the other player choose a different handed pitcher with no time left on the clock often causes pre-first pitch quits - which shouldn't happen. Starting pitchers should not be available to pitch unless the bullpen is gone. They moved in the right direction last year, but move it along farther please.

Thoughts anyone? I'm sure I've forgotten both positives and negatives......

[Flaxseed Oil]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I feel like this series has had incredible highs and incredible lows:

1. Their 'signature style' in 2K7 and 2k8 was incredible. The player models in 2k7 and 2K8 were also excellent.

2. They aim too much for the pick-up-and-play audience. This means that franchise and other areas of the game are not as polished as they should be.

3. Too many bugs.

4. The graphics have been crap since 2009. When they re-did the textures and the player models it was a huge step backwards.

[thaSLAB]

The one thing I think that 2K (2K sports in general) has always done well is presentation. Not necessarily in the amount, but how it is delivered is top notch. The inclusion of many stats and the synergy with the other aspects of presentation is very good.

I like the backgrounds of MLB 2K as well. I think they have just the right amount of focal blur for the art style of the game.

Not much else other than that (IMO), but I won't get into the negatives.


Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[tonadom]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I usually get some static in this forum. I don't know exactly why, but I have an idea why. Please don't take the following as a dis or a shot at 2K. I realize they're a publishing company and VC does the developing.

A few days ago, I wanted to know who developed MLB 2K8, so I looked it up and I found that Kush Games did. Ben Brinkman was heading it all. He walked out on MLB 2K9 and Kush went with 'im. Because of that and what I've seen in the past 3 years, this is what I believe. When Kush left MLB 2K, everything they were building on left too.

Then, VC was probably told ( shocking to them ) they will be developing MLB 2K9. I can't even blame VC for what followed. They were handed a huge task without anything. Kush took their engine with 'em, so VC had nothing.

I liked MLB 2K7 on the 360. I thought it was awesome and I still think it's a great game. I played it a lot. If they would've kept building on that year after year, it would probably be the best MLB video game today. They did a lot of things right.

[Mt Oread]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I usually get some static in this forum. I don't know exactly why, but I have an idea why. Please don't take the following as a dis or a shot at 2K. I realize they're a publishing company and VC does the developing.

A few days ago, I wanted to know who developed MLB 2K8, so I looked it up and I found that Kush Games did. Ben Brinkman was heading it all. He walked out on MLB 2K9 and Kush went with 'im. Because of that and what I've seen in the past 3 years, this is what I believe. When Kush left MLB 2K, everything they were building on left too.

Then, VC was probably told ( shocking to them ) they will be developing MLB 2K9. I can't even blame VC for what followed. They were handed a huge task without anything. Kush took their engine with 'em, so VC had nothing.

I liked MLB 2K7 on the 360. I thought it was awesome and I still think it's a great game. I played it a lot. If they would've kept building on that year after year, it would probably be the best MLB video game today. They did a lot of things right.

I thought 2K7 was horrible. It wasn't until 2K8 that I came back to the series. While 2K8 had a ton of performance issues, and was released in mostly unplayable shape, it really was the best game in this run until the last two years.

And Kush was fired for the crap they released in 2K8. VC tried to fix their code for 2K9 and largely made things worse. 2K10 was a very good game that needed more than the year of development time VC could give it. The last two releases were great games.

I think VC has done a great job of making a great pitching system even deeper and more compelling with each release. One of the keys is a nice large spread of ratings for pitches. It really allows for each pitcher to have very different feels from such different strengths. combined with the overuse penalty, you get realistic at-bats on whether hitting or pitching.

I think they also have improved and made dynamic ratings a positive part of the game when I expected it to really botch things up. Between that and MLB Today, the rosters in 2K11 and 2K12 really felt alive. Well, until 2K dropped support for 2K12 and let MLB Today die on the vine.

I love what VC has done to make fielding fun. The drop circles in 2K11 were a great idea, but they didn't get it quite right. the game would start your OF in the direction of the ball, so even though there might be a large circle the ball might fall in, the fielder was headed straight for the right spot. 2K12 fixed this by aiming the fielder to the center of the circle only.

There is such a real difference between fielders, and it is done in a way that doesn't break the game. You can roll with a slow OF, but in 2K12, he's going to let balls fall in the gap. And not at a rate that destroys the sim, either.

One weakness I have found in the way people work on sliders is that they continue to tweak for one team. But playing with different teams results in completely different feels to their OF's. I think there should be a little more appreciation for the slow guys, instead of such a drive to make them not suck.

Another area that I love what 2K does is baserunning. I never feel like letting the CPU handle that. It's such a great interface that lets me really control multiple runners. It's not 100% intuitive, but once you wrap your head around it, it's really elegant.

[celtics6]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I think post patch is particularly awesome. The gameplay is really tight out of the box. It took them a few months but with teh patch the game plays really well. I've just kind of learned to hit A when I feel like it might be one of those dead stare moments but I'm having a lot of trouble finding much wrong with the game after the patch. There could be more animations, and the characters could look a little less goofy, and i'd like more camera angles during dead moments where it might pan around, but other than that it's a great game and my favorite this gen. Not sure a lot of people gave this game a chance but since I've repicked it up it hasn't disapointed me.

I think in my other thread i made a comment about how 2k is on the way back and 2k12 is the best in series since 2k7 but was still being a bit harsh on the game. It's actually a really fun game. What it does right is fun. That was kind of the point of my other thread. I didn't quite say that but it's true. I admit it and so can you..

This game is just a blast to play. I can't put a finger on why that is but that was the point of the other thread to figure that out. I've had more fun with this game than any other game this gen and it barely got a 6 for a review and I can't figure out why that is. But it's true. It's freakin fun. The gmaes move at a good pace. Give a lot of variety. The commentary is great. Games play out the way you'd think they would. The gameplay is addictive.

2k does something that not many other games do. It makes me want to play it over and over. I'd rather be playing than posting this right now so that's what i'm going to do.

There are still some quirks with fielders in particular, but all 2k really needs to do is up the graphics a bit and iron out some of the in between stuff and add some more animations.

[Profit89]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

Very bad at:

1. Collision detection.

2. Crowd graphics.

3. Running animations.

The rest is good. Lots of fun factor in this game which is great.

[pistolpete]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

It gives the hitter the ability to read pitches. The batter's eye is phenomenal. I love that great hitters with keen eyes have a gigantic advantage over other hitters.

The push-pull up-down hitting influence. It's so simple yet so intuitive.

Baserunning is easy. The mechanism to base-run couldn't be simpler.

The player card.

Finger mechanics and pitching strategy. If you want to hit your zone you better take something off that pitch. And you better hope that zone isn't in the the strike zone.

Ohh, and the batter 1 height 5, zoom 6 batting camera. I have never used a camera easier to read a pitch (type) and whether it was a strike or not pretty much ever.

Ohh, and I have sliders for 2k11 which are flat out fun!!!

[rudyjuly2]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

Right: Commentary and atmosphere, analog pitching, batter's eye which allows you to work walks and adds true feel to real batters ability to see pitches through ratings, fielding with outfielders and true defensive ratings by position, fun feel to game.

Wrong: Animations are rough, bugs, far too big a gap between contact and power swing, hitting ball physics (I don't like emphasis on pushing outside pitches or the feel of the bat off the ball - doesn't feel right IMO).

Note: these are impressions based off 2K10, 11 retail and 2K12 demo.

[pistolpete]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

Oh and CPU pitchers have fear. When Bautista is up against a LHP he is a 98 power and 85 contact. I am constantly drawing walks with him. With the hitter's eye you can afford to patient. This may make most people think you can run up the score in every game, but for whatever reason that's not the case.

[lhslancers]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

It gives the hitter the ability to read pitches. The batter's eye is phenomenal. I love that great hitters with keen eyes have a gigantic advantage over other hitters.

The push-pull up-down hitting influence. It's so simple yet so intuitive.

Baserunning is easy. The mechanism to base-run couldn't be simpler.

The player card.

Finger mechanics and pitching strategy. If you want to hit your zone you better take something off that pitch. And you better hope that zone isn't in the the strike zone.

Ohh, and the batter 1 height 5, zoom 6 batting camera. I have never used a camera easier to read a pitch (type) and whether it was a strike or not pretty much ever.

Ohh, and I have sliders for 2k11 which are flat out fun!!!

could you post those 11 sliders?

[tvman]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I love the batters eye (the "text" thing not the black circle) but I wish they would give you the option of using it with the K zone turned off. Some think that it is cheap but I think it really replicates a good hitter being able to see and read a pitch, much like Mvp with the colored balls.

[pistolpete]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

could you post those 11 sliders?

I believe they are all-star but human contact is either 30 or 35, and power is 60 or 65. There are some other tweaks, and the game isn't 100% realistic, but each game is a challenge and lots of fun.

I can't post them now bc I am uber busy with some design project and don't have time.

[pistolpete]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I love the batters eye (the "text" thing not the black circle) but I wish they would give you the option of using it with the K zone turned off. Some think that it is cheap but I think it really replicates a good hitter being able to see and read a pitch, much like Mvp with the colored balls.

I don't use the ball either.

And it being cheap? It's a video game and should be fun!! On the Show forum someone did the calculations and there are setting in which the reaction time to hit a 95 mph fastball required is the same as it would be in real life.

NO FRIGGIN THANKS!!!!!

[sictransitchris]

Re: What does 2k baseball do right and/or wrong?

I think the commentary is great and the analog pitching controls are superb... pretty much everything else is mediocre.