MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

[RaychelSnr]

We recently changed our review process. Read all about how we do our reviews now.

Day One: Initial Impressions
Day Two: Initial Online Impressions
Day Three: Midpoint Update

To this point, my time with MLB 2K11 has been filled with many highs and lows. Thankfully, MLB 2K11’s My Player and Franchise offerings are deep, intriguing, and most of all, fun additions that had me enjoying every minute of this in-depth look at them.

My Player

Last year, MLB 2K10’s My Player mode was a very enjoyable first entry into Visual Concept’s baseball franchise. If the mode had a major flaw, it was that it was far to easy to breeze through the minors on the way to your MLB debut.

My Player mode in MLB 2K11 takes the framework from 2K10, and then polishes it up real nice. Advancement to the majors is now dependent on your ratings in several categories rather than just overall statistics like last year. For example, if you are a center fielder trying to make it to the bigs in your organization, a 60 speed rating is just not going to cut it, even if you are batting .400. The same goes for pitchers; don’t expect to get called up unless you get at least two of your pitches into the mid 70s.

Read More - MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

[Trevytrev11]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

On the bright side, most people that are going to want to get deep into a franchise mode are going to restrain themselves from abusing the faulty fatigue logic. Chances are that if you are serious enough to want to play 162 games, you are going to manager your roster and give rest days to players in order to have realistic # of AB's and IP's for your players.


On the dark side...how something so obvious happened and wasn't part of the Day 1 patch is beyond me.

And thankfully it corrects itself when simming games.

Did you play/sim enough seasons in franchise to get a feel for the realism when it comes to trades/free agents and long term player progression?

[stlstudios189]

I will never understand why anyone would abuse a glitch like fatigue and play all there guys 162 games anyways. I will hope for a patch but just play normal anyways

[Neolithic]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

yeah, while it would be nice to have the fatigue factored in, and the only thing I can think of as an effect would be a lower chance of injury if you play every game since players wouldn't be fatigued and at a greater risk of injury. Someone like me, isn't going to pitch my Ace every game, just because I can. I'm not going to play guys every single game, I'll give guys days off, even if the game says they are 100%. A lot of times, they'll get days off due to matchups with the pitcher anyways.

Again, hopefully it's something they can patch up here as the season opens.

I have both games, with 2k11 for my 360, and the Show for my....PS3 obviously :P. I must say, I'm having a hard time not playing either one thus far. Both games have their perks and problems, and I'm stuck in the middle!

::shakes fist at videogame baseball gods:: WHY????

[rudyjuly2]

Glad to hear you are having fun. I was thinking of starting a franchise soon and I may turn down the injuries. I don't abuse stuff like fatigue so I'll have to manage my guys accordingly.

[Blazzen]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

I simmed through spring training in my first season and lost Johnny Venters to a 15 day DL and Craig Krimbel to a 60 day DL injury.

I didn't save that franchise as I was just messing around but the one I started recently has seen only minor 3-5 day injuries to 2 players. One was a sore elbow I believe from my long reliever Rodrigo Lopez which came as a result of simulation. The other was a 2 day sore back from Brian McCann which came while I was playing. He got pegged in the back with a 99MPH fastball so it was pretty understandable LOL. Injury slider may have to be tweaked some but players do have a lot of small nagging injuries throughout the year.

As for the fatigue bug I really hope they patch it. I play one of every 6 games so I go through the pitching rotation in order but sim 5 games in between so I don't think I will be that hampered by the fatigue bug until the playoffs when I play all of the games.

One other cool thing that wasn't mentioned is the ability to upload box scores from your offline franchise to your online 2k sports profile. I don't know if this was in previous years games, if it was, I had no clue.

Here's where another user did it. I'm going to try it when I get home:

http://community.2ksports.com/community/user/blogs.cfm?blogid=3331293

Will save me from re-posting box scores from games in my slider thread! People can follow along as I go. Pretty cool.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

One other cool thing that wasn't mentioned is the ability to upload box scores from your offline franchise to your online 2k sports profile. I don't know if this was in previous years games, if it was, I had no clue.

Here's where another user did it. I'm going to try it when I get home:

http://community.2ksports.com/community/user/blogs.cfm?blogid=3331293

Will save me from re-posting box scores from games in my slider thread! People can follow along as I go. Pretty cool.

They did that last year too http://www.operationsports.com/forum...fantastic.html. I wish 2K would market the cool stuff like this more and the VIP feature. They are great things that too often go unnoticed.

[notoriouzwun]

I have not tried franchise yet, I normally wait until the final rosters at the begining of the season before doing that.

As for MyPlayer, I expected more. The added ways to get points was refreshing, but it was still way too easy to get to the bigs. took me about 8 games to get my pitcher there. I only needed to get two pitches to 60 rating which is easily done by putting points into control. I needed some Stamina, Vs Left, vs Right, and some easy stats. The decisions you get arent extensive and I would like to see more show like options. Juan Uribe had 3 errors in a game I would love to suggest to the manager his portly behind be replaced with someone, anyone, else. I fill as though there still needs to be more MyPlayer options. Ranked games with your MyPlayer team or friendly games against your friends and their myplayer team. Hell Crew games (that actually work) I think would be amazing. Every year I tell myself, "Do not buy this game." every year I am a little disappointed. I felt in 2K10 they made huge strides. This year, I feel as though its just a polished version of last years in all aspects.

[FunkeyMonkey]

It does not matter whether or not you are simulating games or playing them, at least one player on my team was getting injured per week during the franchise I played for this review

This seems a little high but I went to fangraphs.com and looked at last years trips to the DL by team and the least amount was 7 by both ARI and CHW. The most trips was by BOS with 23. There were 5 teams that had 20 or more trips to the DL. These aren't counting the daily injuries that happen and the player misses a few games here and there.

[Matt Diesel]

You'd be surprised at the number or injuries in real life during 162 games. Might be a little high but not that far off.

[jcmonroe2004]

I would love to know how u were knocking balls out the park in my player so easy, I crushed this game last year and I have barely hit 10 hr and my contact is at 80 and power at 85 so far this year. What's your secret?

[nymets12]

does anyone know when the patch will be, and if it is released, if you're in the middle of a season in franchise, then can the patch on player fatigue work or do you have do restart a franchise.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

does anyone know when the patch will be, and if it is released, if you're in the middle of a season in franchise, then can the patch on player fatigue work or do you have do restart a franchise.

I'm 99% sure you won't have to restart your franchise. Most patches don't require it.

I would expect the patch to be out in May, probably later than earlier. Ronnie said they are still working on it. That means they still have to finish it (maybe another week or so), quality test it (at least 20 minutes on this part ), and then submit to Sony and MS for approval (2-3 weeks for this normally).

[itsoutofhere]

how will you know when you have the patch, will it say updated patch or something like that?

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 2K11 My Player and Franchise Impressions

how will you know when you have the patch, will it say updated patch or something like that?

It should prompt you when you turn the game on. OS will announce it as soon as it comes out which will be awhile yet.