Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

[roadman]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Funny you bring this up because it was a topic of our staff meeting last night.

We have some review guidelines. I thought they were live but they weren't. Look for them to be posted later in the week or first thing next week.

In the case of MLB 2K8, here's the description for games in that range ...

5 to 6.5 – Average to slightly above average. While fun at times these games generally have some glaring issues that need to be addressed before it can be considered a good game. These games tend to have some design issues and an overall lack of depth. In other words a little more time in development probably could have done these types of games some good. You are also firmly in, "if you're not a fan of that sport you shouldn't pick up this title" land.

Ah, thanks Bly, that makes sense.

I'm in the minority and don't have the frame rate issues some people are having, plus I thought 2k did a great job with all the animations and signature styles.

The other part of the article was spot on.

[gallandro]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

but IMO you can't give companies mulligans. patching a defective product doesn't make up for the several months gamers had to deal with it being broken. If the patch was released in the first week it might be different, but weeks to months after release?

Exactly, this problem is nothing new for the 2K Baseball line. MLB2K6 practically had the same problems (slow fram rate and periodic freezing) which stemmed from the VIP system. You'd have thought they learned by now.

I used to be the biggest 2kSports fanboy. I'd take NHK2K over EA's NHL series any day, I'd take NFL2K over Madden in a heartbeat, NBA2K or CH2K without a second thought... my how things have changed...

I've turned to EA for hockey this year. LOVE NHL 08. I now get my football fix with the NCAA series, and The Show for my baseball addiction. The only 2K standby that I turn to on a regular basis now is College Hoops and now that's been canned.


Yancy

[Pared]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Yeah i agree, a full blow re-review probably won't happen. we'll certainly have some "MLB is patched - its better now!" coverage - assuming it is better.

but IMO you can't give companies mulligans. patching a defective product doesn't make up for the several months gamers had to deal with it being broken. If the patch was released in the first week it might be different, but weeks to months after release?

A patch should fix minor issues and improve the game.

A retail copy of a game should be able to stand on its own. Glad to see you guys are following the same mind set.

What kills me is had EA had done this with the exclusive license they'd get killed for it.

[belljr]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

A patch should fix minor issues and improve the game.

A retail copy of a game should be able to stand on its own. Glad to see you guys are following the same mind set.

What kills me is had EA had done this with the exclusive license they'd get killed for it.

You mean like Madden 08 and the franchise freeze glitch - or I think Madden 06 and the exchange disc program

Seriously. I think the review was pretty spot on. I think with the framerate fix it's a 7.5 maybe 8 to me. The commentary I also turn off by being "on field" sound option - makes me feel like I'm in the game more. I know 2k6 it took about 3 weeks to get the patch done and through MS. Here is hoping that it is sooner rather than later.

[Pared]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

You mean like Madden 08 and the franchise freeze glitch - or I think Madden 06 and the exchange disc program

Not sure what you're trying to suggest as that has nothing to do with 2k getting a pass here.

[brendanrfoley]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

But, far and large, as everyone else says... graphics over gameplay. Surprisingly, "gameplay" isn't one of your bolded terms at the end to go over... but baseball is purely nothing else other than hitting, pitching, fielding, and baserunning. Aside from some herky-jerky looking animations, the gameplay has improved ten-fold, and that's what everybody claims they wanted fixed... though now it seems some people are showing their true colors, and that visuals certainly may matter.

Quoted for truth.

[belljr]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Not sure what you're trying to suggest as that has nothing to do with 2k getting a pass here.

I don't think 2k should get a pass much like EA should not had a pass for their major bug last year.

I thought you were implying that EA never did that. I apologize. I don't want to take this thread off-topic. I have issue with both companies and their games. While I do enjoy them - I'm very frustrated with the lack of QA'ing with games the past couple years, regardless of company.

[spankdatazz22]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Not sure what you're trying to suggest as that has nothing to do with 2k getting a pass here.

I don't understand what you mean by it getting a pass. Seems people have been allowed to be pretty critical of the game from jump. The Madden forum has a thread that was apparently created a week or so after Madden launched just to keep people from creating negative threads or littering legitimate threads with negative comments - I don't see that courtesy extended to this game or most games for that matter. So I don't think it's an EA-would-be-treated-unfairly-in-the-same-situation thing.

I didn't read the review, so not going to comment on it. But from what most are saying they feel the score was justified - some say a tad low, some say a tad too high. And of course there are the extremes on either end that may say "it's fantastic/best ever" or "it's so wretched I paid $450 just to get The Show". Are you saying NO ONE should like the game at all? From what people are saying, it seems the biggest issues are with the framerate and the downgrade in graphics. I don't see how it's that outlandish that some aren't bothered by the framerate issue; it's not like the game was 60fps last year. And we've all played great games that didn't move at 60fps. Regarding graphics, it was debateable that MLB2K7 was the best-looking sports game to date last year - it's not like it went from cream to crap with 2K8. Just a matter of how much emphasis people put into the differences.

What some may be also weighing into the equation is that sometimes improvements in gameplay aren't given the appropriate weight they should. And unless someone knows OS's scoring scale, sometimes a number score can be confused with what would be it's appropriate letter grade. When I see 6, I think 60/100 which means poor - but someone explained the OS scale a bit earlier in the thread and that makes sense. Just saying that some will look at 6 and immediately think poor. Letter grades are easier to understand imo

[Zackdawg]

"The 800-pound gorilla in the room, of course, is the frame rate issue. Quite simply it is inexcusable and unprofessional to release a game on a console with this kind of problem. To think, at some point somebody at 2K Sports made the decision the game could go to market as is, with gameplay often looking like its waiting for an art school student to draw it on screen for you is hard to fathom. "

After being bitten by 2k7's (still unfixed) franchise bug, there was no way I was going to buy 2k8 until months after the release date. Boy, am I glad I rented.

The review is spot on -- 2ksports made a deliberate decision to push an unfinished product out of the door and charge consumers $60 a pop to be a part of its development cycle. At some point, sports gamers have to stop being a willing accomplice in this trend and punish companies that treat its consumers with such disrespect.

Game companies may feel a duty to release a game every year, no matter how flawed and unpolished, but I have no duty to keep purchasing their flawed products until they get it right. I am not a part of Brinkman's "three-year plan" for this series.

[jim416]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

The game has so much potential and time could have been better served working on the main core rather than a card system.

Amen. I've felt this way about all the baseball games. Fix what is broken first, fix the glitches, then add stuff. But, the card system probably hyped sales. That's the real bottom line.

[muggins]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

I definitely think the reactions to this game were a little over the top. I agree Madden and NCAA had some pretty game-breaking bugs this year and I don't think they got nearly as much coverage.

That said, without having started my franchise mode yet, I'd say I'd give this game a 7.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

The game has so much potential and time could have been better served working on the main core rather than a card system.

Amen. I've felt this way about all the baseball games. Fix what is broken first, fix the glitches, then add stuff. But, the card system probably hyped sales. That's the real bottom line.

Exactly...I'm under the impression that the way they view their product is that:

"We're going to gain more sales by adding new features, then we are going to lose by not fixing what is broken."

But for all we know, the people who created the card system may have not even been involved with other aspects of the game and it may have not made a difference.

I think it's important to understand that a lot of times, we are in the cross of two, three or four different agenda's. You have your fans who want it their way, the developers who think the fans don't know what they want and in turn want it their way, the executive officers and board of directors who want it first and foremost to be as cheap as possible and profitable and the marketing department that wants it to be fresh so they have new something to promote.

Somewhere in the middle, you get a game which has some expected and refreshing changes, some unexpected and unnecessary features and is slightly broken.

[bangpow]

I have to disagree with a couple comments in this review.

I don't recall MLB 2K7 all that great and even though the game looked better, it played far worse than MLB 2K8, even with 2K8's frame rate issues. Also, MLB 2K7's controls were laggy and not responsive at all.

I think 2K8's gameplay is a huge improvement over 2K7's. Is it perfect? Nope, not at all, but I feel like I am actually in control of my players this year as opposed to last year.

The announcing doesn't bother me as much and I guess I would rather take a downgrade in graphics if it means an upgrade in control and responsiveness.

Sure, there aren't as many people in the stands, the crowd needs some serious work, and they do need to kind of react to foul balls, but again, I have a feeling that was done to improve the FPS, even thought that still needs work.

I would probably give it about a 7-7.5 right now, but will reserve judgement if they happen to patch the framerate issue.

[MildlyPsycho]

I think 6 is a fair score as you really hit the mark on the positives and negatives. I really think that this game could be a 7 if it wasn't for damn crashes and glitches with framerate.

[bangpow]

Oh, and I haven't had the game crash on me once....yet.