Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

[RoyceBrown]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

So the first thing I think of is sort of a chicken or the egg type deal. Was patching necessary because of technological/marketing/programming advances and pitfalls, or because the Internet is there and it's possible to fix a game after it ships? Have people accepted patching as just a part of gaming now and that's also a contributing factor? There's certainly room to argue each side of that argument.

The other thing I think about though is: In what other tech consumer world do people accept "broken" products? It's the same argument that's raged in the PC world for a while really. When a game ships on the PC and then it doesn't work or you need to DL a ton of patches or drivers, in what other tech market would that be accepted? I have trouble really thinking of one where people just accept buying a "broken" product.

Continuing on with that PC point. Consoles have thrived in large part due to standardized components and thus little to no need to upgrade. It's a flat fee and you know all the games will work the same and all developers can develop with the same tools. I would say that mindset means that patching post-release won't ever really be an acceptable excuse -- at least in the near future. PC gamers are in a constant state of change as it comes to hardware and PC devs have to develop for many different hardware combos, and all that mixed just leads to a more acceptable atmosphere for tweaking post-release. Even so you're starting to see some more standardization even in the PC market.

But returning back to the original point of the review. I think Dave/Bly certainly took into consideration how the actual game itself played (obvious to say I know but nonetheless), and while the frame rate was a detriment on the experience itself, if he didn't at least enjoy the core of the game he wouldn't have given it an above average score -- that's what I get from the review at least.

People NEVER should accept a half finished product needing MAJOR fixing.

In the software industry (outside of video games) there is a common idea involving beta testing. Why video game companies can't get privy to this concept is beyond me.

In essence we all paid 2KLA $59.99 to be a bunch of beta testing monkeys for MLB 2K8.

This game should have never gone to market in its current state, future patching notwithstanding.



This game should have been released as a FREE beta test, and the community could have made the observations/suggestions/criticisms that obviously sites like OS didn't/couldn't make.

[fistofrage]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

People NEVER should accept a half finished product needing MAJOR fixing.

In the software industry (outside of video games) there is a common idea involving beta testing. Why video game companies can't get privy to this concept is beyond me.

In essence we all paid 2KLA $59.99 to be a bunch of beta testing monkeys for MLB 2K8.

This game should have never gone to market in its current state, future patching notwithstanding.



This game should have been released as a FREE beta test, and the community could have made the observations/suggestions/criticisms that obviously sites like OS didn't/couldn't make.

I think that all sports games are Beta tests at this point. The games come out every year so all we're doing is giving them feedback for next year. All of these sports games have always had flaws in them that keep them from being a sim, but now it seems like 2k is putting flaws in the game that prevent them from even being fun. Its a crying shame too, because they have a community of 5000 here that would do their Quality Control for them for free, but Anyway.

I am glad that 2k Hoops isn't going to be produced next year. The patch made the game good enough and now I don't have to worry about what they'll foul up next year. I am also sure too that if the Members of OS didn't chirp so much about the flaws, there wouldn't have been a patch. So in those regards my 50+ hours of free Beta Testing went to good use. So keep squawking about this game too and hopefully they'll fix it. They are killing themselves though by not putting out a good game in the first place. Couple this with their atrocious marketing and its no wonder why 2k is circling the drain.

[baa7]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

I think that all sports games are Beta tests at this point.

I don't agree. FIFA 08, NHL 08, that other baseball game on the PS2... all those games are super. FIFA in particular is an amazingly polished game. Now 2K releasing beta versions... THAT'S a different story. They've been doing that for three years now with all their games that Kush/2K LA has produced.

[phatboy54]

This will forever be remembered as the game that led me to sell my 360. After a fun but repetitive (hey, six interceptions again!) run with NCAA Football, I was fired up for this release. It took about 5 games and countless hours dissecting the sliders on this message board to give up. As an older gamer (early 30's), I just don't care enough about spending the time to get a perfect sim these days. I'm buying a Wii and some beer. Something was lost when we jumped to the Next Gen systems and that was the fun factor.

[Heelfan71]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

This will forever be remembered as the game that led me to sell my 360. After a fun but repetitive (hey, six interceptions again!) run with NCAA Football, I was fired up for this release. It took about 5 games and countless hours dissecting the sliders on this message board to give up. As an older gamer (early 30's), I just don't care enough about spending the time to get a perfect sim these days. I'm buying a Wii and some beer. Something was lost when we jumped to the Next Gen systems and that was the fun factor.

buy a ps3 and the show.

[superjames1992]

I will not be buying this game until a patch is released.

[Eski33]

I was extremely disappointed. I thought with the strides that 2K made with 2K7 that this year's game would be fun. The framerate is horrid and the visuals have taken a huge step backward.

I do like the pitching mechanic. I am no fanboy but The Show makes this game look like an Atari 2600 game....

[Effectively_wild]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

2k8 arrived yesterday for my PS3. I've been adding to my back catalogue and 2k8 seemed the best to add to 10-13. Only played one full game last night but it was fun. Obviously not got a full impression but, I liked what I saw. Coming from 10-13 the controls took a couple of hours to get the basics down but I can tell once I get some of the more complicated and nuanced aspects of the controls down, 2k8 has more depth then 2k10-13. I'm interested if any of you still play or what you remember from your time playing 2k8.

[Blzer]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

2k8 arrived yesterday for my PS3. I've been adding to my back catalogue and 2k8 seemed the best to add to 10-13. Only played one full game last night but it was fun. Obviously not got a full impression but, I liked what I saw. Coming from 10-13 the controls took a couple of hours to get the basics down but I can tell once I get some of the more complicated and nuanced aspects of the controls down, 2k8 has more depth then 2k10-13. I'm interested if any of you still play or what you remember from your time playing 2k8.

Loved the pitching mechanics and that they went to right analog stick for most everything, but it was still too much of a homerfest and the visuals were a downgrade from 2K7 sadly. The PS3 version was also inferior to the 360 versions when it came to AA, self-shadowing, framerate... the works.

I think MLB Power Pros had only came out months before, so that was my baseball game of choice for the time being even though it was only a PS2 title.

[Effectively_wild]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Loved the pitching mechanics and that they went to right analog stick for most everything, but it was still too much of a homerfest and the visuals were a downgrade from 2K7 sadly. The PS3 version was also inferior to the 360 versions when it came to AA, self-shadowing, framerate... the works.

I think MLB Power Pros had only came out months before, so that was my baseball game of choice for the time being even though it was only a PS2 title.

The pitching mechanics are great! Coming from 2k10 it took a few hours to get the timing and motions down but yeah, I love the mechanics. These are still than The Show is today imo.
Same with the fielding as well. The way the throwing is mapped to the right stick and is sensitive to how far/hard you push makes a difference in the throw I think is brilliant...not to mention how the horizontal (vertical if throwing 2nd or home) accuracy of your movement matters as well. The way the meter moves depending on difference factors make different throws easier and harder are still above what The Show does now (albeit very similar).
I've had to tweak the sliders to tone down the homers and I think I've found a nice set.
I've also got the CPU throwing less strikes, so I'm able to get some walks and get realistic pitch counts.

I find it funny (and fun!) going back and reading old impressions and comments about the game. Apart from the framerate issues (which aren't even that bad or bother me) I really like this game. I wish it had better/more up to date roster from 2008 but apart from that, I'm having a blast.

I know I bang on about this but...I buy The Show every year, play it for a few months alongside 2k and then get bored and then just play 2k titles for the rest of the year. Funny that games this old still have me playing them more than anything else.

[bbgeek]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

Any chance someone has a code to unlock the stadiums?

[tinpanalley]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

I would absolutely love it if someone found a way to get rosters updated for 2K8. Just rosters, honestly I wouldn't care about anything else like uniforms or faces or anything. I once tried updating the rosters for 2K5 World Series Edition and hit a wall of editable players. So I had to stop.
2K8, like all sports games at that time, was a blast. I remember having to do a lot of slider tweaking but even THAT was fun because they were so responsive. The presentation, the immersiveness of season mode, and the simplicity of it. So much actual fun. I would love for the wave of modding older sports games to hit the 2K series one day.