[thornie]

Please for the love all things holy KEEP 2k8's analog pitching feature. It's the only thing that keeps me playing this game time and time again. If Brinkman did ANYTHING right during his time working on this series, it's implementing analog pitching. All it needs is to be refined slightly.

1. Get rid of the meat ball. Make a poorly executed pitch miss out of the zone. Please, please, please!! make it miss out of the zone. This one feature can single handedly solve the pitch count issue in baseball video games games.

2. Increase the amount of times a pitcher starts to lose his composure (ball indicator moving wildly). For instance, if Ollie Perez walks a guy in the 4th inning with none out, the ball indicator should start going nuts. Or if you start missing the strike zone with a guy like Broxton, it should become MORE difficult to throw strikes... The meter could get smaller, or the umpire will stop calling close pitches strikes. Little things like this can go a long way forcing gamers to stay focused the whole game, and add atmosphere to pressure situations.

3. Improve the pitch physics slightly. If I throw a cutter with Mariano, I want to see that ball cut in on a hitters hands. Same goes for a Sabbathia 2-seamer, or any pitcher with a big 12-6 drop on their curveball.

4. Keep going with signature styles. One of the few things 2k8 excelled and destroyed it's competitor on. Some of them are just scary good.

5. Improve animations. Hitters who crowd the plate should react immediately to a ball pitched inside. How cool would it be to come inside on a guy like Utley and see him react immediately to 95 mph fastball in.

- A hitter should NOT be looking to left field after he just hit a homerun to right field. It's lazy programming and looks embarassing.

6. Please do away with the lame cutscenes. They look forced and awkward. But would it kill you or ANY SPORTS VIDEOGAME COMPANY to offer cool cutscenes after clinching a division, playoff spot, world series win? I mean I have been hearing other gamers asking for this for years, and game companies NEVER deliver. Same goes for atmosphere. Hitting a HR in the 8th to take the lead or tie the game should not warrant the same crowd reaction as a HR hit in the top of the first.

Guys... we aren't asking a Virtual Reality simulation complete with digital batboys bringing us pine tar while we are swinging our digital bat in a simulated render of 1927 Yankee Stadium. We are asking for the crowd to cheer and boo appropriately. Is it really that hard?

7. More pitching/hitting camera views. I would implore any baseball videogame developer to head over to mvpmods.com, mod their copy of MVP 05 and check out the vast array of datafile edits taht exist on that site. These guys come up with the most fantastic camera views for pitching and hitting. If some guy who works a day job and just does modding for fun can come up with something so awesome, why can't the pros?

Sorry if this came off sarcastic and snooty. But I love baseball, and I really do love 2k8. I just want to see this game turn out the best it can be.