Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

[Frek21]

Re: MLB 2K9 Preview (TeamXbox.com)

What?? Buck Martinez is the best in the business, for color, and he does O's games now. Can't tell you how much we miss him on Blue Jays telecasts. Truthfully, I like Thorne's call too.

But anyways... I was pretty pleased with TeamXbox's review. If there's one source out there that I trust, it's this site. I check it every day to see what's going on in the Xbox world. They've even discussed before how the dates that they put out their previews/reviews are strictly monitored and agreed to with developers. They can't just throw it up at their leisure.

So I'm pretty pleased with what they said. Gives me some encouragement for 2K9. I've had 2K6/7/8 on the first day they were released. Told myself I wasn't going to do that this year as I'd wait for the demo (and hope it comes out before release) and for OS reviews. We'll see what happens but the zone hitting is HUGE in my books and I'm glad they've put this in.

Yea it is that way with every major and legitimate site that covers video games. You release the info on the date that the publisher allows you to or you don't get to review or preview their games anymore.

[J.R. Locke]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

50 Year Franchise!! Me likey. I can sim 20 years so there are no real players left then begin my franchise.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game. May pick it up mid summer. Maybe release day if I am bored.

[Gamblin79]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

This review gives me some encouragement that this release will actually be a game worth picking up. Man I hope so because I really don't want to have to buy a PS3 for MLB gaming.

[JBH3]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

50 Year Franchise!! Me likey. I can sim 20 years so there are no real players left then begin my franchise.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game. May pick it up mid summer. Maybe release day if I am bored.

J.R., or anyone else for that matter care to list some of the franchise stuff they talked about.

Thanks to my work CPU websense filters 'video games', and thus can't read the preview.

Thank God for OS@work though!!

[BigL]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

Encouraging review, but found it odd they didnt mention the real time presentation inclusion...

[duke776]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

50 Year Franchise!! Me likey. I can sim 20 years so there are no real players left then begin my franchise.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game. May pick it up mid summer. Maybe release day if I am bored.

I never read this preview, but that is pretty awesome. I like to alternate from real players to completely made up players, it just makes everything less stale.

[Blzer]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

50 Year Franchise!! Me likey. I can sim 20 years so there are no real players left then begin my franchise.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game. May pick it up mid summer. Maybe release day if I am bored.

Not to mention they say that simming is faster than ever (well, I can't remember if it was TeamXbox or another preview, but...).

I just hope they expanded the number of generic stances this time around. It gets painfully annoying to see your players only have the same two or three stances, as well as the other team.

[dorismary]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

So far so good but I hope 2k/vc has been checking for all their classic franchise bugs

[RogueHominid]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

I'm new to this game forum, and this is the only baseball game I'll be able to play this year, so I have a question for game vets about the hitting.

This review says that it will now be easier to make solid contact. That could be good, could be bad. One of the things I didn't like about The Show last year was that it was very easy to hit for high averages, and 9-10 hpg wasn't uncommon.

Was that an issue last year for 2k? Do you anticipate it being an issue this year from what you've heard? And how much can easy offense be mitigated by this game's slider and attribute editing system?

Sorry for the question overload, but I don't know anything about how this game plays.

[baa7]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

Was that an issue last year for 2k? Do you anticipate it being an issue this year from what you've heard? And how much can easy offense be mitigated by this game's slider and attribute editing system?

In 2K8, it was possible to make hitting so difficult that it was almost impossible to make contact. That's one area where this game is miles ahead of The Show: adjustability via sliders and player ratings edits. The question that still remains unanswered is whether VC removed or dumbed-down the step-influence option, which is a big part of why the hitting in 2K8 was so good. So we'll have to wait and see. But unlike The Show, the contact slider in 2K baseball determines your ability to make contact, so lowering it does make hitting much harder. Add in zone hitting and I think hitting in 2K9 has the potential to be an even greater challenge this year.

[baa7]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

I don't know anything about how this game plays.

If you haven't played with swing stick hitting, prepare to have your mind blown! Last year there were three elements that one could adjust to determine hitting difficulty: contact slider, the step-influence slider, and pitch speed. The contact slider as I mentioned in my previous post determines how easy/difficult it is to actually make contact with the pitch -- different form The Show, where the contact slider only determines the hit quality.

The brilliant part of it all however is using the swing stick in conjunction with the step-influence option. The stick in a game like Tiger Woods golf isn't being utilized properly or correctly, because there's no penalty for pulling back and holding the stick down before swinging. In 2K8 however, you had to time your step (lifting the front leg as the pitch approaches), followed by your swing. Get the timing wrong and it's whiff city. And the step-influence slider determined how easy/difficult this was to pull off. Like I said, it's a brilliant system. On top of that, this year we have the added difficulty of zone hitting, and having to aim as well.

My fear right now is they dumbed-down the step-influence option. It sounds from the previews that you can now pull back and hold the stick down and simply wait until the pitch arrives -- in the same way one can pull back and hold the club above one's head in Tiger Woods without any kind of swing penalty. That would be a serious bummer and a step back for the series if VC in fact made it easier that way.

[RogueHominid]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

If you haven't played with swing stick hitting, prepare to have your mind blown! Last year there were three elements that one could adjust to determine hitting difficulty: contact slider, the step-influence slider, and pitch speed. The contact slider as I mentioned in my previous post determines how easy/difficult it is to actually make contact with the pitch -- different form The Show, where the contact slider only determines the hit quality.

The brilliant part of it all however is using the swing stick in conjunction with the step-influence option. The stick in a game like Tiger Woods golf isn't being utilized properly or correctly, because there's no penalty for pulling back and holding the stick down before swinging. In 2K8 however, you had to time your step (lifting the front leg as the pitch approaches), followed by your swing. Get the timing wrong and it's whiff city. And the step-influence slider determined how easy/difficult this was to pull off. Like I said, it's a brilliant system. On top of that, this year we have the added difficulty of zone hitting, and having to aim as well.

My fear right now is they dumbed-down the step-influence option. It sounds from the previews that you can now pull back and hold the stick down and simply wait until the pitch arrives -- in the same way one can pull back and hold the club above one's head in Tiger Woods without any kind of swing penalty. That would be a serious bummer and a step back for the series if VC in fact made it easier that way.

Thanks for the input, baa! I was a huge fan of The Show when I had a PS3, but I don't have that option now and I never liked how difficult it was to get anywhere near realistic averages. Carew would always claim that it was possible, but then he'd never tell how he did it, lol. It sounds like it's a little less mystical in 2K's game, which is good. It does sound, though, that they've dumbed it down a bit.

I'm looking forward to seeing the game for myself, though. It's tough to take too much of what reviewers not from OS say.

[SoxFan01605]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

Just to add to baa's comments. It sounds from the preview that the hitting option with the actual zone control will indeed function with the full step influence. It seems the default mechanic (with the influence, not zone) will be more simplified.

I'd kinda prefer them both to have the option of the step, but at least it appears to still be there (though as baa said, if it's been dumbed down...major bummer).

In any case, as far as control mechanics go, this is clearly the game to play.

[brendanrfoley]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Preview (Teamxbox)

Baa, you've sold me on trying the Swing Stick. I also have hope the step influence will remain (they do allow us to re-implement the timing portion of TCP).

[catfish9-5]

Re: MLB 2K9 Preview (TeamXbox.com)

2K replaced the announcers in NHL 09 this year, but instead of writing fresh new dialogue, they just recycled the same old tired script. What if they gave Phillips all of Joe Morgan's old lines? Would you mind having to hate him in a video game then?

I would rather have steve phillips using joe morgans lines in NBA Live rather than Steve kerr!