Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[Blitzburgh]

Why should people put it to rest? in 3 innings of play, on the demo, the cpu takes an average of a strike per inning. The jury is still out on this issue.

Are you seriously telling me that you think that the cpu takes a realistic number of strikes in the demo ?? Come on now....take off the 2k glasses.

Also, the ONLY pitches that the cpu takes are pitches that are right on the edge, anywhere close to the middle they swing.

Again, it's a demo so I can't judge completely. But if the retail version only improves this problem slightly via sliders, it's STILL a gamekiller for me and many people here.

I have had the cpu take many strikes so far. For some reason it seems if you do not pitch where the catcher wants you too and also use alot of off speed stuff they will watch it go by and swing at it outside the strike zone as well. You can't just throw every pitch full strength and in the strike zone either. I simply love the pitching & hitting. It is so smooth it's sick!

[JonahFalcon]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I have had the cpu take many strikes so far. For some reason it seems if you do not pitch where the catcher wants you too and also use alot of off speed stuff they will watch it go by and swing at it outside the strike zone as well. You can't just throw every pitch full strength and in the strike zone either. I simply love the pitching & hitting. It is so smooth it's sick!

So, in other words, the catcher is an idiot, since it's far better to get 1-2 pitch outs than 5-6 maybe outs. In real baseball, if an offense is very aggressive, you get them to hit borderline pitches and get quick outs. It forces their pitcher to take the mound without rest and your pitcher can go long because he hasn't thrown any pitches.

MLB 2K9 hits like a 100 loss team with a bunch of rookies who go up hacking.

In the meantime, I had 5 hits in the first - 2 pitch double, 1 pitch single, 1 pitch double, 2 pitch triple, 1 pitch flyout, 1 pitch groundout, 1 pitch double, intentional walk, 1 pitch DP.

And that's not unusual in the demo.

[kGinGreen]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I just did the curveball thing in just 2 inning the cpu had 3 hits. I threw nothing but curveballs. i was throwing them right down the middle of the plate for the most part but they had 3 hits and were making contact consistently... So don't know.

One thing I have noticed though is I have seen a player be right on the bag and hte runner not even close to be being a close play and they will get called safe. ive seen this multiple times. It appears to be a glitch.

[Artman22]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Just played a game. Didn't swing at any pitches and threw only curves while pitching. Here are the results:

- Kazmir threw 11 pitches in the first, 9 pitches in the second, and 10 pitches in the third. 30 pitches in 3 innings, 27 strikes, 3 balls. Absolutely ridiculous.

- I threw nothing but curveballs with Hamels. The CPU did not take one pitch the whole 3 innings. The CPU got 0 hits in 3 innings. I threw 9 pitches in the first, 12 pitches in the second, and 6 pitches in the third. 27 pitches in 3 innings, 0 balls.

The game ended in a 0-0 tie.

Some heavy, HEAVY slider work is going to need to be done to get this game playing correctly.

Maybe the final build will be tightened up. lets see

[RedRooster]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Ah, I remember the good old days when I used to crank down the difficulty level and smoke the computer. Then complain that the game was too easy. That was good times.

[kGinGreen]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

This is pro difficulty so yeah. What do people expect? lol. NBA 2k9 the demo was ridiculously easy as well. It's kind of silly to be nitpicking a game on easy mode. So when i was blowing out the cpu 20-0 in the nba 2k9 demo it sucked? No I realized it was a demo on easy difficulty. The trends to do seem to follow the higher difficulties though and you kind of can get a feel for how its going to be, but still.

[StatMan79]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

In four games played:

I had a much better time pitching than I did hitting. Hitting is still very frustrating to me and I'm apparently really bad at pitch recognition.

I was able to get a lot of called strikes and swinging strikes.

I had two check-swing strikes on the computer.

The hardest hit ball I had batting-wise was a screaming drive with Ryan Howard that hit off the fence for a long single.

It felt like my fielders were sluggish to move while the computer seemed to reach anything I hit.

It also felt like I didn't exactly hit anything very hard.

I had three liners on the infield get nabbed; one at third, two at first and one of those got spun into a doubling off of my runner at second who apparently decided to take off the bag too much after taking a one-step lead. Yargh!

My inability to hit lead me to lose two games and have the other two tied at 0.

The computer seemed to be able to dink and dunk hits off of me at will once they got on a roll with it. This bothered me because I recall the last two 2K games being similar to that where if the computer was locked on, you would get torched. I was able to work out of one of these jams with Hamels striking out a batter to end the inning with no runs allowed after giving up three cheapy hits.

I like this about a million times more than 2K8 and once I'm able to get hitting down, I'm going to really like this game I think. Pitching is much more user friendly and by that, it's a lot more fun.

The catcher calling the pitches still seems to be a bit stupid. Calling for off-speed junk with fast players on base and calling for curveballs up high when the pitcher wants to sacrifice. Fastballs up and in should be the mandate there but its negligible.

I'll be anxious to see how much cleaner this is next week when it comes out.

[johnprestonevans]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The Good:
Crowds are improved
Real world atmosphere is well done
Pitching and hitting controls are quite responsive
Good framerate consistency throughout
Commentary is very well done
Signature styles are recognizable

The Bad:
Fielding controls a little sluggish
Player models not much improved
Some awkward jerky animation transitions
Cameras are zoomed out a little too far
Players sometimes "skate" into position
A few noticeable AI follies - poor decisions

The Ugly:
Some player faces are frighteningly last-gen
Dust trails on base paths are distractingly cartoonish
Pitch indicator is way to big, flashy and arcadey for a baseball sim

[Earl1963]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The demo is alright but it just feels too last gen in my opinion. Player models are robotic, very stiff and the game lacks atmosphere.

[skeem]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I actually laughed after playing the first inning, and that's not a good thing. I deleted this mess off the HD immediately after I was done.

[dave_sz]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

thats it for people default can be find for NBA 2K9 and now MLB 2K9 its a must to change the sliders so the game isnt messed up. You basically have to finish the game for them

That does sound like a pain. I've had no experience with 2k games before this so I wouldn't know...

[LAKE4742]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

About the real time throwing: I appreciate the mechanic a little more now. Although, they're kind of hard to do, the variation in accuracy and speed is kinda cool.
As others have mentioned, some animations look weird. It seems stiff, too.
Seems like a solid game (although, glitch issues are now rearing their ugly head)....but not a buy.

[jerm21]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

wow. from what i see it every single one of you dislike the game so far.

Don't you guys realize how crummy last years game was, and how much of an improvement it is this year? It was 2k baseball's rebuilding year, they are starting in a new direction with the animations, the announcers, the real time atmosphere, I mean give them a break.

It's only gonna get better. All that matters is its a solid baseball game. Better than last years, I'll be getting it. And if there are things I don't like about it, that is what the 2k10 Wishlist forum will be used for.

[dave_sz]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

In four games played:

I had a much better time pitching than I did hitting. Hitting is still very frustrating to me and I'm apparently really bad at pitch recognition.

Just hold up on teh left stick and if you see anything higher than middle of the plate, swing. You'll get hits left and right...

[dave_sz]

Re: Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

wow. from what i see it every single one of you dislike the game so far.

Don't you guys realize how crummy last years game was, and how much of an improvement it is this year? It was 2k baseball's rebuilding year, they are starting in a new direction with the animations, the announcers, the real time atmosphere, I mean give them a break.

It's only gonna get better. All that matters is its a solid baseball game. Better than last years, I'll be getting it. And if there are things I don't like about it, that is what the 2k10 Wishlist forum will be used for.

So we're supposed to cut them some slack because they are rebuilding? If that was the case why didn't they just skip this year and release the 2k10 beast next year? Or maybe they should give us a discount since according to you, this is only a half finished product...