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

[boomhauertjs]

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

I only had time to play one game last night, but I came away with a good impression of the game.

Positives:
Presentation
Pitching is much better this year (and the CPU looked at strikes)
Game is much smoother

Negatives:
Fielding camera, but I think I'll get used to it
Using the right stick for hitting (but in the full game I could always use button hitting)

I'm going to wait until the first day or so of impressions of the full game, but I'm pretty sure I'm buying this.

[BlackRome]

Darn. I was hoping I didn't have to buy a PS3 until they lowered the price again. It looks like they got me. They GOT ME!

My 360 is collecting dust because both NBA games this year were a disappointment online. Sorry. I don't get kicks out of beating the computer. I need real competition to destroy. Hello PS3.

[kGinGreen]

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

I would have to agree on rundowns and bunt fielding. It's terrible in the demo.

You can actually time the rundowns and make it to a base safely. Just get the timing right and you can get there easily.

I have had them chase me down. It does happen. It's just weird how it's done and wrong. The camera is also zoomed out to far for baserunning and it's just looks really bad and is poorly executed.

[MastorofPuppetz]

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

Darn. I was hoping I didn't have to buy a PS3 until they lowered the price again. It looks like they got me. They GOT ME!

My 360 is collecting dust because both NBA games this year were a disappointment online. Sorry. I don't get kicks out of beating the computer. I need real competition to destroy. Hello PS3.

LOL, Xbox live is miles ahead of the PS3's you are in for a sore dissappointment, I know, I have both.

You're basing this decision over a demo that has no slidrs or difficulty settings, an unfinished product with no online? Would not want you controlling my finances.

[allgames]

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

I played a few more times last night and I can't get over the missing animation frames in almost every transition. Basic walks cause players to twitch out. Kind of ironic that EA did their weekly madden 10 update on animation blending. These aren't even complex animations twitching, just basic stuff.
The play calling commentary is good.
The visuals seems sharper but not better than 2k7 or 2k8 IMO.
I am someone who plays 2K7 alot and couldnt play the show last year because of the pitch guess mechanism and no swing stick or swing pitch. But this demo just wasn't fun, for all the reasons repeated here in this thread over and over.
I want them to bring back the old pitching icons and I would like to be able to take warm up swings with the stick.
They should also hire someone from a network to give them exact camera angles for broadcast, this just seemed sloppy with the choices.

[gobucks]

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

I disagree on the rundowns, I have been caught in quite a few cause I did not know how to steal. At least 2x the fielder left the bag and tagged me out. Also oh higher difficulty levels more than likely the cpu will be more agressive in the field.

Bunting issues will be corrected with sliders there is usually one for "bunt success" and "infielder reaction speed". The sliders in this game have shown to usually work pretyy good too.

On alot of the demo impressions people need to realize 3 important things. DIFFICULTY LEVEL, SLIDERS, AND OPTIONS. The point of a demo is to get a feel for the presentaion and controls in which I like. People need to reserve judgement on gameplay till they get a final product.

[ckarlic]

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

I played a few more times last night and I can't get over the missing animation frames in almost every transition. Basic walks cause players to twitch out. Kind of ironic that EA did their weekly madden 10 update on animation blending. These aren't even complex animations twitching, just basic stuff.
The play calling commentary is good.
The visuals seems sharper but not better than 2k7 or 2k8 IMO.
I am someone who plays 2K7 alot and couldnt play the show last year because of the pitch guess mechanism and no swing stick or swing pitch. But this demo just wasn't fun, for all the reasons repeated here in this thread over and over.
I want them to bring back the old pitching icons and I would like to be able to take warm up swings with the stick.
They should also hire someone from a network to give them exact camera angles for broadcast, this just seemed sloppy with the choices.

You do realize that the Guess Pitch feature could be turned off in the Show? But all in all you are right. The demo in my mind was just unimpressive and boring. That is just my opinion.

[BadKermit]

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

For those who need the help:

It's a demo.
The demo is on a low difficulty level.
It's a demo.
The demo is unfinished.
It's a demo.
This game is obviously in year one of a rebuilding phase and it's not going to be the most perfect game out.
It's a demo.

Pared, earlier in this thread (I don't have the energy to try to root through this thread now) I think you said the code used in the demo was from December. Am I remembering that correctly? Is that accurate, or is that just a guess?

[ExtremeGamer]

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

Pared, earlier in this thread (I don't have the energy to try to root through this thread now) I think you said the code used in the demo was from December. Am I remembering that correctly? Is that accurate, or is that just a guess?

Someone did post it was from December, which honestly sounds about right for most demos, they are probably 2-3 months old.

No one has proof of it though, so we don't actually know.

[kGinGreen]

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

I think a lot of people are frustrated because A. they haven't taken the time and learned the controls. B. There are limited options here and difficulty levels C. This is an early build nad im hoping 2k balances out some of these things D. They have legitament complaints and these are issues that follow 2k and some things are probably not going to be quite right

I've played the demo pretty extensively at this point and once I learned the controls im enjoying it more. The game flows really well. I want to see what it's like on higher difficulties. I do think there are going to be issues with certain things like batting AI and pitching AI and Fielding AI at times but we will see if that can be balanced out a bit. It's better than past years and ive noticed if you really try to paint the corners and take risks when pitching you get more called strikes and balls out of the zone which leads to somewhat better pitch counts. I think it's also very easy because i'm playing on pro here....... Yes the balance might never be perfect. But this game should be pretty good on higher difficulty levels. I disagree about hte graphics for the most part. I think once you really learn the controls the game flows and looks pretty damn good. It's still 2k baseball and some people just are going to like it or they wont.

I think 2k did a good job revamping the look of the game and it's still 2k but it does have more of an arcade look to it.What's weird about these games is sometimes you dont like it then you come back to play it once things have been ironed out and you are comfortable with the controls and it plays a lot better. So people shouldnt rush to judgement too quickly over a 3 inning demo that's dated and has no options.

[brendanrfoley]

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

I played the demo three more times today. I'm really starting to "feel" it and the game is growing on me by leaps and bounds.

Hitting is too easy due to the difficulty setting, there's no denying that. But I still like the hit variety I'm seeing. Choppers, bloops, line drives, etc. I can only imagine the hit quality on higher difficulty settings. CPU pitchers also throw a lot more balls than they did last year. I've gotten into several deep counts. Considering this is the game's default setting, I'm thrilled.

I'm starting to dial-in pitching and my fear of the computer never taking strikes is beginning to fade away. The pitching icon is so large, it's hard to pinpoint location. Because of that, I've started to pitch toward the corners more. At times, only a sliver of the pitch icon is touching the strike zone. The computer is taking more pitches than ever. My last game, I actually struck out Jimmy Rollins during an 7 pitch at-bat. All three strikes were taken -- he didn't swing once.

I know some people here don't like the demo. That's fair. Me? I like (bordering on love) what I see here, especially considering this is from a build that's two months old.

[brendanrfoley]

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

I think a lot of people are frustrated because A. they haven't learned the controls. B. There are limited options here and difficulty levels C. This is an early build nad im hoping 2k balances out some of these things D. They have legitament complaints and these are issues that follow 2k and some things are probably not going to be quite right

I've played the demo pretty extensively at this point and once I learned the controls im enjoying it more. The game flows really well. I want to see what it's like on higher difficulties. I do think there are going to be issues with certain things like batting AI and pitching AI and Fielding AI at times but we will see if that can be balanced out a bit. It's better than past years and ive noticed if you really try to paint the corners and take risks when pitching you get more called strikes and balls out of the zone which leads to somewhat better pitch counts. I think it's also very easy because i'm playing on pro here....... Yes the balance might never be perfect. But this game should be pretty good on higher difficulty levels. I disagree about hte graphics for the most part. I think once you really learn the controls the game flows and looks pretty damn good. It's still 2k baseball and some people just are going to like it or they wont.

This is a wonderful post.

[Glenn33]

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

For those who need the help:

It's a demo.
The demo is on a low difficulty level.
It's a demo.
The demo is unfinished.
It's a demo.
This game is obviously in year one of a rebuilding phase and it's not going to be the most perfect game out.
It's a demo.

I just have a serious problem with this point. We are in year 4 (FOUR) of the next gen and we are back to square one? 2k7 was "supposed" to be Year ONE in rebuilding (of a 3 year plan). I just think people give 2k WAAAAYYY to much slack in this regard? Exactly what year as baseball fans can we expect to have the "complete" package so we can stop talking about potential? Why don't we call out 2K for this?

[Pared]

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

I have had them chase me down. It does happen. It's just weird how it's done and wrong. The camera is also zoomed out to far for baserunning and it's just looks really bad and is poorly executed.

Yes, I've read others say they have been chased down but I experienced the same hilarity as JT30.

Pared, earlier in this thread (I don't have the energy to try to root through this thread now) I think you said the code used in the demo was from December. Am I remembering that correctly? Is that accurate, or is that just a guess?

It is at least 2 months old. That is a guarantee based on the way the entire process works.

It's still pretty bad to release a demo of this quality but you would have to know their hands were tied. If they don't release a demo, they are hiding something. They do, and it's this bad.

It's a lose-lose.

Look at the videos Steve posted as that looks much better than the demo we played.

[ExtremeGamer]

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

I just have a serious problem with this point. We are in year 4 (FOUR) of the next gen and we are back to square one? 2k7 was "supposed" to be Year ONE in rebuilding (of a 3 year plan). I just think people give 2k WAAAAYYY to much slack in this regard? Exactly what year as baseball fans can we expect to have the "complete" package so we can stop talking about potential? Why don't we call out 2K for this?

No, this is definitely a rebuilding year. The 3 year plan was scrapped. VC has the game now, they have a great attention to detail. No matter what anyone thinks of the demo, with less than a year's worth of work to the game, I'm impressed.