[CM Hooe]

I played one game in the demo just now. Bear in mind with my impressions that I haven't played a baseball game in years; only one I've ever owned is Major League Baseball for the Sega Game Gear, lol.

I thoroughly enjoy the pitching mechanic, and I found it reasonably challenging. Using Sanchez of the Giants, in three innings I allowed four hits and one run. I did get better as the game went on, the top of the order for the Rangers had me concerned in the first inning, getting three of the hits and with Nelson Cruz getting an RBI double.

I didn't quite get the hang of the fielding, though I see what the idea is. I played the throwing meter quite conservatively most of the time, which resulted in some lazy throws. Playing around with it, I did get it into the red one time on a play at first from a grounder fielded by the pitcher in the infield, and the first baseman had to go up high for it; still got the out though.

On the AI's side of the fielding, I did see them throw one error on a play at first, where the first baseman had to come off the bag to get a ball and as a result I reached base safely on an error.

The one thing that has always frustrated me with baseball games, however, is that I can't hit the ball to save my life. I'm not overly familiar with the game, and as such I struggle to identify pitches and end up swinging wildly at everything. I ask to those more familiar with the MLB2K games, does the full game typically include a batting tutorial or assist feature? Is there a way where I could just have the computer handle the batting altogether? I think I would enjoy the full game just with the pitching, fielding, and franchise mode portions (assuming 2K has a good franchise mode for this game, I'll need to look into that), but if I can't ever score a run let alone get on base that would obviously limit the appeal of the game to me, lol.

I did enjoy my time with the demo though. I'd say that it's easily better than the Game Gear game I played fifteen years ago, lol.