03-10-2008, 08:29 PM
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#7
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Resident film pundit
OVR: 55
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Elk Grove, CA
Posts: 42,192
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I agree with everything you said, but I still see potential in this series. I don't know why the graphics took the hit they did (I understand dumbing down details, but now the sky (and overall lighting) and grass look God awful), and I don't understand why presentation overall hasn't gone a notch up... but with only playing the demo, the framerate is supposedly better than retail, and I can't complain any more than the crap 30- FPS that was MLB 2K7. I'd say that and anti-aliasing were marquee components to add in MLB 2K8, even with optimization.
But, far and large, as everyone else says... gameplay over graphics. Surprisingly, "gameplay" isn't one of your bolded terms at the end to go over... but baseball is purely nothing else other than hitting, pitching, fielding, and baserunning. Aside from some herky-jerky looking animations, the gameplay has improved ten-fold, and that's what everybody claims they wanted fixed... though now it seems some people are showing their true colors, and that visuals certainly may matter. Either way, you couldn't sit there with a straight face and convince yourself that MLB 2K7 had these four facets ironed out and working properly. Brinkman promised hit variety, seamless fielding, intuitive pitching, and user-friendly baserunning (all whilst motion-capturing more signature styles than ever seen before and maintaining 60 FPS in the pitcher/batter duels). It was a good segway going into 2K9, which gives it a higher potential rating.
However, compared to its opponent, it is falling short in some departments. In the future, they may be neck-and-neck once again. Until then, as long as the patch comes out soon enough, all console owners should have a playable game this year.
Last edited by Blzer; 03-11-2008 at 03:24 PM.
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