Anyone picking up MLB2K6 for the 360 today?

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:17 am

sportdan30 wrote:Well, I played two more demos of the game last night (freezes after the 2nd and 3rd inning). This is a great $60 demo! It's not as bad as my previous rant, but two things keep this game from being enjoyable.

The camera angles and the fielding just blow chunks. Why can't Kush put in an aerial camera angle? On one play, the opposing hitter smacked a deep fly ball to left field, but the angle I was given was from the catcher's view. Therefore, I couldn't accurately judge the flight of the ball. It ended up going for a ground rule double when most likely I could have positioned my player under the ball. By the way, I was playing with the "pole" cam, which in my estimation is the only playable cam in the game. I tried broadcast cam, but then you have to look behind the freakin' net! Idiotic.

And fielding. What's there to say about the fielding that hasn't been said. It's just awful. I never feel in control of my player whatsoever. The momentum that's associated with fielding is way over the top. How can the developers think it's fun? Heck, after a routine grounder, you can't even control your first baseman after the out has been recorded to move him around.

I didn't have time to take the game back to Game Stop last night, but I'm stopping off on my way home.

Well, even though so far I haven't locked up even once, I will agree that they need more options for the camera angles. This was a complaint from last years game that they just ignored it seems.

Also, while I like the idea of momentum based fielding, I also agree that it is a bit overdone in 2K6. Even when the player is moving slowly it seems like they are trying to stop from falling over a cliff when you change direction. A neat feature, but just "too much".

And I'm not a fan of the graphics. Besides the graphical glitches that I mentioned earlier, the contrast between realistic and cartoon looks really takes away from the immersion factor. And I have never seen such misuse of the blur effect in my life. We get it, you can do focal distance effects, now knock it off.

And for Petes sake, the umpire should say "Ball", "Strike", and "Foul", and THATS IT! I don't care what real ones may say to the batter during a game, in a video game just tell me what the pitch was. When I throw a strike and the ump says "1 ball 1 strike", all I hear is "ball" because of the other sounds going on. Keep it simple!

And why does Joe Morgan sound like he is in another room?

Anyway, still having fun with it, but it is far from being a perfect game, or even a great game.

hoserthehorrible · Post by **hoserthehorrible** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:28 am

Good thing these f**ks got the exclusivity on the MLB license and EA is left with the best game that can't be sold. It's hard to believe in a free enterprise society that licensing crap like this has to ruin it for the paying customer.

I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. They lose the NFL license to EA and then sign an expensive licensing deal with MLB and release one of the worst baseball games to ever hit the market.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:30 am

Is there any chance that MVP '05 will ever become backwards compatible?

My guess is no and that's so very unfortunate.

Kazuya · Post by **Kazuya** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:42 am

hoserthehorrible wrote:I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. They lose the NFL license to EA and then sign an expensive licensing deal with MLB and release one of the worst baseball games to ever hit the market.

Not to mention, they signed a LAME ass deal. EA signed a deal that eliminated all competition. 2K sports signed a deal that for all intents and purposes eliminates EA. Unfortunately for them, they left Sony standing with MLB and even M$ standing with potentially the High Heat franchise. Two games that can and could easily stomp them to dust. What the hell kind of strategy is that? I have no doubt that 989 Studios is benefitting the most from the MLB/2K sports deal, and they weren't even in the room.

reeche · Post by **reeche** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:03 pm

Kazuya wrote:
hoserthehorrible wrote:I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. They lose the NFL license to EA and then sign an expensive licensing deal with MLB and release one of the worst baseball games to ever hit the market.
Not to mention, they signed a LAME ass deal. EA signed a deal that eliminated all competition. 2K sports signed a deal that for all intents and purposes eliminates EA. Unfortunately for them, they left Sony standing with MLB and even M$ standing with potentially the High Heat franchise. Two games that can and could easily stomp them to dust. What the hell kind of strategy is that? I have no doubt that 989 Studios is benefitting the most from the MLB/2K sports deal, and they weren't even in the room.

I disagree. Without knowing the true financials it's impossible to access the deal imo. I'm willing to bet High Heat is dead and Microsoft won't make another baseball game. At least for the near future. Nintendo shows an unwillingness to make sports game at this cycle. And the show is one baseball game on one platform. Albeit the most popular platform. One year of sales numbers evaluated against the cost of the deal will determine whether it was a good deal or not. Not which game is more popular in the forums imo.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:07 pm

You may be right, but I still think that Kazuya's statement that 989 ends up benefitting the most will end up being correct. How many copies of MLB did they sell last year on PS2? It was something really pitiful like 50-100k, right? I bet they double or triple that number this year.

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:41 pm

Hearing all this about the game it makes you wonder if Kush used a lot of their development budget on getting the MLB liscence, which left a lot less for QA, testing, and development. I'm sure they didn't have the same budget PLUS add the cost of the liscence on top. They want to make the same amount of money which would mean subtracting the liscence fee from somewhere.

Kazuya · Post by **Kazuya** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:37 pm

reeche wrote:
Kazuya wrote:
hoserthehorrible wrote:I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. They lose the NFL license to EA and then sign an expensive licensing deal with MLB and release one of the worst baseball games to ever hit the market.
Not to mention, they signed a LAME ass deal. EA signed a deal that eliminated all competition. 2K sports signed a deal that for all intents and purposes eliminates EA. Unfortunately for them, they left Sony standing with MLB and even M$ standing with potentially the High Heat franchise. Two games that can and could easily stomp them to dust. What the hell kind of strategy is that? I have no doubt that 989 Studios is benefitting the most from the MLB/2K sports deal, and they weren't even in the room.
I disagree. Without knowing the true financials it's impossible to access the deal imo. I'm willing to bet High Heat is dead and Microsoft won't make another baseball game. At least for the near future. Nintendo shows an unwillingness to make sports game at this cycle. And the show is one baseball game on one platform. Albeit the most popular platform. One year of sales numbers evaluated against the cost of the deal will determine whether it was a good deal or not. Not which game is more popular in the forums imo.

Well obviously it will take the evaluation of numbers to measure the true impact of the deal, but I still say it's bad for the simple fact that they left solid competitors standing in a market that they weren't so solid themselves in to begin with. From what I can recall, EA might have been the sales leader in the baseball games, but it wasn't by a bullet like with Madden. If Sony ends up ruling the world again, they are going to have to go toe to toe with 989 for 6 more years, and that could get ugly if 2K doesn't get it together quickly. It's like if the Charlotte Bobcats bribed the NBA and the rest of the playoff teams to let them into the Finals. Unfortunately, they still have to play the Spurs for the *real* prize with their lottery-bound roster. 2K is in no condition to benefit from this deal with this buggy mess.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:42 pm

hoserthehorrible wrote:I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. .

Wrong!!!

We are the ones who are taking it up that arse.

I lost track... Is someone going to ruin hockey and basketball by getting those licenses?

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:41 pm

Badgun wrote:
ScoopBrady wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:F************ccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

I guess once you get a freeze then you are screwed because I can't get past the second inning!!!!!!!!!! I can handle a bad game, but if EB doesn't take this MFing piece of crap back then what can I do? I can't ethically sell it on Ebay knowing that it doesn't work.
Take it back to EB for another copy of the game and sell the new one on Ebay.
I took my 2nd copy back today and they let me exchange it for Battlefield 2 Modern Combat. Just explain that there is a problem with a lot of the discs and if you took another one, you would only bring it back as well. I had no problem at all and my EB is one of those that runs strictly by the book.

I would not expect them to give you money, though.

Badgun, thanks a lot for this post. It wouldn't have ever occurred to me in my wildest dreams that EB would exchange an open, defective game for a different new game. Managed to get Oblivion.

Thanks again. I urge anyone to give this a try if they purchased this game from EB.

hoserthehorrible · Post by **hoserthehorrible** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:01 pm

XXXIV wrote:
hoserthehorrible wrote:I must say that 2K Sports has really taken it up the arse with the recent sports gaming license wars. .
Wrong!!!

We are the ones who are taking it up that arse.

I lost track... Is someone going to ruin hockey and basketball by getting those licenses?

Both the consumer and 2K Sports has taken it up the arse then.

The consumer bends over because we don't get the best product that could/should be available for baseball and arguably football as well.

2K Sports also bends over because they completely lose the NFL rights and all those sales AND they put out a horrible MBL product and lose product name respect and possibly customers to MLB The Show.

I could see someone like EA trying to grab the NBA license while 2K Sports tries to nab the NHL license.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:03 pm

hoserthehorrible wrote:I could see someone like EA trying to grab the NBA license while 2K Sports tries to nab the NHL license.

Oh for the love of god I hope not. NBA Live on the 360 was worth less than the DVD it was copied to. Holy crap that game was a turd. It even surpassed MLB 2k6 in the turd category.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:23 pm

The two games that were exclusives this year were coasters for the 360. Madden Xbox was pretty good though. Boring but still complete.

b_assassin · Post by **b_assassin** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:26 pm

laurenskye wrote:Hearing all this about the game it makes you wonder if Kush used a lot of their development budget on getting the MLB liscence, which left a lot less for QA, testing, and development. I'm sure they didn't have the same budget PLUS add the cost of the liscence on top. They want to make the same amount of money which would mean subtracting the liscence fee from somewhere.

Sounds possible, but I think the more likely culprit is that 2k Sports' priorities are messed up when it comes to development of the MLB game. Instead of focusing on fixing bugs and refining the core gameplay, they are overly ambitious in implementing new features, and sacrifice the overall quality/polish of the game itself. I like new features as much as the next person, but I'd be happier if they just fixed bugs, refined the gameplay and made incremental feature adds as time allowed. EA did this with MVP 05 and it turned out great IMO. 2K has taken what once was a pretty solid baseball game and blugeoned it with a ton of new features (some good, some bad), and made a worse game overall.

I think I'm going to rent the 360 version of MLB 2k6, then go back to playing MVP

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:28 pm

Save the 5 bucks B...just stick to MVP from the start.

Kazuya · Post by **Kazuya** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:49 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
hoserthehorrible wrote:I could see someone like EA trying to grab the NBA license while 2K Sports tries to nab the NHL license.
Oh for the love of god I hope not. NBA Live on the 360 was worth less than the DVD it was copied to. Holy crap that game was a turd. It even surpassed MLB 2k6 in the turd category.

Relax... IIRC, the NBA refused to do an exclusive deal and instead renewed their deals with all of the licensees. Something which a lot of the EA haters refused to even acknowledge as a choice for the NFL when that deal with EA was done. In their minds, EA pointed shotguns at the NFL and forced them to sign the deal... that way, they could put all of the blame on EA. I'm glad the NBA didn't want to limit our choices.

Of course, it could just mean that no one threw enough dough at the NBA...

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:51 pm

Does the NBA really care about the gaming options of video game players?

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:27 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:Save the 5 bucks B...just stick to MVP from the start.

DB, Are there any real good 2006 rosters out for MVP 2005 for the XBox? I realize that there are some for the pc, but I just don't do sports games on my pc.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:33 pm

Badgun wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote:Save the 5 bucks B...just stick to MVP from the start.
DB, Are there any real good 2006 rosters out for MVP 2005 for the XBox? I realize that there are some for the pc, but I just don't do sports games on my pc.

Yup, there are opening day rosters over at OS for MVP 05 on the Xbox. That's what I'm using now.

Edit:

http://forums.operationsports.com/vBull ... p?t=165975

Those are the ones I'm using now.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:53 pm

This reminds very much of the release of WSB 2K1 for the Dreamcast... a lot of anticipation on my part to see what next-generation baseball would look like, followed by complete bewilderment at the final product. I'm sure there will be a similar 'rescue effort' like WSB 2K2 (which wasn't good either) on the part of Visual Concepts or whichever outside company is hired to replace Kush for next year. Even if the freezes weren't occuring, what a shockingly inelegant game to play and control... a true Frankenstein. Looking back at 2K4, it's shocking that these games are part of the same lineage.

Beyond Kush's monstrous control schemes (I don't think I ever would have gotten the hang of using two sticks to hit and then pressing the right trigger if I wanted to check my swing), the way they approach difficulty drives me insane. I like a slider that lets you change the speed of fielders to make things more realistic, but in no way should it be tied to difficulty... i.e. when played on Legend, my already momentum-challenged fielders shouldn't become even slower. I know I can change that, but it says something that they can't just balance their game to play realistically, and then mediate difficulty by more traditional means.

Interesting about those March screenshots that look nothing like the game. That one of Jeter is even on the back of the box! If I'm unable to replicate that exact shot in replay mode, can I sue for false advertising? And perhaps it's shallow of me, but the effort put into player likenesses in this game can hardly even be called an effort. I think we've come far enough that I can expect 80% of the players to resemble themselves in an MLB video game... not 15%.

I took the game back to EB today. They didn't have any more copies of MLB (lucky me), and though the clerk seemed reticent to let me trade for another game, he let me snag the last Tomb Raider. Good riddance.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:54 pm

Returned MLB 2K6 for a full refund to Game Stop. No problems what so ever.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:55 pm

After playing a couple of games, I am fortunate that I was able to finish both games without any freezing, although the frame rate is so choppy, especially when the next hitter comes up and after every inning that I keep telling myself "Please don't...", and that's not an enjoyable way to play a game.

Yeah, the animations and graphics are very bland, although the stadiums appeared sharp. How could the 3rd base coach not move an inch, after I keep fouling the ball towards him almost to a point where I almost wipe his head off.

Still trying to get used to the outfield, on a pop up ball I had my man and the CPU had 2 other infielders going for it, to a point where a 3 man collision was imminent. I ended up with the ball but I didn't feel like I had great control of the man. Why can baseball games have the players say: "I got it, I got it"?

On a positive, I had a close call on first where I thought that I got the runner. The ref called it safe and the manager came to dispute the call. There was an option where I could dispute the call Yes/No. Not knowing the outcome I clicked on Yes and surprisingly it boosted the morale of the team.

Even though the game is very choppy, I am willing to keep it for now, well I guess being the only BB on the 360, I have no other choice. But as long as it doens't freeze on me, it'll just do for my baseball crave.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:38 pm

The good news is I was able to play one complete game with the hard drive off and a memory card without any freezes. The bad news is that I really don't want to play anymore.

SoMisss2000 · Post by **SoMisss2000** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:36 am

Leebo33 wrote:The good news is I was able to play one complete game with the hard drive off and a memory card without any freezes. The bad news is that I really don't want to play anymore.

lol

The game is much improved over last year's effort, but i sill hate it. I've never liked 2k baseball and don't think i ever will. I said I wouldn't get a PS3 but it looks like one may be in order next spring when Sony release a decent baseball game on it.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:32 pm

EB took it back for a full cash refund with no questions asked. I will throw them some pre-orders this fall as gratitude.