MLB 2K8 interview

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:56 pm

Cursor hitting is my favorite as well, but LOTS of folks hate it. I agree, Jack, that one of the ASB's was great (Can't remember if it was 04 or 05) in that the pitches came in nice and wicked-fast, yet you could still judge balls and strikes well.

Want to know another way in which I know I differ from most baseball gamers? The lack of user controlled fielding in that one version of World Series Baseball didn't matter to me all that much. Yes, since then, games like MVP have made fielding much more enjoyable and interactive, but before that, what were you really missing?

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:15 pm

MVP '05 was and still is my favorite fielding interface. Followed closely behind is Bases Loaded and Baseball Stars.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:17 pm

Yeah, MVP '05 is tops for fielding. If only you could Frankenstein a few games together to make the perfect beast. Baseball Stars really was great in the field... diving, jumping... even the way you could get more zip on your throws by perfectly timing the press on the directional pad with the throw button. Ahead of its time.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:19 pm

sportdan30 wrote:MVP '05 was and still is my favorite fielding interface. Followed closely behind is Bases Loaded and Baseball Stars.

MLB2K8's fielding is identical to MVP's , except that you use the stick instead of pressing a button. They both have meters to represent throw power.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:21 pm

The underlying mechanic, maybe... but it's not smooth as butter like MVP's was.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:40 pm

Slumberland wrote:The underlying mechanic, maybe... but it's not smooth as butter like MVP's was.

Exactly. The animations were better in MVP. But, don't get me wrong, 2K's is good and is on the right track. You might be enjoying it even more than I am Jack, because you have the frame rate fix. I didn't bother to play around on the PS3 to fix the frame rate.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:47 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Now mind you, pitching in The Show as 2K8 is indeed new and somewhat enjoyable, but I still see problems with the 2K's pitching. Throwing fast balls and change ups are pretty straight forward, but once you throw in wacky circular motions to throw sliders and curves, then in my opinion it becomes more tedious and less enjoyable. I'm concentrating more on the big circle than I am on the batter. I don't know. There's too many icons, circles, rectangles, different colors, etc. going on that I feel like I'm watching a computerized version of baseball, rather than real baseball.

Too me this is a decent effort at attempting to translate the difficulty associated with throwing a curveball or a slider in real life. Sure some of the motions are a bit wacky but after you've learned them for each pitch you can disable the pitch view and throw entirely from the catchers signs and the circles. I love it.

sportdan30 wrote:I definitely prefer zone hitting in The Show to time based hitting. As Web touched upon, all you have to do is time your swing. That's pretty dang easy IMO, and sliders don't seem to make that much of a difference. Therein lies the differences between sim and arcade. How anyone could feel more detached playing The Show than 2K in regards to batting, please explain.

I agree with you on the zoned hitting and its a shame that 2K has moved away from that style in recent years. Personally I'm a huge fan of cursor batting and especially the bat shaped cursor seen in MLB Power Pros. 2K5 on the ps2 had great cursor batting IMO too. In real life it is impossibly difficult to hit a baseball at the speeds that major leaguers throw not too mention all the movement and cursor hitting emulates that difficulty for the player.

TheGamer · Post by **TheGamer** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:17 pm

This post was supposed to be about my current series with the Reds in my franchise and how the Reds were cure for my recent failures in starting 2 - 9. I won the first 2 games of the series 8-6 and got an exceptional ptiching performance from Jon Lieber in a 3-1 win. Kerry Wood looks to have turned a corner as my closer having saved 2 games in row. Game 3 was a great pitching matchup between Zambrano and Harang. I was really working Zambrano's curveball in getting a lot of groundouts and swinging strikeouts. This was the first time I've been able to throw the curve with much success. I was able to knock Harang out, by working the counts and building up his pitch count and fatigue by only the 6th inning. I was up 3-1, and added on 2 more runs in the bottom of the 8th to go up 5-1 heading into the ninth. Of course the bottom fell out. I left Zambrano in with 50% fatigue amazingly in the 9th because he had just been dealing the whole game. Jay Bruce lead off the 9th with a routine grounder to short, which Ronnie Cedeno fielded flawlessly and promptly threw the ball wide to Derrick Lee. (the meter was perfect, so I don't know how it was a bad throw). Freel then singled, Phillips singled in Bruce, and then Dunn hit another routine grounder to Cedeno who promptly bobbled it just enough to allow everyone to be safe. Of course, I didn't have time to get anyone warmed up in the bullpen as all this happened within 5 pitches. So up comes Griffey and hits a grand slam to give the Reds a 6-5 lead and win as I can't score in the bottom of the 9th. This was as demoralizing a loss as far as video game losses can go.

kicko · Post by **kicko** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:33 pm

macsomjrr wrote:
sportdan30 wrote:Now mind you, pitching in The Show as 2K8 is indeed new and somewhat enjoyable, but I still see problems with the 2K's pitching. Throwing fast balls and change ups are pretty straight forward, but once you throw in wacky circular motions to throw sliders and curves, then in my opinion it becomes more tedious and less enjoyable. I'm concentrating more on the big circle than I am on the batter. I don't know. There's too many icons, circles, rectangles, different colors, etc. going on that I feel like I'm watching a computerized version of baseball, rather than real baseball.
Too me this is a decent effort at attempting to translate the difficulty associated with throwing a curveball or a slider in real life. Sure some of the motions are a bit wacky but after you've learned them for each pitch you can disable the pitch view and throw entirely from the catchers signs and the circles. I love it.

sportdan30 wrote:I definitely prefer zone hitting in The Show to time based hitting. As Web touched upon, all you have to do is time your swing. That's pretty dang easy IMO, and sliders don't seem to make that much of a difference. Therein lies the differences between sim and arcade. How anyone could feel more detached playing The Show than 2K in regards to batting, please explain.
I agree with you on the zoned hitting and its a shame that 2K has moved away from that style in recent years. Personally I'm a huge fan of cursor batting and especially the bat shaped cursor seen in MLB Power Pros. 2K5 on the ps2 had great cursor batting IMO too. In real life it is impossibly difficult to hit a baseball at the speeds that major leaguers throw not too mention all the movement and cursor hitting emulates that difficulty for the player.

i thought the best cursor hitting was all star baseball 2005

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:09 pm

Alright, since this first franchise is just one big science lab for me, I've dropped AI infielder reaction 5 clicks, and may go more. I'm sick of hard shots getting always nabbed by a diving 1st or 3rd basemen. I've only seen ONCE where the ball goes through them.

So, I'm hoping if I slow their reaction time, it will result in more misses and near misses, and a few more hits for me.

Anyone else lower this slider?

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:24 pm

Ok, got the game first impressions :

1.Played first game at SF night, defaults. framerate was noticeable but no big deal. Was getting use to the controls and was optimistic and excited.

2.Played 2nd game at NY night w/ VIP off and framerate was a little better. But then I thought to myself with VIP off I'll miss out the extra stuff like baseball cards.

3.Played 3rd game at Wrigley day and framerate was aweful. It was like a shutter camera the whole game. It was really really bad. I dont know if certain stadiums and time of day matter.

4.Graphics don't bother me, but notice the player detail from last year has gone. also, don't like how the screen gets dim on replays. hate navigating thru the presentation since pressing A isn't always the fastest route.

So I am not use to the pitching or hitting. So far my impressions of the game have been lackluster. But seems like everyone has this first impression then plays it some more and find a good game in there somewhere. I really hope that's my experience too. but at the moment, a heavy dose of disappointment is hitting me with this game.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:38 am

Inuyasha wrote:Ok, got the game first impressions :

1.Played first game at SF night, defaults. framerate was noticeable but no big deal. Was getting use to the controls and was optimistic and excited.

2.Played 2nd game at NY night w/ VIP off and framerate was a little better. But then I thought to myself with VIP off I'll miss out the extra stuff like baseball cards.

3.Played 3rd game at Wrigley day and framerate was aweful. It was like a shutter camera the whole game. It was really really bad. I dont know if certain stadiums and time of day matter.

4.Graphics don't bother me, but notice the player detail from last year has gone. also, don't like how the screen gets dim on replays. hate navigating thru the presentation since pressing A isn't always the fastest route.

So I am not use to the pitching or hitting. So far my impressions of the game have been lackluster. But seems like everyone has this first impression then plays it some more and find a good game in there somewhere. I really hope that's my experience too. but at the moment, a heavy dose of disappointment is hitting me with this game.

Playing at 720p resolution helps too and make sure you sign out of your profile right after you start up a game....then sign back in before you are done to save everything that happened. So what exactly are you disappointed with? Did you not try the demo? Give it at least 5 games to get the hang of everything.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:02 am

I've been playing all night and i'm just not feeling it. the game isn't flowing for me. i don't know if it's the framerate or just the newness of controls, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I think I'll really put some time into it this weekend. Seems like most of you said that it takes about 2 days to 'get it' with this game. But the framerate at times does bother me. I'll try the vIP thing and the other stuff, but I'm at a 'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS' point right now.

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:54 am

Control wise it took me a while to "get it". Especially the pitching. I was getting ticked off because when I missed, I MISSED metaball style and most times it got jacked.

I'm at the point now where I still don't do all pitches at 95 gesture or more, especially the whirly ones, but I find I'm not throwing as many meatballs, and when I am, they are getting hit, but not going yard.

It almost makes me wonder if there are varying degrees of meat in the meatballs, like if you miss a LOT vs just halfway.....

Hitting is a whole other story. I find that pitches in the corners of the zone are useless to swing at, as most times it's either a soft grounder to an infielder, or a foul ball. However, I can't take them because they are strikes! I try to lay off these until I am down 0-2 and have no other choice, but sometimes I still swing.

Maybe it's just because the Nats are rated low in the game.......

I play one game a series, and manage the others, and the team BA has to e only .220 or .230, so I know it's not just me!

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:10 am

Inuyasha wrote:I've been playing all night and i'm just not feeling it. the game isn't flowing for me. i don't know if it's the framerate or just the newness of controls, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I think I'll really put some time into it this weekend. Seems like most of you said that it takes about 2 days to 'get it' with this game. But the framerate at times does bother me. I'll try the vIP thing and the other stuff, but I'm at a 'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS' point right now.

No rental shops in your area, huh?

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:15 am

Inuyasha wrote:'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS'

When I get that feeling, I try and remember having that exact feeling with Home Run Kings at first, and then the subsequent love affair. Not to suggest that 2K8 is any good. Just a point about first instincts.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:10 am

Inuyasha wrote:I've been playing all night and i'm just not feeling it. the game isn't flowing for me. i don't know if it's the framerate or just the newness of controls, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I think I'll really put some time into it this weekend. Seems like most of you said that it takes about 2 days to 'get it' with this game. But the framerate at times does bother me. I'll try the vIP thing and the other stuff, but I'm at a 'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS' point right now.

The same first impressions I had, now I love the game.

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:10 am

Oh, I also had another case of "catcher drops the ball in front of him, baserunner on 1st heads to second" last night.

I hope this gets fixed in a patch. I fear if I turn down baseunner aggresion, it will mess up any doubles and triples......

TheGamer · Post by **TheGamer** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:18 am

webdanzer wrote:
Inuyasha wrote:I've been playing all night and i'm just not feeling it. the game isn't flowing for me. i don't know if it's the framerate or just the newness of controls, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I think I'll really put some time into it this weekend. Seems like most of you said that it takes about 2 days to 'get it' with this game. But the framerate at times does bother me. I'll try the vIP thing and the other stuff, but I'm at a 'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS' point right now.
No rental shops in your area, huh?

"That's what I said." Edward Nygma-Batman Forever

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:26 am

Gangrel wrote:Oh, I also had another case of "catcher drops the ball in front of him, baserunner on 1st heads to second" last night.

I hope this gets fixed in a patch. I fear if I turn down baseunner aggresion, it will mess up any doubles and triples......

That's weird, Gangrel. I get enough of those drops, but the baserunners rarely try to do anything on them. Is your aggression pumped way up??

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:53 am

I had it bumped up, but not to the max, i'd say 3/4. I thought I put it back at the default to see if that was the problem, but now that you've got me thinking, I might have not saved the sliders after I did it or something stupid as I tend to do.

I'll have to remember to look next time I play.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:55 am

Inuyasha wrote:I've been playing all night and i'm just not feeling it. the game isn't flowing for me. i don't know if it's the framerate or just the newness of controls, but I'm not really enjoying it.

I think I'll really put some time into it this weekend. Seems like most of you said that it takes about 2 days to 'get it' with this game. But the framerate at times does bother me. I'll try the vIP thing and the other stuff, but I'm at a 'OH GOD WHY DID I GET THIS' point right now.

You keep complaining about visual stuff. You HAVE to sign out of your profile after you start a game (just hit the big round X box button, then hit X and B and back into the game...takes 5 seconds. AND play on 720p. I dont notice ANY lag whatsoever.

brendanrfoley · Post by **brendanrfoley** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:57 am

Inuyasha wrote:Ok, you said it and broke the ice. I apologize if I am offending anyone, but The Show is boring the hell out of me right now.

I'm glad I'm not alone.

The fact is, of the 54 outs in a baseball game, 45-50 of them are 'routine'. No excitement, etc. Just regular old grounders and fly balls. On some levels, The Show does too good a job representing this. For me, it just feels, well... plain. I have much more "fun" playing Power Pros, despite its faults.

But I'm going to bring this post back on topic... these impressions actually have me cautiously optimistic about playing 2K8. Because I CAN look past a lot of its faults. I usually turn commentary off, many times playing games with music on in the backgroumd. And the framerate? I played my copy of MLB The Show 07 for hours, despite the fact I was one of the unlucky few who's PS2 chugged any time a ball was hit into play.

Keep the impressions coming, and as soon as I get my copy I'll be sure to add mine!

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:29 pm

[quote="JackB1]

You keep complaining about visual stuff. You HAVE to sign out of your profile after you start a game (just hit the big round X box button, then hit X and B and back into the game...takes 5 seconds. AND play on 720p. I dont notice ANY lag whatsoever.[/quote]

In his original post he DID say he signed out of his VIP, and framerate still had problems.

I've been playing with my VIP on to try for some cards, but I've noticed some ballparks are worse then others, so I imagine even with VIP off, some stadiums (such as Minute Maid) are just more taxing then others.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:43 pm

I don't think it's all visual, it's just choppy. Maybe it does depend on the ballpark. Some ballparks sometimes the game is unplayable on how choppy it is. I'll turn off VIP and keep at it. Also, I think I just have to get use to the new pitching and hitting systems and I'll have more fun with it.

I'm still under 24 hours with this game so I still have more time to get it.

Also, we only have blockbuster here and there's no way in hell I am renting anything from those scoundrels.