MLB '08 news and info

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:08 am

Any word of what it will do? I bet it's minor stuff, like the scoring problem with walk-off homeruns.

Jackdog · Post by **Jackdog** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:32 am

Here is what ESPN thinks of both games.

http://ws.mymovo.com/Search/servlet/Pla ... rName=ESPN

Short and sweet.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:11 am

Started my season last night and am playing on All-Star defaults. If the first game is any indication of how the games are going to go, I'll be very pleased. I won a thriller 4-3 against the Rockies. The Rockies had three doubles and 8 hits. The Cardinals had a homerun, two doubles, on 6 total hits. Wainwright had trouble locating his fastball and curveball through the first 4 innings, so I had to rely on his changeup. It wasn't a solid outing, but I got him through 7 innings. Izzy of course made it interesting in the 9 by allowing a lead off double. The last out came on a deep fly ball to left. Duncan made the catch on the warning track.

I started game two and saved it midway through the 4th inning. When you save, do you create a new in game save, or do you overwrite the season save? I created a new in game save as I wasn't sure what to do.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:21 am

You can overwrite the regular season save with the in-game save. It just turns into a regular save again once the game's completed. Nice numbers, sportdan. What settings were you playing with before?

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:05 am

Slumberland wrote:You can overwrite the regular season save with the in-game save. It just turns into a regular save again once the game's completed. Nice numbers, sportdan. What settings were you playing with before?

Thanks for the info. Prior to starting my season, I was playing strictly exhibition games using Skyboxer's sliders. They were decent, but I wasn't seeing the offensive production from the CPU as I did last night. Plus, I wasn't getting very many extra base hits. Now mind you, one game isn't a very good sample. I'm probably an average player, but I felt I was far too dominant pitching wise with his sliders. Too often I'd go 5-6 innings without surrendering a run.

I saw a post over at OS that Brian from SCEA suggested that the game plays the most realistic at All-Star default. Thus, with new rosters and starting a season finally, I decided to start over on default and tweak it as I progress. I noticed almost immediately that pitching to the number 3,4, and 5 hitters is more challenging. As I said, I'm in the midst of game 2 with Braden Looper on the mound. He's already given up a double and single through 4 innings. I'm down 1-0, but I'm excited because there seems to be life to the CPU offense. Also, it seems that the hits have a little bit more variety to them.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:28 pm

Slumberland wrote:Any word of what it will do? I bet it's minor stuff, like the scoring problem with walk-off homeruns.

The walk-off homerun was supposebly fixed. Some of the batting stances were fixed as well (i.e. Manny Ramirez, Ryan Howard). Someone said some of the pitching deliveries are fixed as well.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:30 pm

I saw a post over at OS that Brian from SCEA suggested that the game plays the most realistic at All-Star default.

I did that a few weeks back and it was the best thing I ever did. I think it plays a great game this way. Plus no headaches with seeking out the "best" slider set.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:48 pm

Way to go Dan! I love pitching with Wainwright in MLB 2k8 as well. When you can locate his curveball.. WATCH OUT!

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:50 pm

Defaults sliders are excellent... for me to poop on.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:39 pm

More supposed fixes:

- long sleeve bug is gone
-durability/stamina issue is fixed
- seems like the throwing animations are fixed.. no more lobs from 1st to 2b or 3b to 2b
- HOF default and the CPU seems to be hitting better.
- bullpen energy gauge is fixed, they now show the real energy and not full strength every game

Correction: The long sleeve bug has not been fixed.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:48 pm

sportdan30 wrote:More supposed fixes:

-durability/stamina issue is fixed

Doing a happy dance right now!

Do we need to restart our franchise?

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:32 pm

That's the million dollar question Danimal. The few that have answered are saying no, but I'd like a definitive answer.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:55 pm

sportdan30 wrote:More supposed fixes:

- long sleeve bug is gone
-durability/stamina issue is fixed
- seems like the throwing animations are fixed.. no more lobs from 1st to 2b or 3b to 2b
- HOF default and the CPU seems to be hitting better.
- bullpen energy gauge is fixed, they now show the real energy and not full strength every game

Correction: The long sleeve bug has not been fixed.

The lobs throws are important to me. I've only played a few games so far but i've already noticed way too many infield singles and not enough double plays because of the lobs.

I hope the cpu puts up more of a challenge on All-Star default. It's not a good sign when i easily win the first time i've ever played the game.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:09 pm

sportdan30 wrote: -durability/stamina issue is fixed

Is this attributed to the patch or to the updated rosters? Wondering if owning the Ps2 version will burn me here.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:01 pm

webdanzer wrote:
sportdan30 wrote: -durability/stamina issue is fixed
Is this attributed to the patch or to the updated rosters? Wondering if owning the Ps2 version will burn me here.

It was confirmed by a dev a while back that this was a bug and not a roster issue, so I think it is a patch thing.

The last rosters didn't fix my stamina issues, they did seem to eliminate the lob throws LAKing is talking about. I used to see 3 or 4 a game and I haven't see a single one my 10 games since the new rosters.

spooky157 · Post by **spooky157** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:18 pm

A few things I've noticed:

- The medium camera zooms in more when the ball is hit to the outfield. I used to have some difficulties seeing which outfielder I was controlling when the ball was hit into a gap. Not anymore. Nice...

- I'm finding it easier to pull fastballs, especially ones that are on the outer half of the plate. Seems a lot more realistic to me. Very nice....

- Playing the field is a lot more fun now. The outfielders no longer go into a suction animation when you run near the catch region on fly balls. A lot more challenging and fun overall. Sweet...

- CPU offense is much more potent on AS. Super sweet..

- I play as the Yankees and noticed that they changed Posada's stance and Hughes' delivery looks different...for the worse. (Not sure about this one so I'll see if anyone else sees the same thing)

- The pitchers are throwing a lot more fastballs and just pouring in the strikes.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:50 pm

Anyone else experiencing the following? My original settings had fast play set to "on". I switched my setting back to "off", and made sure I saved. Now I don't get any cut scenes. The game opens with a view of the ball park, the lineups, etc. But during game play, I don't see any replays what so ever. I'm not sure if this is the result of the patch or what.

Any suggestions?

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:06 pm

spooky157 wrote:CPU offense is much more potent on AS. Super sweet...

Tell me about it. I got dinged for three homers in just the first couple of innings today.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:39 pm

10spro wrote:
spooky157 wrote:CPU offense is much more potent on AS. Super sweet...
Tell me about it. I got dinged for three homers in just the first couple of innings today.

Good grief......this is exactly why I hate tweaking games. After weeks of struggling to get the CPU to score more than 2 runs a game I was pretty much set with a CPU offensive boosted slider set from OS ("perfect" slider set). So I download the new rosters, update my game with the patch and start my season. In the first game I get pasted 14-5 and then get hammered in the second 12-2. I haven't given up 26 runs to the CPU since I bought the game let alone in 2 games of a season.

It has to be the patch. I really wish they would give a definitive list of what exactly was addressed in it. I'm ready to just fire up the game on default All-Star and if I have the same inept CPU offense from before I can really see myself giving up. I'm normally not a slider kind of guy and this is exactly why.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:47 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Anyone else experiencing the following? My original settings had fast play set to "on". I switched my setting back to "off", and made sure I saved. Now I don't get any cut scenes. The game opens with a view of the ball park, the lineups, etc. But during game play, I don't see any replays what so ever. I'm not sure if this is the result of the patch or what.

Any suggestions?

Figured it out. Easy fix.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:55 pm

I'm 4-0 on my young season. My first game of series with Washington, I was up 5-0 going in to the 8th. They hit back to back homeruns and the score was 5-3 after it was all said and done. It does seem the offense is more potent, and I'm playing on All-Star default. Having very good games thus far.

For the first time ever, I hit for the cycle. Ludwick homered in his first at bat. The next time up, he hit hit a long fly ball in the gap that the center fielder dove and the ball bounced off his glove. Singled in the next at bat. While he stood at first, an overlay said that he was one triple shy of the cycle. The commentators both touched on it as well. When he came up in the 8th, they said he just needs a triple. With that, he crushed one to the deepest part of the ball park. I stretched it and he made it to third just barely. It was a very cool thing to see happen. Scripted, maybe?

I do notice that I seem to have more control over the outfielders as well. Not so sure about the infielders, but I definitely see what you're seeing Spooky.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:06 am

Yeah, I'm not totally convinced that the patch did anything to the CPU offense, mostly because it just doesn't make a ton of sense to me that they would sing the praises of default sliders, and then turn around and re-calibrate everything three weeks later due to some protests from a very vocal minority... not to mention there'd be no real time for testing difficulty changes long term. Unless they figured out something wasn't working the way they thought it was in the final code.

All that said, I was rolling along in my Pirates mini-season with the heavily tweaked sliders, winning some, losing some, and then downloaded the patch and lost two games by ten runs each, including one game where I gave up home runs to four consecutive batters. So who the f*ck knows.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:54 am

Anyone else wish they could slow down the pitches even more...or am I just that bad at the plate? I still miss MVP's batter's eye.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:56 pm

Dave wrote:Anyone else wish they could slow down the pitches even more...or am I just that bad at the plate? I still miss MVP's batter's eye.

Dave, are you using guess pitch? It's not realistic, but it's a good way to recognize pitches and locations. I used that for a while until I got used to the hitting model. Now I still have it activated but turned off.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:33 pm

I do have guess pitch turned on and mainly just use it for location.

It'll get better with more play time, I'm sure, but it isn't fun to struggle with pitch type and location recognition as much as I am. Just too many singles, no ability to work the count, etc.

I shouldn't be surprised, High Heat and MVP 05 are my exceptions when it comes to being able to hit well.