MLB 2K9

[Slaky]

Thanks Kerm. I'm going to stay off in these fringier threads where it's safe.

No problem.  I get the impression that this game is going to be far from perfect, but it's going to look pretty, have much-improved hitting, and Thorne will be excellent.  If that's the case, it'll last me through the summer.  There have been hints that VC has made some significant changes to Franchise Mode, but they haven't said what those changes are yet.  I'll be interested to see if we get any info on that this week.

One thing I noticed, as I get my nerd on, is the final MLB.com screen from the day before the fake one-game playoff between Tampa and Boston was all the same story posted about every single season series and how it ended. That was dumb. I hope that doesn't happen.

The NBA.com news screen (granted I'm only 3/4 through my first season) has been extremely varied and very, very cool. For example, they'll do "Oden's career high 22 rebounds helps Blazers beat Clippers" or "CP3's 26 points leads Hornets past Warriors". Those are awesome and varied enough to keep it interesting. They also sprinkle in semi-randomly generated trade rumors up until the deadline, injury reports, power rankings and other statistical achievements. It's a very cool way to keep you feeling like there is a world going on outside of the team you run with.

Hopefully they made it even cooler for the MLB version.

[Kermit, B.]

One thing I noticed, as I get my nerd on, is the final MLB.com screen from the day before the fake one-game playoff between Tampa and Boston was all the same story posted about every single season series and how it ended. That was dumb. I hope that doesn't happen.

I noticed that same thing.  I assumed the reason for it was that each "link" went back to the final standings and maybe team splits, so you could see how each team fared during the season.  Poorly executed, no doubt, but that might be the reason for it.  At least the interface looks a lot better than it did in 2K8.  I hated the Franchise homepage last year.

[Kermit, B.]

DPD.  Gamespot posted team rankings and some new pictures.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs
Overall: 82
Contact: 87
Power: 65
Speed: 84
Pitching: 94
Defense: 82

Milwaukee Brewers
Overall: 72
Contact: 70
Power: 69
Speed: 83
Pitching: 74
Defense: 75

Houston Astros
Overall: 75
Contact: 84
Power: 55
Speed: 93
Pitching: 74
Defense: 85

St. Louis Cardinals
Overall: 78
Contact: 79
Power: 80
Speed: 72
Pitching: 76
Defense: 85

Cincinnati Reds
Overall: 76
Contact: 76
Power: 57
Speed: 97
Pitching: 88
Defense: 76

Pittsburgh Pirates
Overall: 70
Contact: 76
Power: 63
Speed: 75
Pitching: 69
Defense: 75

And here's a picture of Hard-on.

[Kermit, B.]

TPD.  O.S. put up a new video showing the "zone/cursor" hitting.  Renteria grounds into a double play in the video, and I wanted to see where off the "bat" he hit the ball, so I got the following screencap:



He swung early and on top of the ball, and rolled weakly out to the SS.  Seems like a pretty realistic result to me.  Pretty cool.

[ChuckD]

DPD, but I finally had a look-see at the features list and found this:

Real-time Living World

Anything that happens in a baseball stadium happens in 2K9 in Real Time.
Players will move from the dugout to the batter's box and from the bullpen to the mound.
Players warm up by throwing around the horn, bat swinging practice, etc.
Umpire, ball boys, coaches – All onfield personnel will be moving naturally to and from their positions.
Celebrations – Players will react properly to a regular end-game to walkoff home run, to no-hitter and World Series celebration.
Vendors move in the crowd
Fans react to home runs and foul balls

That's going to be pretty cool, if it's done well.  But, again...I hope this includes some upgrading to the stadiums.

Mmmhmm. Must be playing a doubleheader.

[Slaky]

On that same theme, if you watch the Pirates vs. Rockies video - after the Rockies win the game you see Ian Stewart throwing up his arms in disgust from the dugout and looking at the sky. Turns out he hit a pinch hit grand slam in that game. Apparently he wanted to lose? I thought it was pretty amusing.

[Kermit, B.]

Yeah, I noticed they fucked up the end-of-game animations for everyone but the on-field players.  The on-deck batter was still taking practice swings after the final out, too.  Hopefully, that's something that gets ironed out.  If not, I'll just close my eyes after the final out.

[Slaky]

Yeah, I noticed they fucked up the end-of-game animations for everyone but the on-field players.  The on-deck batter was still taking practice swings after the final out, too.  Hopefully, that's something that gets ironed out.  If not, I'll just close my eyes after the final out.

I was reading a thread where someone was complaining about the lack of cool double play animations. Then he was shown a link to a developer Q&A saying that these videos are from the beta version. The beta version doesn't have a lot of the animations in it. This wasn't enough to keep him from becoming very worried.

Very worried, indeed.

[Kermit, B.]

Yeah, I noticed they fucked up the end-of-game animations for everyone but the on-field players.  The on-deck batter was still taking practice swings after the final out, too.  Hopefully, that's something that gets ironed out.  If not, I'll just close my eyes after the final out.

I was reading a thread where someone was complaining about the lack of cool double play animations. Then he was shown a link to a developer Q&A saying that these videos are from the beta version. The beta version doesn't have a lot of the animations in it. This wasn't enough to keep him from becoming very worried.

Very worried, indeed.

They also said they added another 300 signature styles in addition to the 300 they already had, yet one of the videos showed several of the Phillies and Rays with generic stances.  I'm a little hopeful that the final product will be slightly cleaner than it is right now.  Honestly, though, I'm pretty sold on the game even in the state it's in right now.

[TDubbs]

Yeah, I noticed they fucked up the end-of-game animations for everyone but the on-field players.  The on-deck batter was still taking practice swings after the final out, too.  Hopefully, that's something that gets ironed out.  If not, I'll just close my eyes after the final out.

I was reading a thread where someone was complaining about the lack of cool double play animations. Then he was shown a link to a developer Q&A saying that these videos are from the beta version. The beta version doesn't have a lot of the animations in it. This wasn't enough to keep him from becoming very worried.

Very worried, indeed.

They also said they added another 300 signature styles in addition to the 300 they already had, yet one of the videos showed several of the Phillies and Rays with generic stances.  I'm a little hopeful that the final product will be slightly cleaner than it is right now.  Honestly, though, I'm pretty sold on the game even in the state it's in right now.

I'm just glad this game FINALLY is out there so you can play it and compare it to real life.

[*In a Nutsack]

Back to Kerm's post about the game being far from perfect but prettier with improved hitting mechanics, I'm down with that if they can patch any framerate issues that might plague the game upon release.  If they do that, I'm down for a summer of virtual baseball nerdiness.

[*In a Nutsack]

http://www.operationsports.com/feature.php?id=832

OS has a preview of the Franchise Mode from one of the developers.

A couple years back in MLB 2K7, I cringed every time I looked at the league leaders and saw that Tony Graffanino was leading the league in triples in my franchise. We’re talking about a 35-year old (at the time) guy who wasn’t exactly a speed demon on the base paths during his career. I’m proud to say that the engineer who wrote our brand new simulator this year is one of the biggest baseball fans I’ve ever met, and his passion shows in his work.

Nice.

With the simulator out of the way, we moved on to our next core feature, the Player Progression model. Rather than implement a traditional progression model where players are given a potential rating that places them on a pre-determined growth ‘curve’, we decided to take a risk with our new progression model. As it turned out, this risk paid off for us handsomely. Players will progress in MLB 2K9 with respect to their on-field performance in addition to their potential. What this basically means is their on-field successes and/or failures will determine their career paths. This creates a very dynamic experience where one user’s experience could be dramatically different from another. I’ve had a franchise where James Loney took off and became one of the better players in the league. In another, I watched him hobble through injury after injury while never realizing his true potential. This level of dynamism is one of the many reasons that we are very excited about getting this game into your hands.

So nice.  I hope all this works well.  It sounds like they've made strides at VC.  I've never played any recent NBA or NHL titles from them, but I did play the shit out of NFL 2K5, which VC did and did to perfection.  I'm thinking we may have something, here.

After watching this video (http://www.operationsports.com/videoview_game.php?id=547), I dig the new pitching camera.  Kerm also mentioned the field looking bigger, and this video also shows that off (especially on Drew's single).

[Kermit, B.]

Back to Kerm's post about the game being far from perfect but prettier with improved hitting mechanics, I'm down with that if they can patch any framerate issues that might plague the game upon release.  If they do that, I'm down for a summer of virtual baseball nerdiness.

X-Play had a preview copy that was running very smoothly, so I suspect framerate won't be as big an issue as it was last year.

[*In a Nutsack]

Something I didn't like so much, but hopefully is something that VC is aware of and can fix:  http://www.operationsports.com/videoview_game.php?id=547

After the end of the end of the play in the beginning of the video there's a weird animation of him going from being stunned on his ass then immediately jumping to his feet and walking over the ball.  That just looks bad.  Kazmir had a head injury and goes from being hurt to jumping up and walking.

Also, at around 3:00, the bat boy walks straight through the batter.  This is so minor, though, especially if the game plays well.  It just sucks that this is still being shown two weeks prior to release.

[Kermit, B.]

Franchise sounds pretty awesome, and those are some decent-looking sim stats.  He also mentions that the updated code is running smoothly.