MLB 2K10

[Weebs]

Get ready for another season of suck.  They're promising it's fixed again, and they added a wannabe Road to the Show mode.  They also said they had to make the graphics worse (again) to make the framerate better.  The one thing they did not say is, "Our engine is totally outdated and horrible, so we scrapped the whole thing, bought the old MVP engine from EA, and made a good baseball game."

Fuck 2K and their shitty baseball games.

Agreed, though I know I'll probably be unable to resist this, even with The Show.  They added John Kruk to the booth.  THAT WILL SAVE THE FRANCHISE!!!

Even an article trying to boost interest in the game just makes it sound shitty.  In Road to the Show, it was hard enough getting a hit during one of your four normal ABs in a game...this one you're expected to pretty much only play when there's some crucial situation with the game on the line.  That sounds awful.  This game is going to be terrible for a long, long time.  Hopefully when EA finally buys 2K, they'll get the MVP franchise going again.

How fucking stupid does the Batter's Eye feature sound?  They're actually going to write the word "FASTBALL" on the screen for you to identify it?  MVP 2005 did it brilliantly with the color system.  Just steal that, assholes.  You're neither innovative nor creative enough to do anything worthwhile on your own.

I think they've finally realized that judging a pitch in a baseball game is nearly impossible.  I even wish The Show would do something similar to MVP's hitter's eye.  I think that one was a little too cheap, but still, having something that lets you get a better idea for the pitch would be nice, since you're forced to judge a 2D image, moving in "3D" space across a 2D screen.  I don't really like the Guess Pitch system in The Show, but it's way better than saying "FASTBALL!!!!!"  It seems like 2K's development process is determining what part of last year's game was terrible, and then creating a new system to try and cover it up.  They need to just scrap the franchise for a year, at least, and re-do everything.

I thought MVP's system was perfect, and I wish The Show would implement it.  The better the hitter and the worse the pitcher hides the ball, the longer the color flash.  Brilliant.  The MVP series was one of the few ones in which I could actually draw the occasional walk.

Incidentally, I wonder if 2K realized they needed to shrink their stupidly oversized strike zone.  Do you think they even play The Show?  They probably don't, because it will just lead to them all crying and quitting their jobs.

I liked the system, I just think it might have been too easy.  I would average like 10+ runs/game on the highest difficulty because once you know the pitch, all you have to judge is location and then aiming your swing was simple.  That game gave you more control over the outcome of a swing than any other game I played, but it made it a bit too easy.

That wasn't the fault of the Batter's Eye, though.  The hitting (and pitching) were slightly too easy in MVP 2005.  MVP NCAA 2006 was a different story at the plate.  It was hard as hell to hit.  Batter's Eye + Cursor Hitting + Swing Stick is my ideal system.

True.  I remember playing a little bit of MVP NCAA and finding it really difficult.  The one thing I really hate in baseball games is the "Contact" and "Power" swing that MLB does.  You have like half a second to judge the pitch, and not only are you supposed to figure out what kind of pitch and where it's going to be, but you also have to decide if you can use a "Power" swing.  Not to mention, in The Show, you can't even check your swing with it's a "Power" swing.  I strike out way too much in that game...

[Kermit IV]

Get ready for another season of suck.  They're promising it's fixed again, and they added a wannabe Road to the Show mode.  They also said they had to make the graphics worse (again) to make the framerate better.  The one thing they did not say is, "Our engine is totally outdated and horrible, so we scrapped the whole thing, bought the old MVP engine from EA, and made a good baseball game."

Fuck 2K and their shitty baseball games.

Agreed, though I know I'll probably be unable to resist this, even with The Show.  They added John Kruk to the booth.  THAT WILL SAVE THE FRANCHISE!!!

Even an article trying to boost interest in the game just makes it sound shitty.  In Road to the Show, it was hard enough getting a hit during one of your four normal ABs in a game...this one you're expected to pretty much only play when there's some crucial situation with the game on the line.  That sounds awful.  This game is going to be terrible for a long, long time.  Hopefully when EA finally buys 2K, they'll get the MVP franchise going again.

How fucking stupid does the Batter's Eye feature sound?  They're actually going to write the word "FASTBALL" on the screen for you to identify it?  MVP 2005 did it brilliantly with the color system.  Just steal that, assholes.  You're neither innovative nor creative enough to do anything worthwhile on your own.

I think they've finally realized that judging a pitch in a baseball game is nearly impossible.  I even wish The Show would do something similar to MVP's hitter's eye.  I think that one was a little too cheap, but still, having something that lets you get a better idea for the pitch would be nice, since you're forced to judge a 2D image, moving in "3D" space across a 2D screen.  I don't really like the Guess Pitch system in The Show, but it's way better than saying "FASTBALL!!!!!"  It seems like 2K's development process is determining what part of last year's game was terrible, and then creating a new system to try and cover it up.  They need to just scrap the franchise for a year, at least, and re-do everything.

I thought MVP's system was perfect, and I wish The Show would implement it.  The better the hitter and the worse the pitcher hides the ball, the longer the color flash.  Brilliant.  The MVP series was one of the few ones in which I could actually draw the occasional walk.

Incidentally, I wonder if 2K realized they needed to shrink their stupidly oversized strike zone.  Do you think they even play The Show?  They probably don't, because it will just lead to them all crying and quitting their jobs.

I liked the system, I just think it might have been too easy.  I would average like 10+ runs/game on the highest difficulty because once you know the pitch, all you have to judge is location and then aiming your swing was simple.  That game gave you more control over the outcome of a swing than any other game I played, but it made it a bit too easy.

That wasn't the fault of the Batter's Eye, though.  The hitting (and pitching) were slightly too easy in MVP 2005.  MVP NCAA 2006 was a different story at the plate.  It was hard as hell to hit.  Batter's Eye + Cursor Hitting + Swing Stick is my ideal system.

True.  I remember playing a little bit of MVP NCAA and finding it really difficult.  The one thing I really hate in baseball games is the "Contact" and "Power" swing that MLB does.  You have like half a second to judge the pitch, and not only are you supposed to figure out what kind of pitch and where it's going to be, but you also have to decide if you can use a "Power" swing.  Not to mention, in The Show, you can't even check your swing with it's a "Power" swing.  I strike out way too much in that game...

I only used power swings on 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 pitches.

[Weebs]

Get ready for another season of suck.  They're promising it's fixed again, and they added a wannabe Road to the Show mode.  They also said they had to make the graphics worse (again) to make the framerate better.  The one thing they did not say is, "Our engine is totally outdated and horrible, so we scrapped the whole thing, bought the old MVP engine from EA, and made a good baseball game."

Fuck 2K and their shitty baseball games.

Agreed, though I know I'll probably be unable to resist this, even with The Show.  They added John Kruk to the booth.  THAT WILL SAVE THE FRANCHISE!!!

Even an article trying to boost interest in the game just makes it sound shitty.  In Road to the Show, it was hard enough getting a hit during one of your four normal ABs in a game...this one you're expected to pretty much only play when there's some crucial situation with the game on the line.  That sounds awful.  This game is going to be terrible for a long, long time.  Hopefully when EA finally buys 2K, they'll get the MVP franchise going again.

How fucking stupid does the Batter's Eye feature sound?  They're actually going to write the word "FASTBALL" on the screen for you to identify it?  MVP 2005 did it brilliantly with the color system.  Just steal that, assholes.  You're neither innovative nor creative enough to do anything worthwhile on your own.

I think they've finally realized that judging a pitch in a baseball game is nearly impossible.  I even wish The Show would do something similar to MVP's hitter's eye.  I think that one was a little too cheap, but still, having something that lets you get a better idea for the pitch would be nice, since you're forced to judge a 2D image, moving in "3D" space across a 2D screen.  I don't really like the Guess Pitch system in The Show, but it's way better than saying "FASTBALL!!!!!"  It seems like 2K's development process is determining what part of last year's game was terrible, and then creating a new system to try and cover it up.  They need to just scrap the franchise for a year, at least, and re-do everything.

I thought MVP's system was perfect, and I wish The Show would implement it.  The better the hitter and the worse the pitcher hides the ball, the longer the color flash.  Brilliant.  The MVP series was one of the few ones in which I could actually draw the occasional walk.

Incidentally, I wonder if 2K realized they needed to shrink their stupidly oversized strike zone.  Do you think they even play The Show?  They probably don't, because it will just lead to them all crying and quitting their jobs.

I liked the system, I just think it might have been too easy.  I would average like 10+ runs/game on the highest difficulty because once you know the pitch, all you have to judge is location and then aiming your swing was simple.  That game gave you more control over the outcome of a swing than any other game I played, but it made it a bit too easy.

That wasn't the fault of the Batter's Eye, though.  The hitting (and pitching) were slightly too easy in MVP 2005.  MVP NCAA 2006 was a different story at the plate.  It was hard as hell to hit.  Batter's Eye + Cursor Hitting + Swing Stick is my ideal system.

True.  I remember playing a little bit of MVP NCAA and finding it really difficult.  The one thing I really hate in baseball games is the "Contact" and "Power" swing that MLB does.  You have like half a second to judge the pitch, and not only are you supposed to figure out what kind of pitch and where it's going to be, but you also have to decide if you can use a "Power" swing.  Not to mention, in The Show, you can't even check your swing with it's a "Power" swing.  I strike out way too much in that game...

I only used power swings on 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 pitches.

I like to hit my HRs on first-pitch fastballs.

/Corey Patterson

[Slaky]

Can anyone post the feature list, if that's what you're looking at? Websense blocks anything that has to do with games.

[Kermit IV]

Slak, 1st part:

January 13, 2010 - Since MVP Baseball 2005, every game based on the sport has been a disappointment for me. Simply put, nothing has been as fun as what EA Sports was able to produce before 2K Sports snatched up the Major League Baseball license, the same way EA Sports did with the NFL license. But we as gamers must make do with what we're given, and for now that is the MLB 2K series, for better or worse. This year 2K Sports is going to great lengths to fix many of the problems that we here at IGN (and gamers the world-over) had with last year's effort.

I recently spent some time down in sunny San Diego putting my hands on a build of MLB 2K10 for the very first time and I can say that maybe, just maybe, 2K Sports got some things right with this year's game.

Now, I'm not saying that my relatively short few hours with MLB 2K10 has won me over to 2K Sports' corner. Being around so many sports games, I understand that the more you play them, the more flaws become evident. But when Hilary Goldstein (IGN's illustrious editor-in-chief) posed his first question to me about the game, "Did they fix the damn framerate?" I was able to respond on a positive note for a change. Yes, the framerate has been largely smoothed out (thank heavens). There were still moments when performance would drop, but these instances were few in number and nowhere near as jarring as they were in the past. Now, on to the more substantive changes.

The most interesting addition to the traditional MLB 2K formula is one that I won't be able to give impressions of until a later date. I'm talking about the new My Player career mode that allows players to assume the role of a created player and play any spot on the field (including pitcher and catcher). While the design behind this mode is a bit strange on paper, it remains to be seen how well it plays. You begin in double-A ball and must work your way up by completing career milestones. The catch is that instead of playing every moment, you're pulled into the action at pivotal instances. You do, of course, have the option to jump in and play a full game whenever it suits you, but the mode is built around the notion of players getting in and out of games quickly in order to progress.

The single clutch moment I played had my double-A team down one run with two men on in the bottom of the ninth. All I had to do was slap a single into the outfield and we'd win the game. Well, it didn't happen, but the potential was there for an exciting moment. Aside from standard games, you'll also take part in drills to build your attribute points. Probably the biggest letdown for me when hearing about the career mode was that, when playing as a catcher, you have no control over pitch location or what pitch is being thrown, thus eliminating the entire point of being behind the plate. Hopefully that will be included in the next go-round.

While My Player is wonderful to have, it seems like a different approach to what MLB: The Show (Sony's baseball title) has done in recent years more than a truly original idea. Thankfully 2K Sports has instilled some well thought out changes in the MLB 2K10 gameplay formula.

A huge gripe that many had with last year's game was the inability to pre-load throws in time for realistic double plays and throws from the outfield. Well, that's changed this year. Now if a ball is roped to the right-field fence, as your right-fielder makes his way over you can start pre-loading your throw to any base you like. Another change is that throwing to a base can be done with either the face buttons or the analog stick. In my time with 2K10, the pre-loading worked flawlessly and allowed players to quickly whip the ball around the bases.

Pitching is another aspect that has been tweaked a bit since 2K9. On paper it seems trite, but the switch actually makes a big difference once you have the controller in your hand. In last year's game everything was gesture based, from pitch selection to execution. This year you select your pitch with a face button and then complete a two-part gesture (the first of which is simple while the second can get a little tricky depending on pitch type) to launch your pitch. If you screw it up, the new pitch analyzer will show you exactly what you did wrong. The reasons for the increased simplicity are two-fold: first, to up the level of accessibility in the pitching and two, in order to allow for a new feature called Batter's Eye.

[Weebs]

Can anyone post the feature list, if that's what you're looking at? Websense blocks anything that has to do with games.

MLB 2K10 Feature List:

- Everything that was in MLB 2K9
- Crappy Road to the Show mode
- Higher framerate at the expense of everything else looking like shit
- Skip through every cutscene
- 40-man rosters
- John Kruk

I think that was it.

ETA: Or what Kerm said, I guess.

[Kermit IV]

2nd part:

Batter's Eye works in conjunction with inside edge – which has been beefed up to show stats like batting average during day and night games and pre- and post-all-star break – to give proficient hitters a bit of an advantage at the plate. Just as in real life, standout hitters in MLB 2K10 can see certain pitches coming as the ball is released from the pitcher's hand. You'll get a quick text pop-up that says "fastball," "breaking ball" or "changeup" depending on the pitch and the hitter. 2K Sports is hoping that this will help to create more authentic pitcher vs. batter confrontations where players will have to work the count and use a new swing type in order to stay alive at the plate.

Defensive swing has been added as a third swing type to accompany power and contact. In my time with the game I found it difficult to determine when to use the defensive swing as my reaction time wasn't tuned to process the pitch type and location ahead of the ball actually crossing the plate. The defensive swing is pulled off by flicking the right analog to the left or right rather than the up and down motion of the power and contact swings. It's a simple innovation and it makes total sense, I'm just not sure how often it's going to be used. In an effort to make pitches even more identifiable, the camera has been lowered a tad so you can get a better feel for the arc of certain throws. It isn't jarringly different from last year's camera angle and it will hopefully allow for players to let pitches pass by in good faith that they'll be called balls.

The last new feature that was shown to me was also one of the coolest, provided it can be tuned properly. It's called Hurry-up Baseball and it allows you to skip all those annoying cutscenes and replays that you'd usually have to tap A (or X on PS3) to get through. That means no 2K Sports logos flashing on the screen as they show replays of the preceding half-inning, no batter walk-ups to the plate and no commenting on what that batter has done previously in the game. It's much more to the point and is said to cut the amount of time it takes to get through a game by as much as half. The best part? You don't have to select to play the hurry-up brand of baseball before you get into a game. Instead you can toggle it right from the in-game menu. Want to slow it down in the ninth inning? Feel free to do so.

There have been a host of other tweaks that stand apart from new gameplay features. Things like MLB Today behaving similarly to what we saw from NBA 2K10 in that the commentators will now stay up to date with what's really happening around the league which will then be reflected in their dialogue. John Kruk has also been added to the commentary team to accompany Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips. He wasn't present in the preview build I played, but I was assured he'd be in the finished product.

Franchise Mode has seen a few revisions as well, though my time was mainly spent tinkering with the core gameplay. Your season now starts in spring training where you'll be charged with whittling a 40-man roster down to 25 to start the season. You'll also have full control over your double-A and triple-A squads in this year's game. Super Simming is a part of MLB 2K for the first time as well. Here, you'll be able to watch your team play as a graph depicts your chances of winning. Luckily you can hop in and play for yourself if things get ugly. This year's Franchise Mode is also adopting the NHL 2K philosophy of having online play at your fingertips at all times. Before any game, in pretty much any mode, you can select to play against a friend. You can also take your favorite squad and put them into a full 32-team online league if you think you're up to snuff.

I'm not going to deny that it's tough to get an accurate read on a sports game after only a few hours of play time, but it seems as though MLB 2K10 has righted many of the numerous flaws that plagued last year's game. There were still moments of graphical slowdown – mainly when the swing analyzer popped up to show me my poor timing – but there's little doubt that it was running smoother than it was last year. The visuals have taken a bit of a hit because of the goal of delivering a more fluid framerate, but I'd much rather have a baseball experience that moved like the genuine article than one that looked like the real thing but moved like rusty robots.

We'll have more on MLB 2K10 in the coming weeks, including a deep dive into the new My Player career mode, as its March 2 launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PSP, PS2 and Nintendo DS nears.

[Yeti]

The baseball threads are probably my least favorite game threads on this baseball messageboard.

[Powdered Toast Man]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

[Kermit IV]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

[Weebs]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

And your search is taking you to MLB 2K10?  Evan Longoria is not the savior you've been looking for.

[Kermit IV]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

And your search is taking you to MLB 2K10?  Evan Longoria is not the savior you've been looking for.

My search will likely take me to both--yes, BOTH--options that I have.  Other than The Bigs, which is actually pretty good.

[Slaky]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

The Show is more than enough to make me forget about MVP forever.

Thanks for posting all that shit though. Sounds like 2k10 is going to suck.

[Weebs]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

And your search is taking you to MLB 2K10?  Evan Longoria is not the savior you've been looking for.

My search will likely take me to both--yes, BOTH--options that I have.  Other than The Bigs, which is actually pretty good.

I've been buying the 2K games every year, expecting them to get better, but this is the year I stop.  I actually think the character models are better in 2K, at least until you have to see the player's face.

[Kermit IV]

I'm just confused.  I thought The Show was awesome covered in chocolate sauce?  Why would you want to play 2K's game, even if you think the controls are good, given that The Show is "the" baseball experience?  Are The Show's controls wonky or something?

Also:  Thanks for posting the article.

The Show is by far the better game.  BY FAR.  But it's still no MVP 2005, so my search for MVP 2010 continues.

And your search is taking you to MLB 2K10?  Evan Longoria is not the savior you've been looking for.

My search will likely take me to both--yes, BOTH--options that I have.  Other than The Bigs, which is actually pretty good.

I've been buying the 2K games every year, expecting them to get better, but this is the year I stop.  I actually think the character models are better in 2K, at least until you have to see the player's face.

Maybe I will, too.  That might be the only thing that teaches them how badly their butts stink.