Major League Baseball 2K9 Hands-On Preview (IGN)

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. I actually took a lot of good from the hands-on.

While horrible frame rates would really hurt the game, it's not a finished build so maybe they will get it cleaned up before release?

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Now the mechanic works like this: Make one move with the right stick and a circle fills, when it reaches its max you make the second motion with the stick. Complete those two steps (you can opt to add the third step through the menus) and your pitch should be spot-on. The difficulty of pitching raises as you progress through a game and your pitcher becomes fatigued. Of course, composure is also a factor so you'll need make sure that your setup man has the fortitude to face Ryan Howard with a man on second and third with nobody out in the eighth inning.

A third? VERY interesting...

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Rather than having to perfectly time your step with the pitch and then the all-important swing, players can now simply hold down on the right analog and swing when the time is right without fear of looking like a lumberjack chopping wood. This made it much easier to tee off on balls with the big boys of the lineup. That is, once I got the timing down.

This sounds great to me.

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Other aesthetic differences from MLB 2K8 include a new base throwing meter that is functionally the same as last year (meaning it's still governed by the right stick) and pitches that are identifiable thanks to a flash of color as they cross the plate.

Love the color to determine pitches.. MVP had this.

Quote:

The change starts with a new duo in the booth in Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips. Almost as important is the fact that their comments will now be able to cut off when something exciting happens in the game, then pickup where they left off once things calm down. It might seem small, but the feature helped keep the two commentators from droning on needlessly.

Interesting..

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2K Share feature that some might remember from NBA 2K9. It lets you give other gamers things like your settings, created players and roster settings.

Glad that's in...

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MLB 2K9 has some features that baseball nuts will surely appreciate (like the ability to save in the middle of any game)

YES!!!

[Cubfan]

Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips calling the action. Hate to see the series still have frame rate issues. Hopefully they are ironed out before the game ships.

[Knight165]

Quote: Originally Posted by areobee401

Im not sure what to think to be honest

...and we won't until the FINAL version is out.(I'm not saying this directly to you)

Let's hope they iron it out.

M.K.
Knight165

[areobee401]

Funny thing is I know for a fact I will be buying this game day one. What can I say im a sucker for baseball and this is my only option. Like you said lets hope they can iron out these issues before they ship the game.

[lived]

Well, the pitches being identified by colour was in last year's game.

[roadman]

I quit reading it when the author said he wasn't impressed with NBA 2k9's presentation.

[jeffy777]

Quote: Originally Posted by lived

Looks like Pitching is way too easy this year.

It says in the IGN article that you can turn on the pitching release step in the options, so you can make it harder if you want.

[slickzeus]

well it looks like I will be buying it on day one. Let's hope the framerate issue is sorted out soon because this is starting to at least sound like a promising game! Can't wait for some vids and a demo