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

[Damanjinx]

Quote: Originally Posted by tyler289

Why would they get rid of different umpire personalities? Not all umpires have the same exact strike zone. A huge part of pitching - especially for softer throwers - is getting those close calls on the black (or not getting them) on any given day. Making every single strike zone, for every umpire, the same exact thing is pretty stupid, in my opinion. It just sounds like people get frustrated when an umpire doesn't call their pitch a strike. Oh well, it happens in real life, too, a lot. I don't see why that needed to be changed. Hopefully the framerate issue is fixed.

I agree making the smaller stikezone and variable per umpire is fantastic, to get rid of that is completely idiotic. I dont care if IGN, Gamespy or anybudy says if they dont like it TUFF, that real baseball, i swear its like these company's and there employees have never watched a baseball game in there life. 2k dont take that out.

[Damanjinx]

Quote: Originally Posted by JBH3

Where was this reported? From my work CPU I can't access the gaming sites that posted previews. That upsets me too because having dynamic umpires is a definite PLUS - for any baseball game.

"Nobody goes to a baseball game to watch the umpires, and MLB 2K9 looks to feature a more uniform strike zone than before. This should be a nice change, as it's rather frustrating to throw a pitch that looks like a strike and have it called a ball simply because a particular umpire has his own unique strike zone to memorize."

That is the quote from gamespy obviously who wrote that is a moron and knows nothing about baseball, i swear to god 2k better not get rid of that.

[wsu_gb23]

Quote: Originally Posted by 7stringking

It isn't scary for PS3 owners at all...You have a choice!

do PS3 owners really have a choice? I only see ONE option...

[Qb]

On the variable umps/strike zones: It's a great idea in theory, but it wasn't well implemented in 2K8. The main issue was that the strike zone was too big too often, at least in my experience. I tried to be a very patient hitter -- I would usually draw a few walks a game with the right settings -- but when pitches that should never be called strikes (way high & outside was the most common for me), it really hurt the gameplay.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see variable umps as well, but I think I'd rather have a consistent strike zone that replicates what we see called in real MLB games...

[Blazzen]

I agree, do not take out the variable umpires. At least make it an option we can toggle on or off. The goal of SIM baseball should be to make the most realistic experience as possible (hence SIM) and this added to it I think.

[tyler289]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

On the variable umps/strike zones: It's a great idea in theory, but it wasn't well implemented in 2K8. The main issue was that the strike zone was too big too often, at least in my experience. I tried to be a very patient hitter -- I would usually draw a few walks a game with the right settings -- but when pitches that should never be called strikes (way high & outside was the most common for me), it really hurt the gameplay. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see variable umps as well, but I think I'd rather have a consistent strike zone that replicates what we see called in real MLB games...

I agree, it wasn't implemented well at all. The strike zone was HUGE. I was hoping they'd tweak it a little to make it more realistic, but decided to just take it out instead of fixing it. Oh well.

[idesign2]

Quote: Originally Posted by dickdalewood

After last year, you'd think that would have been the FIRST thing they fixed. Just about every sports game has figured out how to achieve 60 fps, yet two years in 2K still can't seem to... Hell, last year they removed half the crowd and couldn't do it, how do they expect to do it with this "living world" idea??? Bad, 2K, bad!!

If I remember correctly, the framerate issues in 2K8 were blamed on the game constantly saving information to the user profile. Also, cut scenes were affected by framerate issues the most.

MAYBE the "living world" concept will eliminate the choppiness between cut scenes, as instead of loading what were essentially saved replays we'll see live action.

I'm willing to give this game a shot, but if the framerate exits EVEN A LITTLE then I'm going with The Show.

[Blzer]

I like how "real time" turned into "living world."