Major League Baseball 2K9 Demo Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by JonahFalcon

I already posted I got 9 straight hitters throwing NOTHING but curves. And only threw 27 pitches.

Sliders too. The breaking pitches are boardering on a cheat against the CPU...lol. I'm hoping the 3-step pitching option will ad back that layer of difficulty in pitching, but that won't do anything about the AI logic.

[Eddie1967]

I know a lot of people were annoyed by the ball/bat sounds in the videos but it doesn't seem as noticeable when you actually play the game. No where near as loud IMO.

[Rob_NYY]

Just played 3 games, and...eh. Just some bullet points:

- The graphics really need an upgrade next year. They need to totally re-do the uniforms, they look disgusting. They look plastic. The players' faces also look awful.

- For the real-time thing to work and look good, they need to take care of their awkward animations and find a way to make players transition into certain animations smoother. For example, Burrell hit a HR off me, and as he rounded the bases he just suddenly went into this animation that had him pumping his fist and celebrating as he rounded 2B. As soon as the animation was over he just suddenly went back to running and it looked awfully strange.

- I'm thrilled the framerate issue is a thing of the past (at least on the 360).

- After my first two games, I noticed my usual plan of taking pitches and working the count wasn't working because Kazmir was getting ahead all the time. So my 3rd game, I didn't even swing the first two innings. Kazmir retired the side in order with 9 pitches in the first. The 2nd inning, he retired the side in 11 pitches. Scott Kazmir throwing 2 balls in 2 innings is a joke. Hopefully, sliders can fix this.

- The CPU swings at pretty much every strike I throw. I can only remember one batter taking a called strike, and that was the pitcher. There were 2 or 3 others, but that's the only one I remember.

- The CPU has a REALLY hard time hitting curves. I think I could go the whole game throwing curves and pitch a shutout. I've yet to see a curve hit with authority. I'm going to play again and throw nothing but curves and see what happens.

- They need to really focus on sound next year. The stadium sounds need to be re-done, they are really outdated. The bat sounds are still terrible. And why the HELL is that organ still playing? I know he doesn't work on the game anymore, but KushGamer promised me the damn organs would not be in 2K9.

- The announcing is good, but only time will tell if it's repetitive or not. But I love the way they actually talk to each other in the booth.

- Some of the real-time stuff is great. The cuts to the batter, pitcher, or runner between pitches is beautiful. The bat boys collecting the bats is also great. But like mentioned above, they need to work on it, especially the animations. I also don't think looking at the pitcher standing there doing nothing for 4 seconds is necessary. Good idea, but it needs polish. I expect it to shine in 2010.


All in all, I'm actually disappointed. I know I haven't been the biggest supporter of 2K baseball, but I loved 2K7. 2K8 is something I'd rather forget. But for some reason, the last few weeks I was really starting to look forward to this game. But this demo is making me think twice. It's going to play terrible baseball out of the box as evident by the demo and the countless gameplay vids. Some heavy slider work is going to be in order to try and get this game to play real baseball.

VC should of made sure this game plays good baseball before anything else. That needs to be priority #1 and it obviously wasn't.

[kGinGreen]

Quote: Originally Posted by JonahFalcon

I already posted I got 9 straight hitters throwing NOTHING but curves. And only threw 27 pitches.

This is why I've never been a huge 2k fan. I play all their games and like them but their AI is too scripted and can be broken and exploited way too easily. The only difference being is I was expecting that here. This game is going to have flaws that are going to be exploited after a month of real battle testing. Their games always come off great at first because of the presentation and what not, but it's 2k and their predictable AI.

[JonahFalcon]

Quote: Originally Posted by kGinGreen

This is why I've never been a huge 2k fan. I play all their games and like them but their AI is too scripted and can be broken and exploited way too easily. The only difference being is I was expecting that here. This game is going to have flaws that are going to be exploited after a month of real battle testing. Their games always come off great at first because of the presentation and what not, but it's 2k and their predictable AI.

That's what happens when you put all your resources into trying to do analog controls and worrying about the cow bells in Tropicana and not focusing on the batter/pitcher faceoff, which is 80% of baseball. It's supposed to be a chess match, not a softball toss.

[Brooklynnets24]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

Sliders too. The breaking pitches are boardering on a cheat against the CPU...lol. I'm hoping the 3-step pitching option will ad back that layer of difficulty in pitching, but that won't do anything about the AI logic.

what do you mean 3 step pitching option? is that when the circles would change when you flicked the stick to the 2nd position because i miss that too

[Eski33]

What disappointed me most about the demo was that it is dumbed down. You can pick off the CPU runners at will, the pitch velocity is too slow (all pitches look the same), the glow ball thing is brutal, the swing stick makes no sense (all you have to do is push forward) and the ball trail is too arcadey....

I don't understand why 2K knowing that fans are hoping for a huge improvement, would not release a strong demo. You can't even change settings. If this is indicative of the final product I will save my money....

I will say the visuals weren't horrible and the new color team is excellent...

[sinkdog]

Quote: Originally Posted by kGinGreen

This is why I've never been a huge 2k fan. I play all their games and like them but their AI is too scripted and can be broken and exploited way too easily. The only difference being is I was expecting that here. This game is going to have flaws that are going to be exploited after a month of real battle testing. Their games always come off great at first because of the presentation and what not, but it's 2k and their predictable AI.

With all due respect, what do you think ALL of EA Sports games AI is?