Baseball is in full swing at the moment. The World Baseball Classic has us holding our breath, not so much for the superfluous tournament, but so our starters don’t get hurt in a meaningless game. As we pray that an overzealous South African pitcher does not put a fastball off of the wrist of our starting shortstop, we can sit back and bask in what is my favorite sports video game, baseball. On the Xbox 360, we only have one choice and it is MLB 2K9. Last year was somewhat of a letdown and 2K Sports has vowed that 2K9 will be the game to play this spring. Is this year a home run or a pop out to second base with two men on and 1 out? I would say it is a clean double to the gap. Not the best case scenario, but adequate and satisfying.
It’s that time of year again. Spring is in the air, at least in some parts of the country, and baseball is on our brains and consoles. If you’re a PS3 or multi-platform gamer, you have two choices to fill your baseball gaming needs, with 2K’s MLB 2K9 and Sony’s MLB 09 The Show. Both have made some nice upgrades since the 2008 season, but which is the best bang for your buck? We break it down for you in every category to see who should get your money.
Baseball. Finally. You know it is almost time for THE season to start when the baseball games start coming out. MLB 2K9 makes a return this year and has one goal in mind: Closing the gap between itself and MLB: The Show. Xbox 360 fans have no choice, which blows, but PS3 gamers do and they chose The Show in overwhelming numbers. Last years iteration, MLB 2K8 was not bad, but it was not great. They completely revamped the pitching mechanic and it was a disaster. It was easier to throw a curve ball in reality than do it on the virtual diamond. Did MLB 2K9 make huge strides this year? It did and we are very excited.
After sitting in on developer conference call for MLB 2K9 last Friday, my anticipation for this year’s 2K Sports baseball title wasn’t very high. The past few year we’ve heard the “going back to basics” speech, so hearing it again did not give me a lot of hope for this year’s title, even if Kush Games was out as the developer and Visual Concepts was in. Today, 2K released a demo for MLB 2K9 on the Xbox 360 (PS3 version coming on the Thursday update).
I played the demo a few times and, to my surprise, I was impressed. The game actually plays well this year, thanks to Visual Concepts. There are still quite a few things that don’t bring the game up to the level of Sony’s The Show, but it’s a huge huge step in the right direction for 2K.
The 849mb demo shouldn’t take you too long to download. If you don’t have a PS3, I can honestly say it’s not a bad move to buy the 2K baseball game this year. If you do have a PS3, I’d still go with MLB 09 The Show. We’ll have full reviews for both games in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for those.
It is almost baseball season. Thank God. With every new sports season comes the new iterations of their respective video games. MLB 2K9 is attempting to close the gap that has been building between itself and MLB: The Show by making the game ultra realistic. This shows the level of detail the game is going for with the player’s particular animations. Looks good. Real good. As the only baseball game for the Xbox 360, we all hope it will be the best we can get because it is all we will get.
2K dropped off the newest teaser trailer for MLB 2K9 today. It looks okay, but i’m still not sure why 2K doesn’t do some better motion capture for their animations. Looking forward to getting my hands on with the game to see if it’s any better than last year’s title.
You know what I’ve always found odd about the MLB 2K series? The still screenshots look phenomenal but quickly lose their luster when you see the game in motion. The animations and such just always disappoint me. I’m a baseball snob, though. I played my entire life and pitched a few years Semi-Pro before I blew out my knee, then I turned to coaching. Since I’m so in love with the game, I expect the best out of my baseball video games. In previous years, the MLB 2K series hasn’t delivered. Hopefully 2K can turn it around this year, but I remain skeptical. We’ll see in March.
For now, check out these two cool screenshots of Tim Lincecum.
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