First let me say I actually enjoyed MLB 2k8. It had flaws(several), but after tweaking some sliders I actually played a few full seasons, simming a game here and there, and enjoyed it. I had high expectations for MLB 2k9, and was very disappointed. After getting home and putting the game in I started up an exhibition game. I loved it, the presentation was new and great, the announcers were new and fresh, and the graphics looked good. Unfortunately the more I played the more the bugs and glitches started showing up. Such as……perfect throws to the first baseman and he wouldn’t put his foot on the bag; outfielders not getting there gloves up in time to catch flyballs and letting the ball go over their heads; Players running through walls and disappearing; Stats are all screwed up; Pinch hitters for the CPU coming out and pitching the next inning; I actually had some phantom player standing in the other batters box once when I was hitting. My first franchise froze after the first three games and I had to start it over. I haven’t even mentioned dumb things that just don’t happen in a true baseball sim. Things like the CPU swinging at everything. They never take a pitch. For that matter, the CPU hardly ever throws a ball. Almost every inning is three or four pitches. You can fix that with sliders like last year right? Wrong. They took away a ton of sliders and presentation options from last year. There is no slider to control CPU aggresiveness at the plate. There are no sliders for a ton of things, and what ones there are you can’t figure out what they mean. Want to change the presentation angle? Can’t, there’s no option. Oh and if you do mess around with some sliders it disables the card collecting feature.

I will close by saying that everything is there for 2k to improve on to make a great game. Like I said before the presentation, graphics, and overall broadcast of the game is very nice. Unfortunately, I believe the bugs are just going to be too much to overcome for us xbox360 users to have a good baseball game to play this year. Oh well, theres always next year….

The title of this post should pretty much say it all: This is a BAD GAME. Many reviewers are noticing the rampant glitches in this year’s version–many more than were in MLB 2K8, which wasn’t all that smoothly done in the first place–and what they are reporting is accurate if, perhaps, understated. In terms of its programming, this game is a disaster. And the baseball action (fielding mechanics, pitching, etc) make it seem like there probably isn’t a single actual baseball fan employed in the 2K studios. Had a chance to check out The Show 09 on my buddies PS3, far–far–better.

So my solution is simple–don’t buy this game. If you did buy it, return it to the store immediately. It’ll be disappointing not having a new baseball game this year, but maybe if everyone leaves this dog on the shelf either MLB properties will reconsider and send the license back to EA, or 2K will fire their entire design team and start over. At this point, either solution would likely result in a major improvement.

EDIT

I’ve talked this over with a number of friends, and we all agree–the enforced yearly output for sports video game franchises is killing the quality of the games. There is, literally, no time for major innovation, good quality control, etc. We’ve all agreed the following solution would work and hope you agree: Put out a new title once every two or even three years–offering downloadable ($) roster and rating updates for each new season between generations of the game. Giving these studios more time to focus on quality and innovation would probably lead to increased game sales. I did not purchase MLB 2K9 this year, choosing to rent it first instead since I was disappointed with the last two or three iterations of the franchise . And, needless to say, won’t be buying it. I will be doing the same thing with Madden as well. Use the power of your pocketbook, rent these games for a few days before u purchase them. It will save u both money and time, and maybe the sports game companies will wake up and smell the new century.

This game is really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Yes there are glitches, what game doesn’t have them, and there are some things that are just odd. Some things I noticed:

-Outfielding is difficult, you have to really control your movements and can’t start and stop on a dime, weird, kind of like real life. once the player is in the dark circle, very little movement is needed.
-First basemen off bag: While this is odd, it typically only happens on throws that cause him to pull off the bag, I’ve played about 12 franchise games and its happened twice.
-Pitching is easy, mastering it is hard: The computer AI likes to swing, and gets A LOT of hits, you have to throw balls in order get them out, you can’t just throw three straight strikes and expect a strikeout, they are big league hitters after all.
-Batting is very easy on lower difficulties, as difficulty increases, fastballs are faster, and offspead pitches are more drastic, making things more difficult. Influencing with the left analog is just stupid because its so easy and it shouldn’t be that way.
-The Umpires like to make a lot of calls that are terrible. A lot of the tag plays are pretty much a coin toss. There is very little consistency; some plays the runner is clearly safe and is called out and vice versa.

Aside from these things the game is actually fun, I’ve had games go into extra innings with the cpu, games where i get smoked, and games where i smoke them. The game is visually very good looking, the graphics are awesome, aside from players not sensing contact with other players. The show is not that much better, it has had the same announcers and pretty much the same animations and presentation since MLB 2005 on PS2. This game is not the worst game ever, if you have an XBOX, i would recommend getting it if you are a baseball fan. If you want a game that is perfect without bugs, works just the way you want it, and is more realistic; pick up a glove and go outside.

2.0 out of 5 stars
Glitchin the $
This game is not great so much.
Pros:
I cannot think of one. Except for many the realism of the batting sound.

1.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for 2K10!!!
I ignored the negative review and now i’m paying for my ignorance.I can tolorate all the glitches but when the game locks up during loading or after finishing the game to exit…

3.0 out of 5 stars
Don’t listen to others
This game is no where near as bad as most think. It has superb graphics and commentary, since 2k has released the patch the game is very lifelike for both the cpu and player.