

It won’t get the reviews of “The Show.” And this may be it for the franchise. The fact is that the “ MLB 2K” franchise hasn’t really changed much since the 2010 edition and I wonder if the team behind it haven’t given up a bit on refining. They’re not glitches, per se, but they do feel like more elements of a title that hasn’t been lovingly developed enough. They have casual movements - stepping out of the box or moving to the ball, for example - that just don’t look correctly animated. Players sometimes do that thing where it doesn’t look like they land quite as much as they float. It just bugs me when the announcer talks about how cold it is in April and then the crowd is rendered in t-shirts. The stadiums look good but the crowds are generic, repetitive, and inconsistent. With “The Show” being as incredibly refined as it is, the comparisons make the rough edges of this title stand out even more.Īnd those rough edges show in the presentation as well. And a third announcer talking about a ball just past the first base bag is “deep enough to score the run from third.” I know announcing should be a bonus and not the meat of the judgment of a game like this but it hints at a laziness in development when there are this many flaws in the actual game presentation. Another announcer talking about how time is running out to score in the 3rd. An announcer talking about it being “early in the game” in the 11th inning. Ramon Santiago throwing to third instead of first even though I definitely pushed the stick in the right direction. Prince Fielder rounding first on an obvious single through no input from me. Last year I lamented “an unacceptable number of glitches” and I’m back to report that they seem even worse this year. It could be argued that the pitching is too easy (but I’d just like to think I’m too good at it…let me have my little ego boost.) And the pitcher fatigue feels well-designed. If a fastball turns into a single and then a double, I wouldn’t try it a third time. I liked how pitching responded to the course of the game as pitches become harder to pull off if they don’t work early in the game. I enjoyed being on the mound in “2K12” more than being behind the plate and that’s a rarity in a baseball game, which is usually about wanting to run up the score and not create a pitcher’s duel. The control stick batting isn’t quite as responsive but the pitching feels organic and smoothly designed. These games are well-structured in a way that gets you excited to play.Īnother positive is that 2K hasn’t ditched their stellar pitching mechanics which involve specific motions with the control stick instead of mere button pushing.

The entire presentation when you start up the game from the menus to standings/stats to mode selection looks and feels right. It’s just cool to tie a simulation directly to the actual game and it’s a great feature in both this game and the vastly-superior “ NBA 2K12,” arguably the best sports franchise on the market today.

Boot up the game and you’ll see one of the best real world match-ups of that day waiting for you to play it out with a controller in your hands. I love the presentation of the various modes in the 2K franchise, particularly the idea that the game often builds itself around what’s actually happening in the real world.
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If that’s true, this series will go out with a whimper and not a bang.Īs my momma always says, let’s start with the positive notes.
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2K Sports is losing their MLB license after this year and there are rumors that they may not look to renew it. We’ll get to our RAVE review of “ MLB 12 The Show” soon but even if that title had fallen below its recent quality level, “ MLB 2K12” would be considered a shocking disappointment. In fact, while I understood that “The Show” was a “better game,” recent installments of “ MLB2K” actually took up more of my personal playing time. CHICAGO – I have long-defended 2K Sports’ “Major League Baseball” franchise, more commonly referred to as “ MLB2K,” against the claims that it doesn’t compare to Sony’s more acclaimed “ MLB The Show” and encouraged hardcore baseball fans to play both games.
