REVIEW: Major League Baseball 2K8 (360, PS3)

Scribbled on March 29th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 3, Sports

If you want a single sentence review of Major League Baseball 2K8, it would be: “The worst baseball game in recent history.” Not since the Triple Play series has a baseball game been so underwhelming for the platform for which it was developed. Most of the blame falls on the misguided priorities of Ben Brinkman, who was the lead developer for the overrated MVP Baseball series, and the Kush team; the developers made the sort of corporate focus group decisions that were parodied in the creation of Poochie in The Simpsons. In short, stability and good gameplay were sacrificed for completely irrelevent cosmetic bullshit.

The company meeting must have gone like this:

Exec #1: So, what do we want to do with the limited 12 month development time?

Exec #2: Well, we’re working on a Wii version, so we’ll need to make sure of the Wiimote.

Exec #1: Yeah, but Wii games don’t sell well if they don’t have Mario on the cover.

Exec #2: So, put it in the 360 and PS3 versions.

Exec #1: They don’t use that kind of motion control.

Exec #2: So? Use the analog stick. It’s never used, anyway.

Exec #1: You know, all the kids are playing Magic: the Gathering. It’s the in thing. We should include a collectible card game, but with baseball instead of those elves and dwarves.

Exec #2: That’ll take up a lot of development time. What about those bugs those annoying playtesters keep telling us about?

Exec #1: Ignore them. We must release the game around Opening Day. Don’t worry, we’ll get it in the patch.

Exec #2: Well, won’t that cut into development for 2K9? There’s bugs galore, like pitchers inexplicably throwing pitches after a pause in gameplay, crashes, bad AI, both gameplay and GM-wise (for example, apparently if Posada or Varitek go down to injury, the starting catcher becomes Jason Giambi and Coco Crisp, despite the depth chart), unstable online play, bad control issues, serious frame-rate issues and so on. That’s not counting the tedious announcing by Miller and Morgan that has remained virtually unchanged since 2K5.

Exec #1: Who cares? We’re the only baseball game in town.

Exec #2: What about MLB 08: The Show?

Exec #1: Who cares? We don’t expect anyone to buy games on the PS3. Does MLB 08 have realistically wind-flapping uniforms like us? HAH! Anyway, Microsoft isn’t bothering to use the classic High Heat Baseball license, and all Nintendo cares about is Wii Sports. We’re the only baseball game in town. Besides, I have major stock in Electronic Arts, and maybe this’ll make it easier for them to buy 2K. I’ll be rich! Bwahahahaha. Next year, we’ll have to include EyeToy functionality and the ability to earn Pogs in 2K9…