Game Stooge

REVIEW: Major League Baseball 2K9 (Multi)

• Scribbled on March 4th, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
• Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sports

It’s been no secret that many felt Major League Baseball 2K8 was a regression in the series, and subsequently, Ben Brinkman was let go and Visual Concepts took over. It was and is their job to fix the series.

Unfortunately, they took this to mean make it look better, because the bad gameplay is still present, and in some areas, has gotten even worse. While the game looks fantastic, with realistic facial models and smooth animation, and the presentation has broadcast quality with lively commentary by new announcers Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips, the game is still an utter lemon when it comes to any sort of solid gameplay.

The Good

As stated, the game looks great. The player models in particular are realistic, though of course, mileage varies from player to player. Even managers look like themselves, from Joe Girardi’s buzzcut to Charlie Manuel’s jowls. The animation by and large is smooth and slick, though sometimes a player will appear to throw in one direction but actually throw it 90 degrees from his body.The crowd animation is the best this reviewer has ever seen, though the cheering and booing is somewhat muted. However, it’s something special when the home crowd is standing up during a key AB in the game; you can feel the adrenaline.

The post-game, however, is truly marvelous, from the play of the game to the hockey-like three top plays, and even highlights for each player during the game – should they deserve them; the ones who stunk are greyed out.

The interface, while still slightly cumbersome, is much more navigable than previous iterations, and the news items are really well thought out, even if the content usually just leads to a player profile or a box score.

The game really does look like real baseball…

The Bad

… until you actually play it, and then you realize that all of Visual Concepts resources seem to have been aimed at putting a nice coat of paint on a lemon. In fact, the franchise mode was so broken, that a day one update had to be applied. When you have someone releasing a game, knowing they have to issue a patch on the release day, something is seriously wrong. And apparently, all of the man-hours were spent creating 300 new Signature Style animations instead of, you know, making a coherent ballgame.

First, we’ll start with the bugs that any QA testing would have sniffed out almost immediately. Routine grounders, no matter how cleanly thrown, will mysteriously go as errors. At first, it seemed as if the first baseman forgot how to stay on first while receiving the throw, but on replays, the first baseman’s foot is on the bag; it’s just a bad bug. Outfielders have tremendous range, but tend to botch even routine fly balls. Runners will often decide to run for home – even if an infielder is holding the ball.

Then there’s the gameplay. Double plays stall because one has to wait for the throw meter to appear. Twice. And usually, the meter fails to show up the second time for the relay to first, and often way too late. What happened to preloading the relay? Computer hitters have Ted Williams’ eye, but not his hitting skill. They’ll almost never swing at pitches outside the strike zone, even if they’re borderline. They’ll hack away at almost everything in the strike zone. On the other side of the ball, the AI pitcher will almost never even get to a 2 ball count, and keep feeding strikes; the AI basically turns the game into Major League Softball 2K9.

While the gameplay is broken, the franchise mode is seemingly fine, but…

The Ugly

… you’ll realize they still haven’t been able to figure out for some reason how to utilize a depth chart. You’ll be simulating a few weeks at a time, then realize by game #80 that your backup catcher hasn’t played in a single game, while other backups have played in less than 8. The worst Franchise problem in MLB 09: The Show is that players playing in their top form might retire out of the blue; the one telling aspect is that the 2K9 devs’ 11th hour patch fixed stuff that was occurring at year 15 of the franchise mode, meaning they hadn’t gotten around to testing that part of the game til it already went gold.

It’s a shame, too, because for long strengths, the game can be truly engrossing. But then, your Gold Glove outfielder will inexplicably run the wrong way or your first baseman will “forget” to tag first on a routine grounder, and your suspension of disbelief will crash. And speaking of crashing, the game has a ton of stability issues, and franchise files will become “infected” with a crash bug that will force the gamer to abandon that franchise game. This after the title has already had a patch!

Major League Baseball 2K9 is basically a beta test for Major League Baseball 2K10, but 2K Sports is forcing you to pay $20-60 to beta test it for them. It’s better in many ways than 2K8, but that’s like saying searing gas pain is better than appendicitis. It’s best if you lay off this turkey and wait for the announcement of a patch that actually works, or our review of 2K10. Poor non-Sony baseball gamers have no other choice, especially if they don’t like games like Out of the Park Baseball.

Cool Kids Are into Social Media, AMIRITE

•