The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

MLB 2K9 Demo Thoughts

I just downloaded & played my first game of MLB 2K9. My thoughts:

1. Gary Thorne? Again? Hey, I like him, he does Orioles telecasts, but didn’t he also do play by play for NHL 2K9 and Little League World Series Baseball for the Wii? Wow, he’s the go to play by play guy.
2. Wow, if you like Pepsi, you will love MLB2K9
3. I played as PHI in a 3 inning game vs TB (only choice you have). The pitching dynamic seems better refined than last year, I like how they have stamina and composure as meters. Fielding is nicely done, although not much different than last year.
4. Batting was insanely easy. Here’s my 1st inning: fly out, HR, HR, single, single, ground into DP. Here’s my 2nd inning: double, IBB (?! – supposedly to get to the pitcher), single, HR, fly out, fly out, ground out. Pretty funny that my pitcher got on after the IBB…although it seems to be an odd strategy to do that in the 2nd inning.
5. I saw glitches – even though I was pitching, the on screen graphic would show me as batting ?!
6. One thing I do love is the over the shoulder view when pitching to look back the runner – at the same time you’ll also be able to see the speed rating of the runner. Now that is cool – you don’t necessarily have to attempt a pick off, you can just look him down.

I’m guessing the game will be offense oriented. The 2K menu still sucks and they really need to make it look better. Graphics look great. Sounds aren’t bad – however in between innings seems to take a while. Also, there’s music playing when batting – what is this, a Japanese game?

So, while I won’t say I completely hate it, and it’s actually better than I expected, I’m just not juiced for it. I’ll rent it for sure.