Major League Baseball 2K9 (360)

By Scott Pytlik
March 09, 2009 15:46 PM PST
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2K Sports tries to take last year's formula and improve upon it in many ways, but in reality all they have managed to do is shake things up a bit to make it feel like a fresh game. Some of the new options and features help to improve the game, while other options, or lack there of, leave me scratching my head. The gaming industry's co-op trend continues to grow, and sports titles have a solid track record for fun, competitive co-op play. Unfortunately for baseball fans, MLB 2K9 doesn't allow you to play on the same team as your buddy sitting right next to you; it doesn't even allow you to team up with your buddy online.

In GPSports' Scott's own words, "Fans of Major League Baseball 2K8 will feel right at home when they pick up the controller to play this year's iteration of the increasingly popular 2K Sports baseball franchise. While 2K Sports has made some tweaks to improve the gameplay mechanics, Major League Baseball 2K9 is still plagued by some of the same bugs and lack of features that prevented last year's title from being an all time classic."

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The Basics

This year's pitching and batting mechanics have been simplified to appeal to a more casual fan base. 2K Sports has traded in its complicated and sometimes frustrating three-step process for a dumbed down two-stepper. It goes like this:

To bat you press down at any point to initiate your step and then press forward at the right moment to swing. Timing is only required on the swing, the step no longer needs your attention. This makes batting a piece of cake; I crushed a 3-run homer with Evan Longoria in his first at-bat. But, if you really enjoyed the batting mechanics of last year's title you can go into your options and change your controls back. You can still direct where you want to hit the ball -- pull, push, air or ground -- by pushing the left stick in the proper direction. Pitching is just as easy. Your catcher will still call a pitch and tell you where you should throw it, which of course you can completely ignore at your own risk. To hurl the ball you pull back on the right stick, which initiates a green circle that expands outward, when it reaches its maximum point you push forward on the stick and away it goes. Gone are the days of the dreaded meatball pitch from not accurately following the pitch motion. But, like hitting, if you prefer the controls from 2K8 you're more than welcome to go back to them.

Unfortunately, fielding has made no real strides and at times feels as though it has taken a dive. The realistic delay when changing momentum while running after a ball, either in the air or on the ground, remains the same; so does the buggy gameplay of standing right where the ball will land and having your outfielder completely miss it for no reason. This is just one example of how MLB 2K9 does one thing right and another thing terribly wrong. If you manage to get a runner on base you better pay very close attention to him because pickoffs are apparently easy as pie. While playing the computer I picked off every runner that got on base, my success rate was 50 percent. While playing online against another person it was slightly harder but I still managed to get five successful pickoffs, more than you'd ever see in a real game. This of course is adjustable in the difficulty sliders and will increase in difficulty as you raise the level to all-star or legend, but a 50 percent success rate on pro is a little ridiculous. Perhaps one of the best new features is the save and quit option. Gone are the days of leaving your console on in the middle of a game because you have other things to do. Now, you can just save, quit and later load to resume your game.

Features

The major positives in MLB 2K9 reside in the revamped franchise mode. This year's mode borrows completely from NBA 2K9 and integrates theme songs, menu layouts and player's ambitions into 2K8's format of managing the entire organization including the minor leagues. Player's ambitions are measured in four categories: financial security, team prestige, play for a winner and playing time. The menu's look identical to NBA 2K9 and alters the nba.com headlines screen to function as the news source from around your virtual league.

Living rosters have also been adopted from NBA 2K9. For those of you not familiar with this feature, every time you start MLB 2K9 it will check online (provided you are hooked up to the internet) for updated rosters and automatically download them for you. These not only means you'll have the latest trades and free agent moves, but 2K Sports will adjust player's attributes to reflect how they are performing in real life. Of course, 2K Sports included all of the worthless features that gamers hardly use, such as 2K cards, the trophy room, 2K beats, 2k reelmaker and the ability to adjust the ballpark music.