The Video Game Thread

[Jocephus]

im definitely getting mlb2k9 'cause ihave to have a baseball game and since i dont have the luxury of two systems, i'll take what i can get...and, the more i play teh demo, the more im dominating...getting the hitting down to a tee...so im really not concerned

i heard a rumor that 2k9 is losing money/going out of business, so this *may* be the last baseball game they do...again though, just an internet rumor ive read

[TimeForGuinness]

If anyone is a fan of RPG/strategy games...Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best I've played in awhile and has a great story to it as well. It isn't too long and isn't too short...but I'm really hope they come out with a sequel.

Great game for the PS3...I'll probably play through it again.

I'm on Fallout 3 now...Killzone 2 is up next.

[ghostrunner]

i heard a rumor that 2k9 is losing money/going out of business, so this *may* be the last baseball game they do...again though, just an internet rumor ive read

exclusivity. EA has exclusive rights to any 3rd party MLB baseball game (and NFL football, too, for that matter). There's no competition outside of The Show (which has usually been regarded as better, anyway) and it's only on the ps3, which is lagging behind the 360.

So there's no incentive for EA to improve the game too much. If you want an MLB game on the 360 you're stuck with whatever they do and they're not going to put a ton of money or effort into improving the game each year because they know you have no alternative.

I've had nothing but the 2k option the last few years, so I know this story pretty well.

2k Sports is owned by 2k games, which is owned by Take Two. They publish GTA and Bioshock among other things, so they're doing pretty well on the whole. There were repeated attempts by EA to take over Take Two last year via the shareholders, but Take Two held them off and it ended up costing EA a lot of money. So that deal is probably dead for now. 2k will probably continue to make a baseball game for a while. They have exclusive 3rd party rights to the MLB properties. Sony is able to put out The Show only because it's exclusive to their hardware.


EA owns the NFL rights, but aren't at all affiliated with 2k. They made MVP 2005 which from what I can gather is the most liked baseball game in recent history. I wasn't a fan, but that's beside the point.

The 2k series has had a healthy share of critics since at least 2k5 when it was taken over by Kush Games. For 2k7, they hired Ben Brinkman who worked on the MVP series, which everyone had high hopes about. He supposedly had a three year plan but he was sacked or quit last year. 2k9 was thrown over to Virtual Concepts, who had less than a year to overhaul the game that's coming out tomorrow. They basically didn't get to a lot of stuff this year, though the first priority was to fix the frame rate and after that smoothing out the gameplay. To me it feels like a completely different game and I think the consensus is that they're going in the right direction. The hit variety alone is outstanding this year. That and the pitching both seem fine to me, though I actually liked last years pitching better. It was slightly more difficult, but they wanted to simplify it for new players this year. Online is supposed to be much better this year, and they've dropped nearly all the cutscenes which I'm pleased about. It seems to me they still have some work to do on fielding and things like what Michael mentioned.

I don't think lack of competition has much to do with the quality. They do still have to compete with The Show, which I think sold more PS3 copies than 2k did last year, but from what I've read VC seems very sincere about trying to put out a quality game and I know they have more improvements in mind for next year.

Best news to me - supposedly the roster updates will be kept very current this year, and you can also share rosters and slider/difficulty settings with other players.

[clevername]

ah, I thought the EA deal had gone through and they had bought out 2K.

[redbirdjazzz]

i heard a rumor that 2k9 is losing money/going out of business, so this *may* be the last baseball game they do...again though, just an internet rumor ive read

exclusivity. EA has exclusive rights to any 3rd party MLB baseball game (and NFL football, too, for that matter). There's no competition outside of The Show (which has usually been regarded as better, anyway) and it's only on the ps3, which is lagging behind the 360.

So there's no incentive for EA to improve the game too much. If you want an MLB game on the 360 you're stuck with whatever they do and they're not going to put a ton of money or effort into improving the game each year because they know you have no alternative.

I've had nothing but the 2k option the last few years, so I know this story pretty well.

2k Sports is owned by 2k games, which is owned by Take Two. They publish GTA and Bioshock among other things, so they're doing pretty well on the whole. There were repeated attempts by EA to take over Take Two last year via the shareholders, but Take Two held them off and it ended up costing EA a lot of money. So that deal is probably dead for now. 2k will probably continue to make a baseball game for a while. They have exclusive 3rd party rights to the MLB properties. Sony is able to put out The Show only because it's exclusive to their hardware.


EA owns the NFL rights, but aren't at all affiliated with 2k. They made MVP 2005 which from what I can gather is the most liked baseball game in recent history. I wasn't a fan, but that's beside the point.

The 2k series has had a healthy share of critics since at least 2k5 when it was taken over by Kush Games. For 2k7, they hired Ben Brinkman who worked on the MVP series, which everyone had high hopes about. He supposedly had a three year plan but he was sacked or quit last year. 2k9 was thrown over to Virtual Concepts, who had less than a year to overhaul the game that's coming out tomorrow. They basically didn't get to a lot of stuff this year, though the first priority was to fix the frame rate and after that smoothing out the gameplay. To me it feels like a completely different game and I think the consensus is that they're going in the right direction. The hit variety alone is outstanding this year. That and the pitching both seem fine to me, though I actually liked last years pitching better. It was slightly more difficult, but they wanted to simplify it for new players this year. Online is supposed to be much better this year, and they've dropped nearly all the cutscenes which I'm pleased about. It seems to me they still have some work to do on fielding and things like what Michael mentioned.

I don't think lack of competition has much to do with the quality. They do still have to compete with The Show, which I think sold more PS3 copies than 2k did last year, but from what I've read VC seems very sincere about trying to put out a quality game and I know they have more improvements in mind for next year.

Best news to me - supposedly the roster updates will be kept very current this year, and you can also share rosters and slider/difficulty settings with other players.

That's very good news that VC got the 2K games back. Hopefully they can get the quality back up to where they had it from 2K to 2K4. Not that I have the money for 2K9, let alone a 360...oh well...

[AdmiralKird]

Yeah this version doesn't look any better than 2k8 to me on the surface. I think I'll just sit this one out and pray 2k10 is more appealing, or better yet, that EA gets its licensing back and we can see MVP2010. In other news...



Empire: Total War comes out Tomorrow/Wednesday

[Jocephus]

picked up MLB 2k9 on my lunch break..played 4 innings at home (brewers vs cardinals) and man it rocked...there was an immediate patch to download when i was online, not sure what was in it, but still...and also, had to download/update the rosters (and accept their live-rosters "program")...there are so many things to do/options, i didn't have any time to do that stuff so i just got into the game...its so nice, for me, to play a current baseball game in busch III...to me, it looked/played 10x better than the demo....and i unlocked 2 player cards and my first achievement! (suck it michael and tamman)...im not sure what the default difficulty is but i hit 3 homeruns in those 4 innings...1 ankiel (player card unlock), 1 glaus, 1 ludwick...the achievement i got is hit 3 hrs in a game...plus, it allows you to save and quit (i dont know if that features not new, but it is to me) so im looking forward to fniishing it and i know i can get a few more player cards from that game...didn't seem like best buy had that many copies either...could have been looking in the wrong place...

i normally have a routine when i get home from work, but thats not gonna happen this night...its all mlb2k9

[ghostrunner]

I bought 2k9 this morning and played it a little before heading out for an appointment. From what little I did play, I love it. The framerate stuff is completely gone. The crowd is way better this year - they go after the foul balls and don't just stand there.

The announcing is much better at reflecting what's going on and just feels smoother, like you're watching a real game. The transitions are handled really well. Last year it sometimes felt like they played a recording, hit stop, and started playing another. This isn't a big deal to me though, because I know I'll be turning it off eventually.

Best new feature so far - Practice, practice, practice. You can practice hitting, fielding, pitching, and baserunning. I've been wanting this for years. For fielding, you basically do nothing but field balls. Your pitcher throws automatically and the opposing team bats in their regular order and you just field until you get bored. It records the hits and the outs. It really helps with learning the fielding controls - I've always found this frustrating because in the past you only get to practice in the game and you might wait all game to try a double play. LOVE this feature.

The soundtrack stinks unfortunately. To me at least. Ted Nugent, Loverboy, Cheap Trick mixed up with some newer stuff and some latin rap duo I've never heard of. You also can't make your own custom soundtrack for the stadiums and when you're in the menus. You can for batter walk-up music if you've got a playlist saved on your Xbox, but that's it. Really odd to limit it in that way.

Those of you who get it for Xbox, let me know so I can check for you on Live.

OH! - The pitching and batting cameras are freaking awesome this year. Extremely customizable.

[Michael]

the achievement i got is hit 3 hrs in a game

*shakes head*

700 achievement points for the simpsons game.

[Jocephus]

the achievement i got is hit 3 hrs in a game

*shakes head*

700 achievement points for the simpsons game.

i think thats in the 800 range buddy...get it right

ghost, i know i have you on my list, but what is your name?