Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Repella

This year 2K Sports has decided to release their annual baseball game on every system known to man and the PSP is one of them. Previous installments of the 2K franchise have not fared well on the PSP, but with the big brother next gen console versions receiving hefty improvements will this years PSP game receive the same care? More importantly has 2K sports crafted a hand held game that baseball fans will enjoy over Sony’s own MLB the Show franchise? This year the PSP version promises the ability to play as all Triple A minor league teams as well as the promise to play in their stadiums. It also features Online play via the PSP’s WiFi connection, a new pitching control, a new Manager Showdown feature, and the return of “the best booth in the business” with Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. Do all of these promised features add up to a game that can compete with The Show? The short answer is no, not even close.

The graphical weakness of this game is present long before you hit the batter’s box. The menus are very small and fuzzy. The text on everything from game stats, player stats, and even your team’s schedule will be hard to read for anyone without 20/20 vision. For some reason 2K decided to use about 1/3 of the screen to show stats and the rest of the screen is just filled with wallpaper. Once you are actually in the game things get even worse.

The stadium models are accurately rendered for each individual stadium, however they are Playstation 1 level in appearance. The stadiums themselves have little to no detail, Wrigley has its tell tale ivy wall and Shea has its apple but beyond that there isn’t much detail in each stadium. The stadium polygon count seams to be very low.

The players themselves are made up very few polygons and take on an unnatural square shape in their limbs that was common at the start of the 3d era. You will be hard pressed to tell each player apart, as there only seems to be a handful of player models. It is hard to tell Ken Griffey Jr. apart from A-Rod. The game is also filled with graphical anomalies. While the player models aren’t very detailed they are usually at least clear and unfuzzy, with the exception of their hats. For some reason the fielding player’s hats have a blurry quality about them that makes their hats about twice as tall as they should be. It is very odd and reeks of the rushed and ported nature of this game.

Replays are usually an area where the graphics of sports games can shine, but not with this one. Watching the replay for strikeouts shows that the batting graphics only have three ranges of movement - the beginning of the swing, the middle of the swing and the end of the swing. It doesn’t matter if the swing was at the knees or at the shoulders, we are always treated to the same ’by the numbers’ animation. As a batter, this really affects gameplay because you have no idea if you missed the ball high or low, or if you were early or late.

The only compliment I can give the graphics is that the grass at least looks fairly realistic and the frame rate remains solid throughout the game. Other than that the game is barely a step above 1st generation Playstation 1 games.

As big of an offender as the graphics in this game are the sound is even worse. Yes, 2K sports has once again hired Joe Morgan and Jon Miller to do the commentary, but they don’t have a prayer of alleviating the sound problems in this game.

The first and most obvious thing that everyone playing this game will notice is that a play will happen and 4 to 7 seconds later Joe Morgan will chime in with his play call. For instance, you can ground into a double play and be onto the next batter with the first pitch on the way and all of a sudden in the middle of the pitch Joe will chime in with a very exited tone “Oh this one is hit right at the Short Stop, it should be an easy 2”. The delay is unforgivable and really is comparable to the very first sports game with play calling - think Joe Montana Sports Talk Football for the Genesis level of bad.

The announcers themselves sound a little drowned out and not as clear as their console versions. Joe Morgan in particular sounds depressed. I can only guess this has to do with the level of audio transfer quality used by 2K.

Aside from the play-by-play announcers, the game offers very little in game sound. The crowd does cheer, but it’s a constant one-tone noise that doesn’t deviate at all throughout the game. There also isn’t any in game music or even organ playing, the umpires also do not make any noise. This means that you cannot hear any sort of audible call of balls and strikes. Most of the time you have to wait about 4 seconds for the score board display to know what the call was – frustrating at best.

MLB2K8 offers a modified form of the pitching controls from the console version. You select your pitch type and location using the analog stick, then you hit X which starts a circle meter that quickly expands and then contracts. The trick is to hit the X button again when the meter contracts back to its smallest point. If done correctly the ball will be thrown exactly where you have aimed it. The system works really well and after a couple of games it can be easily mastered.

On the hitting side, 2K has gone with the standard circular swing zone, which you control with the analog stick. If you manage to time the swing correctly and line the circle zone up with the ball then you will make contact. You can bunt the ball with the triangle button but there is not an option for a power swing. Overall the batting works well, however the game will not let you check swing - it is an all or nothing swing system.

The fielding and throwing in this game is standard fare. You use the analog stick to move your players and the face buttons determine which base you throw to. The longer you hold down the throw button the harder the throw will be.

The first thing I look at with a baseball game is the pitching and batting. This games batting is not bad; you do have some control over whether or not you hit the ball. However, the batting experience is slightly ruined by the fact that you have to wait to get the call on balls or strikes and the replay graphics are terrible. Because the replays are so bad you really have no way of telling if you are early or late, high or low on your swing and have no way of improving your batting outside of trial and error. It’s batting by guesswork.

The pitching interface is probably MLB2K8's best gameplay feature. With practice you can get the controls down and start pitching like the real pros. If you mess up and are off on the throw meter, then your pitch will be off target and either be a ball or an easy home run. Your pitcher does have a fatigue meter and the bullpen is always available.

The fielding in this game leaves a lot to be desired. The players themselves are very sluggish and one small misstep will lead to a double or triple simply because the fielder cannot catch up with the ball. The animations are also not very good and can lead to some weird catching and throwing movements that do not look natural. The game is also prone to committing weird throwing errors. For instance the computer hit into what should have been a sure double play, my 2nd baseman fielded the ball cleanly about 15 feet from second base, I hit the button to toss it to 2nd, instead of tossing it to the Short Stop the ball flew up in the air about 30 feet over the Short Stops head, almost like a can of corn, the end result was a single awarded to the batter.

One area that many baseball games get wrong is the baserunning, and sadly MLB2K8 no different. You use the L button to tell runners to advance, which sounds simple but in fact it is very hard to tell individual runners to advance. Theoretically you can hit the button that corresponds to the current base that they are nearest to, but good luck getting it to work. Most of the time you end up telling all your runners to advance and the end result is usually an unnecessary out.

This year’s game has added a Manager Showdown mode. This game type allows you to select your team, line-up, and your opponent. Once you’re in the game you don’t control the players, instead you are presented with a detailed scoreboard and diamond outline. In this mode you tell the players what to do and then the graphical interface shows you the result. For instance you can tell the pitcher to pitch to a guy or walk him, you can tell a batter to swing away or bunt, etc. Overall this is a text-based version of the game and I actually found it to be more fun than the actual game.

Major League Baseball 2K8 has thrown in almost every single mode that we have come to be used to in other baseball games. There is Franchise, Season, Home Run Derby, Minor League Play, Manager Showdown, Exhibition and Online play.

This game does do a good job of tracking stats and player evaluations. The stat simulation fan may be happy with this game if they don’t actually play the main game and instead stick to the managerial aspect. You have the ability to control your franchise, sign and trade players, and track stats over several seasons. After simulating a season I found the stats to be fairly accurate with slightly higher batting averages than normal. Most of the teams performed how you would expect them to perform, with the Red Sox coming in first in the East and the Royals coming in last in the Central. The top pitchers had 19 wins.

The game does offer minor league play but it is nothing to brag about. As far as I could tell you could not play an entire season with the minor league teams and instead are limited to exhibition play. Also, as bad as the sound is for the main game it is even worse for the minor league play because there are absolutely no announcers during the minor league games. This means that the only sound you will hear during the minor league game is the constant monotone crowd noise.

Online play is offered, however to date I have never been able to find anyone to play against. You can log into a game lobby and search for other players, but I could not find any available players. Theoretically you can play online, but I wasn’t able to test it.

Ultimately the only player who will find real value in this game is the player who doesn’t care about the actual game and only wants a hand held stat simulator.

Now that 2K sports has wrapped up the 3rd party license for Major League Baseball, you’re only going to have 2 choices on your PSP, just like last year. Unfortunately, just like last year, 2K sports fails deliver. I had a bad feeling about the game when I opened the case and the manual was only 4 pages long. This game screams rushed port and the sad part is it screams rushed port of the non-existent Playstation 1 version. If you are able to look past the sub par graphics then the sound problems will surely have you screaming. MLB 2K8 for the PSP reminds me of an American League pitcher at the plate during an inter league game, it’s a complete waste of time.

Gaming Trend Score

52

1. Graphics: 40
2. Audio: 10
3. Controls: 70
4. Gameplay: 80
5. Value/Replay: 30
6. OVERALL:52