The Mlb 2k9 Impressions Thread

[MLB2K9]

MLB 2K9 PC is amazing... from the graphics, to animations, to audio everything is great. My favorite thing so far was when Edgar Renteria fouled off a suicide squeeze bunt and some guy in the crowd yelled "YOU'RE AN IDIOT RENTERIA!" Stuff like that is priceless and I think I have played my last game of MVP 2005.

[fenway389]

MLB 2K9 PC is amazing... from the graphics, to animations, to audio everything is great. My favorite thing so far was when Edgar Renteria fouled off a suicide squeeze bunt and some guy in the crowd yelled "YOU'RE AN IDIOT RENTERIA!" Stuff like that is priceless and I think I have played my last game of MVP 2005.

Yeah.............What he said. Only the total opposite. I am not impressed with this game at all. MVP will be on my computer for a very long time.

[lautrec]

The pitching is pretty outstanding. Once you start getting used to it, and how to work the controllers. I like the "bad" pitches, the little dot, when you miss. I like the suggested pitching by the catcher and the way he sets you a target.

Batting is good, too. You just need to practice.

Fielding is ATROCIOUS. The absolute most annoying thing is when your firstbaseman pulls off the bag early. The last game i played, I was pitching Luke Hochevar/Royals vs. the yankees, who (Hochevar) in this game has no fastball, but a 91 mph sinker, which he uses as his fastball. He lasted pretty well for the first 5 innings, coercing a lot of ground balls from the Yanks. There were two balls in those innings, in which my infielder threw to first (M. Jacobs) and even though the ball clearly beat the runner, he was called safe because apparently, jacobs pulled his foot off the bag. I lived with that, the game was still close. Then comes the top of the sixth. FOUR straight ground balls to my infielders, FOUR straight times where Jacobs pulled his foot off the bag. Mayber there's some cheat coded in there so the Yankees always win, no matter what, but, Jacobs, while a below average fielder, IS NOT going to pull his foot off the bag 6 times in 5 innings.!!! This bug is STUPID. Needless to say, I simply turned the idiot game off. I'm going to have to go back to MVP08, i guess. This fielding bug makes the game unplayable. PERIOD.

Baserunning is unbelievably ANTI-intuitive. I would, however, probably make the effort to figure it out, but with the disaster of the First Baseman glitch/bug, I will not even try to master it until a patch addresses the stupidity of this.

[krawhitham]

Finally played a few games

Solid game, I think it will kill off MVP (unless you want to play online).

Pitching took a game to get use to, I was beat like a red headed step child in my 1st game

few things I would like fixed

It is was too easy to pick people off, I got Ichiro 4 times in one game

The 1st baseman comes off bag way too often (3-5 times a game)

The game is a little too HR happy

[Wicked420]

Turn down the HR slider Kraw I thought you would of known that.

[MikeA]

Loving this game! I don't know why people are reporting crashing a buggy gameplay, it is perfect for me on my old hardware. (AMD 64 3700+ with 2 gigs of ram and a 7800 GTX OC) No issues with stability or slowdown at all. This is super slick, and my MVP '08 is now officially retired.

[venn177]

The pitching is pretty outstanding. Once you start getting used to it, and how to work the controllers. I like the "bad" pitches, the little dot, when you miss. I like the suggested pitching by the catcher and the way he sets you a target.

Batting is good, too. You just need to practice.

Fielding is ATROCIOUS. The absolute most annoying thing is when your firstbaseman pulls off the bag early. The last game i played, I was pitching Luke Hochevar/Royals vs. the yankees, who (Hochevar) in this game has no fastball, but a 91 mph sinker, which he uses as his fastball. He lasted pretty well for the first 5 innings, coercing a lot of ground balls from the Yanks. There were two balls in those innings, in which my infielder threw to first (M. Jacobs) and even though the ball clearly beat the runner, he was called safe because apparently, jacobs pulled his foot off the bag. I lived with that, the game was still close. Then comes the top of the sixth. FOUR straight ground balls to my infielders, FOUR straight times where Jacobs pulled his foot off the bag. Mayber there's some cheat coded in there so the Yankees always win, no matter what, but, Jacobs, while a below average fielder, IS NOT going to pull his foot off the bag 6 times in 5 innings.!!! This bug is STUPID. Needless to say, I simply turned the idiot game off. I'm going to have to go back to MVP08, i guess. This fielding bug makes the game unplayable. PERIOD.

Baserunning is unbelievably ANTI-intuitive. I would, however, probably make the effort to figure it out, but with the disaster of the First Baseman glitch/bug, I will not even try to master it until a patch addresses the stupidity of this.

Thank God we finally have a realistic baseball game.

[rixmithco]

Pitching is definitely the best part. I still get killed pretty badly, but have gotten better once I changed the setting so that instead of aiming for the breakpoint of the ball, I aim for where I want to ball to end up (pinpoint control). I turned off having the catcher call for pitches, as coming up with my own pitch sequences and location choices is one of the things I enjoyed most about MVP. I've also switched to using the release timing option. That gives me a clue of how to do the gesture timing, and I think will make pitching even better once (if) I master that.

I used assisted fielding in MVP and so I'm really struggling on that end of things. I'm getting a little better after three of fours games, but am having similar problems to others where I get the fielder into the catch circle and then he completely misses the ball. Also had a couple of times where the fielder can't pick up a ball near the wall and I give up an inside the park homer.

I've found the base running to be problematic as well. I have to watch the runners really closely or a runner that hits an obvious single will decide to try for a triple (the number next to the runner icon seems to indicate the base that the runner wants to go to), or balls that are hit to the wall and the runner just stops at first.

I've only seen the first baseman pulling his foot problem once or twice, but in MVP I would occasionally see the same issue.

Overall there is a lot of potential and I plan to spend the time to try to improve at playing before making a final decision about it. However since I expect that MVP modding will fall off dramatically at this point as the team works to figure out what they can do with MLB 2K9, I think that dropping the $20 and picking it up is the wise choice for anyone into PC Baseball gaming.

[Raybann]

Try mapping your right stick to control the outfielders. I've noticed that when you attempt to use the LS the runner's have a tendency to stop mid stride, no so with the right controller. Haven't had an issue since. I've also noticed that (stated by another poster) the tendency is to move the stick immediately when the ball is hit. Try this, when the ball is struck initially DO NOT touch the sticks, the outfielder will start movement automatically, if you don't touch it at all, he'll make the play (especially on pop flies), of course if it's hit in the gap you have to get to the ball, just do it with the right stick. When you start moving the left stick abruptly, it has a tendency to get touch sensitive and any wrong movement will cause it to stop. This is why I use my right stick for ALL outfield movement, and it's perfect.

Also IE is definately the way to go (coach's clipboard) I'll hit those low % zones as much as possible, of course mixing it up.

And I'm in agreement, fix the Franchise/Fielding situation (I can also deal with the Batting AI aggressiveness) and this game is perfect. I still don't feel cheated in any way by purchasing this. And I'm having a great time noticing all of it's nuances and making them work for me.

Just my .02

[Maestro23]

Found a good post over at 2k forums (good post = diamond in the rough) over there.

Explains the fielding system pretty good this year: http://www.2ksports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210612

I think this year it's important to understand how the fielding system(especially outfielders) works, which I think works differently than previous years'.

From what I perceived and understand, it works like this:

The ball hits in the air, an indicator will move around a bit as the fielder starts to make a bead for the ball, then settles at a certain spot before the ball lands. The time length between moving icon and settling(seem to lock down abruptly) depends on the fielder's rating and player running toward the icon quickly. Keep in mind, to position the fielder as best as you could around the icon(move him slowly, not sudden jerky type movements). The icon will settle in(it snaps) and move the fielder right on the indicator before the ball drops.

So the moving indicator not only being affected by the wind, but also affected by how well and how soon the fielder can spot the ball. Moving the fielder rapidly from one side to another quickly, can make the fielder lose the sight of the ball, resulting in mishandling or flat out miss the ball completely.

I think it's a fine way to represent how the fielding is done in a video game, maybe a bit erratic. I hope this helps with anyone having trouble fielding the ball, as I have not had any fielding miscues after learning about this.

For those having trouble with fielding, hope this helps.

[Raybann]

Yep, that is the one I was looking for. I think the originator was/is "Alai". Dude really put it all in perspective.

tks for posting.

[Maestro23]

Yep, that is the one I was looking for. I think the originator was/is "Alai". Dude really put it all in perspective.

tks for posting.

Yeah. I was seeing the same thing in practice mode myself. Just coudln't put it into words so others would understand.

Should help the people who are really struggling with fielding.

[Raybann]

While I'm at it, I remember you and a few others from YEARS back on the 2K site. Man what is going on over there? I felt like a College Professor that's been assigned to an Elementary School. I've seen some of the oldtimer's move on to OS, but it feels like detention over there.

Anyway, you and the rest of the Guys here keep up the good work, you have no idea just how many people really depend on the insight/work that's done here!

Out.....

[Maestro23]

While I'm at it, I remember you and a few others from YEARS back on the 2K site. Man what is going on over there? I felt like a College Professor that's been assigned to an Elementary School. I've seen some of the oldtimer's move on to OS, but it feels like detention over there.

Anyway, you and the rest of the Guys here keep up the good work, you have no idea just how many people really depend on the insight/work that's done here!

Out.....

Oh man. Someone remembers me from way back. Yeah, I used to hit those forums hard back when I played NFL 2k5 and 2k Baseball on the "old" Xbox.

Man, those forums went down hill so quick, it wasn't even funny. My hiatus from them started when I found this site for MVP for PC.

It's like a bunch of 8-yr olds over there, its hard to find anything useful. Can't have an intelligent discussion about any aspect of the game. You will lose brain cells trying to explain anything to just about anyone over there.

This is a good forum and has helped sustain MVP all these years. I'm hoping we can do the same for MLB 2k.

Glad to see ya over here man. Don't be a stranger. ;)

[maddux31]

Maestro you are the man!! ;)

[Maestro23]

Maestro you are the man!!

Just trying to share the knowledge man. ;)

[electro_cute]

just played my first complete game (lost 3-2, red sox against mets) after tinkering with practice mode (badly done compared to nba 2k9), home run derby etc. graphics and commentary are excellent, everything runs smooth, even though gear, faces and portraits look horrible. pitching is well done, it's fun, and ball-strike ratio can be fixed through sliders. there's one thing that won't be fixed though - strike zone. first of all it's huge. second of all it's not variable, and third there are no blown calls. pitches are called strikes even if they are just touching the zone and this annoys the hell out of me couse you have to swing at everything.

batting is well done, and the main problem for me stems from that huge strike zone. batters eye and zone hitting sucks couse icons are huge, and if you turn them off you can still use the left stick to aim like in mvp 05.

fielding is just horrible with number of bugs, and absolute worst is not being able to pick up the ball when it hits the wall (both cpu and user). fielding cams are awful in some ballparks (fenway), and i really hope this can be modded.

franchise bug is what bugs me the most, but this has been discussed way too often.

if they can patch franchise and resolve fielding issues this game will be good, and if they shrink the strike zone and make it variable the game will be amazing.

[mva5580]

there's one thing that won't be fixed though - strike zone. first of all it's huge. second of all it's not variable, and third there are no blown calls. pitches are called strikes even if they are just touching the zone and this annoys the hell out of me couse you have to swing at everything.

batting is well done, and the main problem for me stems from that huge strike zone. b

Totally, completely, absolutely agree with this; the strike zone is absolutely brutal. I'm ok with the fielding after reading the tip on page 7, as that has helped immensely in understanding how 2K intended people to field in this game, I really don't have much of an issue with it anymore. But the strike zone is absolutely horrible.

[dabanara]

is anyone experiencing problems when you bring in a reliever? nothing shows up on the pitch selection area and then after a few pitches it crashes to desktop.

on classic pitching, not sure if that's the reason.

[Sharpshooter]

Dabanara, I had a major problem with a relief pitcher, but I have not tried to dupicate it to see if it's a bug.

I warmed up my pitcher an inning before. When I was batting and the pitcher spot came up, I put in a pinch hitter. When I took the field my pinch hitter was on the mound. I took him out right away and put in the guy warming up. When I brought the pitcher into the game, the computer kept telling me that I had a position player on the mound with the option to keep him pitching, but I had already made the switch. I chose switch to the pitcher but the message stayed on my screen. I had to bring a cold pitcher from the bullpen to come in so I had to waste a relief pitcher without him even throwing a pitch.

[InSainn]

Now that I have finally gotten a chance to play the game, I'll just say this, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig... I think you get the idea, awesome presentation and graphics, horrible gameplay... I'll take MVP...

[JeremyB]

well after fighting to get the controls to work properly with my logitech gamepad I have to say I dont mind it, dont get me wrong MVP is still miles above it but for $20 I cant complain all that much. I started my franchise today with the Toronto Blue Jays and won the game 5-4 in the 9th and was cool to see the game start in the daylight and end in the night with the lights around the rogers centre on.

I also have MLB 09 on the PS3 to keep me busy but hope to continue to play this game, cant wait to see some of the mods that hopefully will come. Also hope to see a patch come with some of the bugs being fixed on it.

Jeremy

[pitchleague]

I have played a handful of games here and there but I have not played in any of the retractable dome parks yet. Are they open or shut in 2k9? Or do they open/shut with the weather? The would really stink, I would think, if you wanted to do a franchise of the D-Backs or the Brewers and their stadiums are always closed up so you never get the true effect of the day/night.

Otherwise, for my impressions, I kind of posted them in a different thread. But I like it a lot thus far. I have hardly had any glitches or bugs (yet), but I also bought it via direct download thru gamestop rather than buying the retail boxed version. I wonder if there is any difference?

[mike360]

is anyone experiencing problems when you bring in a reliever? nothing shows up on the pitch selection area and then after a few pitches it crashes to desktop.

on classic pitching, not sure if that's the reason.

I use classic pitching and never had a problem like that. What are your computer specs and what OS are you using ? I use Vista.

[mva5580]

Now that I have finally gotten a chance to play the game, I'll just say this, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig... I think you get the idea, awesome presentation and graphics, horrible gameplay... I'll take MVP...

I think if you go back and play MVP Baseball without any mods, you'll find that MVP isn't this be-all-end-all game many make it out to be.