Review: MLB 2K10

MLB 2K9 was terrible. There’s no way around it. Even the development team for this year’s title acknowledges that fact and for good reason. 2K9 had too many issues to even be considered a contender in the baseball video game market. For MLB 2K10 developers Visual Concepts basically re-wrote everything that went into 2K9 and started with a clean slate. They added many features that they debuted in NBA 2K10 like the MLB Today and My Player modes but also brought with it some new animations and franchise features. However, with any title that tries to reinvent itself there will be some ups and downs. 2K10 runs smoothly something I couldn’t say about its predecessor, their first iteration of the My Player mode shows promise as does the rest of the game. Unfortunately there are too many AI and animation issues, presentation bugs, online problems and other small bugs here and there that holds back this year’s game. Even with all these issues the foundation for a good baseball title is very apparent but that’s all this title is, a sneak peek at what next year can bring.

The presentation this year is a step up from last year. The amount of stats they throw up on the screen is insane and that’s what baseball fans want to see when they watch a game or play the video game. The camera angles before or after innings and plays are very realistic but what isn’t so realistic are the player animations and the audio. The sound of the bat sounds much more like a recording off a television rather than an actual recording off a bat. Animation wise it looks great on a simple groundout or fly ball. When turning two or reacting to a bunt the players don’t look so natural and often times look very “cartoony”. Just watching their legs when players run remind me more of the Road Runner than of an MLB player.

Some players look like the real life counterparts but most of them don’t and even the ones that do, you’ll have to get up close to realize who you are looking at. Pitchers also have an issue with their hands; so on close ups you’ll see your pitcher walking around as if they have a pirate hook for a hand. Other things like players running the wrong way after the play or even into walls after a fly ball make the game unrealistic. Even in the MLB Today mode which allows you to play out every game being played in real time with up to date stats and ratings, suffers from presentation issues. Things like inaccurate and repetitive commentary or meaningless stat pop ups made me feel like there was no reason to play that mode. It’s really unfortunate that there are these small bugs since the game does look much better this year but the small issues become more and more apparent as you continue to play.

2K9’s biggest issue was gameplay and I can tell you that in 2K10 framerate isn’t an issue. There will be some hitches here and there but it’s basically gone. The game runs smoothly say or the animation issues I spoke about and that’s a good thing since the pitching mechanic is very good. 2K uses the right stick approach to pitching. You have to move the right stick in a certain way for each pitch. For instance a fastball is a simple down and up movement and for a pitch like a slider you move the stick to the right then perform a half circle. This mechanic is very engaging and does give you the feel of throwing a pitch even though the ball animation isn’t that great. Batting is something that doesn’t change too much from year to year. You still use the right stick to swing the bat, a simple flick forward for contact swing or back and forward for a power swing but this year they added the Batter’s Eye. A text above the batter’s box will flash up letting you know what pitch type it’s going to be. To help you see the pitch they lowered the camera but I think it makes it harder to recognize pitches simply because of the poor animation of the ball. It works most of the time but I feel it’s not very realistic since batters in real life tend to look for a pitch and react to another one. Adding to the lack of realism is the fact that a lot of balls hit seem to have no power behind them, even the ones up the middle seem to always be caught or run down.

Fielding isn’t as big of an issue this year compared to previous years but it still has issues. Players at times players don’t react correctly to ground balls especially those hit to the outfield. Almost every outfielder has a cannon for an arm allowing you to throw out even the fastest runners. I guess to combat that the AI is pretty dumb. Your opponent will always throw to the cutoff man which means anyone with even a little speed can easily go from first to third. Then there’s the issue of tagging, the issue being that they don’t know how to. The animation is too slow and the AI just can’t apply the tag down fast enough to get runners out. So I guess that’s just two issues canceling each other out. These issues make the game very frustrating even if I benefit from it because it’s not realistic at all. It also makes other modes like the My Player mode not as enjoyable.

Making its debut in their MLB franchise is the My Player mode. This is a mode in which you can create a player and bring him up from the minor leagues to the big leagues. The road to the big leagues can vary based on your skill because you will get skill points for doing everything in the game. The skill points allow you to upgrade your player’s stats or attributes. I played through many seasons in My Player, one as a hitter and one as a closer. As a hitter it’s pretty simple and you will get your chance to get to the majors if you are good. If you struggle at the plate it will take a long time for you to get the call. But if you are good enough you can make it to the majors in the minimum time of 15 games. I found that to be very unrealistic but some might enjoy moving up quickly. Playing any position but infield and pitcher is not advised. The outfield is very disorienting and I have no idea why someone would start with a noodle arm, even being a minor leaguer.

As the closer I was called up for the last couple of months of the season and quickly became the middle reliever. I found myself pitching more than 1 inning a game sometimes even 3 or 4. I was even batting in tie games. I thought it was just a Manager AI bug in My Player but its present in the entire game. There will be times where I will be facing a pitcher who has thrown over 100 pitches in a tie game. It was very clear to me that the manager wasn’t present at all. Even simple things like infield position isn’t your control and the manager doesn’t change those either. You can move to any team at any point of the season and you never do you have any interaction with the GM. Your only interaction is with the 2K Insider guy at the end of a game that tells you the same thing over and over. Adding to the feeling of not being a part of a team is the fact that most presentations are taken out in My Player. Things like celebrating after a walk off home run or striking out the batter to clinch the World Series isn’t there. This makes this mode feel more formatted and like a series of events rather than playing through a season with a club. There are other things that are missing but what really hurts the mode are the AI issues, especially as a pitcher.

Other modes such as Franchise and Online also suffer from the AI/animation issues but to a lesser extent. In franchise you’ll get the all the managerial options you would want but the AI issues did frustrate me enough to not want to play through an entire season. Especially since the fact that almost every pitcher CPU controlled or not can pitch the entire game. This leads to unrealistic stats at the end of the season. Still you can get more in-depth with the franchise mode than ever before so those who always wished they were GM’s can live out their fantasy here. I’d love to tell you how online play works but I can’t because it doesn’t. I was unable to access online ranked games, even till this point but I was able to get into a few unranked games. During the online match the delay between my actions on the controller and what was happening on screen was so long that I had to settle for bunt hits, which work a lot, to score runs. I’m not surprised by this fact since 2K Sports struggle with online all the time but that being said it’s still disappointing. Seeing as they are the only baseball option for 360 owners having a game that doesn’t work online is inexcusable.

In the end there are many signs of improvement here but with all the new features added things like the presentation, AI, and the animation all suffered. If they had an extra year to work on this title I can see it contending for the baseball market. The problem they face is that they are playing catch up and this year’s title is simply setting the ground work for what is to come. You can get some enjoyment out of this game but it’s not perfect, it is more of an arcade game than a simulation, it’s not realistic and until a patch comes out you can’t play online; and that’s assuming you will be able to after the patch. MLB 2K10 is much improved from last year and fans of the franchise will enjoy this title but with issues still plaguing this game who knows how many people will be waiting around to see what the next title can offer.

Doin It RIGHT: - Good presentation. - Great pitching mechanic. - Good start to the My Player mode.	Doin It RONG: - Too many animation issues. - AI is not smart at all. - Online play doesn’t work. - Not Realistic.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5 / 10