With its unique visuals and intriguing factions, Brink, the upcoming FPS from Bethesda is sure to have fans of the genre interested to learn more.  Well, if you’re one of those people, you’re in luck.  You can check out the recently released cinematic trailer below, or visit the recently re-launched website for more information, assets, an other insights.  Right now, Brink is looking at a Q3 2010 release window, with no official date yet set.  So sit back and enjoy the video, and keep tuned to Spawn Kill for more info as it rolls in.
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The kart racer most certainly is not dead, and nor should it be. As someone who is quite averse to realistic sports in video games (real world sports do not interest me either), I continually find myself drawn to the colorful and unpredictable world of cartoon racing, whether it’s Mario Kart and Skunny Kart from my childhood or, more recently, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. As I am continually explaining to my more athletically-inclined friends my sports need an injection of magic and wackiness to keep my attention. I’m loud and tacky, so I like my sports to follow suit.

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Last Thursday saw the release of the second (and last announced) bit of DLC for Resident Evil 5. While it is still set to be included with the upcoming Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, this second episode and handful of extras has been dutifully doled out to the early adopters (like myself) still hungry for their action/horror fix. Titled Desperate Escape, this chapter details exactly how Jill Valentine and Josh Stone came to occupy the chopper that proved a timely aid to Chris and Sheva at the end of the main campaign.

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Is Heavy Rain a video game? Is it interactive drama? Is it both? Maybe a better question to all three questions is: is it good? Tigresa (Stephanie) and Snarkasaur (Dave) aim to find out with a little deliberation. We may disagree about nudity a bit, but I think we come to a common consensus on Heavy Rain as a whole in the end. Heavy Rain is a difficult game to both review or discuss without getting knee-deep in spoiler territory, but we have taken on that very challenge.

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MLB 2K10 was released earlier this week and has already ran into issues with online play. In the recent developers’ conference call, which can be found here, they stressed the fact that 2K10 is not going to be like 2K9. I’m currently in the middle of reviewing the title and I have to say that this year’s title is certainly not like the previous year’s. For one thing, it works, and it is very clear that MLB 2K10 is a big improvement. However the one area that isn’t quite working up to potential is the online play. In the first few days there have been many reports of games suffering from lag, disconnect issues and now players are unable to connect to ranked matches. I myself have not been able to connect to a ranked match and have yet to try to play an unranked game. For the many people who are experiencing this issue, 2K has officially released a “workaround” to this issue while a patch is being worked on. This is what you will have to do:

“Workaround One” Most Effective

When attempting to connect, make sure it connects to the first attempt the game tries. If it moves to another connection, then simply cancel and try again. This may take a little bit longer (about 2 minutes) than connecting via workaround two.

“Workaround Two” Effective

When you select a ranked game, it will say “loading online roster” and then “restoring default roster” and move on to connect to a player. However, after it attempts to connect to another user afterwards, it will sometimes say “restoring default roster” a second time. If you see the “restoring default roster” a second time, then the glitch will happen. Simply press “A” to cancel the connection and try a ranked game again.

You should only see the game say “restoring default roster” once. Anymore than one time will cause the glitch.

Now I can’t say I’m surprised as NBA 2K10 also suffered from online issues so gamers can only hope that a patch for this issue is released much sooner than the first patch that hit the NBA title.

[Source: 2Ksports.com ]

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Last Rebellion is a difficult game to review.  I enjoyed playing through it.  I found the combat system engaging, many of the technical aspects to be smart and helpful, and the art style unique and mostly beautiful.  It’s also a flawed creation, and while none of these flaws break the game, they definitely spoil an experience rife with potential, an experience that could have been something special had someone taken a left when they instead went right, or looked away when they should have paid attention.  Last Rebellion is not a bad game, but it could have been a great game.

The story of Last Rebellion is one of its main issues.  To be frank, it’s almost incomprehensible, and what is comprehensible is boring and predictable.  Is it a problem of translation?  Is it a problem of storytelling in general?  Is it some conglomeration of issues too tangled to fix?  I don’t know.  The basic story is fairly simple, and even compelling in a way.  There is a goddess of destruction and a goddess of creation (who by the end are largely irrelevant).  Unlike most games, it is the goddess of creation who starts out as the main antagonist of our two heroes.  This goddess of creation has gone mad with her own ability, never letting anyone die and causing chaos with the very essence of life.  Nine and Aisha, our protagonists for this adventure, are tasked with roaming the land and sealing away monsters too stubborn to die.  The goddess of death gives them this ability, and it is a required skill for each battle.  There are also political struggles and an antagonistic brother to deal with, but it’s difficult to fully understand exactly what everyone’s role is.  The brother, named Alfred, kills Nine’s father and Nine himself.  Nine is saved by a Sealer named Aisha who casts a complicated spell that basically fuses Nine and Aisha into one being.  They are able to switch forms at will, but forever inhabit the same soul or shell or whatever we might wish to call our mortal coil.  The only time and place that they are aloud to co-exist as separate entities is within a central hub-like area called the Vamino Room that serves as a warp home and save point.  As a mechanism for story, this concept is bizarre.  Fortunately as a game mechanic it’s actually quite ingenious.

While running around on the field, the square button switches between Nine and Aisha.  For the most part, the character you run around with is irrelevant aside from aesthetic favor.  But there is a regen (regeneration) factor for each of them that makes the choice have some meaning.  Nine regens magic power when he’s running around, and Aisha regens health.  The regen is slow but noticeable and helps out quite a bit for the majority of the game.  They also have spells that they can cast while in the field that can only be cast with the person to whom the spell is currently equipped, but that can be changed on the fly.  In combat, both characters participate in a turn based system that is somewhat traditional for JRPGs, but that definitely has its own spin.  Players choose which character goes first and which goes last, and character speed determines if the player or the monsters act first.  Each character has the ability to melee or cast magic, and despite seemingly sharing a stat pool in regards to health, mana and speed, Nine always does more melee damage and Aisha always does more magic damage.  This is proper, however, given their natures.

There are no upgradable weapons to speak of.  Magic is gained by finding a proper item in treasure chests located around the world.  Unfortunately these treasure chests have an annoying key system attached to them.  They generally require 5 keys each, and the keys are random drops from common enemies.  At times, I ran around with an abundance and never had an issue, particularly at the end of the game where I had more than I’d ever use.  At other times, I was frustratingly void of any keys while chests sat around with precious skills in them going unused.  Keys aren’t a 100% drop item, and players can find themselves grinding just to keep up with the skills available.

Thankfully the magic system is quite broad and provides players with an ample amount of battery for often difficult enemies.  There is an entire array of buffing, debuffing, attack (both magical and physical), poisons, etc.  There are also different levels of spells, though these levels aren’t gained by using the spell but rather by finding the item.  It makes lower levels of the spell quite pointless, yet still leaves them on the spell list thus making scrolling through it quite a hassle at times.  Thankfully not too many of the spells have varying levels.  Instead, all spells have 5 strengths that can be cast.  The higher the strength, the higher the mana used.  And the higher levels can only be cast if they are assigned the proper pages.  It’s actually incredibly confusing until the moment comes when it all clicks into place and then it becomes second nature.

Actual combat can also be insanely confusing at first because it involves a system of stamping the body parts of enemies in order to cast spells on them.  Each enemy has a certain number of body parts that Nine or Aisha can hit.  This can range from four to a dozen, and each has a value for how much damage it will take.  If the body part says 100%, it’s going to take significantly more damage than one that says 30%.  There is also a specific order that the body parts need to be hit in that will not only up the damage, but also give players more experience at the end of a battle as they increase their bonus meter.  This order is a process of discovery that generally doesn’t take too long to puzzle out.  Simply trying out different orders of attack will usually net the proper sequence after a few battles or in one battle if it lasts long enough.  There’s another factor at play regarding how many parts the two characters can hit because in addition to health and mana, there is a combo bar that needs to be kept track of.  It starts out fairly low, but rises as the characters gain levels.  If there are two enemies each with 5 body parts, players can hit all 10 body parts if they have 10 combo points.  If they have 20 combo points, they can hit all 10 body parts with both characters.  Alternatively, once a body part has been stamped, it can have magic cast upon it by either character.  Stamps can last for several rounds, and again, if the proper sequence of body parts is hit, those stamps will last longer.

When I type it out, it sounds ridiculously and insanely complicated, and truthfully it might be for some people.  The game also does an awful job of explaining just how these nuances all work together.  Perhaps my long days with RPGs made it more intuitive for me than it might be for others.  Maybe I just had a stroke of math genius, but before too long I understood everything completely and was performing the proper actions when I needed to every time.  It certainly makes the experience easier when the system is understood because towards the start of the game I found myself getting squashed and pulverized to no end.  However, being able to buff up for each fight (enemies are on-screen so there is prep time before they are engaged) and even having the ability to engage from behind for bonus speed in combat helps immensely.

Visually, Last Rebellion is almost a controversial game.  The art style is very anime inspired, but also unique in its pastel-like quality.  The actual action always looks good though, and the framerate is constantly high.  The only thing that might take away from the aesthetic pleasures of the game are the conversation scenes, which are merely portraits with text boxes running below them.  The portrait art isn’t nearly as inspired as the overall style of the game, and it bears a washed out quality that sucks the life out of the story itself, assuming one can follow it.   But the spell effects are nice, and the character models are stylistic to a fault.  Aisha in particular is one of the most pleasing to the eye characters I think I’ve seen in a game.  Load screens also have a series of guest illustrator paintings that in some cases are gorgeous enough that I’d hang them on my wall in a frame.

Like I mentioned at the very start of this, Last Rebellion is a game that is difficult to review properly.  It has so many things going right for it, things I’d love to see implemented in other games, that if taken out of context those aspects might weigh heavily in its favor.  I like having spells to increase my run speed or to make me invisible to enemies.  I like a combat system that is complicated but capable of being mastered.  I like having two characters so in sync with one another that their skills and abilities have the capability of complimenting one another perfectly.  But I dislike poorly written stories, badly paced leveling, horrid tutorials in the form of jokester demons standing around at random spots, status effect mechanics that can render the characters incapacitated for an entire battle, and lazy cut scene implementation.  So I’m going to go with the upper middle road and say that this is a game worth playing, particularly for RPG hungry PS3 owners.  I would warn players, however, not to enter the action with heavy expectations.  In the end, I found myself disappointed at wasted potential, and not even a few optional Prinny bosses to slay could change that.

Title: Last Rebellion Publisher: NIS America Developer: Hit Maker Platform(s): PlayStation 3 Release Date: February 23, 2010

Doin It RIGHT: - Unique and often beautiful style and artwork. - Complicated and engaging combat system. - Good technical and logistic RPG mechanics for the most part. - Optional Prinny bosses.	Doin It RONG: - Inane story and hilariously bad voice acting. - “Cut scenes” are lazy and uninteresting to watch, not animated. - Awful, awful, awful status effect system.
FINAL SCORE: 6 / 10

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MotoGP has a long history of creating a very exciting motorcycle racing experience though in the recent generation the franchise has struggled. The previous title lacked any sort of depth and gamers were left with wanting much more. With MotoGP 09/10 developers Milestone look to change that. The upcoming racing title will feature a very robust career mode unlike any seen in the MotoGP franchise. Players will take control of everything on and off the track. With the game only a few weeks away, Capcom has announced that gamers will be able to test drive MotoGP 09/10 this Thursday March 4 when the demo goes live on the PSN and XBLA. You’ll be able to check out three modes- Championship mode, Time Trial and the all new Arcade mode.

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With only one more day to go, the follow up to last year’s best baseball title, MLB 10 The Show looks to once again provide gamers with the most realistic baseball game in the market. For those who haven’t been closely following the upcoming title or if you just missed something, we created a one stop shop for everything you need to know about The Show. What you’ll find in this preview are some highlights of key features and additions to MLB 10 The Show and all the videos released, and yes that includes the “Dear Playstation” commercial that we all love.

If you haven’t seen it already or even if you have, the commercial for MLB 10 The Show is hilarious. Check it out.

The realism that Kevin Butler is talking about in The Show comes from all the little subtleties in the game.  Last year I was blown away by how accurately they were able to capture certain player’s rituals or mannerisms at the plate or on the mound.  This year’s version will include all of that and will also bring a more realistic environment. MLB 10 will have real-time players in the dugouts and bullpens, fireworks, rally towels/tundersticks, working clocks and home run counters like the one seen in San Francisco. Of course you can’t bring a game to life without fans and this year crowd detail has also been improved. They will be much more active this year, reaching over the wall for foul balls, scrambling for home run balls and making more noise in pressure situations. This might seem like very small additions but brought together it helps bring the real game to into the virtual one.  Here’s the trailer showing off some of these features.

Road to The Show (RTTS) is one of the best modes of the MLB The Show franchise. It has been the leading sports title in creating a realistic and engaging “create a player” mode. This year in RTTS you’ll have much more control over what your player looks like and his accessories. Once you create your player you’ll be sent right to the Double-A season. While last year’s version had you start in spring training, starting in Double-A will give you a more realistic approach to working your way to the majors as most players don’t receive an invite to spring training until after their first year. Before you get into a game you now have the option to participate in pre-game batting practice or when you get called from the bullpen you’ll get some time to throw practice pitches. Just like batting practice and your time warming up on the mound, it doesn’t help you gain experience, but it will help you get ready for the game or at-bat. Once you are in a game you have full control of what you want to experience. You can play out every pitch/play in the game, only the last pitch in the at-bat, or just plays that involve you. Whether you are on the field or in the batters box there is a bigger emphasize on fundamental baseball. Throwing to the wrong bag, stealing when you shouldn’t be or failing to cover a base will put you in a bad spot with the manager. Lastly a huge emphasis went into gaining skill points and the flow of the game. New training modes have been added for both hitters and pitchers, and goals throughout the game will be shown in way as to not break from the pace of the game. You can also hit the D-pad to show the goals of the game in case you missed it, which is really nice.

To go along with RTTS you now have the full control as the catcher in the new Catcher Calling the Game mode. You’ll be calling for pitches and locations which includes 9 zones inside the strike zone or 8 zones outside. Just like in real life it is your responsibility to know the batters and your pitchers strengths and weaknesses. The pitcher might shake you off so you can pick another pitch but sometimes the catcher knows best and he’ll throw that pitch if you keep asking for it. You’ll have to also watch out for wild pitches and base runners, which adds to the difficulty of being a catcher. It’s a really cool mode and I’m excited to get a chance to call a game but then again, playing every game as a catcher might take it’s toll.

Making it’s return to the series is the Home Run Derby. Fans have been asking for this to be added to the game for some time now and we finally have it. You won’t only get the Home Run Derby, you’ll be getting the entire All-Star experience. During your franchise or RTTS season you’ll get a chance to play in the All-Star Futures Game along with the Derby and the regular All-Star game. Check out this trailer that showcases the new All-Star experience.

MLB 09 The Show suffered from very poor online play, mainly due to lag. Sony has been saying they have worked very hard on fixing that issue for MLB 10 and if they can then I think fans will enjoy the improvements to the Online Leagues. In addition to added customization when creating the league, people can now drop in and out of leagues during the season. If someone can’t handle the season and needs to back out, the commissioner can find a replacement to take over that team. Fatigue is also another factor managers will have to deal with as you will no longer be able to use your ace for every game. Here are some of the key features of the new online leagues:

·    Additional Commissioner Slot (6 total leagues now)
·    NEW Auto-resolve feature. Set to On/Off when creating a league and helps keep leagues progressing
·    Ability to Drop and Replace players within an In-progress league
·    Apply a Custom Slider to a league
·    League Invitation system upgrade
·    New My Complete Leagues list, showing a summary of all completed leagues, the winner and playoff participants
·    New League Round-up and League History tabs in Gamer Card
·    More emails and communication on league changes
·    Players Needing Leagues upgrade. Commissioner can now send invites directly from that screen
·    Additional information about users for a commissioner resolving a game
·    Quit a league at any time (commissioner or league member). No more being held hostage

Finally Real Time Presentation Mode is one of the brand new features to this year’s game. The new presentation mode should give gamers a further sense of realism by attempting to capture the camera angles and shots seen while watching a game on TV. Instead of going in-depth on how this new system works here is a short video displaying the Real Time Presentation.

There is a lot of detail put into every offering of The Show and I don’t expect MLB 10 to be any different. If you want to learn more about the game you can read the full preview here. I am extremely excited about the upcoming title and I hope that all of these new features can come together to bring us the realism that we have come to know and love from this franchise.

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Spawn Kill and several other gaming outlets were recently invited to join in on a MLB 2K10 Developer Q&A session. Ben Bishop, Producer of 2K Sports, Jonathan Rivera, Gameplay Designer and Sean Bailey, also a Gameplay Designer for 2K Sports were all there to answer our many questions about the upcoming baseball sim. While there were a lot of questions about the additions to MLB 2K10, everyone seemed to just want to know one thing: Is it going to be like MLB 2K9?

Throughout the call no one from the dev team was shy about saying how disappointed they were with last year’s title and mentioned that MLB 2K10 is much improved. Though we didn’t get to have an open Q&A session at the end of the call the developers were able to give us some insight on what they did to make sure they don’t repeat the issues from 2K9.

Here are some of the highlights from the call and if you are interested in listening to the entire call we got that for you as well below the questions. Enjoy!

How much of 2K9 was used in 2K10 and was the game rebuilt from the ground up for the new release?

Sean: We completely rewrote everything from fielding, hitting, pitching, the physics, AI, camera views, swapped up all the animations. We had a lot of work ahead of us because I don’t think any of us were happy with last year nor should we have been. So rather than just trying to touch up last year’s game we just made sure the new game included all the fixes that frustrated people as well as a new, rewritten game.

What new additions were made to the franchise mode and how wide of a range of options are available to the player now?

Jonathan: The biggest new addition is the 40 man roster in franchise for September call up. The draft happens in the middle of the year. Another new addition is the trade finder. You can essentially add any player out on the trade block so other AI teams can make you offers for that player. In addition to that we have compensatory picks for free agents. So in the off season when you’re trying to sign a player you might risk losing a first or second round draft pick and if you lose a high rated player you will also get a compensatory pick.

Since gamers and industry critics have noted that early iterations of MLB series have struggled with technical issues surrounding pitching, hitting and gameplay, was this a primary focus of improvement for 2K10?

Sean: It’s almost an understatement to call it a primary focus of improvement. We didn’t just want to improve, we wanted to nail it. We knew that the core gameplay experience needed improvements across the board but when it came to pitching and hitting we really went beyond focusing on improving. We created an entirely new experience starting with the cameras, different strikes zones, different swing types, different analyzers, different replays and the physics were all rewritten. It was a huge primary focus of improvements.

Has there been improvement to the hitting component aside from the defensive swings? It’s either been too easy or too hard to make solid contact as the big hitters would almost always turn a fastball into a sure homerun and an average player could barely get it out of the infield.

Sean: It has been out of balance in the past. Aside from defensive swing we have made it all about the timing. The days are gone when you can simply hold the influence stick and just paint where you want the ball to go on every swing. It’s all about timing, which is very satisfying. The balls that are hit with more velocity in real life are the ones that are pulled or the ones that a right handed batter sends down the first base line weaker are late swings to the opposite field. The timing was done in a very realistic way that takes care of a lot of complaints of the past.

What determines whether or not the Batter’s Eye feature appears? Is it purely based on their real world skills or are there other factors involved such as the pitchers skills? How often can they see the Batter’s Eye appear in a game?

Sean: When this originally came up the problem we were trying to solve is we were trying to make certain players better in the video game that are good in real life at reaching base and getting walks but didn’t have that skill set in the video game. So what we did was come up with eye rating versus lefties and righties and the batters eye rating drives the frequency of the Batter’s Eye. So the guys that take a lot of walks they have a very high eye rating so they’re going to see it more often. It also helps if they have good timing.

Why did you add the My Player feature in this year’s game?

Ben: It really seems like across the board in all sports titles that are out there right now career modes in general are becoming the popular thing and something that people are expecting to see. It was a big focus for us to be able to add the mode this year. A lot of our early build up and planning went into making My Player in this year’s version. At the same time we had NBA 2K10 come out with My Player and so that was a basis for what we did too. We really felt like it was a hole that we needed to fill with 2K10.

In My Player can you give an estimate on how long it will take to get into the Majors?

Ben: That can really vary there is so much flexibility you can do. You have a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want to play the game. When you actually do play a game you are just playing the moment that your player is directly involved in. You can play though a game in 5 or 10 minutes depending on the situations you end up with. You can also simulate games entirely, you won’t get as many skill points through simulation but if you can do that. Simulating the game might take you a bit longer to get the call to the majors. Playing all the games can get you to the majors in as soon as 10-15 games.

Framerate and online lag was a big issue for last year’s title. What was done to fix the issue s for the upcoming game?

Ben: This was something that was important for us. We felt that there was room for improvement from 2K9. We definitely made sure that we got the framerate up to an acceptable level. That’s a huge part of making the experience good and you are in full control. If you get a little lag or framerate drops, it can take away some of that control from you. It was certainly important for us to make sure we were as optimized in those departments as we could be.

Is there a PC version and how did last year’s response to the PC version go?

Ben: We definitely have a PC version this year too. You will get all the same features you will get in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. I think a lot of the responses were similar across the board, just a lot of room for improvement and we definitely took a lot of the criticism to heart. The PC version just like the other versions is very much improved. The series in general is going much more in the right direction.

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The word “rapture” has several connotations. Its most popular usage is to describe those who are wrapped up in a state of bliss or overwhelming ecstasy. To devout Christians, it’s the second coming of Christ. To the thriving community of gamers who eagerly devoured the critically acclaimed (and smash commercial hit) BioShock, the word’s meaning is absolutely concrete. “Rapture” is synonymous with the bizarre yet profound adventure that continues to push the bounds of what gaming can accomplish; Andrew Ryan’s obliterated utopia — the fully realized dream of one man who believed in the power of the power of the self. Rapture. The name sends chills down one’s spine.

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At last year’s E3 there was one game that stood out and completely blew me away and it was from Disney Interactive Studios. Split/Second, the action racing game from Black Rock Studios is bringing us a racing game that we’ve never seen before. From the creators of Pure, Split/Second was awarded Best Racing Game  of E3 2009 from many critics.

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In Episode 02 of The Away Team, Eric (The Herp) and Gabe (Lethalwraith) talk about what we’ve been playing which includes Bad Company 2 and Tiger Woods Online. We will also be previewing MLB 2K10 and the first round of the closed beta for FIFA Online.  As always we’ll chat about recent news in the sports gaming world and share some of our opinions on in-game ad support in sports games. This is a very interesting topic which we hope to get Stephanie (Tigresa) involved in for a future podcast so we didn’t spend too much time on it. For those of you who are also playing Tiger Woods Online, we have a group created called Spawnkill The Away Team Cast if you are interested in joining.

Of course you can follow The Away Team on Twitter and for you iTunes users you can download and subscribe to the podcast here.  Enjoy the podcast!

@Theherp80 @Lethalwraith

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MLB 2K9 suffered from a large amount of issues. The game struggled in multiple areas including poor framerate, annoying bugs and lackluster game modes. With MLB 2K10, developer Visual Concepts is attempting to bring this franchise back to life. In this year’s title, gamers will experience the new Batter’s Eye system, a slightly tweaked pitching mechanic and franchise mode along the brand new MLB Today and My Player mode. From what I’ve seen, the new modes are very similar to those found in NBA 2K10 which worries me. Visual Concepts tried to add way too much to this year’s NBA title which left them little time to work out the numerous bugs. Let’s just hope that isn’t the case for MLB 2K10 because this year’s version is adding a lot of features 2K fans have been asking for.

All reports, from everyone who has played the title, seem to be indicating that the framerate issue has been fixed. I wouldn’t get your hopes up yet, since early builds of the game are missing some features here and there. Still, it’s a good sign that the issue was looked at. Poor framerate can ruin a baseball game, so let’s hope that it is actually fixed for the final product. Another complaint that gamers had about last year’s title was the exclusion of pre-loaded throws. In 2K10 you will be able to pre-load your throw to turn quick double plays or to quickly get the ball back from the outfield. This also makes the animation look smoother as you won’t see the players stand there for a split second before they throw the ball.

Pitching and Hitting has always been MLB 2K’s strong point and this year they aim to keep it similar to last year’s title with a few small changes. In 2K9, players would have to select a pitch by completing a gesture using the right stick which led to many issues of picking the wrong pitch. The pitching itself hasn’t gone away from the stick controls but in 2K10 you select your pitch using the face buttons and the new pitch analyzer will let you know exactly what went wrong with the pitch. This was done in an attempt to make the pitching more accessible which it definitely was not last year. I’m sure those new to the title will still struggle with the pitching but at least you will see exactly what you are doing wrong.

At the plate they have added a couple of new features. One of them is Batter’s Eye. Depending on the pitch type and the skill of the player, the pitch will flash above the batter’s box. The camera angle has been lowered just a bit which I don’t like but it was done so players can see the text and the pitch coming in. There’s also a defensive swing this year that can be pulled off by flicking the right stick left or right. The defensive swing and Batter’s Eye should give players a more realistic approach at the plate by having longer at bats and running the count full. Here is a 9 minute gameplay video that shows off some of these new features to MLB 2K10.

The two brand new modes to the game are MLB Today and My Player. These modes were in Visual Concept’s NBA title and now are making their debut in MLB. MLB Today is a mode in which users can play out the entire season based on what is happening in real life. The mode will display all the games that are being played on that day. It will also upload current stats and rosters to adjust the in the game rosters and player ratings. The menu screen will also display all the current box scores and stats in case you missed a game or two. I really enjoyed this feature in NBA 2K10 but I can’t help but wish they could take this mode and integrate it into a season or franchise mode instead of it being pretty much a quickplay mode.

My Player is a game mode that is just like the EA’s Be a Pro mode or like the rivals Road to The Show mode. You start by creating a player and picking a position. From there you will work your way through the minors to your ultimate goal of becoming a Major League superstar. You can choose to play any position including pitcher and even a catcher; though as catcher you aren’t asked to do very much. The first task as a minor leaguer is to perform in a clutch situation. As a batter you’ll be asked to drive home a run or get on base. As a pitcher you will be asked to not allow the tying run. If you are able to complete the challenge you will be awarded with skill points. These skill points are used to upgrade a particular attribute. They can be gained in a number of ways, through the various drills or through in-game actions. In-game skill points can earned for doing normal things in the course of the game. For instance getting a sac bunt down will net you 15 exp points, driving in a run or getting a putout will net you 25 exp points. You will also get goals for every at bat which will also get you more exp points if completed. As a pitcher it works the same way, getting exp points for things like strike outs, a shut out inning or getting a win or save. One of the issues with NBA’s My Player Mode was the fact that players can quickly upgrade their stats to become unstoppable but from what 2K is saying the skill points will be dynamic. If you are a power hitter you won’t continue to get points for bunting or things that a contact hitter would get.

The road to the Majors still seems a bit easy though. Every player will have a menu that will display goals you must complete to get the call to the majors. For hitters its things like batting average and having your contact at a certain rating but for pitchers it’s all about getting your pitches and stamina up to a rating of 60 or above. There are a minimum of games you must play in order to get the call but that’s only 5 starts for a pitcher and 15 games for a position player. This makes it seem like skilled players will find their created player in the majors pretty quick, which some people will like. I don’t like that because that’s not realistic at all. Even the most skilled players in the minors will most likely spend a year or at least half of the year there until September call ups. Although that is my goal to get to the Majors I want to take the realistic route. Of course it will all depend on the team you choose and injuries but we’ll see how long it actually takes in the final product.

A few changes have been made to presentation and franchise mode but those are very minor. Presentation wise they added the option to play Hurry Up Baseball, which skips all cut scenes and extra animations. This is said to cut down the play time by half. You can toggle this on and off during any point of a game. Franchise mode will see a 40-man roster in spring training and you will have to break that down to 25 before the season. You will also have the ability to control every team in the league to edit the franchise to mirror real life, which is nice to have but I’d rather have 2K do it for me instead of me having to do all the work. You can also seamlessly go online from franchise mode and have a friend play against your team. Seamless online integration was a new addition to most of the 2K sports games last year and makes its debut in this year’s MLB. In terms of online play, online leagues have been tweaked to give commissioners more options including the option to allow only strikes, which is interesting. There will also be a website to track your league stats and trades. Just like every multiplayer mode it’s only good if lag is not an issue, something that 2K Sports games have always dealt with.

MLB 2K10 is looking to bring a lot to the table especially after seeing the high scores their rival has gotten in the last two years. The problem is Visual Concept did the same thing with NBA 2K10 and that game was flooded with issues. Only time will tell if they learned from their mistakes or if they will once again release a game full of bugs. For now everything seems to be going in the right direction for the struggling franchise and gamers should be getting a look at what they have been working on when the demo releases this week. As always, stay tuned for our demo impressions later this week.

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I was recently able to attend a live demonstration of 3D Dot Game Heroes, the upcoming parody/homage action/adventure title under the Atlus umbrella. During the demo, Atlus USA’s Manager of PR and Sales Aram Jabbari went through some of the bigger bullet points and finer details of the upcoming game.

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The forthcoming ultimate collection of Resident Evil 5 (titled Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition) is set to include both new basic features for the main game and additional missions and characters to use in the updated Mercenaries Reunion gameplay mode. For everyone who already owns the bread and butter title, Capcom has released the new additions as downloadable content packs on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The first of the new missions hit the PlayStation Network just this Thursday. Titled Lost in Nightmares, this new chapter follows BSAA Agents Chris and Jill through the original Spencer mansion on a dubious mission with a not-so-dubious climax.

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