Things that annoy me about 2K8.

Extreme Content · 03-08-2008, 04:11 AM

- I've been playing on Pro difficulty in desperate search for a win and, I'm not sure if this is true of all difficulty levels, but at least on Pro, the pitcher never seems to throw a ball. I noticed they removed the balls-strikes stat on the box score. I imagine that's because if they showed that it'd read something like 85 strikes-3 balls. I've yet to draw a single walk.

- Batter's Eye is useless. The pitch is rarely revealed to you even if you guess correctly. I can't tell you how many times I've lined up my batter's eye almost exactly with the pitch location and gotten nothing. Even when the pitch is revealed it's done only a split second before the pitch arrives. And then it's revealed by a somewhat hard to see faded-orange circle, so by the time you realize that you guessed correctly, the ball's already passed.

- No more power swing. Okay, fine. There were too many home runs in 2K7, everybody knows that. But now how am I supposed to put up a sac fly?

- Swing step timing is a pain in the ass. Now you don't just have to time the swing perfectly but you also have to time the step perfectly. Except that each batter's swing and each pitcher's motion is different.

- In the batting tips section it clearly says that you can do a contact/power swing (same way you did last year), except that you can't. Simply releasing the swing stick results in no swing, not a contact swing.

- Double play broken up far too often. It's like 2 out of 3 double plays that I've seen have been broken up by a slide at second base.

- Takes a split-second too long to charge a throw and even if you charge it perfectly, it still sometimes goes wide. For that matter, sometimes you can completely botch the throw and it goes perfectly.

- Fielders sometimes don't react to a ball right under their feet. Last year they had something that I'd refer to as like a "vacuum effect." It used to be that if the ball got close enough it would sort of get sucked into the fielder's glove and he'd pick it up. Now he can sometimes it can go right underneath his legs or very close to him and he won't pick it up/catch it.

- Commentary is disjointed. The computer got an inside the park home run against me and the commentators didn't even mention it. The computer hit a solo homer off of me and they said "and that ties things up!" Except that it didn't... 'cause I was still up by a run. I've seen the commentators call a batter out on a close play when he was safe. I slid into second and they called my hit a stand up double. It's not really all that much worse than last year but you'd think they'd have improved on that aspect.

- No more sprint feature in the outfield. It seems like my outfielder is taking his sweet ass time to get to that ball. I realize he's supposed to be running but it sure it doesn't look like it to me.

It's a great game. Even better than last year, I'd say. But all that crap still annoys me. Hopefully next year will be the holy grail edition.

Extreme Content · 03-08-2008, 07:16 AM

More things that annoy me:

- What is the deal with ARod's ginormous ass? Seriously... did this dude get butt implants in the off-season that I don't know about or something? His ass is so big that if he cuts a fart at the plate he'll blow over the gatorade cooler in the away team's dugout. I mean holy cow.

- Is it just me or did they dumb down the graphics in this game? I remember the graphics in 2K7 were really nice. I didn't immediately notice a difference when I put in 2K8 but the more I play it the more I realize that I'm not really moved by the visuals anymore. The sunlight in day games, for example, just doesn't look as good as it did. The grass used to have a nice look to it HD now it looks like the grass in previous (older) games. The player's faces last year were decent looking... now they look horrible.

- Jeanne Zelasko.

- I can't win a game to save my life. I finally got to the point where I don't throw meatballs anymore but the CPU is still scoring 8-10 runs a game from home runs and shots to the gap that take my fielders like fifteen years to limp over to. I know I already complained that the sprint button is gone but the outfielders are SO slow that it deserved another pass. On top of that I can't hit a damn thing. The pitcher is throwing nothing but strikes but all I seem to get out of them is dribblers to second base and fly outs.

- People who join online leagues and then immediately quit. I joined a 30 team league that launched yesterday and today theres 19 people left in it.

Okay, that's all I've got for the moment. The more I play this game the more I'm starting to dislike it. I really thought it'd be the other way around.

Dat_Dude · 03-09-2008, 12:39 PM

I do agree with everything you said, including that this is better than last year's. The pitching is so much better and more fun and the swing stick is easier to handle than last year's. In fact, I turned off the Swing Stick last year and went to the traditional "A" button swing.

As far as giving up too many runs. Once you get the pitching timing down I will give you this tip. When you pitch the corners, go a little beyond the corner. The umps in this version are on the pitcher's side big time. I have gotten probably 4-5 K's a game on balls that didn't even look like they painted the corner. In my franchise mode I have given up a max of 5 runs so far. It's not like I am using all Cy Young's either. Jason Marquis had a no hitter through 8 with 11 K's my last game...and Marquis is terrible

Extreme Content · 03-10-2008, 03:22 AM

Update:

I'm now starting to reach the point where I find this game unplayable.

The opposing pitcher in every game I play continues to throw almost nothing but strikes regardless of what difficulty setting I use. So forget drawing walks. I don't see the ball well so I rely on the batter's eye to tell me when a pitch is in a good spot. Unfortunately, the batter's eye is for shit. More than half of the time the thing won't reveal a pitch even if the pitch is right in the middle of the batter's eye. If it's on the edge of the batter's eye or maybe just a little bit off the edge, but still in the shaded part, forget it.

Then the strike zone, as Dat Dude said, varies. Sometimes a pitch just outside is a ball and other times it's a strike. I don't mind that since that's about how it goes in real games, but it just makes the whole not having a working batter's eye recticle a larger complete pain my ass.

Then you've got the swing... an early or late step can make the difference between a homer and a dribbler to the second baseman. Except timing the step precisely would appear to be nearly impossible and made even more difficult by the delivery of different pitchers and the swing style of different batters. Apparently I'm gonna have to switch back to the old swing stick.

I'm gonna do some searching around tomorrow to try and find some sliders that make this game less ridiculous, but if I don't find any I'm afraid I may be putting my copy of 2K8 up for sale. This game had a lot of potential and, at first, I liked it better than 2K7. But now it's just pissing me off.

Dat_Dude · 03-10-2008, 11:43 AM

That's too bad Extreme. I will keep enjoying this game knowing it is far from perfect. I do feel that it is better than last year's just because it is more of a challenge and a tad more realistic. There are a few quirks that bother me about the game but, unlike you, they don't render the game unplayable for me.

Lethal_NFS · 03-10-2008, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Extreme Content

Update:

I'm now starting to reach the point where I find this game unplayable.

The opposing pitcher in every game I play continues to throw almost nothing but strikes regardless of what difficulty setting I use. So forget drawing walks. I don't see the ball well so I rely on the batter's eye to tell me when a pitch is in a good spot. Unfortunately, the batter's eye is for shit. More than half of the time the thing won't reveal a pitch even if the pitch is right in the middle of the batter's eye. If it's on the edge of the batter's eye or maybe just a little bit off the edge, but still in the shaded part, forget it.

Then the strike zone, as Dat Dude said, varies. Sometimes a pitch just outside is a ball and other times it's a strike. I don't mind that since that's about how it goes in real games, but it just makes the whole not having a working batter's eye recticle a larger complete pain my ass.

Then you've got the swing... an early or late step can make the difference between a homer and a dribbler to the second baseman. Except timing the step precisely would appear to be nearly impossible and made even more difficult by the delivery of different pitchers and the swing style of different batters. Apparently I'm gonna have to switch back to the old swing stick.

I'm gonna do some searching around tomorrow to try and find some sliders that make this game less ridiculous, but if I don't find any I'm afraid I may be putting my copy of 2K8 up for sale. This game had a lot of potential and, at first, I liked it better than 2K7. But now it's just pissing me off.

Everything you said I found the very day I bought the game. Then the 2K fanboys came out screaming like little girls.......well ok it was just one member lol.

MrSchmo · 03-10-2008, 11:53 AM

Lethal's review of it made me take it off my GFly list. Thanks for saving me on that one.

domosnacks5 · 03-10-2008, 07:56 PM

Jeez, for a guy that really doesn't like the game Lethal really comes on here an awful lot. What's wrong? Do you secretly like the game? Or do you secretly have an obsession with me?

Glad to see you're taking my advice and giving up the sticks to your kids, or do you just enjoy playing Shrek the Third and the Bee Movie Game?

Lethal_NFS · 03-10-2008, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by domosnacks5

Jeez, for a guy that really doesn't like the game Lethal really comes on here an awful lot. What's wrong? Do you secretly like the game? Or do you secretly have an obsession with me?

Glad to see you're taking my advice and giving up the sticks to your kids, or do you just enjoy playing Shrek the Third and the Bee Movie Game?

Thanks for the advice bud.

Extreme Content · 03-11-2008, 01:01 AM

Finally won my first game today.

Once I stopped listening to my catcher's pitching suggestions I was able to limit the opposing team to 2 runs. They shouldn't have even gotten the 2 they got. They were the results of fielding errors on my part.

I also gave up on the batter's eye and just tried to crush whatever looked like it might be close to where I guessed. I ended up getting 4 home runs as well as a number of hits in the game, so I guess that's good. I'm still highly annoyed at the number of strikes to balls (I'm beginning to think I'll never earn that Bobby Abreu card) but I suppose I can fiddle with the sliders to try to change that.