MLB 2k11 Impressions

For those of us stuck with only a 360, MLB 2k11 is still relevant. I've only spent about 2 hours with the game, but here are my thoughts so far.

LOVING the changes to fielding. You now get a large white area where the ball could go, and the size of this area depends on your player's rating. You also get an arrow on your player indicator telling you what direction you should run in. At some point the white area fades away and you are shown the location of the ball. You may have to adjust if you feel you can't get there on time. I even had one play at the wall where I never saw the final landing spot. Not sure if this was a glitch, but I didn't have a problem with it. The throwing meter is similar to years past...but actually matters. If you just hold the button until the ball lets go, it's probably going to be over thrown. Just missing the sweet spot doesn't guarntee a overthrow either, if may be a strike, or the guy on the receiving end may have to adjust to catch it/jump/come off the base. Errors can actually happen.

Another improvement over last year is that loading up a throw will now load it no matter who gets to the ball first. Last year if you were fielding a bunt, and was controller the catcher, but the pitcher got to the ball first, you would have to press the stick/button to throw the ball again, usually in not enough time to get the runner out. This is fixed, now whoever picks up the ball will throw it with whatever the accuracy you had on the guy you were controlling (although I imagine differences in player's arms still comes into play)

Other nice things I noticed
-Pitcher has a ball hit right at him and doesn't have it magically stick to his glove, instead bouncing out and forcing him to make a throw
-The outfielder losing the ball (Not getting a final ball landing indicator...although this may not have been intentional/may have been user error)

Only one thing stuck out to me as a problem, and that was the lack of any way to cancel a throw once you have cued it up. I may not have noticed it if the online game I played hadn't been against a douche who stole anytime he had a guy on base, but what would happen is that I would be holding the button to anticipate the steal, but he would get contact and I would still be stuck throwing to 2nd when I could have had an easy out at 1st. This may not be a huge deal though unless you like playing random people online who like to do crap like that.

Have to say I'm looking forward to starting an MLB 2k11 League, unless some major problem comes up.

Comes out in Australia on the 18th

Another note: The game is defaulted into the hardest difficulty.

The more I play, the more I'm impressed with in-game play. That being said, there is a growing list of bugs on the 2k Forums I'm not sure I can ignore this year.

The biggest so far (that I have personally seen) involved players in franchise mode not getting tired when you play games. If you played all 162 games, you could use the same starter every day (assuming he didn't get injured)

Also a bug being reported that I haven't seen is if you rob a home run, apparently it records as an out AND a home run.

The good news is that these all appear to be things that can be patched, but I may wait until that happens to buy the game.

According to the forums...

It seems that the game is very playable, and in most cases there is no lag at all while hitting, and minimal lag at any other time. As long as we all play like gentlemen/women, it should all work great.

Oh I agree, many of the big glitches wouldn't effect us at all. But I intend to play offline as well, and I can't justify spending $60 right now.

I just sent in my review to GamesRadar. Hopefully it publishes today.

Overall, I like the game. My biggest problem (just as with The Show) is what's NOT there, versus what IS there. This may sound stupid - and believe me, plenty of people have told me just that - but as a long-time sports gamer like the rest of us I am just getting bored with the same old same old.

I want something like what NBA 2K11 did - give me historic players in historic situations as a separate mode. Joe D's 56-game hit streak; Roger Maris in September of '61; Ted Williams in his only World Series. I want to experience something really new, not just an incremental improvement to a game.

All that said, it's fun and flawed. Good, not great.

I'd love to play some 4th Stringers online sometime.