If the franchise does return next year, then I pray it's with a new engine.Īlso unimproved are the My Player and Franchise modes, which are nothing more than carbon copies of last year's model. Furthermore, fielders still sometimes teleport to snag balls they otherwise should have missed, and players often react to routine fly balls as though they're chasing a line drive that's making a beeline for the outfield wall. Sure, the superstars look a bit better than everyone else, but created players and no-names are borderline ugly, and even the "name" players don't look great.
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The engine powering the series has aged poorly, and player faces still look dead-eyed and zombie-like.
I'm not sure how these guys put together such an entertaining, natural-sounding broadcast for every game they call, but their dulcet tones are appreciated every time I start up a game.Īside from some bug fixes and erased glitches, the rest of the game remains totally untouched, and that is a shame.
Most of the new stuff focuses on the pitcher-batter matchups and how a particular hurler is faring on the mound, but there's so much solid banter going on that it's easy to feel like you're watching an actual game. The trio already had a solid stable of conversations and catchphrases from previous games, and this year, they recorded hundreds of new lines. The only other moderately upgraded aspect of MLB 2K12 is the commentary, as John Kruk, Steve Phillips and Gary Thorne once again prove how great the booth work in a sports game can be. It's an element that feels like it could become integral with enough polish, but no one knows if 2K will stick with the concept long enough to make it pay off (if they even keep making baseball games at all). Often you simply don't have the time to establish your base, which will lead to a lot of wild tosses and basemen being pulled off the bag. In order to maximize your accuracy, the fielder must be able to stop and set his feet, but then as any longtime player knows, the MLB 2K franchise seems to pride itself on overlong animations that leave fielders flailing on all but the most basic ground balls. This is another concept that is a great idea, but the game takes most of the fun out of it. It's a fun new wrinkle for the game it's just unfortunate everything surrounding it is so mediocre.Īlso new this season is a fielding meter that changes the accuracy of your throws based not only on player skill, but also on whether you're throwing on the move or take the time to set your feet. A balanced approach creates nice results, with batters who are more easily fooled by off-speed throws and balls outside the strike zone.
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It's actually a clever mechanic that forces players to effectively mix up pitch types and locations and learn how to use their entire repertoire. You may blow fastballs by the first couple of hitters, but if you continue to rely exclusively on the heat, the other team will dial in pretty quickly and begin punishing you with base hits and worse.
Now AI batters look for pitcher tendencies in both selection and location, and as you overuse certain pitches, their effectiveness drops considerably. Pitches retain their familiar motion-based controls, but this year, 2K has upped the ante so players can't exploit a single pitch or location in the hopes of easy victory. Nothing has been truly revitalized in MLB 2K12, but the pitching system has become slightly more complex.
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This may be the closest we've ever come to a sports game that really is nothing more than a roster upgrade with a few new bells and whistles. What actually happened is the series regressed, adding a couple of new gimmicks while leaving the majority of the game without improvement or upgrade. Given this is the last year of 2K's exclusive MLB license, there was hope that the team would go all out and create a game that would stand the test of time. With the MLB 2K series, every year looks like the franchise is on the cusp of something great, only to fall a little bit short.
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