2K sports finishes this baseball series, on the pc, with a game taht does not much better than last year's
The first mode I played in was the franchise mode. Seriously, I am pretty sure that Triple Play Baseball (released in the early 2000's) had a similar mode. It's fun to be able to control your team, and the fantasy draft mode lets you create a team from scratch from a draft. But it just seems like not too much effort was spent in making it a unique experience. I mean, even comparing it to Sony's The Show series, I feel this is the first time it falls short (and it will in many ways). The create a player mode is just recycled content, again. Although I do like the whole upgrade system and getting to go from AA to MLB, the experience is nothing new. At least we do get 2012 rosters. The multiplayer is completely broken. Do not even get the game if you are looking for a multiplayer experience. Either I do not get how to use it, or it's completely broken.
During a game, the controls for pitching, when you master them, are just completely awesome. Seriously, the system just seems natural, and even with the keyboard/mouse combo, it plays in a great way. Fielding quand be quite akward. It just seems that they did not rework the system too much. Also, the AI seems to make a lot of stupid mistakes when the game is on the line, in the outfield. It does not suck you in, and that is not good. For the batting, this is where I feel 2K sports completely failed. While this year's The Show game has a batting system that feels quite natural, I felt ripped when I saw how you are supposed to bat in this game. Are we still in 2001 people? To make matters even worse, the person who came up with the control mappings with this game has got to be crazy. The controls just do not seem natural (except for pitching) and I had to spend hours to get a good setting worked out. Also, the fact that no readme whatsoever comes with the game increases frustration, as some of the control (menu controls, for example) are not changeable,and were not very well chosen. Thinking of connecting a controller to the game? Forget the ps3 controller. The mappings for it are really bad.As for the Xbox 360 controller, I feel that it's the best way to get a great feel to the game. So if you want to enjoy this one at a maximum level, please use an Xbox controller.
The graphics in the game are ok. Nothing fancy, but still ok. The only problem is that many bugs can be seen during playtime. This makes the game, trying to be just like watching an MLB game, look like crap. Players seem like they are puppets, and their interactions are some of the worst I have seen this year. As for the sound, this is an enormous positive for the game. The commentators are colorful and peasant to listen to, and you should be able to hear quite a few different lines of commentary before getting tired of this one.
Now, this game is cleared really bugged. So I was hoping for a quick patchup job from 2K to fix things. Problem is, no patches have been released yet. This is completely mind boggling to me. Hey, we payed this game and it has problems, why no spend a few days fixing it? I have read that a patch should be released by May. Until then, I would quickly reconsider buying this game, thanks to many problems.
In conclusion, MLB 2K12 dissapoints in many ways. This is, to me, not a worthy way of probably finishing the saga of baseball games on the pc. Sure, you can have some fun with this one (being a pitcher in career mode), but it seems that a lot of the features that made me consider buying this are just not as good as I expected. For any zealot baseball fans, people who do not own consoles and people who absolutely need to play Nick Punto as a Red Sox, this is your oncly choice. For others, I would consider getting a The Show game instead. Sure, you will pay more, but it just seems that the game, was actually re-designed, not re-packaged with new rosters.