The most over-rated player in baseball is on the cover..how appropriate for a game with more bugs than Fear Factor.
Graphics: Good...but can you say choppy? Some of the character models look totally artificial. The stadiums look alright, but from the reviews I had read prior to purchase, I was banking on alot more. Just another overhyped game graphically speaking. And that, too, is getting really old. Rain effects in this game are a total joke. They try to do a good job of showing a darkened sky, but since the rain is represented by little white strips that darn near look like static glitches..and it doesn't show any impact on the ground...it's totally underwhelming. What happened 2k? Sound: Ok..the pregame talk is boring and this game officially has the buggiest, worst, most absolute abysmal, oh-my-GOD-are-you-kidding-me? off-topic, off-play commentary available on the market today. Tag someone out on their way to third and hear the commentator say, "And they tag him out between first and second."....um.....what? Can someone please tell me how Lance Berkman and Jeff Bagwell have "no homeruns last season...he had no RBI's last season"....WTF? And apparently every single pitcher's ERA was "absolutely abysmal last season."....good grief. In a game like this, music doesn't matter..fan chatter doesn't matter...sound effects don't really matter (there's some good impact sounds when you really connect with the ball..but that's rarely thanks to the nightmarish controls I'll get to later on)..but commentary MATTERS. And this commentary absolutely sucks.
Control: 2 words: Wild Pitch. It seems that the experts over at 2k thought it would be just awesome to have your pitcher throw wild now and again. Realistic? Hmm..not when you give up a single just to wild throw the guy all the way around the bases and in for the run. This was seriously the biggest bug/glitch/crappy idea that killed the entire game for me. Why should I work so hard to make a play when the pitcher is just going to throw wild anyway? Moving the base runners is a constant chore, and half the time they don't listen anyway. If you have a guy on second, and a pitch goes wild, you can bet that halfway to third he is going to turn around and go back for second. You can also bet that the throw from home will beat him there every single time. And you can NOT control your runner. It's absurd. Batting is a headache, as the swing motion in this game is slower than a '57 Chevy running on four flats towing the Titanic through the desert. Seriously, you have to hit the swing button the second the pitcher releases..and good friggin luck connecting. Every part of it is bad...from having to use the right thumbstick to dive (Brilliant) to attempting to climb the outfield wall (You can't...but the computer is a grand master at it) to pull down a homerun. Bugs galore. Say no more.
Gameplay: Imagine this scenario: top of the first. Andy Pettite on the mound...delivers the first pitch and it goes for a double. Second batter comes to the plate and OMG PETTITE IS NERVOUS!!! SHAKE THE ICON FOR THE PITCH BECAUSE HE'S SOOO NERVOUS!! NEVER BEEN IN THIS SITUATION BEFORE!!.........congrats 2k for screwing up even the basics on this one. I somehow doubt that a professional Major League Baseball pitcher is going to "get nervous" to the point where they just lose control over their aim because they gave up a hit. Every single added feature in this game is a joke. Ever play a baseball game that utilized the right thumbstick to swing the bat? I was quick to turn that off and switch back to classic control. The first time I threw a pitch, it didn't go where the icon said it would. That's when I realized it was doing it because the default setting for the icon is "breakpoint"....which means the pitch breaks away from the point you designate. So I switched it back to "pinpoint" and wondered wtf plays the game otherwise. However, it should be noted that the pitches STILL don't go where they are supposed to. The momentum factor in the game is so overdone its scary. Players will run into each other, walls, and sometimes nothing at all. And you can bet, by the time they get up, its either a double or a triple..or worse. Using this game's name in the same sentence as "fun" is like calling throwing my car 200 yards "easy"...total opposites.
All in all, this game is total garbage. How it even scored so high on Gamespot, I don't know. It seems like 7.0 is pretty much becoming the standard rating for games that suck HARD. I, however, have absolutely no problem handing out appropriate scores. I can't do that on this game though because they won't let me give it a zero. Believe me, I would if not for the alright graphics. Should you rent this game? Here's a hint: I recommend Perfect Dark Zero over this game...heck, I recommend Rumble Roses over this game. And as a purchase? Hahahaha!...oh that's funny. No really, to think that anyone would be dumb enough to buy this joke of a game...knowing its issues? Funny..simply funny. I'm done with 2k until they actually start TRYING to make good games again. And if this is their best effort, then that might not be for many years to come. Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. This whole game is one very big error on 2k.