I'm glad I have a PS3, because at least I get to play The Show
First, the good things. The Signature Style was excellent last year, and it's still very good this year. The only game that comes close to emulating each and every single player's nuances such as batting walkups, pitching motions is Konami's Pro Yakyu Spirits 5, but at least that game is playable, despite the fact that PYS5 is all in Japanese.
That's about it for all the good stuff. The graphics in the game are just terrible, a major step backwards from last year, when everything was vibrant and the lighting was perfect on all the stadiums, regardless of time of day. In MLB 2K7, the field had some beautiful illuminations in night games, but in 2K8 everything seems like half the lighting in the field is out for night games. Also, the same graphical annoyances are in MLB 2K8 that have been in there since the very beginning. The hat logos are way too big, and are positioned towards the brim of the hat. Also, it looks like you can see the seams on the hat since they are rendered in a lighter color, which is idiotic. Also, the numbers for teams that don't have names on the back of their jerseys (Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers) are positioned way too low, and they're positioned so far apart they look totally unrealistic. I know that sounds like nitpicking, but when you play graphically superior games like The Show and Pro Yakyu Spirits, it's very noticeable, especially for a game that poses as a baseball sim.
Now for the real reason for this game's demise, the god-awful gameplay. All of the default controls have been mapped to the right analog stick, and I do mean everything. Batting, pitching, fielding, picking your nose, everything is on the right analog stick. And a good 90% of it is terrible.
Let's start with the fielding. The fielding is actually pretty good because you get to control how hard you throw to the bag, and which base you throw to just by pointing the right stick in the direction of the base you want to throw to. Holding the stick in the direction of the base makes for a harder but less accurate throw. The problem comes with base hits that make it to the outfield, which can go awry way too easily. Holding down the left trigger/L2 makes you throw to the cutoff man, but when trying to gun down a baserunner you get excited very easily and end up missing your recepient. That wouldn't be so bad if your teammate AI was smart enough to back up your errant cutoff throw. Unfortunately they're not, which means you have to do everything yourself. All in all, the fielding is good enough. Small changes need to be made for MLB 2K9.
The batting was supposedly improved from MLB 2K7, which suffered from a few problems. For one, it was too easy to hit home runs, and if you didn't hit dingers, you hit singles. The batting animation for all players has been given more frames (an increase from 10 to 13, I believe), but it doesn't make a bit of difference. The results are exactly the same as last year: either you hit home runs, or you hit singles. Also, queuing up a swing is a step backwards from last year. In MLB 2K7, you could step and swing at any time. However, in 2K8 you're restricted to stepping and swinging AFTER the pitcher begins his windup, which gives you very little time to react. Also, another flaw in 2K7 was not fixed for 2K8, and that is that opposing pitchers strike you out way too often, and this is because all the pitches look the same when they come out of the pitcher's hand. I know this is for realism, but when a curveball comes out of a pitcher's hand looking like a 75-MPH fastball, something is wrong.
And now for the main offender in this game's failure, the pitching. The 2-click pitching mechanic from last year is gone, and instead replaced with an analog system that is more broken than Rick Ankiel's psyche on the mound. The goal is to mimic the pitcher's motion on the mound, corresponding to the arm action a pitcher's arm would actually take. So, if you were to throw a curveball, you would start your motion in the low-left corner, then come around counter-clockwise to the starting point. However, with this game's broken timing system, it's impossible to even throw a perfect pitch. Even if you're a millimeter off, your pitch will miss horribly, and the computer will most likely slam it into the stands for a home run. Pitchers miss their spots in real life, but they can get away with it. MLB 2K8 demands perfection on the mound every time, which is far too much to ask, especially when the tutorial for pitching is so poorly explained and executed.
Game modes are also lacking in MLB 2K8. I'm probably spoiled by The Show's sterling Road to the Show mode, but the MLB 2K series cannot go on any further without some sort of Career or Superstar mode. Franchise mode doesn't have the depth of The Show's franchise mode, and the online play borders on unplayable. Speaking of unplayable, the frame rate has not been fixed at all from last year on the PS3 version. In fact, I believe it's even worse than last year. The framerate hiccups every other second, making for something that is barely playable. I sense a complete and total refusal by 2K to even attempt to develop for the PS3, which is not fair to PS3 gamers, but a small loss given the sterling record of The Show. I'm not even going to go into the card-collecting mode, as it's a small tacked-on feature that is barely worth playing.
Even if you have an Xbox 360 or a Wii, don't even bother with Major League Baseball 2K8. While 2K7 was a step forward and a step back last year, 2K8 is a giant leap backwards for the series, and probably humanity in general. If you have a PS3, you can at least play MLB 08: The Show, or if you're feeling bold and have $80 to drop, then by all means import Pro Yakyu Spirits 5. Just find some other use for your money other than buying this piece of garbage.
Major League Baseball 2K8 gets 1 giant Yankees choke out of 5