Major League Baseball 2k10 - First Impressions

[This is the first in a three-part series reviewing the just-released game Major League Baseball 2k10, for the Xbox 360. I'm hoping that my brother can review The Show (Sony's superior MLB game) once he gets it too. Maybe we can have some sort of point/counter-point segment.]

I sat in my car waiting for midnight in the Bull Moose parking lot, listening to Too Old To Rock And Roll and resisting the temptation to look like a supreme social-lifeless nerd by posting my true feelings as a Facebook status ("OMG!!!! I cna't believe mlb2k10 is coming uot in 5min lol! (:^D"). Now, Bull Moose is pretty hit-or-miss with their video game releases, so I was trying to temper unparalleled excitement with expectation of disappointment. Thankfully, copies of MLB 2k10 were plentiful for my Xbox (the fact that they only put out two copies of the game for PS3 is a good indicator of how much of a death grip The Show has on the baseball sim market for that system). Successful, I decided to treat myself to chips and nacho cheese later on and picked some up along the way home...

So, I write this after a mere two-and-a-half or three hours of time playing the game (if you don't count the hour or so I played of the demo earlier Monday). Part of my excitement about this year's installment of MLB 2k was that all of last year I was baseball video gameless (and video gameless in general, thanks to the Red Ring of Death). Popular opinion is that I didn't miss too much, as MLB 2k9 has been torn apart by critics and fans alike as being terrible - virtually unplayable. There is even a cool trailer that 2K Sports made for this year's game comparing it to 2k9 in humorous split-screen fashion. Further adding to my excitement was the hope that 2k9 was a sign that the developers hit rock bottom and 2k10 had to be an improvement (because the decline had already begun with the transition from absolutely awesome 2k7 to majorly annoying 2k8).

The first thing I decided to do was fire up a game between the Red Sox and the Kansas City Royals. Actually, what I was forced to do was set up a playoff series between KC and Boston. I clicked on the playoff tournament option and the game wouldn't let me back out of the screen until I set up the entire bracket and assigned myself a team. Whatever, I guess, but not a great sign (the menu system I have found to be kind of clunky and counterintuitive). And so I began the overwhelmingly-certain-to-happen-in-real-life ALDS matchup between the Sox and Royals. The game is pretty sparkly: the field looks great, the crowd reacts realistically to foul balls, player batting stances look fine and the player faces range from not too shabby to chillingly realistic. J.D. Drew's face I found to be particularly spot-on; this is possibly due to the fact that his expression is usually blank and his eyes appear to have nothing behind them, just like a video game character. I thought it was very cool also that, entering the ninth inning, I looked at their pitcher warming up and instantly recognized that they were bringing in Joakim Soria to close things out. The announcer didn't even have to say his name. The dude on the mound was Joakim Soria. And for the record, I fully expect that I would have made an amazing comeback if they had left Farnsworth out there.

So, let's get some CONS out of the way. Two or three times during my game I was supremely irritated with the fact that I wasn't controlling the player I wanted to on defense. In the game's defense, I didn't read the directions beforehand. It's possible that the next game I play I'll have figured out how to switch defenders with just the touch of a button. But seriously, a grounder gets hit up the middle, on the second base side of the bag, and they think that I should be controlling Scutaro at that point? And while I was trying to get to the groundball with Scutaro, what was Pedroia doing? He was racing to cover second base, of course, paying virtually no attention to the baseball skipping past his cleats. Another thing that bothered me was the maze of menus/button-clicks that were required for me to find ANYthing that I wanted to find. How do I warm up Wakefield in the bullpen? How do I check to see what Lester's pitch count is at? How do I sub in Varitek? (For some reason, this game thinks that Victor Martinez is going to start at catcher this year.) The final major con is that Gil Meche finished the game with ten strikeouts.

The pitching didn't take too long to get the hang of. I was scolded several times for overpitching, throwing weak stuff and using a poor pitching motion. By the time I got rolling, though, I was setting the Royals down one-two-three on about four pitches. I wish that the opposing hitters had been a lot more selective is the point here. Perhaps there are some sliders I can use to adjust this problem. Meanwhile, on my side, I was pretty proud of myself for ratcheting up Meche's pitch count to sixty over the first four innings. I didn't have any walks to show for it, but I had a seven pitch AB with Beltre; fouling off pitches to stay alive is actually possible. I grew a little impatient after that, though, and Meche put together a pair of shorter innings, ultimately leaving after 7 2/3. There doesn't seem to be much to hitting. Which is fine with me. It seems like it's mostly timing and making sure you don't swing on pitchouts. I can envision an article being written in two weeks (after I've mastered the rhythm of the "power" swing) where I bemoan the fact that I hit too many home runs. I expect that in most games. But there were not any homers in my Royals-Red Sox ALDS matchup at least. It ended when Mike Lowell, hitting for Mike Cameron, I think, struck out in his only plate appearance.

As a summary, Lester went all eight, gave up three runs in the second inning and finished with three strikeouts. He may have notched a win if not for some bizarre fielding decisions early on. Each team had eight hits. On my team, Youkilis and Martinez both went 3-for-4 while I got a hit each from Ortiz and Beltre. Big Papi also tallied the only Red Sox RBI, on a groundout. So, I lost to the Royals 3-1 at Kauffman Stadium. I felt fairly satisfied after the game.

But there is more! Much more. After that game I trashed my fictional MLB postseason (ruining the best chance the Royals have had at winning even a video game championship in the last two decades). I decided to try out the brand-new My Player game mode. Now, I've played these types of things before and a lot of times they seem to be lacking some intangible quality that makes them as fun as they should be. Also, particularly in football versions of the "You're a player on a team and let's focus only on what you're doing" theme, I've felt very weighted down by practicing and drills that you have to do between games. There's none of that here, thankfully. So, maybe this My Player thing has a shot...

The first thing I did was create JMR, #39, 2B/RF who wears high socks, a sweat band on his left forearm and who, unfortunately, was shaped like the real me. Yup, the dude walks out to the plate, gut and all, looking like he's overdue for a shave and a haircut. There are plenty of options to choose from for customizing your character. Obviously, there are things I wish they'd have expanded upon, but it's a vast improvement over some of the NBA2k games where there were eight player molds to choose from, four of them were black, one was in between and two of the last three looked just like Jon Baltos. One sad note, I had already decided prior to beginning My Player mode that I was going to fudge my birth year, not wanting my character to be a 32-year-old rookie once I finally made the bigs. I chose 1991 as the year, giving him as much time as possible for his career. But I accidentally advanced a notch past 1991, and it went to 1982, so apparently 28 is as old as you can make your My Player. That made me really sad.

I decided that 2B/RF JMR would be at the whim of the "Pick Random Team" button to determine what organization he was in. (You can pick whichever team you want, though, if that's what pleases you.) And so highly-touted prospect JMR joined the ranks of the Akron Aeros (the Cleveland Indians' Double-A affiliate). My debut came as a pinch hitter the night after draft day, which is ridiculous, but most people don't want to claw their way up the entire minor league ladder complete with High-A, the Arizona Fall League, etcetera etcetera. It was a tie ballgame, the top of the ninth, two outs and a runner on third. JMR lumbers up to the dish and promptly grounds out to second base. It's kind of cool how things work, though. Each time that my player goes up to bat he is given some kind of goal to achieve. It could be something like "Get a base hit", "Drive in the run" or simply "Get ahead in the count". I have had loads of trouble completing goals during the ten or so games that I played in the wee hours this morning. Essentially, without going over what you could easily read on any other video game website about how you earn points to increase your attributes, yadda yadda yadda, the better you perform, the better you get. Each game probably only takes five to ten minutes since they skip over everything that you're not involved in. The upside is that you feel like you're accomplishing things quickly, the downside is that you don't feel much like you're part of a team that is trying to win (for instance, I felt no remorse for being caught stealing to end a game, even though I had no business running at all; I'm 0-for-6 on steal attempts). The four series that I've played so far have been against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the Portland Sea Dogs, which added to my enjoyment. Also, for my team, the Aeros, Shelley Duncan has taken me under his wing, teaching me how to hit .230 at the AA level. That's about where my average stands (I also have one terribly fluky three-run homer to the opposite field that just didn't look right). I totally owned Michael Bowden, though, in two games against him and the Sea Dogs. It makes me worry about real-life Michael Bowden. Fielding is pretty neat. You have a little bit of influence on where you stand at your position. There are no surprises when they hurl you into a fielding situation; when the ball is hit, it's going to you. I've still managed to make two errors, though. I also amusingly threw to home plate instead of second base when trying to turn a key double play. All things considered, I've really enjoyed the My Player mode so far. I think it will provide me with a good distraction from Franchise mode when I decide to start that up.

Those are the first impressions that I have. I'm sure that as I progress through JMR's career in the Indians organization, find out what fictional name they came up with for Kevin Millar, start a franchise, see if there are unlockable 80's jerseys and log a few hundred hours of gameplay, I will form many new opinions. But for now, I'm giving it a conditional B/B+, contingent on the Franchise mode not blowing and hitting not becoming too easy. Stay tuned.