YOU'RE BETTER OFF BUYING MLB 2K7 AND UPDATING YOUR ROSTERS - ITS GONNA BE A LONG SEASON FOR MLB 2K8
The best way to sum up MLB 2k8 is unfinished; they have successfully regressed to MLB 2k6 quality. It was unfinished and disappointing in virtually every aspect. MLB 2k7 was such a good game and had me excited about what was to come, but 2k8 was more like a fastball to the testicles: painful and leaves with a feeling of constipation!
I made the mistake of buying the game right away full price. The developers had me sold when they said MLB 2k7 was the first big step in the right direction and 2k8 was the next phase towards perfection....ummmmm I think not.
I was especially disappointed with how ugly it was. There is a huge downgrade in graphical quality from 2k7 to 2k8, particularly in the lighting/shading/shine department. Secondly, (and I noticed this immediately) they removed at least half of the crowd from the stands, exposing the fact that they are not sitting on anything but air. In 2k7, it was shoulder to shoulder in the stands and the proper area would jump up and react to foul balls and such, but not in 2k8. I heard recently that 2k did this to help framerate issues by downgrading the grphics, but the framerate is actually worse! In fact, 2k7 ran like a dream compared to this game!
On the whole, MLB 2k8 has many bugs and framerate issues were not necessary. I would have been satisfied with a simple roster and player stat updated version of mlb 2k7 to be honest. Imagine running a game on a pc that is underspec-ed greatly - you get laggy video and input response right? Well, this is how MLB 2k8 runs on the 360, particularly when a ball is hit, replays, loading screens, highlights, and online play.
LIke so many others stated before me, there are too many bugs to mention, but some of the biggest are terrible framerate issues, (stated above) Broken animations, (busch stadium had no seats whatsoever in foul territory, post-home run the camera looked to the outfield sky for the fireworks that never came) After just about every home run I've hit, the announcers said it was an in-the-park homer during the highlights almost every time, among may other noticeable flaws.
On the upside, the new menus are slick, especially the LIVE menus, which, have been re-vamped and much better. THe trading card system is sweet as well. The new pitching controls were a good idea, but 2k failed miserably at putting that idea to reality, as it frequently misreads pitches. I love the fielder throwing meters, (they remind me of the ones from the MVP days) however they could be better; their design doesnt make sense in my opinion. THe strike zone is probably the best part of the game that i wish all baseball games had - your pitches are at the mercy of the ump, not a fictional "box." For example, in older baseball games, you HAD to be in the strike zone to get a strike. In 2k8, the ump tends to call close pitches as strikes as long as you hit the pitch o meter perfectly, which is sweet!!!! I strike out batters looking with bases loaded on a pitch that could be ruled either way, how cool is that - very real looking
My final gripe about this game are the rosters, particularly the minor league ones. I realize that minor leaguers come and g, but for God's sake, at least get the top players in and accurate AAA teams. WTF? WHERE IS COLBY RASMUS?!?! He is the top prospect in baseball and not in the game, yet they have plenty of obscure and fictional no talent minor leaguers. Also, alot of the player pictures were taken from 2k7, which is annoying because some still have generic artificial faces that could have easily been cropped from google or the like!
Overall, 360 owners looking to buy a baseball game should buy THe Bigs or MLB 2k7 and just update the rosters - stay away from mlb 2k8! I mean seriously, you know that 2k knew they released crap when it shipped out, and they should know that they are going to have ALOT of unsatisfied customers like me. It just makes me mad that I paid for the **** that is MLB 2k8 and 2k wont do anything to fix that problem! :p