MLB 2K9 Impressions

Originally posted by Derek Do you have any impressions on the zone (cursor) hitting, Jason?  That (specifically, how difficult it is and the variety of hits it yields) is what I am probably most intrigued about for this game.

Not yet. I lost interest in this feature when I found out that it was more like cursor hitting and less like zone hitting. I'll try it out tonight and let you know how it is. I've been getting a good hit variety using the swing stick only. I also think the ball physics are VERY realistic because the ball comes off the bat the way it should. You can jam hitters, pull the ball and go the other way with the ball depending on your swing timing. The ball always seems to go where it's supposed to when I see when and where the bat makes contact with it.

Derek, I tried the cursor hitting quickly last night and found it to be very difficult to use. It's definitely cursor-hitting and NOT zone-hitting. Another thing I noticed it that the bat/cursor stays where you move it, meaning that it doesn't snap back to the middle if you release the left-stick. I haven't played a game with cursor-hitting in a long time and don't remember if that's how they all are. I also found the bat icon to be very distracting and there's no option to turn it off.

I didn't get many hits during my test, but I didn't really see any difference in the hit variety the few times I did put the ball in play. I confirmed this in batting practice to. I don't see myself using this option in the game.

Originally posted by JasonSGN Derek, I tried the cursor hitting quickly last night and found it to be very difficult to use. It's definitely cursor-hitting and NOT zone-hitting. Another thing I noticed it that the bat/cursor stays where you move it, meaning that it doesn't snap back to the middle if you release the left-stick. I haven't played a game with cursor-hitting in a long time and don't remember if that's how they all are. I also found the bat icon to be very distracting and there's no option to turn it off. I didn't get many hits during my test, but I didn't really see any difference in the hit variety the few times I did put the ball in play. I confirmed this in batting practice to. I don't see myself using this option in the game.

Yes, I meant pitching.

I'm enjoying 2K9 quite a bit, but I think there are some issues that need to be resolved before I rank it that high. The first thing VC needs to do is make the game stable. Nothing bothers me more than a game that crashes. I've only had it happen once so far, but I haven't played much either.

VC also needs to address some of the gameplay issues like the first baseman pulling his foot off the bag for no apparent reason and the CPU batter aggressiveness. It has been discovered that the aggressive CPU batters stems from a bug in the game that puts everybody's Walk Tendency at a D.

I'm looking forward to getting in some quality time with 2K9 this weekend and really feel that the game has alot of potential (I felt the same way about 2K8 too) if VC releases a patch to resolve some of the issues that have cropped up.

Edit: Let me add to this by saying that I wish I could see how well my pitching gestures are executed, like in 2K8.