Major League Baseball 2K9
From Take 2

Major League Baseball 2K9 captures the essence of baseball down to some of the most minute, player- specific details including batting stances, pitching windups and signature swings. 2K Sports has gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver this in true major league fashion. Additionally, gameplay enhancements in pitching, batting, fielding and base running promise this year's installment to be user-friendly and enjoyable for rookies or veterans. New commentary and presentation provide the icing to this ultimate baseball experience. If you really want to Play Ball this is the game for you. Minimum PC Requirements - CPU - Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz Single Core processor or equivalent (2.8 Ghz for Vista); RAM - 512 MB or more (1 GB for Vista); Disc Drive - 8x or faster DVD drive; Hard Drive - 9.5 GB or more free space; Video - DirectX 9.0c compatible; Sound - DirectX 9.0c compatibleInput - Keyboard or dual-analog gamepad; * Video card with 128 MB or more memory and one of the following chipsets is required - ATI x1300 or better | NVIDIA 6600 or better | DirectX 9.0c compatible card with Shader Model 3.0

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3482 in Video Games
• Brand: 2K Sports
• Model: 31564
• Released on: 2009-03-03
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM

Flimsy attempt to sucker PC gamers
Have been playing baseball videogames on consoles since the last good PC game was available(MVP 2005). MLB The Show 09 (for the PS3) is clearly the current standard of excellence for baseball videogamers(see my PS3 review for that game). I decided to buy a copy of MLB 2K9 for the pc just to see how it compares, and because I've been wanting a good pc baseball game for 4 years now (and it only costs $20 bucks)- so, I was ready to like this game a lot- but unfortunately, it doesn't meet even minimal expectations.

First of all, it does have a number of good aspects, even in comparison to MLB The Show 09. The announcing, for one thing, is far superior to The Show, and the ESPN style presentation is done very well. The stadium and gameplay sounds are also very good, and serve to create the MLB ballpark atmosphere very well.

Graphics are a mixed bag: while a few of the player models look like the real thing, most are just generic models, and some don't resemble the real life players AT ALL. For instance, Alexei Ramirez (White Sox) is a dark-skinned/black Cuban player- in this game version he looks Mexican- not even the correct skin tone, let alone looking at all like the real guy. Likewise, while some of the batting stances and pitching motions look just like the real players, many more do not, and unlike MLB The Show, are not editable. Stadium graphics are better, though nothing too special. Player ratings seem a bit skewed, particularly towards power ratings being way too high for most players, and pitcher's control ratings also generally way too good, though these are at least editable. However, you can't edit certain things, like types of pitches for real-life pitchers....which is irritating when they don't get some of them right (ie: Mark Buerhle has a sinker, but not a cutter in this game-WRONG!). MLB The Show is WAY better this way. Overall, the fluidity of player animations just doesn't look right- stiff and rather jerky, even when you are doing everything right with your controller.

Gameplay suffers, unfortunately, from a number of not only glitches, but just awkward gameplay controls. Ball physics, in particular, are silly: even with slider bar adjustments, almost all batted balls and fielder throws seem to move at a glacial pace- looks more like a softball game going on out there. Pop ups rarely are very high in the air, for example- more resembling soft line drives than a real sky-high popup. Line drive hits to the outfield all look like Texas Leaguers, etc.
The use of the analog sticks to control hitting, pitching, and fielding is really not all that great- the pitching mechanic (right analog stick), in particular, while requiring more player control to get it right, just doesn't create any feel for what real pitching is like, so it's nothing special. Hitting can take a while to adjust to, as you have to decide to swing VERY early on in any pitch delivery, or your player will wind up swinging a few seconds AFTER the ball is in the cather's glove- again, very awkward, and some of the animations for missed swings are ridiculous even for a Little League game. While I like the use of a throw meter bar for fielding (much better done than even The Show game), player movements are again very slow (even with sliders set to maximum player speed), and control of this with the left analog stick is not very fluid (players will stop dead in their tracks if you ease up even a little on the analog stick as you are tracking a ball). The end result of all this is most gameplay is not very fluid, and even a little off on the throw meter bar will result in some of the ugliest wild throws you've ever seen. Also, the default settings for gameplay difficulty (several levels available) are all very wildly skewed for a ridiculous number of homeruns per game- you'll want to edit that right away, if you like anything resembling a real pro baseball game. CPU fielders also seem to make an unreasonable number of spectacular diving catches: 6 or 7 such plays per game is not unusual, and doesn't seem to be affected at all by any slider bar adjustment for fielding by the CPU. With customized settings, the game can be made to at least play SOMEWHAT closer to the real thing, but so far I haven't found any slider adjustment that plays "just right".

I haven't played enough games to run into this yet, but have also heard about a number of pure gameplay glitches, even if you are doing everything right with the controls- like outfielders running in place on a ball hit to the wall, unable to pick up the ball at all, while the runners circle the bases, etc.

The manual (if it even deserves to be called such) is PATHETIC- why in the world, for a game being made specifically for the pc, the manual would give controls for an X-BOX, with NO explanation how the controls would translate to the universally used gamepad controllers, is beyond me. I've figured it out eventually through trial and error, of course, but why it just wasn't included in the manual is beyond comprehension. There is also NO explanation for what many of the slider bar adjustments mean, let alone do- and not all of them are all that intuitive, either (like "gesture recognition", for instance. What is THAT?).

The rosters are OK, though not nearly as complete as The Show, especially for minor league players, and suffice it to say that it's not all that easy to move the players around, either. Just trust me on this one, the explanation is too long- but you can't just add or delete a player from any roster, without having to exchange the dude for another player.

All in all, this pc game just looks like a VERY rushed product, intended to sucker in gamers who have been starved for a new pc baseball game, like me, for the past several years. It has a few redeeming qualities, but I doubt folks who like to play through a full season will be playing this game for very long.

Wait till next year, maybe.

Great game--except for the controls. And the lack of instructions.
The good: It's a baseball game for the PC! Good graphics. Amazingly good commentary that is better than some of the announcers that you will hear on the radio for real baseball games. Great sound in every respect.

The bad: Very steep learning curve to figure out how to control the game. I use a keyboard and it took me over a week. I still haven't figured out all the controls. Unfortunately the instruction book doesn't really help, nor does the official website. Partly because of the controls, I find that I have to set the game on rookie settings to have any chance of winning.

I still have fun playing it, and for the low price it is worth it if you really want a baseball game. But don't buy it unless you are ready to be patient with the learning curve.

Here are a couple hints: Use the [] keys to navigate menus. Sometimes you have to use the right mouse button to navigate menus too, even though the instructions on screen tell you to press escape.

The keys to use for pitching are numberpad 0 (down), 4 (left), 8(up), and 6 (right). To hit the ball, press 0 THEN 8.

Example of how to use the onscreen pitching instructions: If the instruction tell you to start with left, and then sweep around counterclockwise to the top, you should actually press 4 (left) THEN 0 (down). You just start the sweep, but you can't finish it, at least not on the keyboard. But it will give you the proper pitch.

Hope that helps. Would have been nice if the instruction booklet would have explained it, though.

Very confusing contoller system
Having owned several of the old 3DO High Heat Baseball games I was looking forward to a new, more real baseball simulation. I bought 2K Sports NBA 2K9 and after figuring out how to use my game pad with my PC I really enjoyed it (although I still can't figure out why 2K Sports didn't explain how to use a PC game pad with the game). Although I had read several of the reviews about the game that were unfavorable I bought it anyway.
My first frustration was with the pitching mechanism. It seems that it is extremely hard to pitch to spots in the strike zone. Therefore, the hitters get hits most of the time even when facing excellent pitchers (even if they are lousy hitters in real life). After the hitter hits the ball to the field you can't hesitate or the hitter gets extra bases. I would like to see options to allow the computer to take over fielding and throwing, allowing the gamer to concentrate on hitting, base running and pitching. While the graphics are excellent it is frustrating not to be able to play the game because of very poor documentation and virtual no computer assistance. If I were you I would wait to buy this game until 2K Sports remedies the problems that have been mentioned in my review.