January 3, 200719 yr MLB 2K + EA's MVP Series = Good Baseball Game? I sure as hell hope so! MLB 2K7: Pure Baseball Series gets a complete overhaul. Will we see a true next-gen baseball game? by Jon Robinson October 9, 2006 - The offseason is where championships are built. It's where teams can make that one acquisition that puts them over the top. And while much is made over the signings of prospects at the Major League level, what's often overlooked in the world of videogames is the roster of producers and designers. The people who make the team that shape the face of the game. In terms of baseball videogames, 2K Sports may have just made a Carlos Beltran-like signing. Ben Brinkman, the lead gameplay designer from EA's MVP series has jumped teams, signing with Kush Games to help re-create, re-shape, and re-think the MLB 2K franchise, beginning with 2K7. "When I was interviewing for the job at Kush to run the MLB 2K franchise, they asked me: 'What did you like about the game, what didn't you like about the game?' My answer was I liked most of the stuff you guys did, what I didn't like is that you guys only did it most of the way," Brinkman said with a laugh as he met with reporters before the recent Game 3, Twins/A's, Marco Scutaro (Oakland's answer to Mark Lemke) trademark performance. "I didn't feel like a lot of the stuff was done, polished, tuned the way it should be, and that was something that I look at, something that if you build the game properly, you have plenty of time to do that stuff at the end, and that's actually what we're doing now. For example, the precision pitching, cool idea, but it looked like it only got about 75% of the way there. There were about two or three little things they could've done which we're doing this year, and I won't get into too much detail, but it will take it into completion and make it a lot more fun and a lot more interactive." Brinkman, like many baseball gamers, had his pet peeves about the 2K games. "One of them is the high hat (they all look like Fred McGriff), and the other is the batting. Guys would swing then completely slide and then start running. They'd be looking in left field when the ball was going to right field?stuff like that." Brinkman joined Kush in June and has already eliminated the McGriff clones and changed the batting animations, not to mention cleaning up the throws. "You would use the same throw everywhere. You would pick up the ball near the wall and you would use the same throw if you picked up or barehanded a ball and were throwing from third to first." And like the transition Brinkman witnessed from the Triple Play franchise to MVP, he realized it was time to take a step back and not add features, but clean up the ones that are already there. Make the gameplay actually feel like you're playing a baseball simulation. "We've gotten back down to bare basics. We're not adding a ton of bells and whistles this year, we're going to take what we have and add some cool stuff to it. We're also going to pull stuff out that takes away from the authenticity of the game. Showboat catches come to mind. Turbo baserunning. We're getting back to making a game that plays a really great game of baseball. It's what people want that play baseball games. Same for people who play football games or play basketball games. Look at 2K7 basketball, that's why people love it, it plays a real good game of basketball. Same with hockey. That's what we're trying to do. Those are our models. We're looking at those and seeing what they do, and it's simple stuff, play a good game of baseball." The focus is finally back on the diamond. "First year, drill down to the core and get the core baseball game going," Brinkman said. "Year two, add some cool features, maybe some tersely modes, maybe redesign franchise. The third year, just wrap it up into a nice bow and nail it. We hope to nail it every year, obviously, with everything we do, but we looked at High Heat, even going as far back as Baseball Stars. I play games, and I think that's a big difference that wasn't on the team last year. I play the game three, four hours a day. I sit there and if stuff isn't working, it gets fixed immediately. I was told last year that because of the hardware transition, they didn't get the game up and running until super late, so they never had a chance to play the game and work this stuff out. They got it running and then had a little bit of time to tune and bug fix and try to get it out the door. Fortunately, we've had the game running every day this year and as stuff is getting implemented, tune it and bug fix along the way to get to a point where we just hit Alpha a couple of weeks ago and now we can just tune and we can bug fix the items we need to fix. We're not adding a bunch of features after Alpha, that gets teams in trouble." I asked Brinkman just how much of the game has been re-written from scratch and his answer was surprising. "Gameplay, if you play the two side by side, it should be a dramatically different experience. We've added thousands of new animations. All new pitching, all new hitting, all new throwing, all new catching, all new tagging. The locomotion system last year that never really got tuned, we've spent a lot of time figuring out what was broken and what do we need to fix to get it playing and moving right. Different stuff that they did last year that was really cool stuff, let's harness it and make it play well. It's clich?, and you've heard it a million times, but this is the next-gen baseball experience. All the stadiums redone, all the player models redone, faces redone. We've got accessories coming out our ass, no pun intended. Hats, all new hats, that was my one thing. We have to do hats. I'm tired of everyone wearing the same hat. So we'll have the crooked hat, the really firm bill, the sweat, the Derek Lowe sweat ring around the hat. Just little stuff like that. I don't want to get into it too much, but we really want to represent the game we're going to see today as closely and as authentically as possible. Baseball gamers want a game that plays well and represents baseball the way it looks and the way it plays." And Brinkman knows the pressure is on to produce as word is Major League Baseball wasn't too happy with the quality of the game, or the direction the series was headed. "We're not going to repeat that," Brinkman says as he feels the pain of gamers who purchased 2K6. "I think we're going to get one more chance at this and we can't come out weak this year. We have to come out strong. That's our whole goal, our driving force." "All eyes are on us," Brinkman continued. "And we have to deliver or people are just going to say forget it and not buy a baseball game. That's bad for us, you can just imagine the ramifications there going forward. The pressure is definitely on, but it's exciting to have that pressure. Some people perform well under pressure, and I want to get our guys to realize that the heat is on. You guys had a chance last year and now it's time to really deliver. Everyone is buying into it and everyone's really on board with it. I'm pretty pumped about the product we're going to deliver this year." This is the year baseball games finally go back to playing pure baseball?and it's about time. Brinkman's right, the pressure is on. Luckily for Kush and 2K Sports, it looks like they finally signed the man who can bring them home a winner. Look for MLB 2K7 to hit the PS3, 360, Xbox, PS2, and PSP Spring 2007. http://sports.ign.com/articles/737/737995p1.html
January 3, 200719 yr i guess ill have to rent it when it comes out before deciding to buy it. i went back to MLB 06 The Show and I was impressed after being on the MVP Baseball games 2 yrs prior. I never liked the 2K series, but after reading this article i guess things have really been overhauled.
January 3, 200719 yr Author i guess ill have to rent it when it comes out before deciding to buy it. i went back to MLB 06 The Show and I was impressed after being on the MVP Baseball games 2 yrs prior. I never liked the 2K series, but after reading this article i guess things have really been overhauled. increadible, and MVP fan that liked the show. I had the show, let my friend borrowed it and he said he almost cryed at how terrible it was. He liked the MVP seies so I figured he might like it. I didn't like the show's gameplay at all but the concpet of franchise mode's scouting and buying stuff for the players and selling stuff and improving your clubhouse was awesome
January 3, 200719 yr 2k ruined everything, especially at mvpmods. everyone said that 2k6 was mediocre to mvp, and 989 sports is bad news...my brother tested one of their football games in 2003, lots of bugs. i hope this gets 2k sports back in the right direction, but also they should offer something to the nintendo and pc players instead of just the ones on sony and ms consoles.
January 3, 200719 yr Still playing MVP '05 exclusively for baseball.. so this is good news. I dont play many video games.. baseball and football games are about it.
January 3, 200719 yr I'm thrilled that they're going to make one for the regular xbox, I was scared they would only do it for the 360.
January 4, 200719 yr they wont stop making them until everyone basically crosses over to the upgraded systems. im not getting the ps3 until the price goes down more and im pratically forced to switch over. i only play my ps2 now for baseball games and basketball games, along with the GTA series. im gona rent 2K7 like i stated before, but i still gotta give MLB the benefit because of how good The Show was for me.
January 4, 200719 yr i made my switch to XBOX360 yesterday. NCAA March Madness 2007 is only for 360, and the trade in value has already decreased on the console that I had no choice....i'm indifferent about 360, some good comments some bad (I baught the $299 bundle, so no memory) but thats another topic for another time.
January 4, 200719 yr What I really miss about MVP is the minor league affiliate teams. MVP 05 had every minor league affiliate down to single A for every team. 2k needs to bring that back.
January 4, 200719 yr Author will pick it up for the xbox360 when is it due out? It's due out by spring probably after the first month of the regular season. So far I know it's going to be on PS2 and Xbox 360 so I could probably safley assume it will be out for PS3 and the orginal Xbox
January 4, 200719 yr Yeah, but I'd rather have a playable game than that travesty 2K sports pushed on us last year.
January 4, 200719 yr Yeah, but I'd rather have a playable game than that travesty 2K sports pushed on us last year. don't forget the lack of nintendo and pc support. :thumbdown
January 4, 200719 yr Author due out after a huge chunk of the regular season is over is a big negative... I didn't say I was positive it will come out late, that was just what I assumed, all the article says is look for it to be out by Spring of 07 Yeah, but I'd rather have a playable game than that travesty 2K sports pushed on us last year. don't forget the lack of nintendo and pc support. :thumbdown You have a good point for about how it should atleast be on the PC, but Nintendo is still trying to attract the younger audience. The sports games that Wii will have are probably going to be Mario-related in some way which is a shame.
January 4, 200719 yr i don't think it's nintendo telling the game makers no to the game makers, it's mostly that the game makers refuse to make games for nintendo for some reason, mostly because of the kiddie rep nintendo still has. as long as companies think as nintendo as a platform for just kids games, the longer it is before we get serious sports games on the systems. also the fact that nintendo's systems are not graphic powerhouses hurts their marketing a bit.
January 4, 200719 yr due out after a huge chunk of the regular season is over is a big negative... I didn't say I was positive it will come out late, that was just what I assumed, all the article says is look for it to be out by Spring of 07 Yeah, but I'd rather have a playable game than that travesty 2K sports pushed on us last year. don't forget the lack of nintendo and pc support. :thumbdown You have a good point for about how it should atleast be on the PC, but Nintendo is still trying to attract the younger audience. The sports games that Wii will have are probably going to be Mario-related in some way which is a shame. Well EA sports is creating an entire sub-division exclusively designed to make games for the Wii.
January 5, 200719 yr due out after a huge chunk of the regular season is over is a big negative... I didn't say I was positive it will come out late, that was just what I assumed, all the article says is look for it to be out by Spring of 07 Yeah, but I'd rather have a playable game than that travesty 2K sports pushed on us last year. don't forget the lack of nintendo and pc support. :thumbdown You have a good point for about how it should atleast be on the PC, but Nintendo is still trying to attract the younger audience. The sports games that Wii will have are probably going to be Mario-related in some way which is a shame. Well EA sports is creating an entire sub-division exclusively designed to make games for the Wii. EA attempting to ruin sports games on another system. The job that company has done with NASCAR and NHL games is beyond horrific. And they just keep getting worse.
January 5, 200719 yr i already preordered the game for the 360(what can i say, im a baseball video game fanatic)...and the kid said its coming out on march 5th...but i fully expect that to be delayed to work out all the bugs(god only knows 2k games are full of em')...so im hopin i have it for my bday on the 29th...it would be a nice little present to myself...i sure hope this game has some minor league depth and the actual photo for more marlins other than just cabs and willis...i mean...come on 2k...we have won more world series than everyone in the league(with a few ties) other than the yankees(can some fishies get a little respect around here?)
January 5, 200719 yr I hope the game turns out better than last year, 2k6 was horrible. I was screwed by these exclusive agreements, for baseball, I liked MVP and for football I preferred 2k, I'm out of luck on both. Here are some early screens from the 360 version: These were released a couple of months ago, so the graphics may have changed quite a bit.
January 5, 200719 yr EBGames.com has it showing for 3/05/07 for systems Xbox360, PS2, PS3, PSP, DS and showing the PS2 version at 19.99 which is better then $50 for MVP if its atleast close to decent.
January 5, 200719 yr mvp 2005 retailed for 30 bucks when it was first released to keep up with competition. and actually, ea ruined everything, their stupid madden exclusive contract made 2k screw them out of baseball to begin with. :censored
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