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The pinnacle of
sports games is
Madden. Not every
sports game is a
football game but
how EA has perfected
the release year
after year is how we
compare other sports
games. I’m not
entirely sure that
it’s fair because
there are so many
ins and outs to
different sports and
making games based
on them that it
hardly seems fair to
compare it to
Madden. The common
sports fan does this
though, knowingly or
not. And it sets a
hard precedence for
EA to make sports
games with and even
a harder precedence
for other developers
to makes sports
games with. Take
2K’s MLB series.
They are all fun
games but there’s
never been a perfect
MLB game made by 2K.
They’re usually full
of bugs and flaws
even though they end
up being fun to
play. MLB 2K10 is
another bugged and
flawed game that
keeps it from being
as good as it could
have been but
doesn’t keep it from
being a fun game.
The biggest
improvement this
year is something
that the developers
started to get at
last year. The
pitching/hitting
dynamic is awesome.
I generally swing at
everything as a
hitter in a game and
2K punishes the hell
out of me for it.
Say I swing out of
the zone once…
they’ll keep
pitching me out of
the zone until I
correct the problem
and take a ball.
That goes for
hitting grounders
and fly balls too.
If I don’t take an
occasional pitch low
when I’ve got a
runner on first,
they are going to
keep pitching me low
and make me ground
out into DPs. The
pitching AI for 2K10
is the best it’s
ever been. On the
other side of that
the hitting AI is
pretty good too.
Batters repeatedly
stare at bad pitches
and the count goes
in their favor and
you can sucker a
decent hitter into a
K by moving around
their strike zone
and using off speed
pitches. The good
thing about the
hitting/pitching
dynamic is also the
bad thing about the
game. That’s really
all there is.
Fielding ground
balls is effortless
for the most part.
The computer does
most of the fielding
for you and the same
applies to fly balls
that get launched
into the outfield.
You watch the
fielders do the work
except for throwing
to the bag. The
fielding aspect of
2K10 is terrible.
There’s also a new
My Player mode where
you attempt to play
as one player and
make him into a
star. It’s not a bad
mode but for
different positions
it’s not very fun
and really this is
something that 2K
should copy their
own game. The Bigs
is basically one big
My Player mode but
with arcade baseball
action. 2K doesn’t
need a My Player
mode because of this
and they made it too
flawed to begin
with. If you’re in
right field… you’re
in right field and
you’re going to be
bored. If you’re a
pitcher you’re never
going to get to hit.
The My Player mode
is a waste and
something that most
baseball fans aren’t
going to invest too
much time in.
This version of the
game isn’t that much
different than
previous versions of
the game. There are
bugs and
improvements and
different quirks to
it but at it’s core
it’s a fun baseball
game to play
through. If you
enjoy pitching
you’ll really enjoy
2K10 because there’s
no game that does
that better but if
you enjoy fielding
you’ll be left
wanting because
there’s not a lot to
do with fielding in
2K10. As for
hitting… that’s
somewhere between
the two because it’s
both good and bad.
MLB 2K10 is a must
for baseball fans
and it ends up being
a decent baseball
game.
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