MLB 2K12 - Catch-All

A little update in regards to online play.

I just finished an AMAZING game online. I lost the game on a two-run homer by Jason Werth in the bottom of the 13th. i had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 13th when I scored on a hit and run from first.

It was a pitcher's duel, but I was throwing Wainright for the Cardinals against Strasburg for the Nats.

MOST IMPORTANT: There was not one single moment of lag or choppiness. The game was butter. Better yet, I could easily take or swing at pitches based on location. It was perfect.

I outhit my opponent 13-11. I had 8 singles and 5 doubles. My opponent had 5 singles, 4 doubles, 1 triple, and the bomb.

He committed 3 errors, I committed zero.

I threw 113 pitches, of which he only took 9 for called bals.
He threw 156 pitches, of which I took 32 for called balls.

If he swung less, would have drawn walks. Same for me. But most importantly, it felt like a good fair game. My strike % was .920 to his .788, but that was because he was a pretty free swinger.

He struck out 13 times to my 15.

These aren't sim quality stats. But part of that is just getting used to playing online baseball where it is not cheese to throw out of the zone. when I swung at a pitch in the dirt, it felt like I got fooled, not ripped off.

But seriously, not one hiccup. I know that 2K took servers down for awhile the other day. I don't know if they fixed anything that caused all of the lagginess and stutters i saw before.

Oh, and the Clutch Moment animation of Werth's HR to win the game was awesome, even if it was awesomely depressing for me. I had two out and two strikes on Werth. One more to win the game.

I guess I got David Freesed.

If you haven't played this game yet, you are really missing out.

The deeper I get into the season the more I am really loving pitcher fatigue. It was never tuned this well last year. I always thought it was odd that relievers has 40-50 pitches before they would get tired when they never went that long. Well, this year, I get it.

After throwing a guy 20+ pitches, he's going to have fewer in the next outing. I went through a stretch where I was blowing through relievers like mad. Suddenly I go into a game with only my lefties and closer with enough innings to pitch long at all. Lance Lynn was 5-10, McLellen was 0-5, and so on. The first number is how many pitches it takes for serious fatigue to set in. The second is when serious risk of injury sets in.

I go long, even over the number, but it just wipes them out for the next day or two. So I am seriously managing my pitchers, going into games knowing that two of them are not available. So when Westbrook is sitting on 80+ pitches in the fifth, I am scrambling.

Pitching is so much deeper than it has been. I don't really run into issues of pitches being overused because it is not only easy to manage, it encourages you to think like a pitcher that much more. When throwing to Garrett Jones, the slider is his big weakness. But you can't just throw sliders, so you "show" him pitches, trying to get him to chase your fastball out of the zone, which allows you to throw the slider less, but more effectively.

Ryan Braun did make me pay for "showing a fastball up high out of the zone. He still deposited in the CF grass.

It's just very compelling to manage pitch counts and pitch types while also trying to mange your bullpen, realizing you don't have a day off for five days. I've never appreciated days off so much!

I have not really run numbers, but it does seem like Berkman fatigues more than Holliday and such. So I will get him out of the game early, and that saves some energy. I wish the NHL games could pull this off, at least for goalies.

I do wish a guy could still get some energy back if he pinch hits. He won't lose any energy, but you really need to keep a guy out to get any energy back. If I could get a portion back, it would seem more fair.

I'm also really starting to appreciate the hot and cold ratings. Basically, David Freese is ice cold for me. Into May, he is still hitting .160. I have him benched right now and giving at-bats to Matt Carpenter. But because he is cold, it's not like I have a strong rated Freese coming off the bench. I have a struggling Freese, whose ratings are lower. But it's not drastic, and easily overcome. I have guys with worse ratings hitting better. Like Carpenter, for one!

The more I play this game, the more I am really appreciating what they have done. If this is 2K's last year, I hope EA is taking notes, because there are some awesome features to this game.

And btw, this year's Perfect Game contest is a lot more interesting. For one, no more videotaping!

When you throw a perfect game, you get a score based on different criteria, including the ratings of the teams and players involved, how few pitches you throw, and just how accurate our gestures are.

The top eight perfect games will travel to 2K, and play in a tournament, with the winner getting one million bucks.

So Jay', is the MLB Daily mode pretty much a 'season' play, but you get to compare your stat's with the real game of the day. (I doubt it keeps track of your win/loss etc.)

You mentioned your well into a franchise. Are you at All-Star (I changed right after you mentioned it btw. As you said, better feel). Did you use the sliders you mentioned? The roster's that came with the game (mine was really wrong and hopefully updated soon).

I picked this up in the Amazon sale and went straight into My Player mode.

I was disappointed I couldn't have a career as a mundane middle reliever - being forced to choose between starter and closer I went for the former and then picked a fairly middling pitch combination: sinker, curve and cut fastball. I chose to enter the Pittsburgh system and got sent to the AA Altoona Curve. I did ok with them and while I didn't do enough to earn a straight call up to the major league squad, I did get called into the big team for spring training.

Amusingly, the way the games fell against the five day rotation meant that I threw my first ever major league game against the Yankees, followed five days later by the Red Sox. I hung in there surprisingly well against those two and then did better against the Twins and Marlins. With one game left I had an ERA of 2.98, which was better than I was expecting, but you could see the changes forced by the better batters as I'd gone from throwing my sinker 42% of the time in AA to 52% of the time in spring training.

Then I got absolutely hammered by the Yanks in my final spring game and although I think I had a solid showing I got sent back to the AA Curve. My stuff there was basically untouchable for five games, (turned into a fantastic 1-1 record as the Curve's offence disappeared), and so I got called up to the AAA Indiana Indians. Well done on that name.

Played a couple games for two No Decisions, (the offence thing again), and then there was a trip to the Louisville Bats... Going into the ninth I'd allowed no runs, no hits and no walks and so had a shot at a perfect game. The first batter fought me off for about nine pitches before finally popping out on a low curve and then the second batter was my sixth strike out... leaving one to go.

First pitch to batter number twenty-seven and the catcher wants the curveball away. My sinker has lost velocity down into the high 70s mph and all control has gone from my cutter. The control on my curve is shaky, but the snap is still there. I shake off the curve away because I'm not sure I can hit that corner because the timing bar is going so fast now and then the catcher calls the curve inside...

Sweet, sweet skill points...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/RieuWl.jpg)

Apparently throwing a perfect game means I get a date with Kate Upton. Or whoever the minor league Kate Upton is.

So, I was getting frustrated with The Show's hitting being so damn difficult and threw money at this on the PC.

I gotta say I hate these menus, but I also need to say that I much prefer playing this over the Show. If only it had the Show's ball physics ...

Is there no "basic" season mode? The daily stuff is borked for PC, so it's not all that interesting, unfortunately, and the franchise modes is, uh, crap. I just want to play out a season.

garion333 wrote:

So, I was getting frustrated with The Show's hitting being so damn difficult and threw money at this on the PC.

I gotta say I hate these menus, but I also need to say that I much prefer playing this over the Show. If only it had the Show's ball physics ...

Is there no "basic" season mode? The daily stuff is borked for PC, so it's not all that interesting, unfortunately, and the franchise modes is, uh, crap. I just want to play out a season.

Just play franchise for one season and stop. You can set the game to handle as much or little of the day-to-day stuff as you want.

And honestly, the ball physics are still better than The Show. SCEA may be pushing their improvement this season, but they are still wonky as hell from videos I have seen. I absolutely love 2K's physics.

The menus are weird, but actually pretty easy once you get used to 2K's love of the analog stick to bring up menus. Plus, once you start a franchise, it will be sitting on the home screen ready to launch whenever you boot up the game.

I'm 30+ games into my season, and I really like the package. Make sure you check Team Health under Manage after each game. It will clue you in on when to rest players, and when you might need to bring a pitcher up from the minors because our bullpen is whipped.

Ugh. I have to, like, take 2 minutes to tell it to do everything? Psha.

I totally love the new physics for the ball in the Show. You may not from the videos, but I really enjoy it while playing the game. I still prefer the way 2K plays in terms of pitching and hitting, mostly hitting.

garion333 wrote:

Ugh. I have to, like, take 2 minutes to tell it to do everything? Psha.

I totally love the new physics for the ball in the Show. You may not from the videos, but I really enjoy it while playing the game. I still prefer the way 2K plays in terms of pitching and hitting, mostly hitting.

I'm not sure what you mean by telling it to do everything. You can set it to automatically handle everything and do nothing.

Fair enough on the physics.

I have to say that pitching this year is fantastic. Fatigue is just handled so well now. You might be tempted to use a reliever for all of his 35-45 pitches, but you will pay in upcoming games when he is only set for 5-10 pitches.

The other thing is the overuse of a pitch is actually really well done. When a pitch goes into yellow, you can still use it, but it is a warning that it is abut to hit red, which is really a no go. It encourages you to do things like "show" your fastball to a guy like Ryan Braun. You can't leta fast ball get into his wheelhouse, but using it to balance your pitches allow you to use the curveball to get him out. I didn't like it at first, but it has made pitching a really fun, strategic element of the game.

But then, I already loved gesture mechanic. I have my slider for AI accuracy set to 10. But that can be pretty brutal if you are not used to it.

I was being sarcastic with the first part. I'll put a tag next time.

garion333 wrote:

I was being sarcastic with the first part. I'll put a tag next time. :P

Hey, guess who gets into the club that Verlander can't get into.

WAT!?

wordsmythe wrote:

Hey, guess who gets into the club that Verlander can't get into.

WAT!?

That's pretty funny.

The perfect game contest this year ranks the 8 best perfect game for a tournament to win the million bucks. In addition to how many strikes you throw and how few pitches you use, the game uses the quality of your pitcher versus the quality of your opponent as a modifier.

I was playing this afternoon and looking for a good game to try with, and I remember that the white Sox were on of the hardest of the day. Most games rate around 60, guys like Halladay around 40, while the White Sox was rated over 80 for today.

I wonder how many guys are now going to use Humber to get a max score?

There have been 648 so far. The #1 score used the Royals Danny Duffy.

#648 used Roy Halladay to beat the Pirates.

*edit* I lied. I jut looked, and I remeber incorrectly. He was rated 53.

Question: I'm pretty sure last year's edition allowed me to manage a franchise from the dug-out. I could watch play etc., and just manage. I'll be darn if I can see that mode available now. Or am I missing something?

Donan wrote:

Question: I'm pretty sure last year's edition allowed me to manage a franchise from the dug-out. I could watch play etc., and just manage. I'll be darn if I can see that mode available now. Or am I missing something?

I don't think it is there. I don't think it was in last year, either.

I think The Show might offer that.

Got this out of the Redbox, which seems to be a yearly tradition now, and I am still baffled they think that this deserves a new $60. This feels just the same as 2k10, still. Then, as if to prove my point, I put up 9 runs and managed 5 Ks in 3 innings in my first game, playing on All-star.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Got this out of the Redbox, which seems to be a yearly tradition now, and I am still baffled they think that this deserves a new $60. This feels just the same as 2k10, still. Then, as if to prove my point, I put up 9 runs and managed 5 Ks in 3 innings in my first game, playing on All-star.

There is a lot new to this year's game. I don't know if any sports game is totally worth $60 every year. It's cool if hitting is really that easy for you, but I have not found All-Star to be that easy. But since I own the game and have put dozens of hours into it, and may finish a season, it has been worth tweaking the sliders.

I came within an out of a no-hitter, and I have given up 10 runs. I've scored 10+ and been shutout. The new limits on how often you can throw pitches has been really cool. The increases and decreases on pitch ratings based on getting hit or striking guys out has been fair and effective. The addition of pitching charts is really nice, and they serve a good purpose for both hitting and pitching.

The game still has one major weakness. About once every 10 games, the AI just dorks up by leaving a pitcher to hit in the late innings when down by a run or two. They claimed to have improved this aspect, but I don't see it.

And while MLB Today is still my favorite way to pick up and play a sports game, their new MLB Today Season mode has not been as cool as I thought it would be. I still think it may make for an interesting pennant chase. I don't think it is up to date enough to play an entire season this way.

Also, I picked up the Combo Pack with NBA 2K12 for $70. So the game really wasn't $60 to me, and I suspect it can be had for cheaper than $60 soon.

I thought 2K11 was a strong game, and this improves in lots of good ways.

Likely bad news... no MLB 2k planned for next year.

It doesn't completely rule it out. But in an investor call today, the game was not mentioned, and the current agreement with MLB runs out next year. Unless there's some kind of renegotiation, it may be done.

And that would likely mean no MLB game on 360 next year. Doubt that Microsoft or EA Sports can get a series up and running in <18 months. Or if they did, it would probably suck.

That does suck. But I would not rule out an EA game. They have known this was coming for a long time, and I have assumed they had one in development for some time now.

I'm not surprised, though. While I think MLB 2K12 was a great game to finish on, it has been a really rough development over the last five years. They sold just 300K copies of 2K12 for the 360 and PS3, and 390K overall.

The dirty secret is, The Show 12 sold 400K copies for the PS3, and just 60K for the Vita. Baseball is not a huge seller, and I believe Sony willingly takes a loss on The Show in order use it as a showcase. It looks so amazingly real, it sells PS3's to people that don't buy baseball games.

Of course, this could keep EA from investing in the genre. But I also think Peter Moore just wants a baseball game.

The other option would be for Konami to retool Pro Yakyuu Spirits for MLB. I'm not a fan of cursor hitting, bit is a good looking game.

I love MLB Power Pros and would love to see Konami to bring Pro Yakyuu Spirits over. Loooooooooove.

They really should just release new-roster DLC.

wordsmythe wrote:

They really should just release new-roster DLC.

They do have a patch due out any day now. Or week now. You know how that goes.

On the plus side, there will be guys making rosters for next year's game, just like there are guys editing the current set. I prefer to stick with the official rosters, so they could get $5 or so from me if they were to do a set for next year.

BTW, I'm going to have to start playing more ChiSox games in MLB Today. I took flyers on Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza on my fantasy team last year. They are paying huge dividends this year. It took Viciedo some time to get going, and I nearly dropped him a few times.

It's a pretty fun offensive team.

Just saw this on Twitter. Posted less than 10 minutes ago.

@Ronnie2K wrote:

#MLB2K12 patch update v1.2 is greenlit for 360/PS3 release within the next 24 hours. Notes coming shortly.

I have no idea what they are patching. I'm sure there is stuff, but I've enjoyed the game as is, and never even really thought about a patch. Maybe they are going to tweak the AI manager so he is more likely to call a PH late n close games. That's about the extent of my problems with the game.

Jayhawker wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

They really should just release new-roster DLC.

They do have a patch due out any day now. Or week now. You know how that goes.

On the plus side, there will be guys making rosters for next year's game, just like there are guys editing the current set. I prefer to stick with the official rosters, so they could get $5 or so from me if they were to do a set for next year.

BTW, I'm going to have to start playing more ChiSox games in MLB Today. I took flyers on Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza on my fantasy team last year. They are paying huge dividends this year. It took Viciedo some time to get going, and I nearly dropped him a few times.

It's a pretty fun offensive team.

I'm starting to believe that they're actually pretty alright.

Patch notes for MLB 2K12 Update v 1.2

General
Hid the Upload options when not signed in.
Pitcher fatigue is properly set when loading back into a previously saved game.
Fixed problems where screenshots were corrupted prior to uploading to 2k Share.

MLB Today & MLB Today Season
Fixed crash in MLB Today based on schedule updates
Fixed crash when restoring default roster.
Fixed to properly use the date/time from the schedule to determine time of day for the game.

Gameplay
Fixed the rate on bad swing reactions, which was sometimes nearly 2x while player took several steps on camera
Improved the look of gathers in certain uncommon situations.
Fixed the "auto pitch" bug after a double switch.
Improved the base runner responsiveness when making decisions to advance and retreat with a ball in play.
Improved the playability of rundown throws. Previously they were too hard due to the fill speed of the throwing meter
Improved the base runner responsiveness when tagging up and launching from a base.
Improved the player’s paths when leaving the field and heading back to the dugouts.
Added code that helps eliminate errant check swings and throws to incorrect bases. Mostly for PS3 and PC users.

Online
Added a missing pause timer in the pitcher substitution menu.
Improved the outfielder reaction for online games. Users won’t miss balls that should be caught due to slow reaction times.
Adjusted pitch speed slider settings for ALLSTAR and LEGEND difficulty levels. This increases the difficulty for online gameplay.
Fixed exchange of team rival information to eliminate a divergence.
Exchanged inside edge data prior to franchise invite games to fix a divergence.

My Player
Fixed bug where game length could be set to 3 innings by setting it in Play Ball.
Fixed a crash that occurred when looking for season goals.
Fixed a bug with career messages not properly adding when the list is full. This issue led to a crash on PS3.
Fixed a bug where a pitch speed would decrease after completing a drill reward.
Fixed a bug where off-speed pitches decrease in speed after receiving an award from a drill.

Solid list, but no mention of manager AI and bullpen management.

I forgot about the fatigue getting dorked when booting up a saved game in progress. So that's good. The auto pitch after a double switch was weird, too.

wordsmythe wrote:

They really should just release new-roster DLC.

Well, about that...