While the actual MLB season just started, it seems its not too early to discuss the problems in MLB 2K7 along with part of the plan for next year’s title. IGN sat down with the Lead Designer for the 2K series Ben Brinkman to get his response to feedback on 2K7 and how he plans to steer the franchise in the coming year.
“MLB 2K7 was the first step in a long process of reinventing the 2K Sports baseball brand and the MLB franchise. 2K7 was year one of that, and a lot of that was just getting back onto stable ground — getting back with the people who play our game and putting something out there that they’re happy with, they have a blast playing and that they can play for an extended period of time. I think we delivered upon that, especially given the short timeline with which we had to create that game.”
I think they were successful in doing this. There are glaring issues with the game, but at the very least its fun again and has reached a level of respectability that was missing the past couple years.
A handful of problems with the game were addressed. Issues with the fielding, AI, presentation, and franchise mode. Of that bunch, the only one that stands out to me is the fielding. The AI and presentation may have been lacking somewhat, but it would be down farther on my list of things to work on. The franchise end of things could be deeper, although I suspect outside of the hardcore crowd aspects such as playable minor league teams aren’t as important as they’re made out to be.
Brinkman agreed with these criticisms, stating quite bluntly, “I personally think that whole fielding system sucks.”
It’s great the candor Brinkman speaks with. Its rare to find anyone in those type of positions making honest and non-PR driven remarks. At the very least it shows that he recognizes the problems and has the pride behind the product to want to get everything right.How about the biggest problem with the game though, which is the lack of hit variety and homerun heavy scoring? That alone has turned me off to the game long-term, and literally killed the league I was running at SportsGamer. If you’re lucky enough to get a basehit or a double, you’re probably not going to string several of those together. The runs will still come in on homeruns which fly out at an extraordinary rate. The rest of the time you’re relegated to solo homeruns. How was this not raised at the meeting?
It was surprising to hear Brinkman speaking out about the direction of the coming year right now, so soon after the release of 2K7. It seems to be a good sign though, and gives the fans a lot to look forward to.
With the positive buzz that has surrounded the franchise the last couple years, the PS3 version of MLB 07: The Show was highly anticipated going into this baseball gaming season. However the game has been pushed back multiple times, and the only media released were a few underwhelming screens back on March 1st.
The lack of information had brought speculation that the game could actually be called off for this year. However a rep from SCEA posted on the Operation Sports forum yesterday to hopefully end that discussion.
This is fact: The game will ship. We’re working as hard and as fast as we can.
He goes on to state how he believes the game looks amazing and plays better than the PS2 version.
Despite that comment, the concern from fans is certainly justified. There are issues being faced that forced the game to be delayed. Those are most likely relatively serious, otherwise the game would’ve been released on time. There is no way they are pleased releasing it a month and a half into the season. Not only do they miss out on the pre-season excitement, but MLB 2K7 has been out since the end of February and captured a good deal of the purchases that will be made this year.
It brings up the issue again of difficulty programming on the PS3. The surprise here is that it comes from a 1st party developer. Looking more into the comment he only states it will “ship” but he doesn’t mention a specific date. Its a real possibility that it may not make the 5/15 date that its currently slated for.
In the look at potential candidates for the cover of Madden 08 that I wrote up a while back, I mentioned Devin Hester as a darkhorse pick. While special teams may seem like an extremely unlikely choice to be represented on the cover, someone like Hester breaks out of that mold after a season in which he became a household name. Special teams in Madden is in dire need of improvement and he would present that focus well as the cover man. It would be hard to argue many players were more important to their team last year than Hester.
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Take a look at these highlights for a good idea of the electricity and impact he brought to the Bears in 06. I think a little of that feeling has been missing from Madden the last couple years.
Jonathan Crankshaw, the man in charge of the rosters and ratings for all the EA Sports Tiburon studio titles including Madden 08, just took part in an interview over at MaddenPlanet.com. In it he touches on some of the procedures behind the process of coming up with the numbers that everyone loves to scrutinize.
The biggest mention that may interest those looking forward to 08’s release was his response to the question of why there are only a handful of updates per season.
A lot of fans wonder why rosters can’t be updated each week during the NFL season. Why does it take a while for updates to come out?
Generally the problem has been the time it takes to get the update ready and verified ready to be used by the public. It is better to be cautious when dealing with so many things that can go wrong with a game played by so many people. It is a lot of behind the scenes stuff that causes problems that the public is never aware of. So usually a safe amount of time is allotted to get the roster 100% ready to be used by the public. We are working on improving existing methods to expedite the time it takes to get an update ready. This year the plan is to have more than ever before, ideally every week or two.
This is great news since its been a common suggestion for years now to increase the number of roster updates during the season.
The question then becomes how detailed will these rosters be? Will players be removed if they’re only expected to miss a game or two? Will ratings be adjusted based on performances each week?
I think most would be satisfied if the rosters were kept up to date, and the ratings were only adjusted quarterly through the season. Its too small a sample to adjust ratings based on a single game. When it comes to injuries probably the same would apply, if a player is expected to miss more than a couple weeks thats when they should be removed from the rosters.
The most important thing is that the releases remain on a consistent schedule. Simply knowing when to expect them would be an improvement over the way its been done the last few years.
While the debate over the positives and negatives of downloadable content in general continues, its clear that companies are still seeing it as a profitable venture that ultimately satisfies the majority.
NBA Street: Homecourt appears to be the latest example of a title taking full advantage of the opportunity to offer additional items following the release of the game. Currently only the themes and picture packs are available, however there are plans for much more.
The official site for the game offers some details on what to expect in the near future. It will include brand new courts with some being offered for free while others will cost MS points. We’ll also see legendary street characters and additional apparel.
Possibly the most interesting note comes from the site’s FAQ on downloadable content.
Is downloadable content available on any other platforms?
Presently, the Xbox 360 offers the largest amount of downloadable content – and is the only option for downloadable content for NBA STREET Homecourt. However, both the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii do support various types of downloadable content, and EA will continue to pursue new and innovative ways to provide content to our customers.
It is unknown why only the 360 Marketplace would get the benefit of the content while the PS3’s PSN does not.
It could be technical issues that make it more difficult to do for the PS3. Remember the actual game was released two weeks after the 360’s version for such a reason. Another potential factor could be that the majority of Homecourt owners have the 360 version, making the cost of producing the content not worth the potential return. It may very well be a combination of those two reasons.
Regardless of why this is the case it presents another example of how the 360 version of multi-platform sports titles are currently offering a better experience than their PS3 counterparts.
Lately we’ve seen online co-op become more prevalent in games, Crackdown being possibly the most publicized and utilized. Virtua Tennis 3 was just released on the 360 and it included co-op matches in doubles play. Despite that addition to the sports lineup, it seems that thus far this is something that hasn’t been given the level of attention or consideration that many people have hoped for. That may actually be the case with online play in general.
In my discussions with EA Sports representatives, they recognize that they are in catch-up mode concerning the area of online play features. They have as much as admitted that they didn’t focus enough on it previously, however they have now changed their mindset and hope to not only match what is being done by others but they desire to excel and become innovators.
For 2K Sports they have been seen as the innovators the past several years. However many issues were encountered with the features they introduced. While they offered things such as league systems and online sliders, much of the time those features were broken and never worked properly. Even their recent releases have been plagued by technical problems. That is just as bad as not offering them at all.
So while both companies hope to expand their online feature set, it has to make sense for the co-op to exist in the first place. While it would seem natural for a game like NBA Street: Homecourt, it may not fit as well with a game such as MLB 2K7.
In what will become a regular column here, we’ll take a look the hot topic around the sports gaming message boards for the previous or current day.
Yesterday, the hot topic was in reference to the release of May’s cover of Game Informer magazine. As tough as it may be, lets go ahead and ignore the giant feature on Grand Theft Auto IV. At the top of the cover is Madden Beware: An Exclusive Look at 2K Sports’ Gridiron Return.
Originally, this exclusive reveal was supposed to take place in the April edition of the magazine. That created a great deal of anticipation, yet only ended in severe disappointment as there was not even a mention of the game. It appears that 2K Sports asked to move the feature to the May edition, reason unknown. It could be that they wanted it in alongside GTA IV, since both of them are Take Two properties and it could potentially take advantage of heavier readership coming from the GTA fans.
That was a curious move to me. Had they gotten the first info out a few weeks ago, it would’ve had all the focus on itself. Neither Madden nor NCAA Football’s marketing has geared up yet, but once it does its going to be tough for All-Pro Football to avoid getting swallowed up by those two. It shouldn’t be long until those EA titles start flooding the media with information.
The title is meant to grab attention of course, but still the “Madden Beware” part is where a problem lies for 2K. If APF is pushed as a title you should give up Madden for, not only is it not going to work, but its going to alienate Madden fans. There will be some who give the game a chance as their second or third football title in their library. The last thing they should be going for is annoying the Madden fans, many of whom are simply football fans, by telling them that the game they enjoy is inferior. 2K has to concentrate on what their game offers that will make people want to buy it, not what the other game does or doesn’t do.
There is still a lot of time, and this first look into APF should prove to be interesting. Unless there are surprises, in all likelihood it will be a disappointment for those who are looking for many details on the game and insight into how it will please the hardcore fans. You have to start somewhere though, and it looks like the piece in Game Informer will be kicking it all off.
I’m going to be starting a regular feature called (creatively enough) Ask Padre. If you have a topic that you would like me to touch on, go to the Contact Padre page and send me a message. I’ll try to get to as many as I can, with priority going to the best suggestions/questions or the ones that I can offer the most insight or opinion on at the time. I plan posting at least one Ask Padre column a day.