Customer Reviews

Major League Baseball 2K6

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a huge baseball fan and moderately fired-up gamer, I was primed to enjoy MLB 2K6 PSP. I'd read how the graphics were so hot you could tell the players apart just by looking at them. Surely it had to be better than the cheapie game I downloaded onto my LG cell phone -- you know, the one where your runner stays glued to first base while the batter hits one off the wall, resulting in your basic 8-4 fielder's choice.

Well..... Certainly the graphics are impressive. The game LOOKS right. But playing it? Forget it. Maybe it's me; maybe I've lost all hand-eye coordination overnight. But I found 2K6 absolutely unplayable. I lost my first two games by a combined score of something like 26-4. Figuring I needed to crawl before I could walk, I then opted to play the Yankees against the lowly Royals. Only lost 6-0 this time!

Don't get me wrong; I'm not ticked off that I kept losing. I'm a loser all around, I'm okay with that. But check out the way you lose. Your runners get thrown out on the basepaths left and right, even if you aren't particularly aggressive about sending them off. I somehow managed to get 12 hits in one game without scoring! Has there even been a 12-hit shutout in the big leagues? If there has been, it probably wasn't much fun, and neither was this.

Defense? Sometimes it works fine. Other times, your outfielder might decide to pull a St. Vitus Dance on you, turning a single into an inside-the-parker for the other team. And for some delightful reason, whenever the other team has a guy on first, your catcher decides to rebel against his job description and allow pitches to fly over his head. He also turns out to be crotchety about chasing the errant throw, resulting in your basic first-to-third-on-a-passed-ball play. Fun fun fun!

The hitting works all right, the pitching is good, the graphics are great. Hopefully the glitches will go away next year. Yeah, that's right, wait 'til next year!

Do you like baseball. Well everyone has been saying that this game sucks but it really is better than what I expected from them.

Graphics 9/10: The stadiums are very accurate. All of the player models are accurate and they each posses their actual stance.

Sound 8/10: Sure, the music is repeated from other 2k Sports games but EA Sports does the exact same thing. The commentary just like World Poker Tour (and other 2k Sports games) have very little to say and sometimes I can't hear them during the game.

Controls 8/10: I lost my first game 1-0 and then finally understood how to use the controls. At one point, I couldn't even hit the darn ball. Then I looked in the manual and it was easy to find out. It will take a little time for the average gamer to figure out these intricate controls. But this game rewards consistancy.

Fun 7/10: This game was very realistic. I felt like I was playing a baseball game. For once a game doesn't copy MVP Baseball's pitching style. This pitching has to be timed perfectly to throw the ball where you want it to go. The replay svreen and batting were dead on. Also, 2K Sports shows where pitches went and how fast they were on replays. The only problems were the endless loading, and repeated announcing. The loading wan't that bad though because they had questions for the gamer to figure out. This fun rating originally was rated a 9 but after playing some more, the game had bugs in it and shut down for absolutly no reason 3 times for me in one hour.

Overall: This game is great. Also, baseball cards (3 of them) come with the game. This game is a must buy for the PSP library.

Score: 7/10 3.7/5
By the way this game is rated E for everyone and costs 39.99

I've played a ton of sports games on PSP and other systems but have always found baseball games a little dull (sort of like their real world counterpart IMO - sorry!). That was until I discovered 2K MLB a few months ago. That is a great game which really puts you in the action with intuitive controls, great views, and good commentary. I actually learned to appreciate the subtleties of baseball as a result.

I thought the only thing that might be better would be the new 2K6 version. Well, I was wrong. The controls on the new version are horrible and not intuitive at all. Also, the players don't always respond to the controls which is frustrating. There are silly bugs that should have been worked out well before release. For example, after striking out for the third out the batter remains at the plate waiting expectantly for another pitch while everyone else is running off the field. I had a player run through first and continue running all the way down the foul line. I guess he had to go to the bathroom or something!

The game is slow to load on the PSP and the commentary lags well behind the action - unlike the earlier version. The views are bad, jumping around so much that it is impossible to suspend disbelief. The pitching controls seem to be different only for the sake of changing things. They are no more realistic or fun. Overall, this game is a big disappointment. I highly recommend picking up the original 2K release in the bargain bin instead.

MLB 2K6 was kind of a dissapointment. 2K5 for the PS2 was a good game, and I was expecting the same here.

Graphics: 7/10. The character models look great, the stadiums look somewhat close to how they actually look, and that's about it. The fans look like sickening chunks of vomit ( can't expect much for it being a PSP ). The character movements are also realistic; which is cool, but it's really bad if you are playing in the outfield. A thing I also noticed, is that some players don't have helmets on when their batting, and some don't have their hats on when they're in the outfield. For me, I noticed that Vladamir Guererro has this problem. Nothing big at all, but it obviously was a mistake made.

Sound: 7/10. The annoying "hardcore elevator music" at the main menu is really annoying. 2K5 didn't have really good music either, though. Just those ESPN beats. The commentators get the calls done, but about 70% of the time, it's not on time. They will often call a play 5 seconds or so after it happens. When you hit the ball, it makes a strange sound, too. It makes the same sound every time, and it just doesn't sound like a bat on ball. It's kind of a sound that would wake you up in the middle of the night after something fell in the garage.

Control: 6/10. These controls are really just pretty damn frustrating. Initially, I thought I couldn't live with pitching; trying to aim the ball at the corners to get these guys swinging; but I did get used to it. That isn't my big problem though; I'd definitely say the fielding is worse. If a ball is hit in the outfield and you for whatever reason accidently move the analog nub in the wrong direction and try to go back towards the ball, you will miss it because the people just take so long to turn around. Another annoying thing that in a real baseball game would easily get a guy out, is the horrible infielding. If there is a ground ball, the guy ( usually the short stop ) will just lob it over to 1st base, when he really should rocket it; which often gets the man on base. Hell, many times there will be an inside the park homerun if your outfielder misses a ground ball rolling into the open. It extremely annoying and pretty much ruins this game.

Fun: 7/10. This game is really not as bad to the point where it's not playable, but it really is not buyable. Rent this game and check it out, you will either like it or won't. There is Ad-Hoc and Infrastructure online play, though, but I haven't played it yet because my Wi-Fi is broken. Wait for the MLB 2K7 addition, or if you can't wait and have a PS2, pick up MLB 2K5. It's a more "complete" game. MLB 2K5 doesn't have trivia during loading times though like MLB 2K6 ;].

6.8/10