MLB 2K10

For all XBOX 360 owners out there (I'm assuming by default that PS3 owners will buy the superior MLB the Show), has anyone else bought MLB 2K10 yet? As a 360 owner, it's unfortunately my only choice, and I've bought it each year it's been released on the 360. As many of you probably know from experience, past games in the franchise have been buggy, disapointing, and unplayable a lot of the time. Due to this, my expectations are not high for this version of the game, but I have to buy it anyways because it's baseball.

My experience with the game is limited right now, having only played one game so far. I played the Pirates and beat them 1-0 on an Ian Stewart solo HR. I'm rusty, so I just played on the default settings. Overall, I enjoyed the game and can already tell it's a major improvement over 2K9 (which isn't that surprising, considering how bad that game was!). I like the hitting and pitching mechanics so far; I felt very powerful pitching with Ubaldo, but I wasn't able to have pinpoint accuracy like last year's game (a good thing in my mind, since it feels possible to actually walk someone now!).

I like having the swing stick simplified from last year to include three swing types - contact, power, and defensive. I mainly used contact in this game, and I had a number of singles to various areas of the field. I was a little disapointed at the lack of extra base hits though; I'm hoping this is just due to me getting used to the game again. I rarely used the power swing, but it did pay off in one instance with Stewart's HR. For defensive swings, I only used them a few times, but it seems like a good addition, particularly since our favorite first baseman is so renowned for staying alive during an at-bat.

The new camera angle while you're at-bat is also nice. I'm able to discern balls from strikes much better, though I need to cut down on my free swinging tendancies still. I did draw a few walks in the game, something that rarely happened on previous versions of 2K games for me.

Fielding is much smoother this year as well. Finally there's no lag during play, and the ability to pre-load a throw is a nice feature as well. I can't comment much on stealing, having only attempted it once with Dex (I got a terrible jump and was out easily). Graphics seem pretty good, and I like the presentation (it should be even better in franchise, as the announcers will keep track of your season and actually have say things that have merit to the here and now).

It'll be interesting to see how I feel about the game as I progress. I haven't even delved into the franchise or My Player aspects yet, let alone online play. The game certainly feels like more realistic baseball then past versions, and it seems to be worth at least a rental to me if you're on the fence. PS3 owners will likely go with the Show, and I can't blame them; I'd be right there too if I owned one.

Phew, this is getting longer then I anticipated. Take a break if you've read this far down. :D Besides any impressions of the game so far, I wondered if anyone had looked at the minor league rosters yet. I like to be very accurate with my rosters, at least as I start a franchise. This includes finding the "fake" minor league player names and correcting it. Though I'll likely include a good amount of other team's top prospects if I can, the ones I really care about are the Rockies. In past versions, I've been able to find a good amount of matches, but not all could be matched to a real Rockies prospect. I'd like to find out which minor leaguers are in the game and get my roster as accurate as I can before compensating with what is left and having to look at Chris Nelson with the wrong skin color. ;)

Anyways, if anyone finds any matches and would like to post them, I'd appreciate it. I'm sure others are like me and like to have accurate rosters, so this would be a big help. I'm just starting on my own look through of the rosters, but here's an example of a fake name and his real life counterpart:

Ryan Rakers ---> Greg Reynolds