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23 February 2011
By Scott Hemphill and Craig Gonzalez
Consolesports.net was fortunate enough to get an invite to the 2K Sports MLB 2K11 developers converence call today. The call featured Mike Rhinehart, Senior Brand Manager, Jon Rivera, Game Designer, and Mark Little, Senior Producer for the Major League Baseball 2K11 product.
(Audio of the conference call can be found HERE )
Craig and I figured I'd take the time to go ahead and write some impressions of the call, and the state of the product to this point.
The history of 2K baseball has seen many iterations and just as many stumbles. The series has had a slow, sometimes painful migration from a very "arcadey" baseball game with tons of home runs and very little defensive play. Over a six year span, the series is almost unrecognizable from where it started...and in the case of MLB 2K, that's a good thing.
Last year (MLB 2K10) was a very important year for the product. The attention that went into recreating the batter/pitcher duel was key in getting the series some baseball credibility that it had been missing previously. In short, MLB 2K10 nailed that aspect. Enhanced "Gesture Pitching" was such an advance in "feel" and gameplay that it became the baseball game equivalent of the "Skill Stick" controls that had their debut in NHL 07. Quite simply, after playing a baseball game with gesture pitching, and going to a game without it, you simply felt naked. It was a great idea very well implemented.
Beyond that, MLB 2K10 also wowed alot of people with the "My Player" mode that let you create your own player and control his career through the minors to the majors. It was fun and addictive...sort of a sports "role playing game" within itself. I know it became a favorite with many of our own forum folks and co-founder Craig Gonzalez in particular. (He made himself into a pitcher. Not surprising..from a guy who used to throw his game controllers so much...but I digress).
In short, MLB 2K10 did many things right, and it was a huge step in the right direction for the MLB 2K product, at a time when the product desperately needed it.
However, one of the still remaining weaknesses of the product was in the realm of fielding.
So, I went into the call really tuned-in to see what would be said about fielding, but I quickly learned how much else 2K had planned for the game beyond fixing the fielding and enhancing it. According to the designers, the mantra for MLB 2K11 was "Depth and Quality over Quantity". I applaud that, frankly. I know there's a temptation amongst yearly sports game publishers to add some new mode of play. Unfortunately, we all can cite many cases where adding those new modes of play have come at the expense of polishing the core experience of the sport.
Much of the initial few minutes of the call dealt with the new "Dynamic Player Ratings System" built into the game. I'll be honest, I don't quite understand how it works under the hood (even after several explanations) other than to say that the game will basically have some really advanced metrics for individual player hot and cold streaks based on an average of four weeks of performance (or lack of performance, as the case may be.. for my Pirates...but I digress.) These DPRS "streaks" will determine player ratings to the positive or negative throught your virtual season with the player. The devs also admitted there's a bit of controversy and worry about this sort of thing on some forums, because gamers are worried that DPRS might break their season. However, they assured everyone that DPRS, though it can't be turned off, is factored into the overal sim metrics of the game for the purpose of enhancing, not breaking, realism. Personally, I get that. Streaks are a part of all sports, and I've been a fan of their implementation ever since Tecmo Super Bowl pioneered weekly "player condition" and ratings that changed accordingly.
As for My Player mode, 2K's devs say they have refined the mode to add more realism. Progression, in particular, has been further tuned after some player suggestions from last year. Doesn't sound like too much has changed for My Player, other than some under the hood stuff, but frankly, My Player was pretty darn good last year, yet I think there were some "bigger fish to fry" this year...such as fielding, in terms of what needed alot of work. More on that later.
As for pitching, more work has been put into a variable strike zone. Yeah, we all know that MLB umps have a very, dare I say, "subjective" idea of the strike zone from behind the plate, but in MLB 2K11, it sounds like this will be a bigger factor than before. Sounds like umps will be dynamic, and you won't always be able to paint that corner with your favorite pitch the same way with each umpire. Also, pitchers will have a control rating for each type of throw in their arsenal, rather than an overal control rating that determines control overall. So you might want to be careful when tossing your 3rd best, low-rated garbage pitch and trying to paint a corner. Also, the devs claim that the new variable strike zone (and the umps subjective calls) will ease last years' issue of players rarely walking anyone when pitching.
Now...on to fielding.
Fielding has apparently gotten alot of work, according to the devs on the call. For one, player ratings to differentiate fielders are a big part of the game. Throw ratings for each player, as well as a corresponding throw meter to reflect that, will play a big part. Glove rating will also be seriously important. There will be a huge difference between making a "tought" catch with Jeter versus the call-up du'jour of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Visually, and gameplay-wise, certain fielders will have access to a greater variety of catches, spectacular catches, and animations than would the average joe fielder. Lesser fielders will be "locked out" from those animations and catches. That's good- because not every fielder in the game is going to have the Derek Jeter level of fielding animations, unlike in past years.
Regarding the controls for fielding balls, the goal was to give the user a lot more control over what is happening. In previous years, the game would practically field for you automatically. This year, they've added dynamic landing zone that lets you read the ball off the bat. Some fielders will be better than others with that "read". Also, the game won't "push you" towards the proper catch area as much this year. You'll have to move the player there on your own for the most part. You will also have to get a bit closer to the catch point to make a proper catch. Ratings tie into this as well, such as fielding range/glove. They say that now it will be a bigger decision when you swap out an average hitting defensive fielder for a better hitting bench player with a crappy glove. There will be a noticeable trade-off in the field. I like that.
As far as the extras
* All MLB players have been given an appearance makeover. (this includes faces, expressions, and player models)
* Classic all NL, All American League teams, but all A/AA/AAA teams are in.
* Base stealing- was too hard for many last year. Many things need to be factored, pitch speed, catcher ability, leadoff, player speed. However, all of those variables are on a slider this year, and can be adjusted to your liking. Totally tune-able.
* Stadium-broadcast specific cameras.
When the call finished, I know I was a bit more excited for this years' MLB 2K product than I've ever been. If 2K can build around the core pitcher/batter duel goodness of last year and get fielding an baserunning where it needs to be, things are looking up for the franchise with MLB 2K11.
See you on the diamond.
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