MLB 2K10

Alright, well from what I played last night they made two changes to the franchise mode that I’m very happy about. The ability to manage games has returned with something called the Super Sim. Here’s how the developers summed it up:

Super Sim is a great way to get through games during your season that you don’t particularly want nor have time to play, but still want to have some control over. With Super Sim, you have three simming options: you can simulate one play at a time, one half inning, or one full inning. You will be able to follow along with the game play by play as you sim through it and will be able to jump into the game and play whenever you want (you can also jump back to the Super Sim screen whenever you want after you are in-game).

So if you are simming a game using Super Sim and see that the game is getting heated in the late innings, you can easily jump in and finish the game, or just jump in for an at-bat or two, then go back to the Super Sim screen. On the flip side if you are playing a game and have built a big lead and don’t want to finish playing it all the way through, you can go to the Super Sim screen and quickly sim through to the end of the game and follow it that way.

In last years game for some reason they would also show exactly where the pitch was going so if you were doing a franchise with another person (like I normally do) and your teams were playing one another you could easily see the pitch location during every at bat. Thankfully this has been removed.

I spent about 3 hours playing the new “My Player” feature. Very fun, I must say. I created myself as a CF and am currently tearing it up in AA. The games are simmed until there is a moment where your players is directly involved, whether it be an AB or a play in the field. Succeed and you’re rewarded with talent points that you may use to upgrade your player in any number of ways (contact, power, arm strength, range, etc).

Alot of the reviews complained about how the constant jumping in and out of games for only the plays your player is directly involved in was a pain in the ass, but I didn’t mind one bit. Besides, do you really want to have to sit through every AB that you’re not part of? Every play? Backing up other players? That’d be terrible. My only complaint is that the camera is very restrictive, but I suppose it’s supposed to mimic your players plane of view as it would be in real life so it makes sense. I’ve heard that if you do the “My Player” mode as a pitcher it’s the best since you have the most control over the game, whereas the catcher is the worst since you have no control.

So far so good! If you want to do some more reading I recommend checking out the developer’s blog.

I am jazzed about all of the draft improvements and the fact that high schoolers go to college. That and the ability to mass select players. I was a pain in the ass to pick all of the guys to send down after ST.

I wonder how they managed to FUBAR that. It certainly wasn’t a genius last year, but it was adequate. Odd of them to take a step back like that.

i was surprised to see a big update that fast/

I feel like that’s a little low for Lowe (no pun intended). I was surprised to see that our hitting was rated higher than our pitching.

and I’d go in and change things like Esco’s fielding (which was bad in 2009) and MattyD’s hitting against LHPs.