Major League Baseball 2K7

"The Good, The Bad, and the just plain UGly!"

Welcome to my opinion forum.

As the title states I will cover the parts of the game pretty much in that order, starting off with the Good.

The Good

The first thing I have to mention is the way the hitting is controlled with the right "Hit Stick". Of all the baseball games I have played over the years this added feature is brilliant and very entertaining. The timing can be a bit hard to master at first but in no time you can be swinging for the fences like a champ.

The player models for the most part are very well done and the plays in the field look pretty decent.

The ballparks are nicely modeled right down to the concession stands leading into the ballpark. (Be sure to get your peanuts and pop on the way in.)

The field in general looks very good with nice details all around except for the crowd, but I will cover that in the bad.

The pitching is nicely done with the payoff pitching. I can't really verify if the ratings boost you get when you hit the payoff pitch stays from game to game or if it is a temporary increase but nonetheless a very good aspect of pitching.

The base-running is nicely done with being able to select a runner individually. It is also good to be able to attempt a steal and be able to select what you want the batter to do since you will have control of the runner.

The Bad

The graphics albeit very well done for the most part has a few bugs. For instance in some situations you hit a ground rule double and the game will freeze and leave the focus on the dejected fielder looking towards the escaped ball prompting you basically to reset and lose and previous data. In my case I was on a 3 game win streak on the Yankees and hit a ground rule double which should have one the game but resulted in losing the 3 game series due to it freezing. It would be nice to auto save after each game. That would be a nice option. *hint to developers

The batting although very well done with the hit stick is still a bit crappy when trying to hit home runs. For instance you hit a hard, deep fly ball only to see it fall on an angle that barely places the ball over the edge of the wall that.......................You guessed it is caught repeatedly by mediocre fielders who in reality have never snatched a home run in their lifetime. You can occasionally see one go deep out of reach of the fielders but the downside is that is when the computer is batting not you.

The fielding is very lag-gy which can cause a simple fly to center field to allow a nimble runner to tag up from 2nd base and actually score. Relays are very crappy as well. The cut off man gets the ball and there is no urgency for him to relay it to the next base to make the out. At that point it gets worse, when receiving a relay it takes too much time to apply a tag and usually the runner will be safe.

The commentary is the worst yet in my opinion. The announcers repeat the same thing over and over and seem to just be a recording and not realistic like you would expect. And it is just as annoying as Chris Berman was in older baseball versions with the "Back....Back.....Back.......Oh Your Out" BS. I mean who wants to hear an announcer hyping up a deep blast only to see it caught 15 ft before the warning track?

The Ugly

The game overall is nice to look at but horrendous when it comes to game play. Routine ground balls seem to go by infielders with no attempt to dive at them or sprint to cut them off. (Applies to your team not the computer.) The computer will almost never miss a tough grounder through the middle.

Line drives are a joke. Fielders will be facing the opposite direction and never miss a line drive in their direction whether they are facing it or not. The same applies in the field. The fielders make over the shoulder catches all day long without ever looking back to track the ball. It's like having the cursor on the ground to show where it is going so they never have to look at the ball.

Fly balls never hit gaps on this game unless the computer is the batter. The scouting report system is completely stupid in the fact it costs you more than the salary of an above average salary player to but a report for 10 guys when you specify the whole team. (Very disappointing) This really stinks if you are playing in the GM mode and have a strict budget.

The lack of urgency in fielders is really bad when relaying balls to try and stop doubles triples or trying to make plays at the plate. On top of poor relays the tag attempts are pretty lame as well in most cases tags are never attempted and it is a free run.

If you don't buy the scouting reports the awesome pitching interface is reduced to useless crap.

All in all you can customize to your hearts content with all the options you can tweak but a GOOD Baseball game would be decent out of the box which I do not believe this one is.

Visual Score: 10 < higher if the scale were higher.
Game play Score: 5
Replay Value: 7
Audio: 7 < could be a 10 if the announcers were more accurate with calling the action.

Overall Score: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/07