Comments on: Online Play Report: MLB 2K8 and MLB 08: The Show

By: Lou

Lou — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:32:11 +0000

I’ve been playing MLB 2K8 on the 360 for two months now, and I thought it was internet connection causing a problem. It isn’t! I don’t understand how a company can release a game with such crap online play. Lag issues while swinging makes the game terrible. You can’t play a realistic game against an online opponent EVER. This is horrible and I am pissed I even purchased the damn game. Playing against the computer and playing against a live person is a totally different experience, and not being able to play online kills the thrill for me. How can we get this problem fixed???????

By: Reeso2991

Reeso2991 — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:49:39 +0000

Honestly i bought 2k8 for the season mode and to play with my friends, internet play for the game did not and doest effect my purchase.

By: CrimsonVoodoo

CrimsonVoodoo — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:36:10 +0000

I think at this point most folks are staying out of the lobbies until the patch hits – why waste your time online at this point

Anyway – I’m having too much fun building up my Card Team offline – I’m a shortstop and a starter away from fielding a team (albeit not a GREAT team, but I’ll have filled all the slots)

By: pastapadre

pastapadre — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:59:44 +0000

[quote comment="15178"]jdolla… I’ll have to disagree sternly with you. I played about 170 games of All Pro Football online and only experienced crippling lag in about 3 of them. The rest ran as smooth as if I was playing the computer. I’ve only played about 10 NBA 2k8 games online, but I have not seen ANY lag at all in any of them. 2Ks servers are known for being pretty solid. That’s why Pasta was anticipating 2K to be the first to get the baseball lag straightened out. Apparently they didn’t this time.[/quote]

yeah. For all its flaws 2K7 ran smooth online. The irony is that clearly more people were playing last year than this year. I’m really surprised when I go online with 2K8 and theres less than 30 people in lobby rooms and only a couple people on my friends list even playing the game. That wasn’t the case last year.

By: Darkheath

Darkheath — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:08:18 +0000

jdolla… I’ll have to disagree sternly with you. I played about 170 games of All Pro Football online and only experienced crippling lag in about 3 of them. The rest ran as smooth as if I was playing the computer. I’ve only played about 10 NBA 2k8 games online, but I have not seen ANY lag at all in any of them. 2Ks servers are known for being pretty solid. That’s why Pasta was anticipating 2K to be the first to get the baseball lag straightened out. Apparently they didn’t this time.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:45:19 +0000

I do wonder tho’ – why is it games like Halo or Call of Duty can support intensive, data tracking, multiplayer mayhem so easily, when almost every sports title seems to bear it like a burden?[/quote]

I too have wondered this, How can a game like call of duty support 16 players all running around throwing grenades, shooting and jumping without much lag at all, and sports games such as baseball have such a difficult time, when only a few players are involved on each play. It just baffles me…

By: CrimsonVoodoo

CrimsonVoodoo — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:24:01 +0000

I find these posts amusing only because the opinions vary soooo widely. It’s my experience that EA’s servers are gaaaawdawful. The community I belong to has pretty much given up on Madden and EA beacuse of the slide show presentation, yet we played a couple of seasons of APF in league play without any problem at all. Go figure.

Clearly there are lag issues right now with MLB2K8, but hopefully 2K can address these quickly – there’s a great baseball underneath it all

I do wonder tho’ – why is it games like Halo or Call of Duty can support intensive, data tracking, multiplayer mayhem so easily, when almost every sports title seems to bear it like a burden?

By: agent k

agent k — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:17:02 +0000

I just tried the demo and it is great. I pretty much got a hang of the pitching after the first pitch. My only gripe is that if you mess up at all, the hitter will destroy you.

By: Jdolla

Jdolla — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:58:00 +0000

I’ve played more games offline (10) than I have over the 5 years. As bad as 2k8 is online I find it very enjoyable offline. Since the inception of console online gaming (Madden 03) I’ve had no interest in playing the CPU. If for some reason my internet was down I won’t touch my console at all. MLB 2k8 on the other hand is very challenging and feels rewarding when you beat the CPU. I play on all star level, the A.I. makes smart decisions when it comes to pitching around a batter and using intentional walks. And the improved check swing ability makes it easier to take pitches. Also the ability to read pitches is improved over last year. However, you can’t perform defensive swings even though the manual says you can.

Online simply is not very good right now. It is apparent that 2k is a 2nd rate company when you compare the online functionality to EA sports. 2k’s server for all their games lag. The offline to online frame rate disparity, along with the lag, nearly eliminates the purpose of practicing offline to prepare for online matches. EA has excellent server at this point. Games look and feel exactly the same offline as they do online. With an EA game there is no need for the disclaimer “game experience may change during online play.” Being the Xbox Live junkie I am this is going to be the last 2k sports product I ever purchase.

By: Darkheath

Darkheath — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:43:37 +0000

EDIT:

does NOT allow the time needed for a virtual representation of a game so dependent on split-second physics like baseball needs.