Baseball On The DS

[Rogmeister]

I was just playing a game of Major League Baseball 2K10...I had an odd occurence in that, for about half the game, there was no announcer giving play-by-play. Did Thom Brenneman (or whoever it is) get stuck in the restroom? I also have MLB Power Pros for the DS but it's not as much fun to play on the DS as it is on the PS2. I think it's harder to hit the ball on the smaller screen and it's also lacking a full season play.

What I'm wondering about is what baseball games are out (or coming) on the DS this year. I was at Metacritic and it says there's Major League Baseball 2K11 but they have no reviews of it. Has that actually come out? It was scheduled to come out last month. If it has, has anyone played it? If you have, how does it compare with the 2K10 version? And is it the only new baseball game on the DS this year?

[PapaStu]

2k11 is out. I've seen it in stores. Not played it, but I know it's there.

There are a bunch of other games/series out.

Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball 09
Backyard Baseball 10
Backyard Baseball: Sandlot Sluggers

Little League World Series
Little League World Series 08
Little League Wolrd Series 09
Little League World Series: Double Play (08 and 09 on one cart)

the 2k series
MLB 2k 7
Major League Baseball Fantasy All-Stars 08
Major League Baseball Fantasy All-Stars 09
MLB 2k10
MLB 2k11
The Bigs 2 (arcadey, like NBA Jam)

Power Pros
Power Pros 08

Wiffle Ball is also 'baseball'. The game is unplayable, but yeah, its baseball in street rules form.

[Rogmeister]

I do have Major League Baseball 2K10 on the DS...I was playing that when I began my previous post in this thread (though I didn't specify I was indeed playing the DS version). I do have a Backyard Baseball game on the GameCube. Maybe I'll look up a couple of those other games at Amazon as I haven't seen them the place I usually buy games.

[bangtango]

I was just playing a game of Major League Baseball 2K10...I had an odd occurence in that, for about half the game, there was no announcer giving play-by-play. Did Thom Brenneman (or whoever it is) get stuck in the restroom? I also have MLB Power Pros for the DS but it's not as much fun to play on the DS as it is on the PS2. I think it's harder to hit the ball on the smaller screen and it's also lacking a full season play.:

You could look at user reviews on Amazon, Gamespot or even the dubious reviews on GameFAQ's. Yeah, you'll have to sift through a high number of idiots to get something well-written but you should find something for a write-up that will give you an idea as to how good the game is.

The commentary thing isn't uncommon, though I've never played MLB 2K10 on the DS. However, there are a handful of PS2, Cube and Xbox sports games in which you can lose the commentary for a full half of gameplay (2 quarters) which usually takes you to the end of the game.

Usually what causes that to happen is if you press any buttons to skip cutscenes, replays, etc. So I'd examine whether you are using buttons to skip replays, batter walkups, mound conferences or whatever superfluous stuff you usually have no interest in sitting through. It is possible you might find the culprit right there. I've seen games that respond poorly to users trying to rush through that stuff too quickly, not just by dropping the commentary either.

Then again, it could just be a bug in the game.

[Rogmeister]

I might have temporarily closed the DS cover that puts the game temporarily to sleep...it may have done something because of that. I don't usually try to skip anything as this game goes by fairly quickly. I'm off to Wal-Mart for some grocery shopping so maybe I'll stop by their game section and see if they have any baseball games I don't have. I also recently bought MLB 11: The Show for PS3...but I haven't had time to play that yet.

[Rogmeister]

I just went to Amazon.com and saw a few customer reviews of the 2K11 version (one barely qualifies as it was only about 3 sentences long). Based on what the reviewers wrote, it looks like it's exactly the same game...all they did was update the rosters. I still like 2K10 so, since it's only about $20, I may still buy it. Too bad I can't trade players. I guess I'm stuck with Ronnie Cedeno...

[bangtango]

I've been buying the last 2-3 editions of both The Show and MLB 2K for the PS2 (08' through 11'), which have also been a little uneven in quality.

Honestly, I don't expect much from a DS baseball game. I do find amusement, though, that 2010 and 2011 PS2 baseball games have well-established veteran players who have been in MLB for years with either the wrong skin color or on the player page for them, there is a generic player photo like you'd see for rookies or created players.

They also tend to feature players who have been "retired" for years buried deep in the free agents roster (or even the minor leagues).

I still have a lot of fun playing them otherwise. Good gameplay, controls and even the commentary isn't half-bad in recent editions of both The Show and 2K. For latter-day PS2 baseball, anything is better than Backyard Baseball

[bangtango]

I still like 2K10 so, since it's only about $20, I may still buy it. Too bad I can't trade players. I guess I'm stuck with Ronnie Cedeno...

For $20, I'd buy it. I've been buying the 2K sports "updates" for PS2 the past 2-3 years for that price.

I couldn't identify many baseball games with a decent player trade system. Some of them used to allow only a one-for-one swap between two teams for guys at the same position. Not good if you have 7 outfielders and only 8 pitchers on your major league roster.

For all it does right or wrong, the Madden series is one of the few games who had/has a reasonably good system for trading players, with the exception of some harebrained exception(s), at least in the past, where you were unable to trade kickers or punters.

[Rogmeister]

About a half-hour ago, I went ahead and ordered MLB 2K11 for the DS. Of course, I hate to get just one game at a time so I actually ordered a total of 3 games. The other two I decided to get (also for the DS) were True Swing Golf (this one I ordered used but it was listed as "Like New") and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The three totalled a bit under $50 which I don't consider a bad deal.