It’s February 7th, and it means we’re about four weeks away from the annual release of this year’s crop of baseball videogames. I’m an old school gamer, and I’ve been playing baseball games on just about every platform there has been since my first system in 1977 (the Atari 2600).
Anyway, since we’re in the buildup for the new games, we’re getting the usual bunch of screenshots and all that. Saw this one today, and thought I’d pass it on. It’s from MLB 2k8, and shows Ian Kinsler at bat at the Ballpark.
2K’s “MLB 2k8” is the latest entry in their series (which started back a few years ago when it was World Series Baseball, and going further back than that on the Sega Genesis). One of the things that has plagued the 2K series has been the player models. That’s supposed to be Ian Kinsler, and it sorta looks like him, but not exactly. 2K is the exclusive “third party” baseball game maker. That means that Sony can make one for the Playstation, and Microsoft can make one themselves for the Xbox 360 (likewise Nintendo for the Wii), but nobody outside the console maker can make a MLB baseball game other than 2K. With that in place, you’d think they’d do a better job of getting the players right. The last couple of entries in this series have been a little more “miss” than “hit”, so I’m hoping they rebound in this latest edition.
This year I have a Playstation 3, and will be checking out Sony’s “MLB 08 The Show” game. Everything I’ve read about that makes me think it might dethrone 2K’s game as the best baseball game around.
I wrote about this a bit when MLB 2k7 game out last year, and I’m bringing back a screenshot that I used then from the baseball game from Atari for the 2600 in the 70’s. We’re a long LONG way from that.
