Major League Baseball 2K6 user reviews (Xbox 360)

Pros Graphics, The fact that Derek Jeter is on the cover

Cons Gameplay, Lineups, Menu's, Presentation

Summary This is an absolutely horrible baseball game. I don't even know where to start. First of all the intro music sounds like some 16 bit mono track pulled out of the original nintendo machine. I don't know how you are supposed to get excited for a game that has such garbage for an opening tune. Another problem with the game is how to play with your preferred settings. If you change the default settings and save it as a franchise, you have to ALSO reload the settings as well as the franchise EVERY SINGLE time you start up the game, which becomes a royal pain. It is also extremely hard to navigate through the sub-menu's for all the minor league teams and managerial pages, rendering that aspect of the game totally worthless. And for all the baseball purists out there, the default lineups are absolutely ridiculous. When would you ever have miguel tejada leading off for the orioles? What about david ortiz hitting 6th for the red sox? or perhaps paul konerko in the #2 spot for the chicago white sox. Why is there a box that slides across, up, over and down for a runner on each base? Could the screen get any more cluttered? There are there no mini games or spring training games to improve players. It really makes me angry that 2k sports has the license for major league baseball. EA did such an outstanding job with MVP and that game isn't even backwards compatible. It's safe to say that it will be a while before we see another good baseball video game. Until then don't bother buying this trash or any other game from 2k sports for that matter, because the hockey game is just as pitiful.

Pros Great player graphics (face) and jersey..... good season and gm mode

Cons fans are very unrealistic and the fields look like fake dirt on the warning track

Summary Good game overall. unbelievable player graphics. Jerseys and player closeups look just like NBA Live 06 and Madden. I was kind of surprised with 2k sports though. They really hit the target here with the only baseball game for a 360. Some things bad about it though is that Wrigley Fields ivey on the fence is really fake looking, at least EA made it move and look like Ivey... Overall:::Great!!!

Pros decent graphics, good announcing

Cons bascially a good Xbox game - not a 360 game.

Summary Well, for starters it took 2 weeks to get the game rolling because of the dreaded 'cache crash' (if you haven't heard about that, go to www.2ksports.com and click on forums). Once the patch came down through Live, you could then play a complete game without crashing.

Graphically, the game is good, not great. There are some improvements, but I would think this would have been a good look for Xbox, but I expected more for Xbox 360.

Gameplay is solid.

Announcers are good (Miller and Morgan), but the crowd and their individual taunts at opposing players are exactly the same as the previous versions (e.g. to Marcus Giles, "Hey, Giles, you'll always be Brian's brother.")

This is exactly what we were afraid of as baseball video game fans - with 2ksports being the only show in town for Xbox 360, they would not push to make this game great since there were no other options.

In sum, I play it because I have no other choices, but I do play...

Pros incredible hi-def graphics, hitting and pitching controls, smart AI, very very deep feature set

Cons baserunning and fielding bugs, baserunning and fielding controls, game lock-up issue (on 360 only), occasional graphics bug

Summary In general I have found this first generation of sports games for the Xbox 360 to be extremely disappointing. EA's incomplete games have been a disgrace at best and the 2K6 games have been more "finished", but still very buggy. That said, 2K6 baseball seems to have ironed out a lot, but not all, of these issues.

The first thing I noticed when I started a game was that the graphics are very sharp, detailed, and smooth. This is one good-looking game. The 360 will naturally look better than current generation systems but, especially at 1080i (or 720p I would think), it's a sight to see.

The batting and pitching interfaces are outstanding, the best I've seen in a video baseball game to date. The controls are intuitive and the motions are silky smooth. The same cannot be said about the fielding and base running where, as the CNET reviewer put it, the players get a mind of their own. Seriously, they will just take off, stop running, slam into the wall, stand there and look at the ball, it's frustrating when it happens. Thankfully it happens infrequently enough that it doesn't wreck the whole game (although it may cost you a win). I think the fielding and base running controls themselves could be tighter as well. I miss the fielder throw meter in MVP 05.

<rant>
On a side note, these "exclusive licenses" (NFL, MLB) demonstrate an appalling lack of respect to the fans on the part of the leagues and the game makers. Where's the competition to drive innovation, to offer more features, to create a better gaming experience?
</rant>

Contrary to the CNET review, however, I found the atmosphere, cut scenes and replays to be very similar to a broadcast of a baseball game. Granted, one of the first things I do with any sports game is to turn the replays to minimal and totally disable the cut scenes. They only add fluff to the game and while they can be a novelty at first, and they really do show off the systems graphics, they slow game play overall and add little to the game for me.

As amazing as the graphics are, there are still some glitches as the programmers get used to the 360 hardware. They really have nothing to do with the game play, like when the camera zooms in on a player or player/manager conversation sometimes the jersey can appear to have a bubble under it around the player's neck and shoulders. Another is when sweeping across the stadium from a certain angle there can be an occasional hitch. Like I said, it’s nothing crazy, but things that have no place in a released game.

The other issue involves a known bug that is exclusive to the 360; The game will lock up from time to time (no, this isn't the 1st gen 360 hardware overheating issue, it is a game-specific known bug.) 2K sports has a statement on it's web site promising a patch shortly. Perhaps the patch will fix the irritating fielding and base running issues as well, who knows. I have played about 15 games thus far and it has only locked once, so it appears to be the exception rather than the rule.

Overall I have to say that I am happy with the game. If you take the graphics, audio, pitching, hitting, and game play features/options from this game and combined it with MVP 05's fielding and base running you would undoubtedly have a 10. As it stands, the game is about a 7...very good but not great. If this upcoming patch fixes the glitches along with the lock-up problem, I will update and re-rate.

Even sans patch, if you own a 360 and you are a baseball fan you do need to pick up this game.