Gameplay: 5/10
I'll be honest here when I say as of now I only have the demo, but I think it still allows me a fair analysis of what I'm reviewing. At first I loved it, but I'm finding so many little problems with the gameplay that make me wonder if the makers of this game know anything about baseball.
The obvious problem is half of all hits are homeruns, and what is this with David Eckstein hitting an opposite field homeruns all the time?
Real life strategy does not work in this game, especially with pitching. Its a fact very few players can hit opposite field homeruns, and they are rare at that. I'm throwing way to many fastballs at the low outside corner of the strike zone and half the time they leave the park as homeruns. Too many high pitches are ground balls. There seems to be nothing that correlates where the pitch is and where it goes. That is half the challenge in hitting. You HAVE to take outside pitches the other way (swing later) or inside pitches you have to pull them. If not, you get dinky ground balls or pop ups. Not in this game though. As recently, I hit a 421 foot homerun to the opposite field on a high and inside pitch (I looked at the replay...the ball was at the trademark. In real life the bat probably would have shattered, but in this game its a homerun?)
You should infrequently give up homeruns if you hit the corners. If you watch in real baseball, most homeruns are mistakes by the pitchers leaving it in the middle. I'm all for being punished if you mess up the pitch circle timing thing, but if you hit your spots every time, and pitch smart, things should go great. They should just make the pitch circle harder to nail, but if you do nail it (and its in a good location) it should not be a HR half the time.
I think there is about an average of 10 homeruns per game. Its just ridiculous. Even with the power settings down. There are rarely any balls that go through the infield, either. Its a homerun, a popout, groundout or a strikeout. Not much else.
On the plus side of things, I love the actual pitching system. The payoff pitch is a great idea (in clutch situations, if you hit your spot the rating for that pitch will go up slightly). The break point is also great. You aim the cursor to where the pitcher throws the ball, not taking into account the break on the pitch. This gets interesting when you forget you have a lefthanded pitcher and throw a slider inside to a right handed batter. Whoops. Overall, gameplay wise the pitching mechanics are the best part of the game. Its too bad that it all goes to waste when you throw a 95mph fastball perfect at the high inside corner of the plate and it leaves the yard going 400 feet the opposite way.
Conclusion
All the problems make me mad because this game is so close to being great. If they applied some real life baseball strategy to it, fixed a few minor things it would be GREAT. But as it is, being a true baseball fan the game is hard to enjoy. For some casual play between your friends, or a visual benchmark for the 360, its great. But as I said, if you are looking for an authentic, realistic baseball game that requires real baseball strategy I'd look elsewhere. MVP 05 is still a much better game. If you have an original xbox, MVP 05 is probably 20 bucks now, and then with action replay (probably $20 or so) you can download updated rosters. I can almost promise you, for a good baseball experience, you enjoy playing the dated MVP 05 over the shiny 2k7. I hold out high hopes for 2008, as I realize this game is still a dramatic improvement to the (dreadful) 2k6 game. It is certainly a step in the right direction, but it isnt there yet.
Final Score:
As a videogame: 8.5/10
As something that is supposed to resemble baseball: 5.5/10 After playing the real game for about 5 or 6 hours I've come to a pretty simple solution. I HATE this game.
On a bit of a sidenote, if you are looking for a game for the 360 I highly recommend Rainbow Six: Las Vegas. It takes a lot of patience though, especially online. It takes a while to get good, and if you're not highly adept to video games you'll spend the first few dozen games struggling to get just a few kills. Once you get the hang of it (headshots! everything else is useless), its my favorite game since Halo.
