Xbox 360 Review: Major League Baseball 2K11

It is a new year and of course another baseball game is being released by the dependable 2K Sports. With the season already a week or so in, people are donning the ball caps and sipping their own overpriced drinks at home as they pop in MLB 2K11 into their game systems. This year 2K Sports have chosen to put Roy Halladay on the game cover, which is a nicely analogous choice for this review.

Halladay has been around for awhile in the major leagues, and though everyone has come to expect dominance from him whether he plays for the Blue Jays or the Phillies, he still manages a surprise now and again. Last year he delivered a perfect game, but this year, who knows? Will he break down? Will he go back to being simply dependable? Every year people ask the same questions of their favorite sports video game titles. Is 2K11 going to be groundbreaking, more of the same, or (gulp) the end of the road in quality?

One of the newest features of the series is the dynamic player updating. No longer content with outdated, static player ratings, 2K11 now revises player skills and rankings as the real life Major League Baseball season progresses. If one is connected to the internet, the game will update once a user begins playing 2K11. It’s a pretty neat addition in that no longer will one see someone like, say, Mike Stanton wade through mediocrity if he has a big rookie season. On the flipside, one may have a hard time getting no-name players to do miraculous feats if their skill levels continue to decrease due to a real life lack of playing time.

Another interesting feature is the revamped fielding system. In 2K10 the fielding system was a little clunky given the default sliders, but now it seems to be more agreeable. Players are given a location in the form of a circle for their player to scoot to when a ball is in play. Once the ball is caught, users utilize an arm strength meter to throw the ball with velocity and accuracy. Like free throws in basketball games or field goals in some old football games, the timing of a throw measure can mean the difference between a put out and a wild throw.

Article Author: Evan Mauser

Once a man only known for juggling numbers and finding broken stuff, Evan Mauser finally puts his literary skills on cyberpaper. Sure, he's dabbled with some prose and novel in the past, but he mostly spends his time listening to the guitar and drum. …

Visit Evan Mauser's author page — Evan Mauser's Blog