Major League Baseball 2K9

i havnt played a MLB 2K game since MLB 2K6. I went and played MLB: The Show for the '07 and '08 gameing seasons. This game is no where near where MLB 2K6 was, i really enjoyed that game. It went "deep" into francise mode, and the francise mode in MLB 2K9 is really nothing. In 2K6 you were the manager, and the GM and owner told you what they wanted you to do, like sign a certain player, release a certain player, make a certain amount of money etc. There is none of that in this game, which i miss, cause that is what i loved about 2K6. Also MLB: The Show series is dominate over the 2K baseball series right now, the francise mode in that game is almost real. You assign sponsers, what kinda travel you have, you can set the food prices etc, (and i am talking about MLB: The Show 07-08, i have not played 09, so i cant tell you what that games francise mode is like).

GRAPHICS
Graphicly this game is ok, the best thing about it has to be the character models. At times they look stunning, the shadows on their bodys looks real and just makes the game shine. But at other times its a mess, some models look ps2ish, they often use the same animations for the same people who are right by each other, with is odd, cause you see two people moving in the exact same way. Ball parks look ok also, again the shadows really help, the crowd is bad, they look straight out of a ps2 game, and they stand up randomly and for the most part dont do anything. When you hit a ball into the crowd they will go after it but thats the only interesting part of the crowds.

CONTROLS
The controls are where this game lost me. Its soooo bad. There were many times when i was running for a ball, and my gun dived out of no where. Now the dive button is the X button, and you use the left stick to move your guys. My thumb was no where near the X button, so i really dont know what was going on there. Also when running to balls in the outfield, i would get my guy where i thought was the right postion, and the ball would miss him, so i really hated moving my guy toward the ball. If you just let him run to it himself he'll catch it, but if you move him yourself, he'll miss it? That killed it for me, way to annoying. Ok, since this is my first game since 2K6, i wasnt used to using one of your left or right stick to pitch, throw, hit, etc. I never tried it with that, i thought it worked really badly. So i really liked it that they gave you the option to use classic controls. Which are, to hit you use the X button, to throw you use the A for homeplate, B for first, Y for second and X for third. To pitch you use A, B, X, Y and sometimes RB to select pitches. You can use the RT to lock your pitch, which i cant tell if it works or not. The controls are really the worst part of this game, this is something i really hope 2K fixs in 2K10.

PRESENTATION / SOUND
i was pretty diappointed in the menus for this game. you use the right stick to bring up the menus. I really didnt like this, why not go with the traditonal style of menus, those work so much better. It took me awhile to get used to navigating throught the menus. Though once i did, it became fine and i got used to it. But that to maybe 5hrs of playing it to get used to it. Probably the biggest upside to this game is that you can save mid game. Which i have done a lot, since games can go on for awhile. Also, the sound in the game is actually quite amazing. Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips are great, the "no stitch" technology they have is great. It, for the most part, sounds like your watching a real ball game. The crack of the bats sounds loud and very satisfying, mits pop when a hard throw hits them, when players slide, their bodys slide on the ground. Also the crowds react well to big plays, i was surprised by this. In some sports games i have played, the crowds do random chears, and dont chear when the home team scores? Which is weird, but no so in this game.

OVERALL
This is a step back in the MLB 2K series. But with the "no stitch" technology, one of the few bright points of this game, there could be good things ahead for this series. Now they really need to work on the controls, if they get that down and maybe work on the menus, 2K10 could compete with MLB: The Show next year. This game has so many problems, but their are times where it can be a blast to play. And that helps it to become a pretty decent, yet flawed game.