The stats are plausible, as are the injuries and most of the transactions, save the occasional trade or free agent signing by the AI that will make you scratch your head. Your AI opponents offer a fair number of trades, and they’re not easy to fleece. Of course, you have the option to turn a lot of these features off, if you just want to focus on the playing the game itself.
Aside from seeing things like Dontrelle Wills traded for Daryle Ward and Ryan Dempster, or having one of your own players tear up his one-year eleven million dollar contract for a two-year nine million dollar (total) contract, it mostly works well. Those occasional gaffes are minor, but there is one major gaffe that will ruin the game for Franchise mode players: if you play some games, and then simulate the rest of the season, on occasion the game will resort back to the default options. This means that there will be no injuries, no trades, and your second season and beyond will only be ten games long. Yes, ten.
Season length is not something you can change while in your franchise, so you’re stuck. Although it’s not exactly known what triggers this bug, it can ruin hours of work and play. The users over at the 2K Sports forums have seemingly come up with a workaround, but this is a major concern to gamers who like to handle the GM and off-season stuff while playing some games and building dynasties. With some sort of patch unlikely, due to the lack of online connectivity, it’s caveat emptor.
The presentation and graphics aren’t ground breaking, but they’re pretty good. There are some excellent animations, and the graphics look a little sharper and crisper than what you’d see on the PS2. The cutscenes and highlights are reminiscent of watching a baseball broadcast. The player body types offer some variety, but the guys with a lot of girth really aren’t represented. Some of the player faces are pretty close, but most look a bit generic. The frame rate is miles better than what PS3 and 360 gamers are seeing on their systems. Miller and Morgan offer about the same commentary as they have in previous versions, so don’t expect a lot of variety or excitement. The ambient ballpark sounds are there, but rarely is genuine excitement or the feeling of a “buzz” in the crowd present.
2K Sports has a well-earned reputation for publishing sports games that can be classified as schizophrenic, and unfortunately, the Wii version of MLB 2K8 suffers from the same characteristics. For every “wow” moment there’s a commensurate “what the heck” moment that drains the fun. Head-to-head players and single season players will have plenty of fun with this game, despite its warts. Franchise players—move on, there’s nothing to see here.
