According to IGN the game will be released, for all systems, this coming week. This is a week ahead of its original release date of March 6th.

I noticed that as well. Considering how much people seemed to dislike the last attempt at baseball on the 360, I'm waiting for reviews before I pick it up. I'm really hoping that we finally get an impressive next-gen baseball title.

As long as its not crippled with glitches, it should be pretty good. I still prefer MVP 05, but I will probably pick this up for my Next-Gen fix.

this one looks pretty damn good. apparently they hired a guy who helped develop MVP and they overhauled everything. I can't wait for this to come out.

That's what I heard too. Hopefully it works!

Does the 2K version have the rights to use MLB players? I have not purchased a MLB game since MVP 05 because they have all been terrible.

I believe the 2K series has exclusive rights to MLB. I passed on last year's game considering the bad feedback. I'll also wait to read some reviews before I plop down $60 for it.

Although last years game had its problems, I still liked it. I cant wait for this game especially with my Tigers getting some ratings love. Im in.

I can't remember if it was in EGM, but I read that 2K7 hired the head of EA's MVP team to work on this version, and that this game was redone from the ground up on the next-gen platforms (of course they say this alot). Unfortunately, I'm kind of freaked out by the dead eyes of Pujols and Jeter in the ads I've seen, hopefully the game plays better than the screenshots look.

2k has exclusive third party rights to MLB games, which is why Sony is still able to release MLB games still for the PS2 and the PSP(which, IMO, was the superior baseball game last year)

man cardinals fans are full of inane questions. i expect better out of you Eric.

HAHAHA. I honestly didn't even notice you had posted in this thread until just now!

All I care about is that this game has Jason Marquis in a Cubs uniform.

i know, just thinking about it gets me hot

I think it sucks that Sony's game (The Show) comes out in April. I usually go with that version because of all the 2k7 bugs.

The demo is available as of this morning on Live (970MB).

Downloading it right now

Man, I want to get back and try it out (at work). Somebody post some quick impressions!

yeah, let's hear some quick impressions of this!

Check operationsports.com for impressions. Seems kinda mixed.

- Graphics are not as good as the videos imply.
- Hitting too easy (but difficulty SHOULD fix this)
- Fielding is not great...Cinematic camera sucks from what people say.
- You CANNOT sac bunt apparently...which if true, the game is BROKE.

At work. Can't log onto that site.

Thanks for the quick impessions though.

this is the demo reviews right? aren't demos lower quality and void of a lot of features for obvious reason? (size of file, teasing etc.....?)

I'm sure that the retail version will be much better than the demo (if this is the demo), but The Show won me over last year, so I might wait on a baseball game purchase until I can compare the two in April.

The demo and retail versions are pretty much the same, for all intents and purposes. I think a few things may be cut or "compressed" on the demo version, but the core gameplay is going to be exactly the same, obviously.

I have played a few sessions of the demo so far, and while I can already clearly see there is vast improvement from last year, it still doesn't wow me and make me want to run out and buy it. The graphics are very good as far as player models and what not go, but I am not thrilled with the stadium graphics. The demo limits you to playing 3 innings at Shea stadium, though, so it could just be that stadium.

The swing stick seems much more tuned this year, and is actually pretty fun, unlike last year. Hit variety seems better, but anyone who plays this game that isn't 6 years old really needs to bump the difficulty up to at least pro or all-star. The demo default is rookie, and just about everything I hit before I switched the difficulty was a homer or a really solidly hit ball. It is much, much harder to make solid contact on the higher difficulties, which is great. Pitch speed is faster this year, and the movement on breaking stuff is definitely greater this year too.

Animations are much better, though I am still seeing some out of place or just bad ones. For example, outfielders will do a crow hop just about every time they throw the ball back to the infield-whether it is to try and gun someone down or just throwing the ball back after a routine base hit. Also, in some instances the ball still seems to come out of their arms at odd angles, like when their body is facing different directions.

The demo (and retail version) limits you to just one gameplay camera. Really crappy, in my opinion. The behind the pitcher perspective when pitching is great, and I am also fine with the default batting camera. What I have a big issue with is the fielding cam once the ball is put in play. It is hard to explain, but it is just "off." Because of this, it makes judging hit balls way more difficult than it should be. It is hard to tell if a batted ball is a grounder or fly ball. The cam also makes it difficult to get your fielders (infield or outfield) in position to either field grounders or get under fly balls to make the catch. I have already missed at least 3 grounders at SS because of this. To compound the issue, the fielders in general still seem too sluggish (which was a problem last year as well), and the fly ball indicator/marker is a light blue color, which does not show up well on the outfield grass, so it can be hard to track sometimes.

I said the hit variety was improved earlier, and it is, but there are still an inordinate amount of fly balls vs. grounders, IMO. I admit my pitching so far has been pretty lousy, so part of it could just be that I am getting crushed, but I saw way too many balls hit in the air in the videos at IGN too.

I will keep playing the demo to see if it grows on me, but at this point, I still very much prefer Sony's MLB: The Show. It does, however, appear that 2K's franchise, for once, is on the right track, and this looks like a good foundation for what could be a real solid game of baseball in another year or two.

how do you know that the retail only has the one view?

From people who have the retail copy. Some got it on Monday and were giving impressions and answering questions on operationsports.com.

There were also developer interviews that took place well before the game came out today in which the person stated that there would only be one default camera in the game.