Diamond Mining: Putting MLB 2K9 and MLB 09: The Show to the Test
4/6/2009 7:43 PM | 4 Comments | Page 1 of 5
William Abner
Status: Most likely playing a sports game of some sort
Ah, Opening Day. Spring is in the air, grass is turning green again, and every Major League Baseball team has a fleeting glimmer of hope that this might be the year.
It's also the time a lot of people look to pick up a new baseball game. Both
MLB 09: The Show and
Major League Baseball 2K9 have been available for about a month, and both have received "patches" to tweak a few issues that popped up after their release. In addition, Opening Day rosters are now available so that you can try to get the most authentic experience possible.
It's no secret that, on the field, nothing can compete with The Show. It's the Rolls Royce of console baseball, while 2K's MLB series continues to run in place.
But what about the stats?
MLB 2K9 cover boy Tim Lincecum is about as likely to win 20 games as he is to lose 15 in 2K's game.
Numbers drive baseball like no other sport, and more and more baseball gamers are looking for these games to replicate the numbers from real life. If the stats are out of whack, today's gamer will not only recognize it, but will let the company know about it via forums, emails, or ridiculous Internet petitions.
So I put these two games under the simulation microscope. The goal was not to test the long-term franchise mode play, but rather to see how well, or how strangely, the two games simulated the upcoming 2009 season. It would be easy enough to simply simulate a season, post the results and say something brilliant like "MLB 2K predicts a Red Sox World Series!" But what does that really tell you? Not much.
It should also be noted that I only used
MLB 09: The Show and
MLB 2K9. If you're a baseball nut and stats are more important to you than 3-D models, then you need to check out other games -- like the marvelous
Out of the Park Baseball. For this little experiment, I stuck to the two big-budget behemoths.
I simulated the 2009 season with the Opening Day roster files five times for each game. I also set the injuries to "on" and the CPU trades to "on." I noted who made the playoffs each year and who won the World Series, while also keeping an eye on the statistics. The idea was to see which game has the most predictable and stable stat engine: Are there a lot of discrepancies? Do the numbers fall within reason compared to the real Major Leagues?
I paid attention to several main league leader stats: the number of .300 hitters (both AL and NL), the number of 40-plus home-run hitters, the number of 20 game-winning pitchers, the number of starting pitchers with an ERA of under 3.00, and the number of pitchers who issued at least 100 walks. I then looked at the 2008 season from the real Major Leagues to see which game came closer to the real thing.
So, let's get started!
