Where's the Pavement?

JEFF the Brotherhood, “Shredder”

I'm jealous. I'd be a lot more jealous if I had a clue who JEFF the Brotherhood are.

Skrillex, “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”

BOOOOO!!!

I have heard of 3 of those bands.

I have heard of 3 of those bands.

That's three more than me.

Check out this shite game.

Explosions in the Sky is legitimately good.

A fair amount of those bands are legitimately good, but you don't have to play that terrible game just to hear 'em.

ever-popular MLB 2K series.

"I think that they are done with baseball, unless MLB is willing to take sharply reduced terms," said Michael Pachter, the noted games industry analyst for Wedbush Securities. "The last deal cost Take-Two $30 million a year in losses, and they can't renew it without a $30 million reduction in royalty—even then they would just break even."

SPIN!
/grudge

What is with the trend of calling something you picked out "curating"? It sounds like self-important wankery to me.

Oh, I curated some songs off my iPod to play at my kegger. Douche.

I hope MVP Baseball comes back.

Never heard of any of that stuff. Sounds made up. My wife got me an Xbox and MLB2K11. One of the first things I did was turn off the fuggin soundtrack. The game is too hard for me anyway. No button pushing to pitch or swing? Seems counter-intuitive.

RBI Baseball didn't need a SPIN-curated soundtrack.

I just use my own custom soundtracks for The Show. Way better than being marketed to while I'm trying to play.

And, does anyone play 2K? The Show has been superior since ever. (I guess if you have a 360 only that's what you're stuck with)

I have heard of 3 of those bands.

If you've seen Friday Night Lights (the movie) then you've heard Explosions in the Sky, they did the soundtrack. They essentially just used two of their albums to score the film.

Grouplove, “Colours”

Ugh. This song is annoying.

Do you guys even have electricity in your rest home?

Skrillex, “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”

I listened that for the first time a couple weeks ago. I think Genevieve Koski said it best.

WHY IS THIS SONG ATTACKING ME??

(Anyone who wants to enjoy forty seconds of perfectly ok electronic music before learning, yup, it's a ####### Skrillex song - enjoy, and then don't.)

I have heard of 3 of those bands.

I've heard of most of them, but I think I've only heard anything by the Joy Formidable, who are pretty good. Telekinesis is supposed to be right up my alley, but I haven't made time to listen to them yet. Every once in a while these games have a song on the soundtrack that ends up being pretty good. One of the old NCAA Basketball games had "The Sweat Descends" by Les Savy Fav on it. That song is awesome.

If you've seen Friday Night Lights (the movie) then you've heard Explosions in the Sky, they did the soundtrack. They essentially just used two of their albums to score the film.

They did the TV show, too. I used to think they were a poor man's Mogwai but they do a terrific, very effective score that lends itself very well to the scenes.

My Morning Jacket is also a legitimately good band. I've never heard of the rest of the bands.

RBI Baseball didn't need a SPIN-curated soundtrack.

ding-ding-da-ding....ding-ding-da-ding (repeat).

I have heard of 3 of those bands.

I'm at 6, though just about all of those are from various video links on Facebook that I never click on anyway. (The office isn't the best environment for listening to music, & at home any & all videos just buffer to a maddening extent, something that started happening 8 or 9 month ago after a couple of months with no problems whatsoever. Doesn't matter which browser I use. Anyone have any ideas how to combat this?) I don't think I've actually heard any of them, except maybe the Vaccines, who I think might have a song on one of the Little Steven Underground Garage comp CDs I picked up at FYE for 99 cents awhile back.

Never heard of any of that stuff. Sounds made up. My wife got me an Xbox and MLB2K11. One of the first things I did was turn off the fuggin soundtrack. The game is too hard for me anyway. No button pushing to pitch or swing? Seems counter-intuitive.

Get rid of it and get a PS3 for MLB the Show. They have options for simpler controls like that, as well as better graphics, better realism, better animations, more accurate player ratings, etc. I actually tend to use the simpler controls not because I'm incapable of playing well with the more advanced controls, but because I want the outcome of ABs and games to be more reliant on who the players are than my skill alone. With the more skill intensive hitting, it seems hitting becomes more about your skill than the players you're using. Same thing with pitching. If you're good at the advanced pitching controls, you can basically never walk anybody even with wild pitchers; it's just not realistic. But seriously, you won't regret getting a PS3 just for MLB The Show. That's not an exaggeration at all. Video of the Marlins new ballpark in The Show 2012, including home run celebration monstrosity.


I expect that with Take Two's license expiring, we will see EA rekindle the MVP franchise, which may actually bring decent competition for The Show, since 2K has been junk for years.

The Show is a great game, at least for the "Road to the Show" mode. I've never actually played any other modes. Sure, you can make yourself ridiculously good early in your career (I have a hitter who will have 200 home runs early in his age 24 season), but who wants to play a game where the best you rise to is journeyman? The only thing is that I'm forbidding myself from getting 2012 until I actually complete a career in 2011. I wish they would let you port your players/rosters/etc. into the new versions so you could get the new stadiums, etc.

There are a fair amount of minor problems with it. Dan's right that as a pitcher, you hardly ever walk anyone. And as a hitter, for me, it's tough to lay off a lot of pitches, so I only end up walking 30-40 times per season. The AI is pretty awful in some situations. My guy is a third baseman, and the computer teams bunt WAY too much, and often with two strikes (which is really annoying as a 3B). The roster moves sometimes don't make sense. At age 22, I hit .300 with 50 homers and won the MVP. Despite the fact that my player was three years from free agency, he was traded from the Angels (to whom he was traded as a minor leaguer) to the Yankees for an older, worse player, who probably wasn't any cheaper. For the life of me, I couldn't come up with any justification for a real major league team making a similar trade. There are also way too many days off. My player seems to get rested every fifth or sixth game. I'm curious whether boosting the durability rating will change that. I do like that I can turn off baserunning. It's a fun part of the game, but it just takes to long to sit through every pitch. All things considered, it's as good as it gets.

The music really doesn't matter these days anways since you can import your own stuff.

Despite the fact that my player was three years from free agency, he was traded from the Angels (to whom he was traded as a minor leaguer) to the Yankees for an older, worse player, who probably wasn't any cheaper.

It's almost as if the game is programmed to mimic the misconception that the Yankees always get all the best players.

It's almost as if the game is programmed to mimic the misconception that the Yankees always get all the best players.

Maybe. There is a "budget" component that you can see when you're on the "contract offered" screen, and the larger market teams have higher budgets. Of course, there's no particular benefit (aside from ego) to signing a big contract. I suppose if you want the team you're on to be better, you'd sign really small deals to free up money for other guys. They do a pretty good job of adjusting the crowds such that crappy teams have empty stadia and vice versa, and I think that's supposed to affect the budget. It's one of the small touches that makes the game pretty cool. They even incorporate Jackie Robinson day, where every player wears #42, and the breast cancer awareness thing, where you use a pink bat for a game. It's small stuff, but it's nice attention to detail. Of course, that attention to detail makes some of the issues described above really stick out. How could you be savvy enough to include Jackie Robinson day, yet still have an AI that will bunt with the bases loaded and two out?

Every once in a while these games have a song on the soundtrack that ends up being pretty good.

Yeah, if you have the patience to edit the playlists so they're only pumping out the stuff you want to hear. If not, you end up with terrible, teen-targeted music stuck in your head because you left it on in the background while you were sorting through the FA list looking for a new LOOGY.

Edit: I'm going to second everything from #20 and #21, and just add that I'm terrible at hitting with the new swing controls. It's depressing that I've actually gotten worse at video game baseball as I've aged. I'd say I peaked, predictably, around my age 27-28 seasons.

And it's awesome that you can assign your own walkup music now. Nothing pumps up Jose Reyes like some death metal.

How could you be savvy enough to include Jackie Robinson day, yet still have an AI that will bunt with the bases loaded and two out?

* cut to Ramon Hernandez cackling wildly *

2K baseball sucks. The Show is good but too difficult to hit in.

I am extremely excited by the inclusion of G-Side, as they released one of my favorite hip-hop albums of last year and are due for some publicity. An awesome, extremely underrated group.

I'm curious whether boosting the durability rating will change that.

Yes, bumping up your durability will cause the computer to rest you less. When I play RTTS, that's basically the first stat I max, because it's easier to get more training points and hit your goals when you're playing every day instead of rested once or twice per week because your character's energy level gets too low.

you end up with terrible, teen-targeted music stuck in your head because you left it on in the background while you were sorting through the FA list looking for a new LOOGY.

To this day, the horrible "You owe me an IOU" song from one of the MVP games is stuck in my head because it was always playing when I trying to figure out how to pull of Costanza-esque roster revamps: "I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds Dowd and Griffey, and we wouldn't have to give up that much!"

To this day, the horrible "You owe me an IOU" song

I was trying to remember what song you were talking about, then it came back to me. Now I need an icepick to get it out...

Despite the fact that my player was three years from free agency, he was traded from the Angels (to whom he was traded as a minor leaguer) to the Yankees for an older, worse player, who probably wasn't any cheaper.

Yeah, no way would the 2011 Angels have traded a potential star for an expensive, washed-up vet. :-)

Fair enough, Walt. :)

Only tangentially related to this, but NHL 12, despite being probably my favorite sports video game since RBI Baseball, has the worst soundtrack of any video game I've ever played. This is coming from someone who played every version of Madden over the past 5 years. I think the Murderdolls' "Whatever You've Got, I'm Against It" has replaced "Crazy Train" (funnily enough, a song that was featured in Madden a few years ago) as my least favorite song ever.

Yet somehow I'm still too lazy to actually import my own music into the game...