2007 The BIGS (limited edition Canadian version)
Posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 5:30 am
[contributed by: Rhubarb_Runner]
2007 The BIGS™ (limited edition Canadian version)
by 2K Sports
Copyright © 2007 by Take Two Interactive Software
for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable
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About the Game: 2007 The BIGS™ was released in the US with Albert Pujols on the cover and featured in the game images, but an alternate, limited edition Canadian version also sold exclusively by Future Shop and Best Buy, and this is the one with Justin Morneau on the cover.
Some videos of the game play are available here at GameSpot, among other places. The game has an arcade feel to it, with some of the game play (jumping, home run distances, the Power Blast effect, etc.) a bit exaggerated, but what isn't arcade-like on a Wii? The action with the Wii remote is kind of cumbersome, but it is sort of neat to do actual wrist twisting to create different pitch types (even if some of the wrist actions don't necessarily correspond to a particular pitch that well).
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Personal notes:
- Okay, here are a number of items I like to call "Learn from Runner's Mistakes" --
- Apparently EmpireGamesInc of Miami is an eBay game seller of the Eagan Firestone variety. After sending the PUJOLS version (not what was pictured or described in their eBay page), they took forever to credit my payment, and they never did credit the return postage. Then, they filed a retaliatory negative feedback. Losers. Thank goodness, if you are patient, the Morneau version will turn up for sale on eBay on a fairly regular basis.
- IMPORTANT TIP: LEARN HOW TO PLAY BEFORE TAKING IT FOR A SPIN. First thing I did was throw together an exhibition between the Cardinals and the Twins. Because I didn't know what the heck I was doing, the Twins never managed to get an out before I aborted. U-g-l-y.
- Did I mention LEARN HOW TO PLAY FIRST? I threw together an exhibition of the Twins vs. the Twins. Nick Punto unleashed a Power Blast with the bases loaded, and was having a huge game at the plate. U-G-L-Y.
- Did I stress the necessity to GO THROUGH THE TUTORIAL FIRST? Later in the Twins-Twins exhibition, Punto again came to the plate, and the play-by-play guy cautions, "They do NOT want to be facing him right now." Oh, come on!
- At a later date (after I'd done the tutorial, of course), I had a friendly game against a visiting friend from LA, so of course the Twins and the Dodgers played, at of all places, Kansas City. The Twins were victorious (even though I played nunchuck-less) thanks to successful bunting, among other things. My buddy enjoyed throwing up-and-in a little too much, although it was entertaining to see certain players drop senseless to the ground on the HBP.
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Sounds fun. I've only ever played Wii one time, but I really enjoyed it. I wish I had one, but I'm trying to keep my extravagances down to save for Dublin.
I haven't played The Bigs, but MLB Power Pros on the Wii is a fantastic baseball game and a throwback to the simpler days of baseball on the NES/SNES/Genesis. It has a very cartoon-y, kiddie look to it but the game itself plays fairly realistically. The rosters were extremely outdated when it was released last year, but I know The Bigs is out of date at this point and the MLB 2k8 game released this year on the Wii still has Santana on the Twins and no way of updating rosters.
For my money, MLB 08 The Show for any of the PlayStation platforms is the best baseball game on the market today; the 2k8 series isn't even close. The Show is good enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the High Heat and MVP games.
The last Baseball video game I bought was one of the late 90s Triple Play games on the PS1. Tweren't bad, but I still miss the days when RBI Baseball on the NES was a good game and Bobby Bonilla was an otherworldly offensive force.
Is MLB 08 any good as a 2 player head to head game? I seem to remember pitch recognition being awful in a 2 player game on Triple Play and flailing away at breaking balls pretty much non stop.
This will make me sound extremely antisocial, but I don't know if it is a good head-to-head game.
Pitch recognition is one of my primary problems, both the type of pitch and the location, even with the pitch speed adjusted to the slowest it goes. I still think the "batter's eye" feature of MVP 05--a flash of color while the ball is in the pitcher's hand to indicate pitch type, some pitchers were harder to pick up than others--was the best innovation to videogame baseball in a loooong time.
MVP05 is my second favorite baseball game of all-time, #1 being Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run for SNES. That may have less to do with the gameplay and more with the fact that Junior was on the cover. The batter's eye is a very nice innovation.
Some of these newer games are absolutely amazing, but as a sign of my age I just joined an on-line Dusty Diamond All-Star Softball league.
A while back I was planning to post some reviews of online baseball sims, but real life interfered. We don't have a Wii or xbox or Playstation because my daughters just aren't that interested in video games. But I did discover a pretty nice free online baseball game that I play from time to time. It's Cal Ripken's Real Baseball (formerly Ultimate Baseball Online).
I haven't played it much since the actual MLB season started, there are still significant of bugs that the developers need to fix, the artificial intelligence needs some tweaking to provide better realism, and there are occassional issues with network lag, but for a real-time, massively multiplayer online sports game, it's plenty good and I recommend it. You do have to complete a training camp before you can join in live games with other players, which is a good thing (nobody wants to be labeled a hopeless newb). Game controls are all mouse and keyboard based, so if you're familiar with first-person shooter games you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
There is a ranking system -- you start out as a rookie and by gaining experience you upgrade your players (you can create up to three) skills until you move up to the minor league, then the major league, then All-Star and MVP levels. You can join teams and play in leagues and tournaments, or just join short 3-inning pickup games. You can also play practice games against AI teams, either alone or with other players on your team, but to earn experience points and level up you have to play in live games with two teams of real players. Overall a good effort, and it has the advantage of being free. By far the best online baseball sim I've ever tried, though it's not quite going to measure up to console game quality. Give it a shot, you might like it. And if you run into a guy there named Johan_Santana, Cuddyer, or Twayn, say howdy.