MLB 2K7 producer Ben Brinkman, of Kush Games, was able to field a few questions from the gaming press in addition to giving his take on what he thinks about his new title in a conference call interview which GamerNode participated in this week.
Before the questions were pitched to Brinkman, he provided an overview of what the game was all about. If two words could be used to describe the biggest differences between last year’s offering and MLB 2K7, they would be graphics and realism.
Brinkman stated, "… We set out this year to get back to basics and just produce a real good game of baseball that covered everything across the board from hitting, pitching, throwing, base running–we wanted to fix a lot of the problems that the game has been plagued with in the past… [We wanted to] make it more baseball realistic [and] add more depth in the gameplay… We’ve added 2600 new animations across the game… we also went back and did good stuff with the visuals, [and that’s] probably an understatement. Our innovation this year was really on the digital side of things because we were really able to harness more of what the hardware could do—especially on the 360…"
When asked about the difference between MLB 2K7 and other baseball games, Brinkman continued to focus on the game’s visuals and realism. He said that the visuals, animations and attention to detail–which is what fascinates hardcore baseball fans–have been carefully programmed into the gameplay. These details include everything from the execution of play strategies to the life-like idiosyncrasy movements of the top players. But in saying this, Brinkman stated that the casual gamer has not been forgotten. A conscious effort was made to streamline the game interface so as to appeal to the non-baseball fan, as well.
"We hope that people that are casual gamers will pick up the game and have a fun experience with it and will become more engrossed with the sport… [previously] we had these really deep game modes that overtime, would become incredibly complex. … we made it a lot more simpler interface so people could just go in and play."
Kush Games held a close ear to the suggestions of gaming fans and did its best to incorporate the changes into MLB 2K7. One gripe concerned the physics and relatively weak graphics of last year’s game. In this year’s version, these problems have been hammered out by making sure that the animations of the players are realistic–basic movements such as throwing motions, batting animations and even the time it takes for a ball to be thrown from the outfield or infield have been scrutinized for realism.
Brinkman stated that when playing online multiplayer, the graphics "will be the same" as single player mode. There will be head-to-head matches, tournament and league play, plus a new batter’s view and pitcher’s viewpoint during online play.
MLB 2K7 is now available for the PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, and PSP.
