JasonM

You could always buy him and throw him in defensive mid if you use one? The guy is a dominant center back but even more dominant between midfield and defense as an anchorman, his skills are perfect for that. For center back though, you do not need him and he will only cut into the playing time of Vermaelen, Kos and Mertesacker and that will mean someone will end up being pissed off. And to sign a great defender for 4th choice is a bit too much on the nutty side. If you need a good/great DM then he can be your man, for CB you would have to share time between 4 guys.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/002/598/The-Most-Interesting-Man-in-the-World.jpg I don't always look at the first pitch, but when I do it's the perfect hitters pitch. Ok here is how I work the plate in 2k12, i know it's not the show but i feel it's pretty solid. I always lay off the first pitch unless I can clearly see it's going down the tubes, which they hardly ever do so 8/10 times I do not swing on the first pitch. If it is a Fastball inside the zone I can be reasonably assured that the next pitch he will throw is a breaking ball or a change up. If it's a Fastball outside of the zone there is a chance they will try to hit the zone with another fastball just to get a 1-1 count. If I see it's a zoner I will swing. If the first pitch was a breaking ball or a changeup, expect him to start throwing a fastball to mess with your head. Just try to stay patient, 0-1 is not a death sentence for you as a hitter and you do not need to start swining on every ball that is thrown your way, the pitcher will see that you are doing that and will start throwing stuff inside or outside to have you flat out miss stuff. If you look at the first pitch thrown at you you can make a reasonable guesstimation on what can be coming next, there are only a few pitchers that really throw two of the same pitches at you because it's dangerous for them, they will try to mix it up and have you bite on bad pitches and swing too soon on the dirty stuff. Also a tip I can give you is to get a reasonable knowledge of every pitch in the game, stuff like sliders going right to left for a righty and left to right for a lefty. If you know what every pitch can do, you will have an easier time picking them up out of their hands. Take some time and study every pitch in practice mode to see how they break, and if you have good knowledge of all of them you can go into the game even more confident of being able to read pitches in the air. A good tip to add to that, before you start your at bat, go into roster mode and look at the pitcher you are facing and what pitches he uses. It's not really cheating because real life batters do the same thing as they study the pitchers they are facing and know what his throwing tendencies are. In MLB games the tendencies are pretty much the skill of every pitch. Like if you are facing Justin Verlander look him up before you start swinging and you can see he uses a Fastball, 2 seam fastball, 12-6 curve, Circle Change and Slider. The only not breaking ball in his repertoire is the straight up fastball, and his fastball is good. So expect a fastball as the first pitch a lot of times. There is also a chance he throws other stuff to start, but even in this game his tendencies are there. You will not get it right every time, but this will help you get a very effective guesstimation of ever pitcher you are facing. The pitcher will almost always have all the cards, but if you take your time to study all the pitches in the game and then also look at what the pitcher you are facing is throwing. Then you can start to read pitches 10x better than before you studied. I got this help from the Operationsports forums a couple of years back, and this has changed me from a decent but inconsistent hitter to someone who can kill pitchers on good days and have a decent game on bad days.

I believe you can get it in multi, OR if you start a new game with your character. but I could be wrong. Also, ending spoiler!

Finish the game, ''enjoy'' the original ending and make your own opinion about it.

I just pitched my first complete game shutout in my Orioles Franchise in MLB 2K12, with Jon Garland of all people. It was against the Angels and for my O's it was the first road game of the series and the entire game was marked by Garland and Santana trading innings where absolutely nothing happened on the hitting side of thing. 8 innings long neither me or the Angels could get any kind of points on the board and we where both struggling and stealing hits left and right. In the top of the 9th I managed to hit with JJ Hardy down the middle, the Short Stop Aybar managed to scoop it up quickly and I thought it was a put out but Aybar overthrew it and I got a error double and JJ Hardy was suddenly on base for me. Adam Jones to the plate and Santana throws one right down the hole and I manage to line it straight down the field and JJ Hardy runs his lungs out to manage to get to home plate whilst Jones get to 2nd. At the next at bat Santana strikes me out and I go into the bottom 9th with a 1-0 lead over the Angels and their batter smashes one down field and Markakis decides to pull one out of the hat as he dives full stretch and snuffs out that otherwise certain triple play. On comes Albert Pujols to the plate and he manages to hit a single on me so the tying run is on base. Pujols gets pulled for a pinch runner but I manage to strike out the guy at the plate and the final at bat goes to 2-2 and I botch a sinker which luckily only goes to the ground so Mark Reynolds scoops it up and launches it to first base to clinch the game at 1-0. My heart was pounding after that game, I managed to snuff out Santana's chances for a shutout and Jon Garland manages to throw a shutout against the Angels. Jon effing Garland against Team Pujols. But even with that win I am still 3-11 for the season and I am looking at a very painful season for sure. I got a couple of guys down in the minor leagues but they wont come up for a couple of years so I am wondering if I should trade a big infield player like Markakis, Jones or Hardy for a big time pitcher who can rack up wins. My starting rotation is very poor. 1: Edwin Jackson (81) 2: Jeremy Guthrie (75) 3: Jon Garland (72) 4: Dana Eveland (72) 5: Brian Matusz (72) I could certainly use a franchise pitcher in my team. I believe I have the worst rotation in the entire league barring maybe the Royals.

I follow a lot of Let's players on the interwebz myself and I will be following you Hajjhowe, in a sense of internet loyalty to someone who is also part of EWB. I wish you good luck, from your first video I can hear that you are coherent... In terms of LPing that is a very useful trait to have.

Gotta tell you Juce, MLB 2K12 is a good game. But if you got a PS3 I must really stress you to buy The Show over MLB 2k12. The thing is first that MLB 2K12 is a fun game, but it has some pretty annoying flaws in My Player and also Franchise mode. In My Player a good example is that the point allocation is seriously flawed which will leave your batters always trailing badly in fielding and baserunning. And your Pitchers too. In 2K you get points based on where you make your actions, if you get a putout at first base you get +25 points to put into fielding. In theory it sounds like a great way, but you will quickly will have to grind to even put a fielding or baserunning stat up one point higher whilst you can upgrade your batting stats a lot quicker. That problem means that when you hit the MLB level you will be a pretty good hitter, but you would be the worst fielder in the league by far. Which will make Brooks Conrad look like a Golden Glove superstar. Not kidding really. Also in 2K's My Player mode the coach AI is quite flawed and as a fielder you will play every single game of the season, and I mean all 150+ games of the season without ever getting a game off. What this means is that your player will be chronically tired for the majority of the season completely tanking your stats because you can hardly run or swing straight causing less hits and more errors. Same problem holds true for Pitchers where you sometimes get to have only 2 days rest between every start which will kill your ERA. In My Player mode there are also no injuries for your player, that means he will play every single game without ever having an injury even though he is tired as hell. MLB The Show's Road to the Show on the other hand has a fixed point system where you will earn points to allocate wherever you want. If you hit well you can still use the earned points from hitting to upgrade your fielding stats or baserunning stats. This means you will be able to upgrade your player a lot better and make him a lot less lop sided. The coach is also a lot smarter giving you rest periods when your player is fatigued keeping your energy levels realistically high. In The Show there are also injuries present in RTTS which gives a reason to dump points into durability because you want to stay healthy when it's possible. Personally from what I have seen from The Show, the presentation is also better with better camera angles and also swinging motions and other animations. The Commentary booth can be dull at times but you are better off playing a bit of background music anyways in these games. Also in general the customisation options are better in The Show, you can give your batter walk up music and you get a lot more and better player build options. Team creator in The show is also very good I heard. Personally I lack experience in the Dynasty / Franchise modes of both games so I can't take a honest guess about it, but from what I have read MLB The Show also trumps 2K in that respect. One thing I can say about MLB 2K12 is that the game tends to be a slugfest more often than not. Most balls hit are often big hitters and I have had a couple of games where I faced the Sox and guys like Ortiz, Pedroia and Youkilis had 2-3 homeruns a game on their own. If you like that you could go with 2K12, but to be honest I would suggest The Show over 2K12 in every single case. The reason I feel The Show is better is because it has generally been a better game every single year whilst MLB 2K12 has slowly become better but is just not there in terms of quality. Also 2K12 does not have move support on PS3, The Show does have it and you can play homerun derby with it enabled which I am sure is very good fun in a group taking turns.

Well I know how to block and reverse transitions. But for me the problem is that during a fight, I just dont pick up on the signs of the other guy doing submissions. And when I do, it's already too late. Add to that being very impatient when my fighter is on his back I just spam small transitions in the hope to get back standing. But really, I barely spot any transition attempts. Because they hardly try them unless I try them and then they block/reverse them. Even when they are in closed guard they rather just wail on me than actually get to dominant positions. The only time they get further is when I start to freak out and try to get them away.

Is it me or is the AI absolute cheat on the ground on Expert/Ultimate difficulty? I am trying to play a career mode on Expert for the hell of it with my Kickboxing star and even though I have 80 ground grappling offense AND defense. I end up on my back and a 50 ground grappling guy just counters every transition and ends up mounting me where an infinite battle going from mount to back to mount to back to mount to back to mount to back and so on until the other guy manages to rock me and end up just caving my face in because whenever I try to catch the punch I look like a baby flailing my arms around randomly. I mean mother of god I can beat anyone in a standing battle but really the moment they get me on my back regardless of how good my skills are and how bad their skills are, I am FUCKED~! It also doesn't help that I am completely inept at countering, blocking or reversing transitions myself. The only thing that is preventing me from playing and enjoying Expert/Ultimate is the AI's god-mode on the ground. Edit: Same really with submission offense, regardless of having 30+ submission offense than their defense, they will most likely refuse your sub. And about the retiring, I really don't get why the game forces you to retire after 48 fights. I mean the real stars get 10 year older too, but I remember Fight Night 2 allowing you to go on at least till your 50 years old. It would just get a LOT harder once your skills started declinig and instead of trying to improve you end up battling to retain your skills (like real vets do). That system would work perfectly in an UFC game, when the real stars get too old they can get regenned or something. In this day and age there is no reason to stick to max 48 fights, this way we can never aspire to get Severn numbers :/

Sounds great Apsham. Also wondering about the mini games. I saw a couple of them including the tire flip, are they hard or are they relatively easy to do? And is there some type of difficulty scaling in those that will make it harder the better you get? One thing I hated from the old UFC's where mini games that where semi-demanded from you whilst I completely sucked at said mini games and thus never could progress those stats. I got the same with games like fight night. I just want to be able to finish the mini game without much hassle and improve my dude. And the game plan, again how easy/hard is it to do them and how easy/hard is it to stick to them in a match? Would I be better off just trying to do the mini games to up my skills or is there a very good reward system in place for following the game plans? Is the permabuff worth it?

Question to the guys who already have it... How is the CAF function in this game? Has it been touched on a lot compared to 2010? And also the career mode on itself, how much has it improved? I would love to now because I can't wait for the game to get released here.

Anyone remember a little game named Halo 3 that was supposed to be the end of the franchise... yeah.

First off all is your timing correct? The game is more than just pressing the button and scoring. You need to time your jumpshot correctly to get an accurate shot. Too early and it most likely is off target and going to fast. Too late and it will be too slow and either hit air or the rim and out. In presentation you can enable shot timing feedback, and it will give you feedback on every shot you take. It will be a little picture showing you if you are either too early, too late or correctly timed. If you have the timing down, it's all about picking the right spots. When you are just beginning you will NOT score consistently when you are being defended by someone, the other guy will jump to contest and more likely than not your shot will be off target. Try to get open on the court by maybe running up with a fast break and trying to shoot open shots. Even if you are improving keep hitting the easy shots and don't try to put up a shot against the defender because it will always hurt your shooting. Also important is shooting where your skills lie, if your player has high 3pt shooting, try to roam the arc and get open shots from range. Also don't step away too far and roam the 3pt line. Most of the times when you shoot your player will automatically set his feet behind the 3pt line. If you have mid range shooting high, try the midrange. Open shots and well timed ones are easy points for you and will only help. Again don't be a Dirk at the start, you won't be able to beat most defenders because your shooting skills are too low. Also look to throw points in ''Consistency'' and ''Offensive clutch'' they will make your player more... well consistent in all shooting situations and will give the RNG less chance to screw you over. Also if your ''abilities'' are poor, your player will be bad at said shots. So if you have ''poor'' stepback jumping, your guy won't be effective in those. It rings true for everything. If you have ''great'' stepback shooting you can be a terror by just attacking the defender, stepping back and shooting at basket. Those fancy abilities might look expensive, but even having 1 on great will prove a dominant tool in your shooting game. Of course most importantly, spend skill points on the shooting skills. If you want to become a 3pt bomber make sure 3pt shooting is high, preferably 85+ because that will make most shots go down. Just remember basic things, Learn the timing of the shot style you have taken. If you don't have that down, you will never really score. Secondly, shoot open shots. Make it your bread and butter shot moment, 7/10 shots need to be open and you will hardly see the ''bad shot selection'' thing ever again.

So yeah, aside from the coupon sharing and Grammar Nazi'ing, does anybody have some games I could get with this coupon that are worth getting. Again, preferably with strong multiplayer.

I think you misread. The Coupon is valid for every game released prior to January 2. The coupon itself is valid till April

The thread title really. I got a Steam Coupon which gives me 50% off on all games before 2 january. I have no idea what game to buy with it though, I want to get a fun online capable game (not really a shooter). Which is still popular. I have looked around steam and I don't really see anything that piques my fancy, so I am wondering if anyone here knows a good underappreciated game with multiplayer capabilities?

Yeah I would feel pretty screwed if they didn't. I am one of the few that isn't part of any of the social media hype and I am not about to start up a Facebook account just to get a fighter, even if it's the Reem.

You hit it right on the spot. Anyways making Reem a unlockable is a bit silly imo. He is one of the bigger guys in the UFC right now certainly after wiping away Lesnar. Wouldn't they be better off making some popular legends unlockables or DLC?

I am sure I read somewhere on the 2K forums that shooting efficiency is also dependent on what jumpshot you got. Makes sense, Shawn Marion's shot put drops less than Durant's jumper. Mostly it is attribute related though. Also a tip, always play the dribble course. Use the hez to beat the defender and take it in. If you get your speed up to high levels you can start selling points for more skill points in other places. Rince and Repeat ??? PROFIT

John McDawson, Karate Cowboy. create it.