For years, the coming of spring meant that I would rejoin my baseball team for another year of mediocrity. With my glory days long behind me, I now get my baseball fix through my Xbox 360. MLB 2k8 gets me ready for the season, but ultimately leaves me wanting just a bit more.

2k’s annual baseball game was given a total control rehaul by 2k Los Angeles. As is the trend with most sports games today, most of the controls have been mapped to the right analog stick. While some may be skeptical, the new systems work very well.

The most extreme control change was with pitching. Ditching the button approach, 2k has now mapped all your pitches to the right stick. To differentiate between curveballs and fastballs, tracing different motions of the stick is necessary. To throw a fastball, you have to push down and then up. A curveball requires you to draw a half circle along the outside of the stick. Throwing Tim Wakefield’s signature knuckleball means you must draw a full circle. If you screw up the timing, a batting practice fastball is thrown, most likely ending up in the stands.

It sounds harder than it ends up being. There’s a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it makes a lot of sense and is really quite an enjoyable take on pitching. Our only real complaint with the system is that some pitches like the cutter and the 2-seam fastball seem less responsive than the majority of the other pitches.

Hitting also received a minor revamp. Last year’s Swing Stick has been replaced with Swing Stick 2.0. 2k7’s swing system revolved around picking a contact or power swing. No more. This year, the system is based on the timing of your swing and the pitch itself. You do have some control. If you push up and left while swinging, your batter will aim towards left field, and vice versa. The new system does make up for last year’s flaws. It’s nice to see that if you hit a pitch down and in, it won’t end up in the right field bleachers.