Last week, a survey leaked to Kotaku suggested that Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria would be on the cover of 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K10. 2K sent out a press release earlier today to make it official, but we now know that the four covers that the survey included were mere mock-ups. Six different box art designs, available for your viewing in the gallery below, accompanied the press release; you can vote for your favorite at 2ksports.com/vote. (They did the same thing for NBA 2K10.)

Longoria, like MLB 2K9 cover athlete Tim Lincecum, is one of baseball's most quickly rising stars; he made the AL All-Star team in his first two years in the league, and he recently won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. And he isn't related to Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria.

Which cover do you guys like? I prefer the one pictured above. MLB 2K10 will be out in March for the PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and PC. Cover voting will be open for two weeks, until noon EST on December 8th.

The Tampa Bay Rays may have missed out on the playoffs this year, but the team’s third baseman, Evan Longoria (no relation to actress Eva Longoria) may be cashing in on his two very good years in the major leagues. A confidential survey asked respondents to choose between four potential Xbox 360 covers for 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball 2K10, and each version of the box art features Longoria.

A survey taker broke the survey’s NDA by sending images of it (and the covers themselves) to Kotaku; you can see two of the four options above (hit the gallery below for all of them). Of course, you should take this with a grain of salt -- we haven’t yet heard anything official from 2K Sports regarding this leak. But note that all of the cover artwork sports (*rimshot*) the same golden “1999-2009 Tenth Anniversary” banner that appeared on NBA 2K10 and NHL 2K10.

Longoria earned the 2008 AL Rookie of the Year award after a stellar campaign in which he made the All-Star team, and this year, he repeated as an AL All-Star and even won a Gold Glove. Personally, I’m a fan of the bottom left image (above left) -- Longoria reminds me too much of Ben Affleck in the top two shots, and that’s never a good thing. Which one do you prefer?

[Via Kotaku]

Word, I... uhhh... be down with the hip hop scenes, yo. Check out these... errr... whackity moves from NBA 2K10 due on the... ahem... streets on Oct. 13.

God, I'm white and I'm not a basketball fan, but sometimes you gotta write about things outside of your comfort zone. While 2K Sports might be getting worked over hard in the realm of hockey, they've been the top dog in basketball for a while now. Even their competitor admits it. While this year's iteration of the game is finally giving Kobe Bryant some box art love, we're hoping that it makes even more changes as over the past few years the series has sometimes rested on its laurels as far as innovation goes.

2K Sports is of course promising new and improved gameplay, but we'll just have to wait and see. All I know is that this video makes me wish I had at least a passing interest in the sport.

If a sports game doesn't update its stats and rosters throughout the season as things change within the real world its pretty antiquated (or on the Wii). It's actually one of the cooler advancements in sports gaming over the past five or so years and allows gamers to play with the actual team that they see every week. One of the things that hasn't advanced so much is the color commentary in videogames. Despite improvement, (anyone remember how many times they heard "You can't coach that" in NFL 2K?) it's still pretty repetitive and often jilted.

NBA 2K10 is looking to change at least the repetitive part Kotaku tells us. While playing the game they were introduced to Dynamic Voice-over, which will free series announcers Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg from saying the same things over and over and over again. The technology will rearrange the pre-recorded commentary from the two announcers and, using a daily report from Stats Inc. throughout the season, update what they say about players or games. So for example, if LeBron James has a particularly poor game during the season then the commentators can mention it while you're playing a game with him.

This tech, however, does not mean that new voice recording will be done throughout the season. The game is simply adapting the commentary it already has to the current trends in the season. So not the final solution, but definitely a step in the right direction. Looks like NBA Live 10 has another reason to not suck.

About a month ago, we told you about how 2K Sports is going above and beyond for the tenth anniversary of their NBA 2K franchise with a tricked-out Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K10. It comes with a numbered locker that can hold twenty games; a 6" Kobe Bryant figurine, a 16" × 36" Kobe Bryant poster, and a bonus disc that provides a look back at the history of the series.

Today, 2K sent over photos of the Anniversary Edition box itself, so you can see what the monstrosity will look like on store shelves. Check them out in the gallery below -- there’s one each for the PS3 and 360 versions. We also have updated images of what’s inside the box. The Anniversary Edition will be available for $99.99 on October 6th, alongside the run-of-the-mill $60 standard edition. You’d have to be a pretty huge fan of NBA 2K and Kobe Bryant to buy the big box, though...

You'll have to excuse me if I got a little excited in that headline over nothing more than a very simple teaser trailer (I'm not even a huge hockey fan), but it's been so long since I've seen a DC team or player heavily featured in a videogame (if ever) that I'm a little excited simply because of the fact that Alexander Ovechkin is the main guy for the NHL 2K franchise in this year's iteration, NHL 2K10.

Of course, it's also OK to get excited because according to Samit "I know stuff about sports games" Sarkar, the game is looking to add some good stuff to its already solid gameplay, and if you're a Wii owner, it's even more appropriate because this is the only NHL hockey game you'll be getting this year.

If you watch the video below and you scoff and say that that didn't happen, then you obviously missed one of the greatest goals in hockey history. Yes, it did happen, but the real question is if you can actually duplicate it in the game. I'd imagine that even if the controls actually let you pull it off, setting up the combination of events to trigger it would be damn near impossible. I'll buy anyone who does do it a milkshake once the game comes out on September 15.

Also, what is up with the game's slogan? "Is party now?" Are they poking fun at Ovechkin's accent and Russian heritage with the missing words and backwards "r?" Very odd.

I guess 2K Sports just remembered that their NBA 2K franchise isn't the only one that's celebrating its tenth anniversary, because they sent us some updated box art for NHL 2K10. As you can see in the gallery, the cover now features a gold "1999-2009 Tenth Anniversary" banner, just like the Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K10. The shot of a toothless Alexander Ovechkin remains intact, though.

We've also got the first screenshots of NHL 2K10 -- there are eleven of the PS3/360 version and six of the Wii version. They're looking pretty good! And remember, if you're looking for a hockey game on the Wii, NHL 2K10 is your only option; EA Sports is only making NHL 10 for the PS3 and 360.

This year's version of NHL 2K seems to be adding a lot of the same things that EA Canada is adding to NHL 10, like fake shots and being able to shoot from your knees. For all the details on the HD and Wii versions of the game, hit up IGN's feature blowout.

(The exclamation point, as you can see, is actually in the title. Believe me, I’m no more excited than you are about this.)

Wii owners like minigame collections, right? I mean, Carnival Games has somehow sold over 3 million copies worldwide. 2K Sports actually tried to capitalize on the minigame market on the Wii last fall with MLB Superstars, but that game failed miserably reviews- and sales-wise. So they’re taking a mulligan with an all-new group of baseball-themed minigames, Baseball Blast!.

The game will use MLB-licensed players and teams, and 2K is trying to position it as “the ultimate sports party game.” Alongside the 20-plus minigames on the disc, Baseball Blast! will offer a sports trivia mode with “over 100” questions. Sorry, 2K, but if you want a trivia mode to have any kind of longevity, it’s going to need far more than a hundred questions.

In any case, I’m skeptical, but I’m still holding out the slightest sliver of hope that this game will be decent. After all, I had a lot of fun with the “Disc Golf” minigame in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the Wii when I played it at Dtoider keener’s house a few weekends ago. And hey, baseball icon Bob Uecker -- who you may recognize from Major League -- is doing the commentary for this game, so at the very least, that’ll be worth checking out. Baseball Blast! will be out this fall.

2K Sports scored a hit with its 2007 arcade baseball title, The Bigs, and after two years of lackluster baseball sims, they’re trying to recapture past glory with a sequel, The Bigs 2. I got my hands on the game at E3, and last week, I listened in on a conference call with Producer Rob Nelson and Associate Producer Damon Purdue, both of whom gave details on the game.

So what can you expect to see in The Bigs 2 when it hits stores tomorrow? Follow me to the jump to find out.

Are you interested in 2K Sports' The Bigs 2? Do you live in or around New York City? Do you like winning prizes? If you answered 'yes' to those three questions, then I have a proposition for you, my friend. 2K Sports is holding a promotional event for The Bigs 2 at the Nintendo World Store in New York's Rockefeller Plaza on next Monday, and if you're good at the game's Home Run Pinball mode, you can win some pretty kick-ass prizes for your prowess!

Registration for the Home Run Pinball tournament will take place from 12 PM to 3:30 PM, and the prizes being offered include a Wii and an autographed Prince Fielder jersey (he's the game's cover athlete). The tourney itself will take place from 4:15 to 6. Oh, and did I mention that Mike Pelfrey and Alex Cora of the New York Mets will be on hand to face off in The Bigs 2 and sign autographs?

In addition to all that good stuff, attendees will have the opportunity to buy the Wii version of The Bigs 2 a day before the game is officially released. I should mention that you have to be at least 10 years old to participate in the tournament. So who's planning on going? Doesn't this sound like a pretty fun excursion for the whole family -- especially if you're Mets fans?

We’ve all seen plenty of decked-out versions of games -- you know, those super-duper editions that are given monikers like “special,” “collector’s,” and “limited.” A lot of them end up being wastes of money: the content inside the big box turns out not to be worth the price premium over the game itself. (And of course, not every game deserves a special edition.)

2K Sports apparently knows that, and it looks like they’ve ensured that the Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K10 will be worth your while (and your money). This is the tenth year of NBA 2K basketball, and that’s certainly an occasion to commemorate, don’t you think? We haven’t received anything official from 2K Sports announcing the set, but yesterday, TeamXbox “obtained details” of the special edition, which is apparently only going to be available with the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. We’ve found a promotional poster that corroborates the information; you can find it in the gallery below. TeamXbox also noted that a “source close to the product” told them that the set will be priced at $99.99.

So what, exactly, will you be getting for an extra forty smackers? Some pretty damn cool stuff: a numbered locker (with combination lock) that can hold twenty games; a 6" Kobe Bryant figurine from McFarlane Toys; a 16" × 36" Kobe Bryant poster designed by Shepard Fairey’s Studio N^o.1; a video “exploring the history” of the NBA 2K franchise; and access to the Gold Room, which is a “VIP online lobby” for the game. For NBA 2K fans, this sounds like a pretty damn cool package, doesn’t it?

People love to see sh*t blow up. Take, for instance, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opens today. It’s a Michael Bay flick that’s currently sitting pretty at 21% on Rotten Tomatoes -- but reviews be damned, studio executives expect the film to rake in about $175 million through the weekend. Go figure.

So when you send a baseball screaming out of the yard in The Bigs 2, it’s going to do some damage. For proof, watch the trailer below the fold, which features lots of exploding lights à la The Natural. The video also shows off some scenes from the game’s career mode, which is looking like a pretty deep experience.

2K Sports’ The Bigs 2 will be out for PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, and PSP on July 7th. For more, hit up our 2K Sports tag, or the game’s official Web site.

This year, 2K Sports named Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant as the cover athlete for NBA 2K10, but there was a wrinkle -- they asked for fans to vote on one of four covers. America ignored Spike Lee's vehement urging and chose an image of Bryant forcefully tugging on his jersey, which you can see above (the full-size shot is available in the gallery).

Bryant led the Lakers to yet another NBA championship last weekend; it was his fourth career title, and now, he's finally got the "can't do it without Shaq" monkey off his back. There certainly couldn't have been a better time to put him on the cover of the game, especially since NBA 2K10 is the tenth anniversary of the best-selling basketball franchise.

NBA 2K10 will launch this fall on PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and PC.

He may not be a Stanley Cup winner yet like Sid the Kid, but Washington Capitals left winger Alexander Ovechkin -- three-time All-Star and winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy (for leading the league in goals) in 2007-08 and 2008-09 -- is on the cover of 2K Sports’ NHL 2K10. Regarding the announcement, “Ovie” had this to say:

It's an incredible honor, and I look forward to working with 2K Sports to make NHL 2K10 the most fun and amazing hockey video game experience ever. I can't wait to put some of my moves in there.

Ovechkin presents a bit of a sore spot for me, since his Caps came back to beat my Rangers in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals this year after being down three games to one. But he’s definitely a lot of fun to watch -- check out this amazing, now-classic goal of his from 2006, for example -- and he’s already racked up an astonishing number of accolades in what seems to be destined to become a Hall-of-Fame career. In fact, he’s a finalist for this year’s Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP) and Lester B. Pearson Award (most outstanding player as determined by NHLPA), both of which he won last year; the 2009 NHL Awards will be given out tonight.

As for the game, it’s being developed by Visual Concepts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 2, and it’ll be out this fall. But frankly, VC has got a tough task ahead of them if they want to try and take a chunk out of the people buying NHL 10. Check out the four covers in the gallery below! Isn’t that a pretty crazy celebratory pose from Ovechkin?

[Update: Ovechkin did end up repeating as the winner of the Hart Trophy and the Pearson Award tonight!]