Yet another MLB'09 Initial Thoughts Post... - LetsGoPitt's Blog

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LetsGoPitt's Blog

Yet another MLB'09 Initial Thoughts Post...

Posted on March 4, 2009 at 08:55 AM.

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Just because there aren't enough of them yet

Because I'm impatient, I simply updated the rosters with whatever update was available yesterday evening and launched into a full-blown franchise with the lowly Pirates. I played one spring training game against the Phillies and promptly got my butt kicked. Obviously there's going to be some slider tweaking (but not as much as in the past, I think), but here are my thoughts so far (one game and playing around with the franchise options).

I love the fact that we have expanded rosters. BUT...why are you limited to the 40-man roster? Part of reason for having spring training is to whittle down your roster and give the minor leaguers a chance to make the team. Not that it's very likely, but it would be nice to be able to play some talented kid in a couple of games just to see what he can do without the risk of losing a player to waivers.
I really like the new swing feedback (L3). As in it's actually useful this year. Showing where you were swinging compared to where the ball was is going to help me out a lot as I get the feel for hitting all over again.
Ryan Doumit's swing looks ridiculous. He has a rather elaborate timing mechanism and the designers chose the silliest looking part of it to include in his pre-swing stance. Oh well...
I'm probably spoiled by OOTP, and I know there's a limit to what you can do with a console controller, but the roster management interface is pretty clunky. I shouldn't have to scroll to see whether someone is on the 40-man roster or not.
Why did they take out the simple "Do you want to leave 'Player X' in the game?" dialog during a double switch? Now you have to back out, switch positions, go back to the bullpen, and put in the new reliever. It's something that now takes twice as long to do compared to last year.
Speaking of which: why did they change the bullpen interface? I like having the different buttons as options instead of another popup dialog box. I guess it's to limit the number of accidental decisions?
Only one game in, and I'm already loving the new fielding animations.
The new pitching meter is going to take some getting used to.

I'll post more as I play the game a bit more, but these are the things that stuck out to me so far. Unfortunately I've only played a day game, so I haven't experienced the greatness that is real-time lighting yet.