It's The Official MLB '11: The Show Impressions Thread
 

The game was released today, and while MLB '10 may have been a let down thanks to a game breaking bug that destroyed any Franchise/RTTS in 2013, SCEA has confirmed that bug has been fixed for this years iteration. Let the impressions begin!

As a side note, we should all keep in mind that the most important thing isn't what we think, but rather, it's what Bill Abner thinks. Thank you.

I don't always agree with the two Bills (Harris and Abner), but I always enjoy reading their takes. When it comes to gameplay, they are very rarely "wrong", it's just what they consider game killing and what I consider game killing are different.

Abner has favorable impressions of the game so far.

I'm really hoping they added a little life to the game this year. It felt a little stale to me last year. I think the analog controls will help in that regard. Will be picking it up later today.

Looking forward to this as well. Hopefully picking it up this afternoon.

Do you have a link to his impressions? I only saw one thing on his blog, and that had nothing to do with impressions.

At his No High Scores blog.

He only mentions the pitching, but he seems to be in love with how it works. He's a big fan of the rest of the standard gameplay, so if he's that impressed about a single feature, it's a good sign.

Oh all right. I read that too...didn't consider it an impression, but I see why one would.

So they didn't bother fixing bug in the previous version? I don't have the game, but, I am interested in it. However, if they don't fix bugs like that with patches, I'll keep my money.

What?

I loved that blog before it became "No High Scores" and started flooding info. I can't keep up anymore, so I've turned it off my RSS feed.

I believe he's referencing the statement made above that the game killer bug from last year was fixed for this year's version of the game, but wasn't addressed in a patch during the lifespan of the game it affected directly.

Correct. Thank you. :)

Ditto.

Game is available for $50 at Newegg.

Slickdeals Newegg Deals, Coupons and Promos: MLB 11: The Show (PS3) (03/08/11 12:22pm)

I've played a little bit of RTTS. I love the fact you get credit for working the count this year. In practice mode, fouls are retries instead of outs. It seems they've gone away from a lot of the goals by at bat thing and are just rewarding you for good results/effort and punishing you for stupid crap.

One more change: You now get to pick the type of player you are at the start. All hit, little glove? Power or Speed or a combination? You get more options at the start of RTTS.

For .99 you can buy a stat pack that has more advanced stats for any stat head out there.

Also have the 1,000 points available if you want to ramp up your RTTS player early on.

You're not helping me here, Troy. I'm trying to hold off buying for a while, damnit.

What is the bug that is mentioned from last year? I had last year's version and don't remember hitting anything that made the game unplayable.

Tigers don't win the World Series every season.

Can you actually play as a closer in RTTS? That has always bugged me about this game. Was too hard to meet goals.

Also, is RTTS the same where performance doesn't matter as much as meeting goals? How I can replace Albert Pujols if I just meet my goals?

Something to do with Franchise mode that Sun Tzu mentioned in his OP and that the Tigers never win the World Series. However, Tigers players can now go on drunken binges.

Sounds nice. I'm having issues resisting purchase.

Just picked it up, hope to get to give it a whirl a bit later.

Thanks for posting this. Just completed my order, $49.99, no driving to pick it up, and off next week. Sweet!

The bug I'm talking about from last year had to do with the inability for CPU controlled teams to manage a budget, and young pitchers both A.) developing into A+ players regularly, combined with B.) the CPU over valuing their salaries because of this. By 2013, about 90-95% of the big name hitters would be stuck in Free Agency indefinitely because all of the CPU teams had their budgets wrapped up in young stud pitching. The only workarounds were to either control every move of all 30 teams in a franchise, or completely disable player training.

If you played in an RTTS, there is no way you can control anything other than your player, which in turn resulted in you either A.) not being able to sign with ANYONE half way through your career because nobody had any money, or B.) you were stuck with one or two teams that had a few bucks left over to sign you.

It has been confirmed that this bug isn't present in this years version. As a side note, I picked the game up on the way home today. I'm very excited :)

This right here gave me a flashback to Jbmagic. :D

Still getting used to the analog controls but had a really memorable one. I'm playing RTTS, got drafted by Houston (ohhh, yay [sarcasm]). First 97 at bats, no homers. In a 6 at bat game against San Antonio, I launch 4. I've never had a four homer game and, honestly, I'm not sure I've had a three homer game in any of the previous versions. Pretty pumped. As the fourth one went out, I had to jump up and raise my arms in victory.

Dola

Followed it with a walk-off the next game!!! Man, I'm much more into this year's than last year's although I don't notice a huge difference except for the analog controls and I do like the advancement model better (assuming it works).

And double dola...

Come out of the walk-off game to find that I've been traded...to the Padres and their farm team, the San Antonio Missions...which just so happens to be the team I torched for 5 homers. So I got to walk across the field to the other dugout and take on my former team, good times.

Last year's game had a few franchise issues that really bummed me out, so I'm waiting for impressions from you all. Also, time is limited for me right now.

but how is the AI?

I had the opposite experience. I walked up for my first at bat in my serious career as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning of a game we were losing 2-1. There was a man on second and I caught a 2-0 fastball and took it over the right field wall. (I'm a switch hitter and was facing a rightie)

Struck out my next four at bats and I'm still smiling. Go figure. ;)

From PastaPadre:

I like how I didn't notice a couple of the words I left out, until I read it in your post. That's horrible.

So in a nut shell, they never fixed that franchise bug. My concerns are, if there's a different franchise bug (I usually only play franchise modes in games) in the new version of the game, they won't fix that either. Therefore, I don't want to spend money on it. :)

EDIT: According to DeToxRox, I guess they did patch it? But, did it work? Anyone know?

WHICH IS IT?!?

If that is the case, pointless to buy at this point. I passed on the 10 version so, looks like I might be doing the same.

I bought a PS3 a few years ago just to play The Show - so this "bug" is very discouraging because I passed on last years too. Oh well....

When will these big name gaming companies get their shit straight and release product without game breaking bugs?? I still feel sport games should be released every other year and just release "roster packs" in their off season.

Modells.com has MLB 2011 The Show (PS3) for $60 - $23 with code MOD4TEN39 = $36

Place called Modells has it for $36 including shipping with the above discount code. I was holding out for the summer, but I figured I'd grab it with the code.

Anyone try MLB2K11 yet?

yup

Heh, how about that. Russell from SCEA says the bug isn't there when the game is released. Not even 24 hours later it turns out it really is there.

Fail two years in a row. Now my decision is to either A.) sell this now on Ebay like I did last years, or B.) see if they fix the bug in a patch.

No, but I'm getting it for the PC. Waiting to see if it drops on Steam.

Same here, I was going to hold off for a bit before I came across this.

Thanks bro! I decided to grab it at that price! :D

They ship the game with a showstopping RTS bug two years in a row? How does that happen? How is that bug not the first thing they work on after '10?

Glad I waited on this. Getting to a point that the only series I trust now is NBA 2K. Now I just need to decide if selling my PS3 would be worth it. I really don't play anything on it and got it for The Show which has flamed out the last 2 years.

Minor issue, but it has always bothered me... are the player cards more in depth? For instance, the stat lines would show the year, the BA HR RBI and thats about it. I want team played for, and a full line of stats. Any change this year?

I know this is a dangerous thing and I could be labeled a fan boy, but I rarely get more than a few years into even rtts let alone a dynasty, so this doesn't really impact me a great deal. I think they've made a lot of improvements I like. You can actually hit doubles down the line now. I love the new RTTS where they've taken away a vast majority of what I hated about it. (the goal is get on base safely, I crush a 3-2 pitch and a guy robs me of a HR, Fail -25 points. That garbage is gone. Now I'd get 15-20 points for a good at bat.)

I hope they fix the bug in a patch, but the impact on me this year is going to be minimal to none.

Hope it gets fixed for you guys. Guess I'm lucky in that I only play The Show in season mode. Playing all 162 games takes my summer and quells my need for a baseball game with current players.

I have no desire for a RTTS game and OOTP fills my need for an ongoing dynasty.

The game-play\physics have improved every year along with the eye-candy. Going through a Cubs season, playing a realistic baseball game, and seeing all of the stadiums in their eye popping glory is worth the price of the game to me.

Some post at OS that the game has become stale. Maybe it doesn't change much but IMHO that is a great thing. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Except that it is broken.

It happens because people keep buying it...

This is where the dangerous part I spoke of above comes in. If this bug were in OOTP, it'd be a deal breaker. I regularly have 30+ year careers in that game.

Even with just batting and only doing some of the fielding, I think the furthest I've ever got in RTTS mode is 5 years. I don't play franchise mode on it. So for my needs, The Show provides everything I need to have fun from March to the middle of July. (then the football games come out and I get preoccupied with those)

For others, this bug is soul crushing. I get that and understand their frustrations. I called RTTS unplayable a few years ago and took a lot of grief for it. For me it had too many ridiculous bugs and I wasn't willing to deal with them. The Show was traded in early that year. Others laughed at me and said I was being too hard on it.

I really hope they fix this bug for all of the people who care about it. It's just one that will likely not impact me in any way.