This game desperately needs some excitement

[hb5239799]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

please let this be true!!! nothing more annoying is having to (x) thru a intro just to play a game of baseball ...... actually the only thing that really kind of annoys me is the theme music for the show (you know the one..... its been used for years)

A new soundtrack is something this title definitely needs...or at least remix it a little like some of the networks have done through the years. It gets VERY stale in between innings. Hence, why some of us love to Sounds of the Show to integrate FOX/ESPN music into our broadcast.

[tnixen]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

A new soundtrack is something this title definitely needs...or at least remix it a little like some of the networks have done through the years. It gets VERY stale in between innings. Hence, why some of us love to Sounds of the Show to integrate FOX/ESPN music into our broadcast.

I still think MLB The Show needs to look and sound more like a real TV baseball broadcast like FOX, ESPN, TBS and so on. 2K Sports did a much better job in this area when they had a baseball game. And continue to do it now with there NBA game. I do still have hope that someday MLB The Show will improve greatly in this area. But I guess Sony still has much more important areas of the game that need to be worked on.

[Spokker]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

I still think MLB The Show needs to look and sound more like a real TV baseball broadcast like FOX, ESPN, TBS and so on. 2K Sports did a much better job in this area when they had a baseball game. And continue to do it now with there NBA game. I do still have hope that someday MLB The Show will improve greatly in this area. But I guess Sony still has much more important areas of the game that need to be worked on.

Off-topic, but which version of MLB 2K had the best presentation? I was thinking of finding a copy for like a dollar at GameStop because I keep hearing about its presentation.

[ryanmc564]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

Off-topic, but which version of MLB 2K had the best presentation? I was thinking of finding a copy for like a dollar at GameStop because I keep hearing about its presentation.

2k7 and 2k8 were the best out of the group in my opinion.

[nomo17k]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

This is before the presentation stream for the now game, so it might become off-base pretty quickly....

... but what I think really is lacking in how the presentation is delivered in The Show is that the presentation engine doesn't seem to have a good *long-/medium-term memory of past events* that should help distinguish the level of importance/excitement of the current situation to be presented.

I think that's one major reason why many of otherwise very exciting moments are presented/described by Matt/Whoever in choppy/abrupt ways... and the crowds basically are less/more noisy in similarly predictable ways.

In order to make in-game commentators more dynamic, I think the game needs to *remember/know* more about what happened prior in that specific game to deliver more words in context.

Similarly, I think the franchise/season mode presentation engine needs to remember/know more about specific events (e.g., is this team contending now after falling 10 games below .500 at the all-star break?) within a season to deliver presentation specifically relevant for that season. And that can be tied into the in-game commentary/fan reactions in the stadium on a specific, important game to create more special moments.

I think the lack of variety and dynamic range of crowd reactions stem from the lack of better intelligence of the engine driving those features.

[bodhiball]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

one quick thought on the data showing that people X through the presentation and cutscenes...a POSSIBLE explanation of that could be that most are boring or the same for the last few years.

I am a huge presentation nerd, but I cant X fast enough to get through the beginning of games. The same shot of the manager walking through the dugout (for both sides), the overhead of the last warmup pitch thrown. Nothing in there is something I need to watch twice.

If each time it might be a different view of the stadium, of a highlighted player or stat, of a key matchup. Something with important overlays to help me against my opponent that day.

Same with in-game. If the time the scenes were shown was cut in half (Real broadcasts use basically a three second editing, constant fast clips to keep people engaged...what can I say, we have short attention spans). And also if they were different from time to time. Not even new animations, just if they were shot from various camera angles it could help.


And one thought on the homerun replay. That one is definitely getting X'd through in 16 if its the same. At the very least, get rid of the manager closeup....not only is the manager typically the worst face render (if they have one), but its so repetitive and has NO excitement in it. Even just staying with the batter (or even better, a wide and high view of the crowd cheering).

And please please please put in an animation and cut scene for scoring a run...the object of the game! Hand clap, crowd cheering, dugout congrats, something!

[ryanmc564]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

I for one can't wait for the presentation stream to see what Kirby was able to do with commentary this year. He seemed to be pretty excited to be in charge of it now from last years streams

[kaptainkarl76]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

Off-topic, but which version of MLB 2K had the best presentation? I was thinking of finding a copy for like a dollar at GameStop because I keep hearing about its presentation.

Youtube perhaps?

[twiztid78]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

They really need to had the ''Cub'' version like EA did with almost all their games.

[Chairman7w]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

You Sir, need to work for San Diego Studios! Great ideas!

Baseball is a "boring" game. It's slow paced, cerebral, and long, with moments of pure ecstatic insane excitement. I love it.

And I feel none of that excitement with this game. Never really have.

It's great in so many ways, and needs improvement in a lot of others....though I think the thrill of baseball and its little moments is one of the glaring things deeply missing in the franchise, and rarely discussed.

As an example...here are some clips of some game tying homeruns. Have you EVER felt this way hitting one in the Show? Has the crowd reacted that way? Announcer? players? Anything?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9CGqH-cCU

It needs a "Moments" feature. The crowd standing on an 0-2 pitch in a clutch situation. The dugouts exploding on a game winning or tying hit. The crowd at a fever pitch with the game on the line. Key matchups, big strikeouts, heck...even scoring a run (which is the whole point of the game) doesnt even have an animation in this game. Never has. You score, and MAYBE you see the player clap his hands as he walks by home plate on the way to the dugout.

Boring.

Here are some walkoffs just to keep the good times going:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZSnCniptwY

Listen to that crowd. It's deafening....in a regular season game. Look at the player reactions.


Baseball is boring, and wonderful. Because it has those intense moments...Hoping The Show can start to bring some of that excitement to their franchise

[HarlemYankee]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

I agree.

If on a 1-10 scale a real life playoff game or a big moment equals a 10, The Show seems to only be able to go to about 7.

It would be a lot of work though, to get the crowd animations, the crowd noise, player reactions, and then commentary too?

Plus there are different gradations of excitement. Is it a regular season rivalry? A walk off win? A post season game? A world series walk off HR?

Would be worth it though, because yes baseball is very drawn out and filled with many routine moments, which make those intense situations all the more intense.

Omit those intense situations and it just doesn't quite capture the game.

I remember once I hit a walk-off HR in game 7 of the world series after playing maybe 100 games of the season and every post-season game as the Dodgers against the Angels.

The celebration was exactly the same as a regular season walk-off home run, Matty V didn't seem to care that much, the crowd was just in a static roar the entire game because it was the playoffs AND I couldn't even watch the replay past the point of the ball going over the fence!

I would assume everyone plays with the hope that they hit a G7 walk-off HR in the World Series and it was extremely disappointing.

[WhiteBunny]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

I agree, but that data is collected weather someone button mashes out of frustration, time, or just for the hell of it that data is collected. That is what fast play is for. No sense in SCEA to waste their time on real time presentations if people skip through it for various reasons.

The problem is. A baseball game last 9 innings, it's about 30-40 minutes. Now, there are cold innings and maybe you want to speed up the game a little bit by skipping cutscenes. Then you have a hot one inning and you want to enjoy all the atmosphere, all the cutscens. Then another boring one, no cutscenes, then one in which you want to relax and just enjoy the show and so on. Things change during a single game. Me too and so my desire to watch a cutscene.
If i skip 20 cutscenes in a game i'm not downvoting the broadcasting stream and it doesn't mean i want the game to be faster. I don't know how they analize data, but here numbers are relative, not a universal answer.

[decga]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

Maybe, hopefully they updated the emotion or excitement in 16'. I do like the emotion showed on the field, after key hit, clutch strike out. The fist pumps and pointing into the presumably dugout. They have a franchise stream I think in March. Maybe if someone on Twitch that day can ask the developers if they don't elaborate on it.

[BillBixbe]

Re: This game desperately needs some excitement

What it needs is more drama from the human pitcher Vs AI hitters confrontation.