Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

[countryboy]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Are there any real minor league parks this year? If not, are they at least more?

no real minor league parks. but they have doubled the number of minor league parks this year.

[Knight165]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Has diving catches by the OF'ers been improved? BIG yes. I saw some awesome new animations.

Can we throw ball around after strikeout? I don't think so....

Doubles?(this question was actually much longer).....WAY MORE. Down the line lasers.....splitting the gap hard shots...splitting the gap long shots...long shots down the line....balls hit over the OF'ers heads..I'd say MUCH BETTER (I know you heard this already, but I like hearing it myself! )

Will coaches pick up and throw foul balls? No

Can I hear more about the new routes the OF'ers take? This one I thought would be a simple..."yeah they changed the routes" answer...until I asked Brian about it. Whew! This guy is FOCUSED on getting the AI routines right. The sheer amount of work he has put into this is absolutely amazing. Watching him run his routines on his work station and then listening to him explain how he would go to games...watch games...read books all just to see how he could get all of this correct is mind boggling.
Add to that the animations that Chris and his team are constantly adding and tweaking to make that A.I. look and do the right thing and it's really nice.
...an aside on this...it all looks and feels(when you are fielding) very natural and smooth as glass.
I'm totally impressed with this.

OF'ers...will they bypass the cut off and throw to bases more? This has been worked on. I couldn't get enough hits(I'm terrible) to check this out...maybe the others can chime in...

High throws to first...toned down? I still get some when I field...so that's on me some...but I saw less throwing errors to first, for sure.

Wild pitches/passed balls...toned down? There are still a good amount. Maybe a bit too much perhaps. There is a new animation where the catcher smothers the ball(I think it's new) right at the plate. That does cut down on players advancing as much as last year from what I saw. We started to discuss this after we left(at the hotel). Maybe Kolbe can check on this?

Manual sliding? No...assisted and auto like last year.

When you play D...is there more of a sense of urgency to get rid of the ball? Yes. Fielding got a NICE work over. The DP's are nice. The throws in the DP's are excellent.
Seeing the CPU go the short way to get the third out and being able to do it yourself...is excellent. I was playing Jim and forgot there was two outs...he had a man on first. Grounder to my 2B and I hit the triangle to start what I thought would be a DP. Last year that would have been 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. I got the man ...inning over.:wink:

Can you cut off the ball mid air? No (and I know you mean if you are throwing home to try and get the runner...you know you're not getting him and see the batter taking second...you would "yell" for a cut off and try and get him there or at least stop him from advancing)

Did they adjust the depth that OF'ers start at? Yes...it seems so. I forgot to ask...but I remember thinking it just looked different from last year.

CPU bullpens? Can we see pitchers warming up? No...but the CPU will do mound visits to "warn" you that a RP might be on the way!

Does the opposing manager come to the mound more? Yes

M.K.
Knight165

[gotigers15]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Knight, will you be the OSer addressing the franchise aspect of the game?

Just curious.

[MukaMuka]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Have they fixed Ichiro's swing animation?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME YES!!

When he swings in real life he is simultaneously running halfway out of the box. Only 1 video game has ever gotten his swing animation right and that is MVP Baseball from EA Sports.

[jim416]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Nemesis, already saw Knight, glad you made it, waiting for Pared.

I can still see the smile on your face when we were playing mano y mano and dropping those new curveballs on one another....ooooooh, yeah.

[Knight165]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Knight

What is your overall opinion on this game?

Thanks
Kerm

I'm not sure if you're being funny or not!

But I'll tell you this. MLB'08 probably hasn't been out of my PS3 for a full day since the release date last year. It won't be back in anymore.
I almost(yeah right!) wish I didn't see this. Not being able to dive into it today for 12 hours has me a little strung out.

I didn't get into either checking out the rosters specifically or checking out the editor(except to check on options for guys) too much. I just had too much to do with the question list.


M.K.
Knight165

[Rob_NYY]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Is it safe to ask questions now, or should we still keep them to PMs?

[Knight165]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Knight, will you be the OSer addressing the franchise aspect of the game?

Just curious.

Coming up. FRIGGIN' AWESOME.

M.K.
Knight165

[countryboy]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Coming up. FRIGGIN' AWESOME.

M.K.
Knight165

[countryboy]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Sorry for the question, especially being a little off topic, but has anyone heard from Pared?

[Knight165]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Is it safe to ask questions now, or should we still keep them to PMs?

Might as well ask Rob...now that we're back we can start to take them I guess. I think it just would have been insane to come back to a 40 page thread when we couldn't even post answers(Oh...we DID come back to a 40 page thread)

I'll be posting the answers to the questions from the thread...maybe Jim can field a few for now until I get the franchise ones up.

M.K.
Knight165

[RedbirdFan18]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Alright, not to bother you guys, but i think i remember hearing one of you guys playing as the Cardinals, so i was wondering what Albert Pujols's stance looked like.

[jim416]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

MK, many of what you've said, I've covered. It's the franchise stuff I couldn't commit to and am leaving that stuff to you, slider overview to Nem and Pared as well as more info on the sig stuff to Pared.

[MukaMuka]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Dear Knight165

Could you kindly answer my question about Ichiro's swing animation I know maybe you didn't use the Mariners so you don't know but it is very important to me since he is my favorite player. If he doesn't have a unique swing animation can you PLEASE PLEASE relay the message to Sony and tell them about it so they could try to do something with it in MLB '10?
Thank you so much plz reply thx

Muka

[longshadow11]

Re: Community Preview Answer Discussion Thread.

Question about stadiums: Is there more signage this year and are there some stadium specific animations like the train moving at Minute Maid?

Thanks