Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

[guboogi]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

question do you feel with te sliders you are getting too many hits how much did you lower it?

I'll be honest, after about three innings when I had collected some 6-7 hits and four of them were home runs, I thought it was bordering on the line of "too easy," even though I knew this was probably some sort of fluke (at least for me). I wasn't even expecting to play the entire game, I just wanted to test out the sliders real quick. It was 4-3 after three innings and I was using Phil Hughes. Then Hughes got into some trouble and I left him in too long and it quickly ballooned to 8-4 them. After that, I got a decent number of hits, but wasn't able to drive any more in and I ended up losing 9-4. All I changed was pitch speed down two clicks, nothing else. I seemed to do a decent job of laying off some bad pitches and I was able to get some solid contact on a lot of balls. The only problem now is the CPU pitcher seems to throw too many strikes, so their pitch count remains low, even when I'm hitting/scoring.

On a side note, there were A LOT of homers hit in the game. Four by me (all using the regular swing), three by Carlos Pena alone (he crushed me), and maybe 1-2 more by the Rays. That's 8-9 homers in that one game alone, even though I didn't really tweak too many of the sliders. Hopefully this doesn't become a trend, otherwise I might have to do some more adjusting.

[Effington]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

I'm shocked I'm the first one to say this, but isn't 1 day before the release a little too early to determine if the game is easy or hard? I know some of you have the game early, but at least give it some time.

[Aussie141414]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

Just been scanning over this and have some hints that may help. You still have to use your brain though.

OK

1. Guess fastball up in the zone. (Reason being: If you get a fast ball up in the zone you will crush it alot of times)

2. If you guess the fastball right but not the upper zone the fastball will be down, and you can move the hitting cursor down in the zone and wait for the pitch.

3. If the pitch is not a fastball, it will be an offspeed pitch and all offspeed pitches are usually down in the zone, so this will allow you to wait back on it. Hold the hitting cursor down in the zone.

4. If the pitch is not a fastball, but you guess on it being up and you are correct you are going to get a hanging curveball; and that is only good news for you and not the pitcher.

Summary: Guess fastball up in the zone. If you dont guess the location right, move the cursor down in the zone and wait back for the pitch and make slight adjustments in and out if you need.

Hope this helps. I cant belive God put me in Australia were they havent released the game, and I had to order from Canada. Wont get here till Friday or Monday next week. ARGH!!!!

[guboogi]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

You are definitely right, we've only had the game for a few days and that's far too little time to tell whether the game is "too easy" or "too difficult". So I decided to start a trial franchise just so I can accumulate some stats to get a better sense of how I'm doing. I just played my first game and it was beautiful. I had pitch speed down two clicks and strike frequency all the way down to help make the computer throw some more balls. It actually made me a worse hitter since I am pretty undisciplined.

I was the Yankees (Sabathia) playing against the O's (Guthrie) and I got to Guthrie pretty early for a 2-0 lead and had him at about 50-60 pitches after three innings. CC was cruising until the 3rd and 4th when he got into a little trouble and lost the lead 3-2. Then Guthrie really settled down and started going to work. CC ended up going 6IP, 10H, 3ER, 6K. Guthrie went 7IP, 4H, 2R, 1ER, 10K. I loved the pitch counts, though, and it was a pretty intense game overall, even though I ended up losing 3-2.

The great news is there were no home runs hit. Once I learn some discipline, I think this might work for me. I'll probably have to increase the strike frequency, but so far I am loving this game. Great job to all the SCEA guys out there.

[davewins]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

I don't know if my post got lost from before but I would like to quickly reiterate my feelings on hitting and a quick tip. What I do that I find helpful when I'm having a tough time hitting is simply taking a strike or playing a game where all I do is take pitches. Just watching the pitch without any attention at all placed on hitting really helps your "eye at the plate". You will lay off bad pitches that are just outside the plate and you will recognize pitches better.

I would like to mention though that for future games I would love to see SCEA add another batting view that places the camera lower (at the catcher's FEET opposed to his HEAD) that way we can judge height of pitch, break of pitch and speed of pitch better. Just a suggestion. I'm in Virginia now and almost home so I can't wait to pick this game up and play it.

[dorismary]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

SCEA please dont change hitting its perfect ! and if you do add a gimmic swingstick in the future dont 2k it .
Buttons just work better in this case IMO

[ehh]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

Summary: Guess fastball up in the zone. If you dont guess the location right, move the cursor down in the zone and wait back for the pitch and make slight adjustments in and out if you need.

Very few OS'ers use guess pitch, cheapens the game quite a bit.

One trick I use from my days of cursor hitting in 2K3/2K4 is that I turn on the PCI and wiggle the stick around before the pitch. Some times I'll just go in a clockwise motion, sometimes randomly move the cursor around the screen. This helps my timing/location a ton because I'm already moving my thumb (and the l-stick) so I can make a quick reaction to move the cursor to it's desired spot. It is VERY difficult IMO to use the L-stick if you just let the cursor sit in neutral and then try to jam it at the last second to the right spot. Moving the cursor before hand is sorta like a timing mechanism that hitters use IRL, whether a bat wiggle or going up on their toe with their front foot. If anyone tries this, at first you'll probably chase too many pitches but disciple will come eventually.

I wish I had tried that strategy sooner with The Show, I've long hated the hitting in it and while it is definitely improved over '08 I think this strategy would have made '08 more enjoyable to me. I started doing this with the demo two days ago and was thrilled that it worked so well, I was actually hitting a realistic amount of HR's on default Legend, including one moon shot with Howard to win a game. I was just sitting there and thought to myself, "Hmm, let's try the old 2K4 strategy," and low and behold it worked. Combine that with the improved hitting of '09 and I'm good to go this summer, I'll also never complain about The Show's hitting system again.

[VanillaGorilla]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

How does a feature that is in the game "cheapen" it? Real MLB players don't guess pitches?

[ehh]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

How does a feature that is in the game "cheapen" it? Real MLB players don't guess pitches?

The guess pitch feature gives you way too much information. If you guess correctly you know before the pitch is even released what it's going to be and if you guess incorrectly then you can eliminate 20% (or 25%) of a pitcher's arsenal. If you guess fastball every time:

A) You know you're getting a fastball (correct guess)
B) You know it's a breaking pitch (incorrect guess)

Knowing for sure that you are getting a fastball or a breaking ball before the pitch is even thrown = cheap and unrealistic. It's not like IRL a hitter will yell out "FASTBALL!" and the pitcher says, "Yup, you guessed right, here it comes so be ready for it."

[kilmar1]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

How does a feature that is in the game "cheapen" it? Real MLB players don't guess pitches?

Real players don't get confirmation they guessed right before the ball reaches the plate.

[Pared]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

...which is why you play with No Feedback.

It amazes me how many people miss/do not use that option.

[ehh]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

Not a fan of that option, Pared. If I'm sitting on a pitch and I get it then I"ll be ready for it, naturally I'll make better contact since I'm waiting for that pitch. I don't need an extra boost for guessing right.

[kilmar1]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

...which is why you play with No Feedback.

It amazes me how many people miss/do not use that option.

That is a very good idea! I can't believe I've never thought of it.

[Pared]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

Not a fan of that option, Pared. If I'm sitting on a pitch and I get it then I"ll be ready for it, naturally I'll make better contact since I'm waiting for that pitch. I don't need an extra boost for guessing right.

Have you tried it? It's like the option isn't even there.

Try it; Put guess pitch on, no feedback on a high difficulty. Even if you try sitting on a pitch, the "boost" is so subtle you barely even realize it's there.

I don't guess every pitch... very rarely actually... but if I need to keep it on to use the swing analysis, I might as well be able to sit on a fastball/curveball/whatever as if that's my approach at the plate.

That's what you do in a real game; You look for your pitch to hit.

Now I just really hate the feedback you're given with the whole mechanic. Flashing red cursors; losing your pitching meter in multi-player situations.... that stuff kills me. But the boost is so minimal you hardly even know it's there.

On top of it, if you guess wrong, you're hit with a negative effect so it works very, very well.

[VanillaGorilla]

Re: Hitting in 09 is a tad too difficult

I just think the game is more fun with Guess Pitch on, but hey, that's just me. I still consider myself a "real" baseball gamer though. That's part of what makes it fun. It is still just a video game.