OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

[peigone]

It's about time. Only 3-4 years late. But please have the option to use either/or or both. Based on the other game's setup, I prefer to pitch with buttons and swing with sticks.

[nemesis04]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

It's about time. Only 3-4 years late. But please have the option to use either/or or both. Based on the other game's setup, I prefer to pitch with buttons and swing with sticks.

It has been stated that you can mix and match so no worries there!

[peigone]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

It has been stated that you can mix and match so no worries there!

Excellent, thanks for the info.

[Galarius]

i am real happy about it

[rspencer86]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

I love it. Think about all of the mechanics that go into a baseball swing. Even the best hitters when they are slumping will go back and watch film to see which parts of their swing are breaking down. Maybe they are stepping into the bucket, or their shoulders are flying open, or whatever.

Did pressing the X or [] button simulate that very well? Not in my opinion.

Now you might go through slumps where you are loading up too soon, or pulling through too hard, etc. And you'll have to identify that and fix it to get back to having success. Pretty cool.

Same goes for pitching. There's a lot of subtle movements and mechanics that are more suited to being represented by an analog motion rather than clicking a button a couple of times as it moves along a meter.

[StormJH1]

Wow, really conflicted about this. I'm a 360 user, but I've played The Show quite a bit on PS2, which essentially controls the same. One of the things The Show got right that other baseball games never really did was the reaction speed and timing of batter versus pitcher. If you play an analog swing game (like NCAA Baseball 2006 or the MLB 2k series), the pitch speed is slowed down because it HAS to be. There simply isn't time to preload a swing, decide to follow through, and AIM your swing with any reliability in less than a second.

Even having this as an option fractures the community, and it can cause problems with online balancing, etc. I think that they SCEA was in need of some innovations to this series, which, honestly, isn't really THAT different than it was in 2005, but I'm not sure this was the way to do it. Time will tell.

[StormJH1]

I love it. Think about all of the mechanics that go into a baseball swing. Even the best hitters when they are slumping will go back and watch film to see which parts of their swing are breaking down. Maybe they are stepping into the bucket, or their shoulders are flying open, or whatever.

Did pressing the X or [] button simulate that very well? Not in my opinion.

Now you might go through slumps where you are loading up too soon, or pulling through too hard, etc. And you'll have to identify that and fix it to get back to having success. Pretty cool.

Same goes for pitching. There's a lot of subtle movements and mechanics that are more suited to being represented by an analog motion rather than clicking a button a couple of times as it moves along a meter.

Pressing "X" doesn't simulate a baseball swing, but if we're being honest, neither does moving a control stick. Yes, I get the idea of moving to a more 1:1 type of control, which does work well in NHL and NBA, but only if it's well-implemented (case in point, NHL 2k's shot stick kind of sucked).

Also, "more options" makes sense when you're talking about gameplay modes, variable season lengths, and different camera views...but if it's something this integral to how you PLAY the game, it's almost like you're making a second title. There's something to be said for the fact that the undisputed king of baseball games for the past half a decade has never had any type of analog control. Usually it's the guys playing catch-up that "borrow" features from other games (as SCEA did with metered pitching borrowed from the MVP series).

[rspencer86]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

I agree that neither simulate a baseball swing - only motion controls could come close to doing that. But the analog stick gives you a better feel of actually controlling the swing, and can more naturally simulate important mechanics of a swing (loading up, firing through).

And of course it has to be well-implemented to be a positive change. That goes for anything a developer adds or changes.

[Joey]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

I have to disagree with you on the pitch speed having to be slowed down. If you currently use the left stick when you bat, the only thing new you will be doing is preloading your swing - which will happen I assume right before the pitcher releases the pitch. I see no difference in the 2 in that regard. Then again, it's a bit premature to be making assumptions either way since none of us have any idea how SCEA implemented analog.

Wow, really conflicted about this. I'm a 360 user, but I've played The Show quite a bit on PS2, which essentially controls the same. One of the things The Show got right that other baseball games never really did was the reaction speed and timing of batter versus pitcher. If you play an analog swing game (like NCAA Baseball 2006 or the MLB 2k series), the pitch speed is slowed down because it HAS to be. There simply isn't time to preload a swing, decide to follow through, and AIM your swing with any reliability in less than a second.

Even having this as an option fractures the community, and it can cause problems with online balancing, etc. I think that they SCEA was in need of some innovations to this series, which, honestly, isn't really THAT different than it was in 2005, but I'm not sure this was the way to do it. Time will tell.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

I have to disagree with you on the pitch speed having to be slowed down. If you currently use the left stick when you bat, the only thing new you will be doing is preloading your swing - which will happen I assume right before the pitcher releases the pitch. I see no difference in the 2 in that regard. Then again, it's a bit premature to be making assumptions either way since none of us have any idea how SCEA implemented analog.

The ESPN article said you can't preload your analog swing so timing is more important making pitch speed an even bigger factor. I really hope the sliders go back to a 20 point system and have more bite.

[nemesis04]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

The ESPN article said you can't preload your analog swing so timing is more important making pitch speed an even bigger factor. I really hope the sliders go back to a 20 point system and have more bite.

Well you could but there would be a penalty with your PCI shrinking. Developing your timing from coiling to uncoiling in a fluid manner is key. Pitch speed will not be slowed down by default just because the analog feature is picked as the other poster suggested. I know pitch speed is important to you Rudy as you feel in general it is too fast. I can talk with them to see if it could be slowed down even more.

[steelcurtain311]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

I had no issues at all with their simple-classic controls. I don't see the need to switch to analog, I think their hitting system is awesome, although could be simplified. I think it would be much better implemented in pitching, than in hitting. It's hard to time something with the stick, as opposed to pushing a button.

But as long as they have both options, I don't really care.

[Joey]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

When I say preloading, I'm talking about whatever triggers the beginning of your swing. For example, if someone's trigger is lifting their leg up, they don't do that after the pitcher releases the ball, rather they do it right at the moment of release - if not a split second before. If they decide to take the pitch, the leg just comes back down and they don't swing. So again, I see no reason to think that pitch speed would play a different part in an analog swing, as it's all one fluid motion. I can't imagine that both the start of your swing and the swing itself would take place after the pitcher has released the ball. But again, I will say, who can say for sure? It's all speculation at this point.

The ESPN article said you can't preload your analog swing so timing is more important making pitch speed an even bigger factor. I really hope the sliders go back to a 20 point system and have more bite.

[daflyboys]

Re: OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

Moving to a swing stick, although of course isn't pure realism, certainly is more realistic in a baseball game vs. hitting a button, depending on how it's done. I applaud 2K for trying to emulate some type of pitching motion (though I think it could mirror more of a true pull back/follow through motion versus what they have) and the little while I played NCAA 06 and tried the swing stick, I have to say took some time to make an adjustment, but I liked it. In hockey games, I can't imagine not playing one without a skill stick of sorts.

But with this being the first year I've had a chance to try The Show, I've been less than impressed in the results with simply hitting "X". There have been times where I know I've only tapped the button, which happened to translate to a full swing (maybe even when I've meant to check swing) and have been unduly rewarded with a hit and maybe even a home run. So, looking forward to how they handle this. As far as preloading, I think it was NCAA 06 that worked in some sort of quality/effectiveness of swing coupled to the timing of when you "pre-loaded", which also makes sense. As a batter, a well timed slight pull back should reward you more than simpy hitting forward, which would just be a low contact move, it would seem.

[fhqwhgads]

No thanks.

Is anyone else slightly concerned with this whole analog hitting and pitching idea? I just think the whole idea of analog controls is completely overrated. MVP NCAA Baseball did this and it was not all that great. The main problem I have with how The Show is incorporating this feature is the fact that it is completely based on timing.

While timing is definitely an important part of hitting a baseball, if not the most important part of all, you must also have hand-eye coordination and be able to literally put the bat on the ball. Analog controls completely ignore this important aspect of batting.

Therefore, I am saying, "no thanks," to this option right from the start. I'll never even try it, not once. Now on the positive side I love that The Show will have true zone hitting for the first time. This style of hitting is, by far, the most realistic.

One of the most frustrating things last year was when you timed a ball perfectly and made solid contact only to see a little dribbler go off the end of your bat. Hopefully this is taken care of with zone hitting.

Is anyone else going to jump right in to zone hitting or are you guys going to give analog hitting a shot?