MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

[Raskal]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

I see a lot of people happy about balks being in, but I do want to point one thing out that has already been confirmed from community day:

The AI won't balk.

It was put it primarily to combat quick pitching in online play, but it is for this reason that I'll be turning it off for my singleplayer games this year. Hopefully that can make it in next year, but there's definitely going to be some heavy coding involved to determine whether an AI balk could happen - and if I know SCEA SD, they won't settle for it just being a random event - they'd tie ratings into it somehow.

This is why I'm so happy about it balks being implemented. I'm an offline and online player. Since it deters quick pitching online that's great. But it also makes me train my brain not to quick pitch against the CPU either, so that when I play online I'm ready for the slower pace.

[legend88]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

I see a lot of people happy about balks being in, but I do want to point one thing out that has already been confirmed from community day:

The AI won't balk.

It was put it primarily to combat quick pitching in online play, but it is for this reason that I'll be turning it off for my singleplayer games this year. Hopefully that can make it in next year, but there's definitely going to be some heavy coding involved to determine whether an AI balk could happen - and if I know SCEA SD, they won't settle for it just being a random event - they'd tie ratings into it somehow.

I love the fact we can balk. Often when I get frustrated I start quick pitching and then a get a balk and it reminds me to slow down. Wish the CPU could balk too though.

[sbmnky]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Color me impressed! I was looking forward to analog everything and the SD team did not disappoint. Bravo to them for giving us many options for this demo - I don't recall having this much control over a demo in years past.

I've played about 7 'games' and only one as the Giants and got shellacked - I think is because I have a moral compass that gets all switched around when I play as the Giants! Most of my games have been playing as Texas.

Some quick thoughts:

Pitching: I love that I can control the speed of my pitch with the RS. I've had much more control is setting up my punch out pitch and I'm seeing batters chase more balls out of the zone. I'll definitely mess around with the accuracy once the retail version drops - I still feel like I have a ton of control playing on HoF and that my misses aren't missing badly enough.

Batting: It is going to take some getting used to, but when I finally established a good camera to hit from (similar to Blzer's - gotta love the slightly off-set camera!) I started to get into a good rhythm timing the ball and recognizing pitches. I'm still striking out too much, but that's cause I suck!

Fielding: This is the best implementation, imo. I played a game on Veteran and had to bump it up to AS. AS is tough and I can't wait to bump it up even further. It's gonna take some time before I stop jamming the RS to the base I want to throw to - I usually do this on hot smashes when I have more time to make an easier throw. I'm starting to get a feel for this and I love that I control the speed and accuracy (to some degree) of my throws. It took me a couple attempts to dive with R2 - I was so used to using the RS for dive in years past. The ability to stop a throw is great. Kinsler ranged into the 3-4 hole to get a ball in short RF and I jammed the stick to 1st and the circle indicated it was going to be offline, so I reestablished my throw and barely got the runner - I think Sandoval was running. That's awesome!

As always, I'll turn the commentary off - I usually get distracted by what they say and I take it personally!

I'll be 100% analog this year. The new cams are awesome and custom cams is ingenious!

This game feels fresh and new. I can't wait to play the full version in a couple weeks.

[Masswhole]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Ive noticed a couple glitchy animation transitions. One being after Wilson walked a guy, he had a seizure then snapped into the "receiving the catch from the catcher" position.

[JermaineDye05]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Wow. Definitely a learning curve with the analog controls.

Positives and Negatives for the DEMO (I feel I should point this out, because this is merely a demo. I don't expect the final product to be identical to this):

Positives: You're in control

-In my first inning I gave up 9 runs, walking about 6 people. I also had the funniest bad throw ever. It was a lob that just sailed way over the first baseman's head. I literally laughed out loud because of how horrible it was. I really like how everything is now our own doing.

-Player models look much sharper too.

Negatives:

-Someone mentioned this earlier, but there was a glitch with the bases loaded when a pitch bounced in the dirt to Posey and then he got up, but I couldn't move him or Lincecum. I just had to wait until it timed out. No runners advanced thankfully.

-Also mentioned before: The crowd behind homeplate was pretty blurry.

-With exception to the player models it LOOKED like MLB 10.

-Baserunners still don't have numbers in the running window.

Remember this was only a DEMO, so I figure the bugs and the visual issues will be fixed once the final copy is released. I don't know about the numbers on baserunners, but that's hardly a gamebreaker and like last year, really not that noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Really thankful SCEA released a demo. I think the demo wasn't so much meant to show us how good the game looks. I think it's mostly to give us a feel for the analog controls for when the game eventually drops. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a long way to go before they're ready to play a full 9 innings with analog controls.

I will definitely be buying the game when it comes out, though there really was never a chance of me not buying it.

[andrewochs615]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

after either striking out or grounding out every at bat and throwing my control i switched to timing hitting. Im going to wait until the hit tutorial video is out and til the game comes out to use batting practice mode to get analog hitting. I mean i didn't expect much since i can barley hit well the old way on rookie with very favorable sliders lol

[blackpuppy]

I thought there was supposed to be cursor batting in this version? Is it in the demo?

[enyc718]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

I only played 1 inning and boy was my pitching horrible with the analog! BUT, I enjoyed it. It gives pitching a different feel. Just like many other things in life, just have to get used to it. I got a couple of hits, again I only played 1 inning. NOW, fielding is what really got me. I caught myself pressing circle, and triangle many times. Game flowed pretty good. I'm definetly copping this game on the 8th. I'm sure a couple of patches after release day and this game should be near perfection. Love it!

[Ronstr]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Positives:
- Day to night transition, the sunset looks great!
- Eric Karros and Matt D's conversation, it made the game seem more realistic.
- Analog pitching, the motion is very fluid.
- The little things, helmet name tags, custom cameras

Negatives:
- Ananlog batting, couldn't get the timing down at all
- Analog throwing, it's probably because I'm still used to buttons, I threw the ball to home a couple times when I intended to throw to second. It also couldn't really connect with the running motion, I tried a running throw from about 60 feet from 1st to home and I got stuck in the wind up and a run scored.
- Background graphics, crowd looks like PS2 graphics (but it's probably because it's a demo)
- Tim Lincecum's hair, it looked like Timmy used a bit too much hair gel on his hair.

[analogdan]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Honestly, not sure how I feel about it.

The crowd right behind home plate looks abysmal. Why couldn't they provide good textures for the crowd you see 90% of the game?

There are still no numbers on the backs of players who are running the bases in the upper right hand corner.

The textures of buildings off in the distance are extremely poor. If the game devs are going to focus on the buildings behind the stadium at the start of the game, why not spend time making them look at least mediocre? Why put the most poorly rendered building in the middle of the center of focus when introducing a stadium?

The back of Nelson Cruz's neck looks like a twisted piece of clay. Tim Lincecum's hair looks like a spiky piece of plastic. Ian Kinsler's helmet sticks way too far out from his forehead. Josh Hamilton's batting stance doesn't look natural or realistic.

Personally, I'm just not that happy with the update so far. Analog controls are ok, but there's a pretty steep learning curve (at least for me).

Anyway, I'm on the fence about buying. We'll see. I'll probably rent first.

[Skyboxer]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Honestly, not sure how I feel about it.

The crowd right behind home plate looks abysmal. Why couldn't they provide good textures for the crowd you see 90% of the game?

There are still no numbers on the backs of players who are running the bases in the upper right hand corner.

The textures of buildings off in the distance are extremely poor. If the game devs are going to focus on the buildings behind the stadium at the start of the game, why not spend time making them look at least mediocre? Why put the most poorly rendered building in the middle of the center of focus when introducing a stadium?

The back of Nelson Cruz's neck looks like a twisted piece of clay. Tim Lincecum's hair looks like a spiky piece of plastic. Ian Kinsler's helmet sticks way too far out from his forehead. Josh Hamilton's batting stance doesn't look natural or realistic.

Personally, I'm just not that happy with the update so far. Analog controls are ok, but there's a pretty steep learning curve (at least for me).

Anyway, I'm on the fence about buying. We'll see. I'll probably rent first.

Yeah you should just pass this years game.....

[Socalbias]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

I thought there was supposed to be cursor batting in this version? Is it in the demo?

Their is one if you go to game settings, but it is more of an oval shape that you use when your using classic hitting controls.

[legend88]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

Finally starting to get the hang of analog throwing. Had my first game without an error. Still find turning double plays very difficult. A actually had a throw in the red turning a double play and the first baseman scooped the ball and made the play. I am happy that at least the odd bad throw still gets caught. I've had two throws in the red that were caught by the first baseman on the hop for outs. I also like that yellow throws sometimes pull the guy of the bag and other times they manage to hold on. I wonder if better defensive 1st basemen, like Texiera have a higher success rate at saving bad throws.

[BleacherCreature]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

I like the new analog controls.
Hitting is hard but I would rather have it that way than have the game turn into a sunday league softball game.
It's pretty satisfying making solid contact for a decent hit, which I haven't had too many of. I had 1 hit in my first game, 3 in my second and 3 in my third but one of my hits in game 3 was a leadoff double on the first pitch, which has been my only extra base hit and actually the only time I've had anyone on second base.
Throwing isn't too horrible (yet). Only one error on an overthrow to first but I got the guy out when he tried going to second.

It seems this year if there's a ball in the dirt your catcher can kick the thing all over the home plate area. It happened to me with Posey. The ball bounced and he went to pick it up but kicked it up the third base line. The runner wasn't going to advance until that happened. Could be an issue in critical situations though.

Liking what I see overall right now though.
I'm sure I'll be more into it when the snow melts and it actually looks like it could be baseball season.

[BobSacamano]

Re: MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

First, let's get the bad out of the way first, not because the bad is more prevalent but because I think this is stuff that can be explained/fixed:

- I have seen two posters mention guys swinging and hitting pitches that bounced to the plate. One posted a video of it as well. I think it's a glitch since it just happened to me. I was batting, the pitch hit at about the edge of the grass and skipped into the catcher's mitt. I didn't swing and the pitch was called a ball, but it was just barely low. Even Matt said something about the pitch being close. Obviously the pitch was more than just barely low, it hit several feet in front of the plate.

- I'm not sure I "get" analog throwing. The CPU hit a tapper to my pitcher. I flicked the right stick very lightly towards first base, so essentially using as little power as I could. My guy did lob the ball to first, but it sailed over my 1B's head. I was only a few steps from the 1B. I thought the less power you put on the throw, the more accurate it would be. Is that wrong?

- This was complained about a bunch in the past, and I could have sworn I read that it was fixed: CPU hits a tapper back towards the pitcher. My catcher stays in place and my pitcher runs after the ball. The problem is that the ball was a much easier play for the catcher (it was probably a quarter of the way to the mound), and as a result the runner was safe. There was a runner on first base at the time so the catcher didn't have to stay home for any particular reason.

Okay, now the positives:

+ For those of you who say that the analog controls don't breathe fresh air into the series... I don't know what to tell you. I've played this game every year since '06 and this is the first time the game has truly felt "new." Does anyone remember last year's game? There were some new presentation elements but the game was functionally the same as '09. That's not the case this year. The analog controls truly are a new and welcome experience.

+ Speaking of... I love the analog controls. I love that they more closely approximate the actual physical motions made by the players. I picked up on analog hitting really quickly and I think it's because it's so intuitive. Just rock and fire with the player's natural motion. It's really that simple. Pitching is a blast, and I feel like I really work for those strikes. I'm a little iffy on analog fielding because of the issue I mentioned earlier. Also, the throw indicator is a little busy. I would rather have something simple and easy to read on the fly.

+ I've already seen some better fielding animations. An outfielder chased down a line drive in the gap in a MUCH more natural-looking stride, rather than doing that weird "gliding-with-glove-behind-body" catch outfielders used to do quite often. On the negative side, outfielders still do that weird slapping catch on easy fly balls. I'm not sure how to describe it but they basically swat at the ball rather than catch it.

+ Leading and stealing feels much better already. I took a lead and didn't get picked off (hey, new pick-off camera angles, BTW)! And then, even better, I stole second and Posey's throw was so far offline it sailed into CF. Very nice!

All in all I'm not regretting the $60 pre-order, not one iota.

+ The game looks gorgeous. That goes without saying.