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

[bukktown]

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

Bob Sacamano! Awesome name!

I haven't had a game past 4 innings. Anybody who has gone to extra innings how long does it take to get to dark sky.

[Agathos]

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

Tried again tonight. This time I switched teams and played both pitchers. I was terrible last time, but did a lot better this time. No walks, nine strikeouts, and I was able to paint the corner a few times. I have yet to throw a strike or draw a swing with Timmy's curveball, though.

Oddly, Timmy's changeup got hammered whenever I threw it (and yes it was low in the zone), but I was able to use C.J. Wilson's to destroy the Giants lineup. I thought Timmy had one of the better changeups out there, but now I know better.

I've given up on analog fielding, but that was never for me. I play so much RTTS as a pitcher that I'm still surprised when I find myself controlling a position player to field something. Then I push the right stick around at random and bad things happen.

[Giants4Natic]

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.

Ok so what are you impressions of the game itself or is that not really important

[Giants4Natic]

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

Ok fellas, what camera do you use for hitting and pitching.

I can't settle due to having many options.

I like the graphics more when I pitch from catcher view but the trajectory of pitches are better in behind the pitcher cam

What do you guys use for both

[michaeldu]

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

Ok fellas, what camera do you use for hitting and pitching.

I can't settle due to having many options.

I like the graphics more when I pitch from catcher view but the trajectory of pitches are better in behind the pitcher cam

What do you guys use for both

I would like to use the behind the pitcher cams, but the ball to the plate is not very smooth, so I am using catcher cam. I hope that gets fixed before release.

[Rules]

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

Another day, new impressions:

Yesterday = not really impressed
Today = very impressed

Yesterday = thought the new controls were good.
Today = LOVE the new controls

Yesterday = felt the demo lacked in the atmosphere department
Today = turned on my surround sound which must have been off

Yesterday = lost all of my games.
Today = lost all of my games

Yesterday = thought the demo was a tweaked version of MLB 10.
Today= layed off the drugs and alcohol. What was I thinking? Huge difference the more I clock in..........ALL FOR THE BETTER!

Can't wait for the full version and to finally see other game scores in progress going on in my franchise. Hopefully this time it will be OFTEN!

[Jorski]

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

Impressions:

Analog pitching: I think this is pretty awesome. There is definitely more skill involved using the analog controls vs. using the pitching meter and selecting a pitch location. I wasn't sure about the analog controls at first, but I was able to pitch quite easily starting out. If you get in a hurry, things wont go your way. I use the 'pitcher' camera, just like I did in '10.

Analog hitting: This will take some getting used to, as I can't seem to time the pitches correctly. I tried using catcher 5 for the camera, and I had trouble recognizing when a pitch was a high strike vs. high ball, so I switched back to the wide view and didn't have any trouble. I will say that with catcher 5 for the camera, I was able to recognize balls down in the zone much better then I could with the wide camera. I think with more practice I can get better with analog hitting.

Analog fielding: Again, I think this will take practice to get the hang of, but I think its pretty neat. I did have a throwing error while trying to turn a double play, and a couple of potential errors at first on a couple of throws. Im not really sure why they occurred (the ring wasn't red when I threw the ball, however, it was a quick tap). That may just be part of the learning curve.

Graphics: Im sure this is just because its an early build, but there were some odds and ends that didn't look as good as they did in '10. Specifically, Lincecum looks like he used butter for shampoo before the game. Im sure these will be fixed for the final build.

Commentary: I dont know about this; EK is OK, I guess. Im one of those people that plays with the commentary muted most of the time, so I might not be the best to comment on this. I will say that the audio seems to be low quality (Im using a Tritton headset), but it makes sense that they would use lower quality in the demo.

Really, over the 4 innings you get to play, the game play is excellent. The analog controls make things much more involved; it seems like pitching mistakes are truly mistakes on the part of the user vs. a chance thing determined by the computer, and I like that. Honestly, when I started playing, I was like 'holy crap this is awesome'.

Im taking a test on the 8th and then getting The Show.

[WeimaBrewer]

I honestly can not see the difference in lighting/graphics. To me it looks like a carbon copy of 10. I don't know if it's just the demo version, but what from little gameplay I've seen on the internet the lighting and graphics look incredible. The demo doesn't seem to have that "pop".

I love the pitching mechanic, however, I'm getting rocked by every batter I face. I can't hit worth a crap, but that's to be expected. I absolutely love the new camera options. C.J. Wilson is pitching like Nolan Ryan and Lincecum pitches like Derrick Turnbow.

[Splitter77]

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

as beautiful as this game is, not being able to see the flight of the ball leave the bat in the behind the pitcher views in this game absolutely kills it for me.

Not sure if Im the only one who feels that way, but it seems as though it would be an easy fix. And for those that said it was in there if you dont use broadcast fielding view, youre wrong. Its not in there in any of the fielding views.

I just hate not knowing what direction the ball is going after i make contact.

[Scottdau]

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

Players walking down the stairs after the inning is over=win! The dug out with the right playerS in it. What I mean the starting pitchers or in the dug out not the bull pen=win! I think they even have the player that are not in the field in the dugout. I like analog batting, but pitching and fielding is going to take some time. The facial expression are really amazing and the player shoulders look so much better. This really is a beautiful game! And AT&T looks perfect to me!!

[Solid-Hock]

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

Analog pitching is great. Nothing more tense than having a 3-2 count with bases loaded, because I actually throw balls now.

I'm having the same problem in this game that I do with Tiger Woods, my follow through is awful.

[misterkrabz]

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

Is it me or is this game getting stale? Judging from the demo it's still a great game, but I really don't see the over all improvements. For the life of me I can't unsderstand why we can't get an on screen stats box for the pitcher and hitter. And why do I have to hit pause to position my fielders? I don't want to fumble around, pause the game, dig into the menus to find the defensive positioning and then modify it...those controls should be mapped to the buttons for quick and easy access...with all the on screen real estate give me some stats please. Baseball is all about stats, yet you have to dig to see/find them. In one of the upper corners show me the position of my fielders. Half the time I don't even know who is batting, whose on first, who's on deck, who's hot, who's not, because I'm not sitting through the batter walk up and I'm not going to pause the game to find out. It's a waste of time. There are so many little and simple things they could do to really make this game more engaging and less stale. Sadly analog controls doesn't do it for me. They're note bad, but for me it's not a selling point.

With that being said, if they improve the online lag and online leagues it will be enough for me to purchase the game. I will actually be happy with that. But I sure would like it if they made things like stats and positioning fielders more accessible.

[sroz39]

Wanted to play a bunch of games before I posted some thoughts. Played 8 or 9 (can't really remember) so I'm comfortable giving an opinion on the main things this demo was meant to showcase which is the analog controls and Karros.

Pitching: I have a love/hate relationship with this aspect and it can turn from pitch to pitch lol. Truthfully, I think its a great addition and well implemented. The faults lie on the user's (mine) end. Sometimes it feels like I went left and the cursor actually goes right and vice versa. At first, I was getting upset with the game. I made a point to start paying attention to where the thumbstick ends up and sure enough, it was not the game's fault. Surprise surprise :P

One other thing that I forgot about in the early going that was really accentuating my misses was how quickly I transitioned from down to up on the right stick. This ties directly into effort/effectiveness of the pitch and I realized my transition was rather quick. I slowed it down and even when I missed, I wasn't missing my spot by as much as I was in the early going. This control scheme is a keeper.

Analog Fielding: I can understand why some people are having problems with this but I can happily report I am not. At all. I actually have my throwing difficulty at HOF and I'm starting to miss some "perfect" throws but nothing that pulls anyone off a bag or anything like that. The only thing I'm still searching for some consistency in is hitting the cutoff man without making him move every now and then but its been very pleasant to use the analog throwing.

I remember some people that wrote previews for the game mentioned that this analog throwing has thrown off some of the transitional animations from fielding to throwing. If any of you are having problems with this, just remember to pre-load your throws. This has always been the case, even with the button throwing, but its even more crucial now to keep everything looking very fluid in the field. Like I said, I'm really enjoying these new controls as well.

Analog Hitting: I went into this with an open mind, knowing that I really enjoy the Skill Stick in NHL, the pitching in 2K baseball etc. Thing is, I REALLY love Zone Hitting in The Show series. I knew I was gonna struggle because I struggled with 2K's analog hitting, from its most difficult versions of it in the beginning to its easiest versions in their more recent games. But I struggled mightily with the analog hitting in this game, swinging at bad pitches but really struggling with the directing of the right stick to hit inside and outside pitches.

I think if SCEA introduces an option to control the PCI with the Left Stick and just swinging with the Right Stick next year, I'll be fully on board. It may seem more complicated but for me, it's more complicated to throw the Right Stick at the direction of the pitch as it's coming at you. I've been conditioned over 4 generations of consoles (starting with the World Series games on the Genesis) that my left thumb controls WHERE I'm swinging and my right thumb WHEN I'm swinging. Many of you may say to give it time and it'll come to me eventually but after the many games I played, I was showing zero improvement and it was just becoming an exercise in frustration. It's gonna take more than two weeks to erase two decades' worth of muscle memory lol.

I've seen a lot of guys mention Catcher Cam 5 and I agree...to a point. I keep switching from Catcher Cam 3 to 4 to 5 lol. Reason being that even though 5 is great for picking up location, its almost too flat a view to pick up speed of a pitch and I find I get fastballs blown by me too often. Cam 3 fixes the depth problem but then it becomes tough to read break on balls thrown lower in the zone. I may have found a happy medium with Catcher Cam 4, but even then I catch myself cursing at the game when I strikeout. I may just have to come to grips with the fact that a pitcher is better than me at times

As for Eric Karros, maybe I'm playing a different game than some of you, but I LOVE that they brought him in. He has the ODD recycled line but its not EVERY line like some of you haters make it seem to be. There's definitely more interaction between the three, even if its obvious it wasn't recorded at the same time. Good enough for me, the commentary in this game is not on my negatives list by any stretch.

Not gonna rehash any of the other often-mentioned positives like the graphics, player models etc. Those are obvious. Instead, gonna focus on some of the negatives that bother ME specifically:

- really wish this game had some sort of "Hitter's Eye" like the MVP series. I already have to drop the Pitch Speed slider to help me out with recognizing pitches. I hope its on a "to do" list as an option for a future release.

- wish the runner at 2nd, on any of the Catcher views, had the Speed and Ability bars SOMEWHERE on the screen.

- Lincecum's hair...YIKES! Lol. Not a big deal just a "negative", I guess.

- crowd behind home plate. Doesn't bother me that much either, to be honest.

- the game definitely has a "been there, done that" feel to it in the grand scheme of things but how much of a negative can this really be to me if I would "go there" and "do that" over and over again. Nothing about this game is broken, I don't want change for the sake of change. Every year, I get a little bit more of what I want out of this game.

That's it for me. I'm going back to my RTTS in '10 because the demo has done all I want from a demo. I got a taste of the analog controls and look forward to using 2 of the 3 full time. I got a sneak peek at a fraction of what Eric Karros brings to the presentation and I'm happy that he makes it BETTER, imo. I will wait for the 8th and eagerly dive into the full game when it drops on that day.

[CabreraMVP]

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

What do you mean, stats? Like HR and RBI? or Contact and Power? You can just hit select and see it in a second.

I'm hoping they changed Miguel Cabrera's stance. Because Andres Torres from SF has the same stance as Cabrera had last year. They don't have similar stances at all.

[brinks]

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

I'll wait until the retail version to judge the graphics and lighting. I do like the new player models and the animations seem smoother. Last year the base running and fielding animations were quite choppy.

The option for the analog pitching and hitting is terrific. Although, it feels less sim. However, still very fun. I anticipate using both in franchise.

The analog fielding doesn't add much in my mind. It's not natural and doesn't add anything to make it better than the button system.

If the issues with trade and FA logic are fixed in franchise, this looks like a winner and legitimate upgrade from 2010.