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

[econoodle]

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

what happened to the impressions recently?
It dovetailed into wishlists and other stuff.
i was having a good time reading the impressions.
we were doing sooo good



more stuff:

+ enjoyed the ticker saying CJ Wilson is getting tired.
havent seen that in 10

it was that way for a while as i went extra frames.
I was waiting for it to say CJ Wilson is getting verrryyy sleepy.


+ really having a kick up time with A-log pitching. Its a game changer. even if i still dont know what I am fully doing.

[dodgerblue]

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

Really noticing improved ball physics, ball really slices and hooks realistically. Also it seems that friction is more noticable on balls hit to the outfield. Liking analog hitting and pitching but the jury is out on throwing from fielders using analog. Hard to tell what I am doing with it, probably just need more practice.

[Scottdau]

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

Player momentum is huge. I beat out a bunt single, because the first baseman had to take momentum into effect. I loving this game right now. Good players shine on defense.

[spaceg0st]

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

so... i WISH i could say i was enjoying the analog hitting, because i wanted to love it so badly... but i'm not. It just feels too effing random. Too many times will i have hit the ball weakly when the diagram shows my hitting reticle OVER or directly ON the marker, with perfect timing, as if i was supposed to aim a little lower while swinging.

I've always played The Show on All Star difficulty, and done pretty well for the most part... but at least 10 games in on the demo, playing offense on both teams on over half of the games, and i'm still hitting weak balls. I understand the striding, at least as much as anyone can with previous college baseball experience... but it's just, kind of sh*tty.

BTW.. i don't use that stupid 'guess the pitch' stuff, for all those who say 'really??!?! i've hit a gazillion homeruns and it's super easy!" Yea, its a little bit of a cheat when you can eliminate almost the whole lower half of the strike zone and 20-25% of the pitchers pitches. I understand the concept of hitters looking for a certain pitch, but in real life, you don't have instant feedback informing you that, no its NOT the pitch you're looking for, so look for something else and somewhere ELSE in the zone. Stupid gimmick.

Anyway, i reverted back to the old hitting and am enjoying the demo, now. THe analog fielding is better than button pressing, but not by much. It's still incredibly easy to make the plays, in fact, i wish there was a way to decrease the sweet spot for throwing to a bag. I've played over 10 games, and have had 1 throwing error, simply because i wasn't really paying attention.

Analog Pitching is actually an enjoyable improvement. The meter itself was so outdated, this is a nice move in pitching evolution.


Camera Editing... while great in theory, 85% of the TEAM specific Broadcast Angles are so close to each other, it makes ZERO difference. It's just an advertising ploy and nothing to write home about. I do however wish they would allow us to move the batting camera around more... like more of a birds eye view, to emulate the old school baseball games. With timed hitting selected, it could've actually been pretty fun.



Graphically, it looks like, the show... and hopefully the full game is cleaner, because this demo is pretty ugly overall. Yes the lighting is nice, and the models are done very well, but there are a lot of jaggy edges, and not to mention the scenery outside the stadium. Oakland looks like mordor.

I'm a little disappointed with this, but have hopes that the retail game with be better somehow. Maybe a little BP will solve my analog woes, but i doubt it. I guess i'll just keep an eye on 2k, to see what they're bringing to the table.

[Bondsfan]

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

I love the analog pitching on allstar. The hitting is a whole different story. I have 1 hit in 6 games. Ive tried with and without guess pitch. Analog vs zone. I've tried just about every camera angle. Hitting in this game just seems impossible. My best guess at this point is that the pitch speed is too fast and I'm going to lower that. If that doesnt work, I seriously may not get this game, which is ridiculous given that I bought my PS3 last year just for the show.

[Swarley13]

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

One thing that I'm liking is when someone is tagging a baserunner, they aren't swinging their arm at the speed of light like in MLB 10. They've made that much more realistic.

[Shaffer26]

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

I love the analog pitching on allstar. The hitting is a whole different story. I have 1 hit in 6 games. Ive tried with and without guess pitch. Analog vs zone. I've tried just about every camera angle. Hitting in this game just seems impossible. My best guess at this point is that the pitch speed is too fast and I'm going to lower that. If that doesnt work, I seriously may not get this game, which is ridiculous given that I bought my PS3 last year just for the show.

Instead of using analog hitting, just use the buttons to hit.

[Swarley13]

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

If you're having trouble hitting on All-Star, why not just lower the hitting difficulty?

[Socalbias]

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

I love the analog pitching on allstar. The hitting is a whole different story. I have 1 hit in 6 games. Ive tried with and without guess pitch. Analog vs zone. I've tried just about every camera angle. Hitting in this game just seems impossible. My best guess at this point is that the pitch speed is too fast and I'm going to lower that. If that doesnt work, I seriously may not get this game, which is ridiculous given that I bought my PS3 last year just for the show.

Like russell said, you cant just wait back on a pitch, because your going to be punished with low power and contact. So slowing the speed will only cause u to wait longer before you load up and swing.

Problem people are having is that their is a VERY SMALL time frame to go from loading up to swinging and In a way it's realistic but part of me feels it may become TOO realistic. Split second reactions that create a very high intensity during every second and pure concentration will take away from the relax method many people like. Keep up the competition, just dont make the intensity be on steriods.
__________________

[TallyBoi7]

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

I've played a couple more games in the demo and I'm still liking what I see. I really like that analog pitching...I'm beginning to pick that up really well. Hitting is just difficult, however...which isn't a bad thing...but I'm finiding myself having at least two or three check swings an at bat(seem to have figured out a swinging rhythm as I'm beginning to make contact now)...in three demo games, I've only had one hit.

One thing I'm not liking is that sometimes my catcher will just randomly come up firing at the 2nd baseman if there is a runner on base. He won't throw it to the base, he will throw it wherever the 2nd baseman or shortstop is, which is normally still in position far away from the bag.

Other than that, I'm having a blast with the game and I'm looking forward to buying MLB 11 The Show...the first Major League title I would have owned since MVP 2003.

[Foo4Everlong]

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

I saw something pretty cool tonight that I had never seen in previous Show's. The Giants hit the ball into left center off the wall, I throw the ball into the cut-off man, but just before the cut-off man gets the ball, the runner at third gets held up there and the runner at second was rounding towards third but had to retreat back cuz of the runner standing on third. I almost threw the runner retreating back to second but I accidentally faked the throw to second twice before I finally got the ball into the second baseman, hence the runner was safe. I just thought it was pretty cool to see the computer make a base running mistake. Later

[swaldo]

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

- HIT VARIETY still needs a ton of work. Most hits are line drives, flyballs or hard grounders - rinse & repeat. Only once have I seen an infielder have to charge in to field a weakly hit ball. Most often they just stand and wait for the (hard hit) ball to come to them. I remember last year it was the same complaint and apparently not much has been done about it. Occasionally I'll see something different but this area would be my priority to focus on for 12.

I want to see oufielders break a sweat chasing after flares and bloopers. I want to see infielders going after dribblers & high choppers - rushing to prevent an infield hit. And the demo features two really good pitchers who shouldn't allow alot of solid contact. Even when the feedback states "Contact: Weak" it's still too hard. Also, foul balls go to the same place for the most part. MVP on the PS2 had much better hit variety than this.

- ODD RESULTS: Bottom of the 5th, one out with the score tied 0-0 and I'm throwing a 1 hitter with Wilson. My confidence meters are sky high but I give up a single. Oops, my CF can't pick up the ball (on an easy play) so it rolls all the way to the wall for a triple - and I had auto-fielding enabled. Next batter is Lincecum and he smashes a low & away slider up the middle for a single (off a near perfect meter release.) Game over just like that and I'm left scratching my head. Stuff like this is one of the main reasons I stopped playing 10. Can this happen in real life? Sure, but it's the frequency that is the problem for me. And being it was only my 2nd full demo game this result was deja vu. This should be a rare occurence - something that makes you want to jump on OS and tell everyone what happened. It shouldn't have a feeling like "Not this again."

ANALOG PITCHING - I'm back to meter pitching, analog seems to have a mind of it's own and I need more control. Although with meter I only gave up 2 hits in 10 innings so it appears you can still master it. That being the case I may even bump down to classic, from what I understand you choose location & speed while ratings determine accuracy? If so that sounds good to me.

ANALOG HITTING: I never really liked batting in The Show because every pitch looks the same to me. In the demo I seem to either swing too early or late. The CPU pitcher throws a FB and I swing late, so I over-compensate during the next pitch (which is off speed) so I swing too early. Both pitches look identical until the late break, so it's a frustrating problem for me. Props for installing lots of new camera angles, but all that's really needed is the default angle with a good hitters eye system.

If I end up buying the game I'll probably use zone. I like how there is no funny results anymore. If you want to hit the ball, you have to get it inside the PCI. I did some testing and I was able to foul off balls outside the PCI, but was never able to put it in play unless it was inside. That's how it should be so nice job on that.

FIELDING: I've managed to throw runners out without an error but still have no idea how it works. Guess I'll wait for the video tutorial in the full version, hopefully it wont be vague.

+ REAL TIME ANIMATIONS: This is awesome and adds so much to the game!

+ Player models: Very nicely done, great stuff!

+ The CPU swung at 1/3 of pitches that were clearly outside the zone. I think this is an improvement, and the curveball seems more effective due to this. I just wish the discipline rating was shown in the pause menu.

- In the backstop area (behind the catcher) there are electronic advertising banners. For example a red "State Farm" banner will appear one minute then a blue "Welcome Home Vets" banner shows up. The problem is the pitching meter sits in front of it, and sometimes the banners will switch right in the middle of your pitch. It psychs me out every time.

- Outfielders know the exact location of ricochets off the wall. Again, make these fielders work a little!

- There should be a "pitch around" option or something. In one game Josh Hamilton was 2-2 against me with a home run. So the next time he came up I decided he was either going to walk or hit a bad pitch. Everything I threw was outside the zone so I ended up walking him. My confidence meters went down, I lost all composure and ended up giving up a run. C'mon man, I did that on purpose, it's called strategy.

Maybe this all sounds too critical but overall I think this is a definate improvement. If someone were to ask me if they should buy 09 or 10 I'd say 09. However, 2011 appears to be a worthy successor of 09. It's not blowing me away and I dont know if I'll buy for sure, but I've never spent so much time with a demo before. So many options to explore so thanks SCEA for not making us go to best buy to play this.

[sbmnky]

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

THe analog fielding is better than button pressing, but not by much. It's still incredibly easy to make the plays, in fact, i wish there was a way to decrease the sweet spot for throwing to a bag. I've played over 10 games, and have had 1 throwing error, simply because i wasn't really paying attention.

I too think analog fielding on Veteran is pretty easy. Test it out on HoF...big difference.

[AlexOvechkin]

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



uuuuuuuum.... ok.

That just happened to me playing as the Rangers with Kinsler at bat. That is not suppost to happen in such a gr8 game, right?... Haven't seen that before.

[josh44]

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

My Impressions are from about 3 hours worth of playing a couple of games as the giants a couple as the rangers and a couple only batting.

Note i play on veteran on MLB 09, All Star is definitely a lot harder.
I'll start with Analog Hitting:
Pro's- It feels even more rewarding when you get a ball in play. The motion feels right for me although i think i prefer just pushing up than pulling back and then up.

I can check swing with the analog hitting. I am big on check swinging since when i use X i'm nearly check swinging every 2nd pitch lol. I just have the habit of tapping X.

Con's- Extremely difficult to get the timing right. I believe this is due to the fact that you have to pull back at the release of the pitch then you only have probably half a second-a second to see if the pitch is hittable. If it were just the push up motion it would be easier to get the timing down. I also believe that its harder to pick what pitch is coming because your trying to time the release perfectly.



NO ZONE!!! This is what is annoying me the most about it. I like to use the PCI to be able to watch pitches into the strike zone. It makes it easier for me to tell if its going outside or going in. You cannot move the PCI with analog hitting. I know the contact is related to the timing but too many times i get perfect timing and no contact or just missed contact. It feels like it is being taken out of my hands. I would like to see zone hitting and analog hitting mixed together.

Went back to zone hitting for a game. Got a 3 run HR in the first inning. Kinsler and Hamilton got base on balls and Beltre hit a 3-2 pitch down the middle into left field for a HR, just made it. This really made me question if i wanted to go back to Analog hitting.

Seems to be a lot of popups with analog hitting as well. Even when i smash an infield ball it finds a fielder but i understand that the game can sometimes be like that.

Have joust found out that you can direct the RS a bit to the left or a bit to the right for inside/outside pitches so that may help my situation a bit.

Analog Pitching:
Pro's: IT IS AWESOME i love this feature and it just feels so much better than tapping x three times. It will be hard to master but i feel like it will be easier to master than the meter pitching. If you look at the Analog meter you'll see a line towards where your aiming. Just by looking at that line i seem to be more accurate with the RS. Feels great getting a strike out with it as well.

AI Batters seem a bit more aggressive with outside pitches. Its good to see and the 12'oClock curve is working as well. Never worked too well in MLB 09 but in this demo i've gotten some good strikes with it.

CONS: Only con so far for me is that sometimes it seems like i've flicked the RS a bit to the left but it goes right. Maybe its just me aiming poorly but it just seems a bit odd at times.

On All Star batters definitely punish any bad pitches. I think i may need to use sliders for pitching because in veteran i find it to easy to paint the edges and get strikeouts while in All Star i'm punished for any bad pitch. It seems like Veteran is a lot more forgiving with your RS accuracy while All Star is not only unforgiving but the batters are as well. A mix between the two would be great.

Fielding: Love this as well. My first throw i tapped O and then flicked the RS towards home when the dude was running to 1st base LOL. However after that one problem i have not had any trouble with it. Seems actually pretty simple. Just remember that no matter where your are LEFT is 3rd Up is 2nd right is 1st and down is Home. Try to release the RS just as the meter fills up to get a good throw. I also had a failed and a successful throw to 2nd from the catcher to stop a stolen base.