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

[BobSacamano]

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

- While messing with the pitch meter I threw a curveball that literally landed in the grass half-way to home plate. The bounce was so big that the batter hit a single off it. That was really cool, and it will be really awesome if someone loses a World Series game from something like that.

Sorry to repeat myself but people are seeing this enough for me to think that it's most definitely a glitch. When the pitch comes in it is registered as being close to a strike, which it is obviously not.

I know the demo isn't a final build, just hoping this catches someone's attention!

[nmycon]

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

Sorry to repeat myself but people are seeing this enough for me to think that it's most definitely a glitch. When the pitch comes in it is registered as being close to a strike, which it is obviously not.

I know the demo isn't a final build, just hoping this catches someone's attention!

a batter is allowed to swing at a bounced pitch.

if he hits it, he can run. Runners can score off the hit, etc.

if the batter swings and misses it's a strike, if he takes the pitch its a ball, if it hits him, its a HBP walk.

However, the batter can take the pitch even if it's right down the center of the plate and it will be a a ball.

[swaldo]

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

a batter is allowed to swing at a bounced pitch.

if he hits it, he can run. Runners can score off the hit, etc.

if the batter swings and misses it's a strike, if he takes the pitch its a ball, if it hits him, its a HBP walk.

However, the batter can take the pitch even if it's right down the center of the plate and it will be a a ball.

Vlad hit a double off the wall (off a bounce) when he played for the Expos. But yea I'd say it's a glitch, CPU batters are swinging at curveballs out of the zone no matter how far away it is.

[PsychoBulk]

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

Ive seen the curveball land 10 ft short of the hitter and bounce on numerous occasions, too many really, but ive no doubt this wont be seen in the full game (i hope), this is a December build we are playing after all.

[davewins]

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

One more thing I just noticed I had a ball hit to my 1st basemen right at him and as he was going to first he started taking short choppy steps as he got close to the bag and as a result the runner beat out an infield ground ball right at my 1st basemen!

This happened to me as well. I hope this doesn't happen in the full version. He went over to step on 1st but took his sweet time doing so and as a result it was an infield single.

I'm impressed with how challenging they made hitting. I put it on Legend and I went 56 innings without scoring a run LOL. It was from 10:15am to 4:30pm. I hit for both sides. I think by the 30-something inning I just started getting really anxious. Yogi Berra said it best. "Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical." This holds true to VIDEO GAME baseball as well! LOL

[nmycon]

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

Vlad hit a double off the wall (off a bounce) when he played for the Expos. But yea I'd say it's a glitch, CPU batters are swinging at curveballs out of the zone no matter how far away it is.

if they could drastically tone it down that would be awesome

like once bounced pitch every 40-50 games, and not necessarily having every batter swinging at it.

it will add realism if used sparely enough, but looks silly when it happens so often.

Also after doing further reading, a ball must pass the front of the plate in order to be called a strike.

Because the pitch bounces, i dont think it can be called a strike whether the batter swings or not...

[davewins]

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

The biggest thing that they got right with hitting is the fact that GOOD PITCHING BEATS GOOD HITTING. Fastballs on the low outside corner are GOOD pitches. Almost in real life unhittable for the most part. Maybe it's just me but I am noticing that you have to look for mistakes in order to have a better chance. You aren't going to hit "pitcher's pitches" hard. If a pitcher makes a great pitch he is rewarded correctly. If a pitcher screws up and the hitter executes than the pitcher is penalized. Hope I am making myself clear.

I just feel that overall pitches on the corner are much tougher to hit like they should be. This year it feels like you really have to get a good pitch to hit. You can't hit the good pitches on the corners or off speed stuff low in the zone which is realistic. One of the most accurate quotes in baseball is "good pitching beats good hitting." This is actually an incredible job by the dev team simulating this.

The most important thing in successful hitting in this game is patience and waiting for your pitch and executing on your pitch. Wait for the pitcher to make a mistake and execute on it. Changeups low in the zone are extremely difficult to hit as they are in real life. If they get a couple inches up in the zone though, that's another story.

[davewins]

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

To say that hitting for me is hard would be quite the understatement. I just played a game where I switchted back and forth between the two teams in order to concentrate only on batting. The game went a full nine innings (again, with me only batting). The final, as you might guess was 1-0. I finally managed a scrifice fly in the top of the ninth with Texas.

Here's the most frustrating thing and I'm sure its just because I'm not very good.

I struck out a grand total of 28 times. 16 Times with San Francisco and 12 times with Texas.

Although I still like analog hitting right now the main problem I'm finding with it is that, at least to me, the PCI seems to have a mind of its own from time to time. I started concentrating on where I was pushing the analog stick (up and to the left, center, or up and to the right) and then comparing that to what the swing analysis said. Here's a perfect example of why it seems out of whack at times.

This was with a right-handed batter, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I did not swing outside. I saw the pitch, reacted to it, and swing inside (up and to the left on the analog stick). I MIGHT have pushed slightly more "up" but there's no chance that I swung to the right in this situation.

However, here's what the PCI gave me.



I'm going to play this demo until the full game comes out and hope that I drop my strikeouts numbers dramatically. I want to use analog hitting but if I continue to struggle this much I may have to go back to classic or maybe try zone hitting.

On a positive note, for whatever reason, I am picking up the ball better. I don't know if the default pitch speed has been reduced or what, but I'm laying off more bad pitches. Ironically, not the one I used in this example though.

I might be wrong but hear me out. I think what happened there was even though you pressed up and to the left the fact that you swung very early resulted in the PCI up and to the right. The pitch was a slider low and in. You mistakened it for a fastball up and away. It said "too early" on the PCI analysis. I think the PCI location is accurate depending upon not only where you move the right stick but also the timing of your swing. The earlier you swing the higher it will end up.

This is just my thinking. Russell can surely clear this up if he hasn't already.

[Splitter77]

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

after a couple days with the demo, I think this will be the first time since 06 that i dont get the new mlb game.

Just feels to much like mlb 10 to me.
Add that to the fact my main two gripes are still in this years game.
I figure I'll just keep mlb 10 because Im in years 2033 in my franchise and you cant transfer the files.

[sink4ever]

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

Just hit a little bloop into center with CJ Wilson. The CF dove for it, missed it, but still managed to smother the ball and keep it in front of him. I could be wrong, but I think in '10 that's either caught or past the CF to the wall. So nice to see so many more possible outcomes on defense.

[C_Bailey24]

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

I might be wrong but hear me out. I think what happened there was even though you pressed up and to the left the fact that you swung very early resulted in the PCI up and to the right. The pitch was a slider low and in. You mistakened it for a fastball up and away. It said "too early" on the PCI analysis. I think the PCI location is accurate depending upon not only where you move the right stick but also the timing of your swing. The earlier you swing the higher it will end up.

This is just my thinking. Russell can surely clear this up if he hasn't already.

I see what you're saying but i'm with Gagnon on this one. Swing Analysis is supposed to help you understand what you did wrong and more times than not it just confuses you a little more. If the PCI is moved for us in Analog hitting that PCI should have been inside and over the top of where the pitch ended up. Think about when you watch a real game and a RHB swings over the top of a nasty down and in slider... where is his swing visually? At worst it's a level swing. You have to be blind to swing up and away at a down and in pitch.

[Chef Matt]

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

Finally got to get a game in at 300am this morning after it finally finished downloading. My intital impressions are.

I love analog pitching.

I love analog fielding.

I love true zone hitting.

Thank you SCEA for the Catcher 5 cam. I can now finally see balls above and below the strike zone.

I've been waiting far too long for true zone hitting. I won't be using analog hitting at all.

Can't wait to play the full game!

[Peter_OS]

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

I'm loving the new analog picthing and fielding controls.

Still working on the hitting part. lol.

Loving the fact that we get to choose our camera views and customize this to our liking. Thank you SCEA for adding this to the game!!

Just a question, does anyone here know if a player gets traded will they show them with their original team cap and uniform? This is something that has bothered me in franchise and season mode for a very long time now. I hope that one day they will have a system in place to alter the player's cap and uniform when they get traded or sign as a FA.

[ckarlic]

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

Decided to practice on my hitting last night using analog and I must say, dropping the hitting difficulty down to veteran has made me think about using analog for hitting in my franchise. I still struck out a ton but felt towards the 9th inning I was getting the hang of it. Veteran was still tough but wasn't as frustrating as All Star. I ended up hitting a 2 run walk off HR in the bottom of the 8th with Pablo Sandoval.

My advice to those having difficulty in hitting is to do what Nem and Russ have said...swallow your pride and drop down to to lower difficulty level.

Also, I set fielding to Auto but still control throwing and have cut down on my errors. They still happen but not as frequently.

[stealyerface]

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

Played three games last night. Do not have a 2nd controller, so I played the defaults that come with.

I love the Analog pitching. Going to be great fun, and my only concern would be that when you switch to that view, the left and right are turned around as well. It would make sense, but we all remember the hot/cold zones with the pitching view and inverted zones... I love the control, and I love that you can "work" the ball to a point with the release points, and moving the cursor to get that little extra control figured in there. I am under the impression that pitchers with a better accuracy/control rating will have more margin for error with the meter, and if so, that makes perfect sense.

Analog Batting is going to be the way I roll, but I will have to figure out the timing for the stride. It will certainly come with practice, but for now, I think i am striding to early and too late, and my guy is all out of sorts on the swing. I'll get it, and I like the fact that it is going to take some work. I have always shut off the Guess pitch and Guess location settings, but I see that by using them, the PCI is in the zone that you have guessed, so it actually makes sense to me as to why the PCI is where it is. When I do not use the GP/GL, and I swing at the ball, what determines where my PCI is, and would it make sense that if I choose to swing at an inside pitch, the directional movement of my R-stick would then move the PCI to the inside part of the plate. After checking the L-stick Click-down for the pitch info, I did notice that sometimes the PCI was just where ever it wanted to be, even though my swing was aimed in a different area. I would love to know how the PCI will be determined without the use of the Guess Location...

Analog Fielding is excellent. I played three games, had no errors, and actually threw two guys out at the plate in those three games. The key to this is a soft touch on the stick well before the ball makes it to the fielder. So on a ball to the shortstop, I just barely touch the stick to the right, and probably when the ball is half way between the batter and the fielder, I just give it a easy movement to the right. DO NOT BURY the stick to the end of the range of motion, just a slight touch to the 3 o'clock position, and the animations are silky smooth, and the throws are perfect. Like I said, I had no errors, no off line throws, and I never saw a red or a yellow indicator in all three games. Plus, and guys ought to be happy about this, I made two peg throws from the outfield and got the runners out at the plate. I did not like the Turbo-Tag by Posey, but I did love the the fact that the throws were not 1/2 way up the first base line. Analog Fielding is fantastic, and I am all-in for this mode.

Couple of impressions:
* The game speed seemed weird to me. It seemed like everything was compressed and too fast. Perhaps with sliders this gets regulated, but overall, it just seemed off.
* I heard the wacky "chirp" thing within the audio through the Surround System. I am sure it is inherent to the Demo, but it was not a killer..
* The pitching is going to really be a fun part of this game. I love the control, and again, with the slider set ups, I think we can dial this in to some very realistic values
* Angles to the balls in the outfield are going to be VERY important. I under-ran two balls by taking bad routes to the liners, and they went to the wall. This is going to be a great addition to the game by not being able to make bee-lines to the balls, and you had better know who you have in the outfield when you are tracking that ball. Very cool.

I will get some more Demo time in tonight, but so far, very high marks in my book.

~syf