Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

[Ckhoss29]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

I am not a fan of the cursor in baseball games at all. I feel that you don't aim your bat when you hit. You see the ball and react to where it is in the zone. You shouldn't have to stare at a little strike zone box and move a little cursor around to hit in games IMO. I feel though that hitting is mostly timing anyways that is why the fastball change up combo is still the most devestating combo in all of baseball.

[brendanrfoley]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

I agree with Diablo here.

At times, you can completely miss a ball with a swing but still crack a line drive. And that has NOTHING to do with interface, just poor collision detection.

ASB is, in my opinion, like Trot Nixon. Doesn't do any one thing spectacularly well, but instead does many things good.

I'm looking forward to trying it this year, but the new IGN videos look to show the game playing nearly identical to 2003.

[brendanrfoley]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

I agree with Diablo here.

At times, you can completely miss a ball with a swing but still crack a line drive. And that has NOTHING to do with interface, just poor collision detection.

ASB is, in my opinion, like Trot Nixon. Doesn't do any one thing spectacularly well, but instead does many things good.

I'm looking forward to trying it this year, but the new IGN videos look to show the game playing nearly identical to 2003.

[p00p1]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

I have to disagree. The only problem with the collision detection stems from the delay between the swing button and the swing animation. If you wait till the ball is in your face before you press the swing button, hell yeah you're gonna miss it, in face ASB did a good job last year of putting in some different swing animations for when the batter was way off (they flailed at pitches away and bailed out on inside pitches). But when you swing at the right time you hit the ball well, but the time it takes for the swing animation to get the bat through the zone is a little off at times so it looks like the ball is passed you, even though you swung at the correct time.

[p00p1]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

I have to disagree. The only problem with the collision detection stems from the delay between the swing button and the swing animation. If you wait till the ball is in your face before you press the swing button, hell yeah you're gonna miss it, in face ASB did a good job last year of putting in some different swing animations for when the batter was way off (they flailed at pitches away and bailed out on inside pitches). But when you swing at the right time you hit the ball well, but the time it takes for the swing animation to get the bat through the zone is a little off at times so it looks like the ball is passed you, even though you swung at the correct time.

[SportsorDeath]

Re: God Bless Acclaim & ASB

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
I have to disagree. The only problem with the collision detection stems from the delay between the swing button and the swing animation. If you wait till the ball is in your face before you press the swing button, hell yeah you're gonna miss it, in face ASB did a good job last year of putting in some different swing animations for when the batter was way off (they flailed at pitches away and bailed out on inside pitches). But when you swing at the right time you hit the ball well, but the time it takes for the swing animation to get the bat through the zone is a little off at times so it looks like the ball is passed you, even though you swung at the correct time.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Ok, maybe, but why can't they just get it right to begin with? WSB does it perfectly. There is no "lag" that you speak of, and when contact is made, the camera "scrolls" back to show the ball being put in play. In ASB, the ball is definitely past the hitter, yet contact is still made. Call it missing frames of animation, lag between a button press and the animation or whatever. It is just not realistic. Because of how fast they make the pitches, it just looks silly because the ball should have been in the catcher's mitt for at least a second or two by the time they are having the batter make contact. It ends up playing out like 2 unrelated scenes. First, the pitch is made, then a hitter makes "contact" and the ball is put into play. It is not seamless like it should be. It is sort of like real life baseball practice, when the team is simulating a real game situation. The coach is standing at the plate with a ball in his hand, and the pitcher makes a throwing motion but does not even throw a ball, just to signal to the coach to hit the ball somewhere. The coach then tosses the ball up and hits it somewhere on the field. To make matters worse in ASB's case, the game actually "flashes" to a different screen when the ball is hit, similar to what the old NES baseball games did. It really makes it seem like 2 completely unrelated events.

[SportsorDeath]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
I have to disagree. The only problem with the collision detection stems from the delay between the swing button and the swing animation. If you wait till the ball is in your face before you press the swing button, hell yeah you're gonna miss it, in face ASB did a good job last year of putting in some different swing animations for when the batter was way off (they flailed at pitches away and bailed out on inside pitches). But when you swing at the right time you hit the ball well, but the time it takes for the swing animation to get the bat through the zone is a little off at times so it looks like the ball is passed you, even though you swung at the correct time.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Ok, maybe, but why can't they just get it right to begin with? WSB does it perfectly. There is no "lag" that you speak of, and when contact is made, the camera "scrolls" back to show the ball being put in play. In ASB, the ball is definitely past the hitter, yet contact is still made. Call it missing frames of animation, lag between a button press and the animation or whatever. It is just not realistic. Because of how fast they make the pitches, it just looks silly because the ball should have been in the catcher's mitt for at least a second or two by the time they are having the batter make contact. It ends up playing out like 2 unrelated scenes. First, the pitch is made, then a hitter makes "contact" and the ball is put into play. It is not seamless like it should be. It is sort of like real life baseball practice, when the team is simulating a real game situation. The coach is standing at the plate with a ball in his hand, and the pitcher makes a throwing motion but does not even throw a ball, just to signal to the coach to hit the ball somewhere. The coach then tosses the ball up and hits it somewhere on the field. To make matters worse in ASB's case, the game actually "flashes" to a different screen when the ball is hit, similar to what the old NES baseball games did. It really makes it seem like 2 completely unrelated events.

[Brando70]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

I liked ASB 2003 despite the flaws, but agree that the batting is a bit flawed. Once you learned to "camp" in the strike zone, it became a bit too easy to hit with the really good batters.

What I hope for is a faster but smaller cursor. It would allow you to react more quickly, but still require the precision to hit.

I did love the pitching in ASB. The speeds were good, and the break on pitches was nicely done. However, the fatigue model was very poor, both in how quickly pitchers tired and the way it affected breaking balls. However, ASB was the first baseball game I'd ever played where change-ups actually screwed me up.

[Brando70]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

I liked ASB 2003 despite the flaws, but agree that the batting is a bit flawed. Once you learned to "camp" in the strike zone, it became a bit too easy to hit with the really good batters.

What I hope for is a faster but smaller cursor. It would allow you to react more quickly, but still require the precision to hit.

I did love the pitching in ASB. The speeds were good, and the break on pitches was nicely done. However, the fatigue model was very poor, both in how quickly pitchers tired and the way it affected breaking balls. However, ASB was the first baseball game I'd ever played where change-ups actually screwed me up.

[ViperVisor]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

"ASB was the first baseball game I'd ever played where change-ups actually screwed me up."

Have you ever played High Heat ?

or Ken Giffey Jr. (change ups were killer)

[ViperVisor]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

"ASB was the first baseball game I'd ever played where change-ups actually screwed me up."

Have you ever played High Heat ?

or Ken Giffey Jr. (change ups were killer)

[Brando70]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

I played 2002 but not 2003. The change-ups can be tricky in HH, but I found ASB's changeups more effective because they were still pretty fast, yet the subtle change in speed often had me swinging early.

I don't mean that as a dig at HH, either, since I think it's a good game. But after a 162 game season with 2002, and the fact that 2003 was 2002 with sliders (and the same schedule even), I went for a change of pace last year. However, I don't know if I'm going to buy ASB this year since now I want something different from that.

[Brando70]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

I played 2002 but not 2003. The change-ups can be tricky in HH, but I found ASB's changeups more effective because they were still pretty fast, yet the subtle change in speed often had me swinging early.

I don't mean that as a dig at HH, either, since I think it's a good game. But after a 162 game season with 2002, and the fact that 2003 was 2002 with sliders (and the same schedule even), I went for a change of pace last year. However, I don't know if I'm going to buy ASB this year since now I want something different from that.

[HMcCoy]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

Reguarding all of the contact gripes:

A bat if I'm not mistaken is about 2 1/2 feet long?
The icon represents the meat of the bat say, about 6 or 7 inches?
So if you position your cursor to the outside of the pitch this means the ball SHOULD still strike the bat, even though the icon does not DISPLAY this part of the bat. This should also result in a weaker hit and possibly a broken bat.

<font color="red"> ANYONE WHO HAS PLAYED ASB AT LENGTH REALIZES THESE THINGS ( AND NO, 3 AT-BATS ON THE LOCAL BABBAGES DEMO UNIT DOES NOT QUALIFY AS AT LENGTH )</font>

Fanboy loyalism aside, I will admit however that I agree that the ball does not come cleanly off the bat, but I also contend that considering the FAR greater speed that the ball is leaving the bat( in comparison to the other titles ), it would be a HELL of an accomplishment to render this accurately. This is a graphics issue and not one of flawed physics.

Also, the rookie and veteran icons are a lot more forgiving for the above mentioned "sissies".

[HMcCoy]

Re: God Bless Acclaim &amp; ASB

Reguarding all of the contact gripes:

A bat if I'm not mistaken is about 2 1/2 feet long?
The icon represents the meat of the bat say, about 6 or 7 inches?
So if you position your cursor to the outside of the pitch this means the ball SHOULD still strike the bat, even though the icon does not DISPLAY this part of the bat. This should also result in a weaker hit and possibly a broken bat.

<font color="red"> ANYONE WHO HAS PLAYED ASB AT LENGTH REALIZES THESE THINGS ( AND NO, 3 AT-BATS ON THE LOCAL BABBAGES DEMO UNIT DOES NOT QUALIFY AS AT LENGTH )</font>

Fanboy loyalism aside, I will admit however that I agree that the ball does not come cleanly off the bat, but I also contend that considering the FAR greater speed that the ball is leaving the bat( in comparison to the other titles ), it would be a HELL of an accomplishment to render this accurately. This is a graphics issue and not one of flawed physics.

Also, the rookie and veteran icons are a lot more forgiving for the above mentioned "sissies".