Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

[maltliquor23]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

In that game the AI happened to have shifted Ross over to left and it was right at the foul pole. Even though you can stand higher than the fence in the corners at Dodger stadium, Ross did in fact jump to rob the HR. But maybe you are onto something though.

Its not just doger stadium, I was playing at Fenway, with one man on. Drew smashed one into the near the gap in seating between right center and peskey's pole seating area and the opposing right fielder did the HR rob although it seemed he went through the wall to get it. Counted as a 2 home run and and the second out of the inning.

[sroz39]

Will definitely need to do some serious work to the A.I. sliders. Played my Jays at the Bucs and lost 12-4 with them getting 17 hits. This was on mostly default All-Star after playing a game on Pro, also using my Jays at home to the Orioles and beating them 13-2 through 5 innings (I quit, game was out of hand).

There's a happy medium in there somewhere. I just gotta find it.

Sent from work...or my bathroom using Tapatalk

[bluengold34_OS]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Ok....

well after I have made some tweaks to the game itself(thanks to Bulls23-Holy Grail of sliders)I am starting to get a feel for the game like last year. There are still some major tweaks that need to happen, but hopefully I can find the level of fun that I enjoyed so much last year. Upping the fielding speed has helped with some of the wonky animations, and has smoothed out a some of the quirkiness......

I am going to find a very good game of baseball in this title, even it kills me.

[ericdrum]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Will definitely need to do some serious work to the A.I. sliders. Played my Jays at the Bucs and lost 12-4 with them getting 17 hits. This was on mostly default All-Star after playing a game on Pro, also using my Jays at home to the Orioles and beating them 13-2 through 5 innings (I quit, game was out of hand).

There's a happy medium in there somewhere. I just gotta find it.

Sent from work...or my bathroom using Tapatalk

I'm really glad we have gameplay sliders as I've seen various people with different skill sets here have wildly different results with similar/same difficulty/sliders. I'm not nearly as good as some of you guys.

[Hopeful Cubsfan]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Will definitely need to do some serious work to the A.I. sliders. Played my Jays at the Bucs and lost 12-4 with them getting 17 hits. This was on mostly default All-Star after playing a game on Pro, also using my Jays at home to the Orioles and beating them 13-2 through 5 innings (I quit, game was out of hand).

There's a happy medium in there somewhere. I just gotta find it.

Sent from work...or my bathroom using Tapatalk

I was having this problem too, but just hit your spots that your catcher calls, it makes a world of difference. I gave up 8 hits in 5 innings, no runs with Silva doing this after him giving up 8 runs in 3 innings while callings my own spots.

[Wavebird99]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

So after playing 6 games, heres what I definitely think:

- For the most part, the game is great. I feel like theres tons of hit variety now, especially on the human side of things. All of my games have had a slightly different feel to them in terms of hitting for me. Hitting is better now that its ever been. (To those of you who dont like the new hitting camera after the ball is put into play, go to the baserunning cam in the camera settings menu and adjust that. I made the height as high as it could go and I much prefer it that way.)

- However, I do have one big gripe thats come up in alot of the games I've played: The CPU gets far too many base hits, even on pro. Every game I've played I've had the AI get at least 12 hits. Alot of the time they'll only score 3 or 4 runs to, which leads to somewhat unrealistic stat lines of 3 runs on 17 hits or 4 runs on 15 hits. Those do happen in baseball, but not every game. I'd like to see the AI not get as many singles, so maybe some good sliders will fix that (which I think it will).

On top of that I want to add that in 6 games I've seen the AI hit only one homerun. There have been plenty and a nice variety of extra base hits, but more homers would be nice. I tried adjusting the power sliding for the AI, so we'll see what happens.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

I was having this problem too, but just hit your spots that your catcher calls, it makes a world of difference. I gave up 8 hits in 5 innings, no runs with Silva doing this after him giving up 8 runs in 3 innings while callings my own spots.

I have been enjoying just using the catcher's suggestions for years now. The Inside Edge stuff has really improved the way it calls a game now, too. It avoids m trying to spam the blue zone with a batter's worst pitch.

I like that you can also dig deep and come up with a gameplan for each at-bat. You can plan out how to mix up pitches and locations and try to induce the guy to hit your best pitch.

[DJ]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Ok....

well after I have made some tweaks to the game itself(thanks to Bulls23-Holy Grail of sliders)I am starting to get a feel for the game like last year. There are still some major tweaks that need to happen, but hopefully I can find the level of fun that I enjoyed so much last year. Upping the fielding speed has helped with some of the wonky animations, and has smoothed out a some of the quirkiness......

I am going to find a very good game of baseball in this title, even it kills me.

When you do let us know. I'm stil using your NCAA 10 Basketball sliders.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

I wrote up some stuff finally this morning and then had to fix a sump pump this afternoon. Why is life getting in the way of 2K11 lol? These are my early impressions after roughly three games. I'm still searching for the right level between Pro and All Star but I'm having a lot of fun.


In many ways the retail version is very similar to the 2K11 demo. It also comes off as a much more polished version of 2K10 with a greater set of options. I really need to play more to get a better idea of how the game will play long term. I’ve played about 3 full games so far (2.5 last night and another 0.5) this morning. While I was kicking the computer’s butt in the demo, I’ve been getting my butt kicked by the cpu on All-Star. I’m in the middle of adjusting tons of sliders to get the game to play suited to my skill set and I don’t think I’m too far away but until I can play a string of balanced games in a row it’s hard to say anything definitive about the game. I tend to comment more on areas I don’t like (sort of like only noticing an OL or umpire when they screw up) so keep that in mind if you think I sound grumpy.

EMOTION/GRAPHICS/AUDIO/INTANGIBLES

One thing I want to comment on is the emotion of the game. The dev team really did try to create scenarios where it shows a worried or frustrated pitcher on the mound after giving up some hits and runs. I got a chuckle out of popping up with Joey Votto last night and he slammed his bat into the ground in frustration. I felt the same way with runners in scoring position and Votto failing me.

The commentary is excellent once again. The amount of dialogue for seemingly every player in the game is very impressive. This will make for great stuff in MLB Today and the first season of a franchise. I have no clue how this sounds in year two. There are a few audio gaffs though. When you pinch hit for a pitcher Steve Phillips comments on strategy as though your pitcher is still at the plate. Sometimes the umpire’s balls and strikes get messed up. I drew a walk and he yells “3-2” and then “Ball 4!”. Twice last night I hit a fly ball but the sound of the bat was that of a chopper. I don’t think I was hearing things although it’s normally good. One cool sound effect is the fastball popping the glove. The sound goes up with the speed. I was pitching with Chapman from the Reds and I threw all my fastballs over 100 mph and hit 105 once. The glove sound was very loud.

I personally think the graphics are good on the game. The shadows may be a little overdone but I’m happy with it. The player faces are still poor and some animations are still rough. The player models are quite a bit better than last year, particularly the legs. Dev team, please make the players rounding the bases smoother next year! It’s the most obvious issue in the animations department imo. The frame rate hiccup on fly balls is still in the game. I don’t see it often and I may have even tuned it out now but that does need to be smoothed out. I don’t consider this a big deal.
When I was checking out the Tigers’ roster I noticed Guillen and Zumuya had injury icons so that was cool.

PITCHING

I still love the gesture pitching and with the control slider you can really play with this to create a situation where you walk the cpu which was very rare in 2K10. Walking the cpu isn’t just about control though as it is a two part issue. One, you need to make pitch control realistic so you can’t paint corners. Two, you have to have the cpu offense dangerous enough so that you won’t give in when you fall behind as most gamers do. Then you try to balance that out with strikeouts and extra base hits and it’s something that can be difficult to balance. After playing more I think was wrong about my initial fears of a single happy cpu offense like 2K10. They definitely hit more extra base hits this year and the gap between contact and power swings, while still fairly big, is not as big as last year. I think this area will be a real strength once I get my sliders right. I do love the fact I can change the user pitch speed to make the pitch look faster when I’m throwing it.

One thing I’m a bit annoyed with is the custom stretch animations. It seems to me that a guy like Verlander has a custom animation for pitching out of the stretch. This is cool in theory but it also forces me to wait a couple extra seconds before I pitch every time. I have to wait for the animation to play out and he comes to a rest before pitching (the baseball purist just cursed me). In one game last night the cpu pounded me 13-6 and it took an hour and 20 minutes to finish. I’d like to keep the games under an hour and this delay isn’t helping. I don’t notice this for everyone so I think it has something to do with custom pitch animations. Anyone else seeing this?

One area that I would love to see is individual pitch confidence rather than just an overall confidence meter. Plus I still don’t like the fact that a mound visit automatically calms a rattled pitcher. It’s not a bad mechanic but I think it could use some work.

BATTING
I love the batting camera and how it allows me to read pitches. I love the bat off the ball in this game and I do think this area is the biggest improvement from 2K10 to 2K11. It does appear that opposite field power has been toned down which makes me happy. I see a lot of hit variety, tons more than 2K10. Some are complaining about an abundance of soft liners to the infield. I haven’t really seen this too much. Overall the game does play a bit on the slower side compared to real MLB so I can see some complaints but the speed of the game makes it more playable imo.

The cpu has been kicking my *** in the first few games. I’m glad to report they have homered quite a few times off me with power in the 80-90 range. The power outage of 2K10 has been fixed. I’ve also seen the cpu check swing a few times and I’ve even been successful a couple times. I think the cpu contact slider is tied to aggressiveness like last year. As it gets raised they become more of a hacker (not 100% sure). By keeping it in the 40-50 range I think you may see a more patient cpu take balls both inside and outside of the zone. I don’t have complaints with the cpu’s approach to hitting myself and you do see batters approach the game the way they do in real life. Youkilis has a good eye up there and will work you. I do think they need to add a cpu aggressiveness slider for when they bat in case we do have issues.

I see a lot of foul pop ups by the plate and infield pops as well. This was completely absent from last year and also seems to be tied to the power swing. Not completely sure on that though but it is a nice improvement as well.

FIELDING

This is an area that has some strengths but still has issues despite it being a point of emphasis this year. First, the fielding isn’t really analog as the controls work exactly the same as buttons. How hard you push the stick or what direction you hold it doesn’t really matter. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as I don’t push the stick in perfect angles but it’s something that should be noted and some may not like.

I love the difference in the outfielders and I love the zoomed out 2K9 fielding camera (you have three options plus some zoom edits now) when tracking deep fly balls. Austin Jackson made two great catches for me already. Then when I was playing with Johnny Gomes of the Reds, his fly ball indicator made me nervous when tracking down balls. He sucks out there and the game really does showcase the defensive ability of outfielders unlike the past.

I am concerned about the errors though. I haven’t seen any throwing errors by either side yet (the slider should help) and I’m not sure if the user will have any throwing errors unless he’s in the red which is unrealistic. A bigger concern is the gathering errors slider. I started out on All-Star which has this at 60 for the user. Peralta dropped a line drive and Ordonez dropped a routine fly ball in the outfield. I do think we need to see more of these than we saw in the past but I’ve seen too many in my time with the demo and this game, particularly when compared to the few bobbles I’ve seen (zero in the retail version so far). I would think you should see probably see about 15 to 20 bobbled or booted ground balls before you see someone drop a hard liner and especially a routine fly ball. But I have a feeling the ratio in this game is nowhere close to that – maybe 5:1 or even less. It’s too early to make any strong complaints but this is definitely an area of concern I will be watching.

Infield defense is still automated as Inge made a great diving stab at a ball before I knew what happened. I think this is realistic as those hard shots are instinctive and you can’t expect a gamer to make that play completely on his own but some may not like this.

BASE RUNNING
This has been improved since the demo. On line drives to the infield base runners don’t get doubled off so easily. I saw a few situations like this and the runner got back in time properly unlike the demo. Also, the cpu will make you pay for bad throwing decisions unlike 2K10. If you try to nail the lead runner at home the other runners will advance and make you pay for not hitting the cutoff.

I actually stole a base last night with the help of lowering the cpu arm strength. I normally suck hard at stealing bases but the new sliders will give me a chance. I think I’m going to play with the cpu throw accuracy more as I go.

There is only one camera for base running after you hit the ball. I have adjusted and now enjoy the new angle on the default settings. You can play a little with the zoom and height if you want but a traditional camera is not available. This was a mistake and some may be annoyed.

OVERALL

I’m very happy with the game. It’s got some issues here and there but the pitching, batting and fielding have all improved significantly from 2K10. This game isn’t perfect but it is a lot of fun and it can be as sim a game of baseball as you want. I think the knocks that the game is arcade like are unjustified imo.

[Hooe]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Won my first game! A 1-0 pitchers' duel, myself as the Mets topping the Marlins. AI Josh Johnson went 8.2, allowing five hits and a single homer by my 2B.

I had Johan Santana dialed in for much of the game, but then he injured himself in the seventh inning. Getting the final out with a cold bullpen pitcher was, well, interesting. Was able to pull out the game with a more-prepared bullpen in the 8th and 9th innings, with K-Rod getting the save.

I'm slowly getting the hang of hitting, but I'm not consistent. Was able to get a double with Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan, and was fairly successful with David Wright as well. However I think I stranded about four or five baserunner. I did draw a couple of walks too, so my ability to read pitches is getting a little bit better as well. It might help if I get a matchup at some point against a not-so-good pitcher, the only pitchers I've played against so far have been other teams' aces. Until then, as far as learning to hit is concerned, it's baptism by fire for me.

At one point in the later stages of the game, I inadvertently zoomed a cut fastball inside right next to the head of one of the Marlins' batters. I was booed out of the building by the crowd and the batter was visibly not happy with that event. And then in the top of the next inning, the first pitch from Johnson was a high-and-inside pitch that brushed my batter off the plate. I found that exchange very amusing.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this game so far.

[Giants4Natic]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

I wrote up some stuff finally this morning and then had to fix a sump pump this afternoon. Why is life getting in the way of 2K11 lol? These are my early impressions after roughly three games. I'm still searching for the right level between Pro and All Star but I'm having a lot of fun.


In many ways the retail version is very similar to the 2K11 demo. It also comes off as a much more polished version of 2K10 with a greater set of options. I really need to play more to get a better idea of how the game will play long term. I’ve played about 3 full games so far (2.5 last night and another 0.5) this morning. While I was kicking the computer’s butt in the demo, I’ve been getting my butt kicked by the cpu on All-Star. I’m in the middle of adjusting tons of sliders to get the game to play suited to my skill set and I don’t think I’m too far away but until I can play a string of balanced games in a row it’s hard to say anything definitive about the game. I tend to comment more on areas I don’t like (sort of like only noticing an OL or umpire when they screw up) so keep that in mind if you think I sound grumpy.

EMOTION/GRAPHICS/AUDIO/INTANGIBLES

One thing I want to comment on is the emotion of the game. The dev team really did try to create scenarios where it shows a worried or frustrated pitcher on the mound after giving up some hits and runs. I got a chuckle out of popping up with Joey Votto last night and he slammed his bat into the ground in frustration. I felt the same way with runners in scoring position and Votto failing me.

The commentary is excellent once again. The amount of dialogue for seemingly every player in the game is very impressive. This will make for great stuff in MLB Today and the first season of a franchise. I have no clue how this sounds in year two. There are a few audio gaffs though. When you pinch hit for a pitcher Steve Phillips comments on strategy as though your pitcher is still at the plate. Sometimes the umpire’s balls and strikes get messed up. I drew a walk and he yells “3-2” and then “Ball 4!”. Twice last night I hit a fly ball but the sound of the bat was that of a chopper. I don’t think I was hearing things although it’s normally good. One cool sound effect is the fastball popping the glove. The sound goes up with the speed. I was pitching with Chapman from the Reds and I threw all my fastballs over 100 mph and hit 105 once. The glove sound was very loud.

I personally think the graphics are good on the game. The shadows may be a little overdone but I’m happy with it. The player faces are still poor and some animations are still rough. The player models are quite a bit better than last year, particularly the legs. Dev team, please make the players rounding the bases smoother next year! It’s the most obvious issue in the animations department imo. The frame rate hiccup on fly balls is still in the game. I don’t see it often and I may have even tuned it out now but that does need to be smoothed out. I don’t consider this a big deal.
When I was checking out the Tigers’ roster I noticed Guillen and Zumuya had injury icons so that was cool.

PITCHING

I still love the gesture pitching and with the control slider you can really play with this to create a situation where you walk the cpu which was very rare in 2K10. Walking the cpu isn’t just about control though as it is a two part issue. One, you need to make pitch control realistic so you can’t paint corners. Two, you have to have the cpu offense dangerous enough so that you won’t give in when you fall behind as most gamers do. Then you try to balance that out with strikeouts and extra base hits and it’s something that can be difficult to balance. After playing more I think was wrong about my initial fears of a single happy cpu offense like 2K10. They definitely hit more extra base hits this year and the gap between contact and power swings, while still fairly big, is not as big as last year. I think this area will be a real strength once I get my sliders right. I do love the fact I can change the user pitch speed to make the pitch look faster when I’m throwing it.

One thing I’m a bit annoyed with is the custom stretch animations. It seems to me that a guy like Verlander has a custom animation for pitching out of the stretch. This is cool in theory but it also forces me to wait a couple extra seconds before I pitch every time. I have to wait for the animation to play out and he comes to a rest before pitching (the baseball purist just cursed me). In one game last night the cpu pounded me 13-6 and it took an hour and 20 minutes to finish. I’d like to keep the games under an hour and this delay isn’t helping. I don’t notice this for everyone so I think it has something to do with custom pitch animations. Anyone else seeing this?

One area that I would love to see is individual pitch confidence rather than just an overall confidence meter. Plus I still don’t like the fact that a mound visit automatically calms a rattled pitcher. It’s not a bad mechanic but I think it could use some work.

BATTING
I love the batting camera and how it allows me to read pitches. I love the bat off the ball in this game and I do think this area is the biggest improvement from 2K10 to 2K11. It does appear that opposite field power has been toned down which makes me happy. I see a lot of hit variety, tons more than 2K10. Some are complaining about an abundance of soft liners to the infield. I haven’t really seen this too much. Overall the game does play a bit on the slower side compared to real MLB so I can see some complaints but the speed of the game makes it more playable imo.

The cpu has been kicking my *** in the first few games. I’m glad to report they have homered quite a few times off me with power in the 80-90 range. The power outage of 2K10 has been fixed. I’ve also seen the cpu check swing a few times and I’ve even been successful a couple times. I think the cpu contact slider is tied to aggressiveness like last year. As it gets raised they become more of a hacker (not 100% sure). By keeping it in the 40-50 range I think you may see a more patient cpu take balls both inside and outside of the zone. I don’t have complaints with the cpu’s approach to hitting myself and you do see batters approach the game the way they do in real life. Youkilis has a good eye up there and will work you. I do think they need to add a cpu aggressiveness slider for when they bat in case we do have issues.

I see a lot of foul pop ups by the plate and infield pops as well. This was completely absent from last year and also seems to be tied to the power swing. Not completely sure on that though but it is a nice improvement as well.

FIELDING

This is an area that has some strengths but still has issues despite it being a point of emphasis this year. First, the fielding isn’t really analog as the controls work exactly the same as buttons. How hard you push the stick or what direction you hold it doesn’t really matter. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as I don’t push the stick in perfect angles but it’s something that should be noted and some may not like.

I love the difference in the outfielders and I love the zoomed out 2K9 fielding camera (you have three options plus some zoom edits now) when tracking deep fly balls. Austin Jackson made two great catches for me already. Then when I was playing with Johnny Gomes of the Reds, his fly ball indicator made me nervous when tracking down balls. He sucks out there and the game really does showcase the defensive ability of outfielders unlike the past.

I am concerned about the errors though. I haven’t seen any throwing errors by either side yet (the slider should help) and I’m not sure if the user will have any throwing errors unless he’s in the red which is unrealistic. A bigger concern is the gathering errors slider. I started out on All-Star which has this at 60 for the user. Peralta dropped a line drive and Ordonez dropped a routine fly ball in the outfield. I do think we need to see more of these than we saw in the past but I’ve seen too many in my time with the demo and this game, particularly when compared to the few bobbles I’ve seen (zero in the retail version so far). I would think you should see probably see about 15 to 20 bobbled or booted ground balls before you see someone drop a hard liner and especially a routine fly ball. But I have a feeling the ratio in this game is nowhere close to that – maybe 5:1 or even less. It’s too early to make any strong complaints but this is definitely an area of concern I will be watching.

Infield defense is still automated as Inge made a great diving stab at a ball before I knew what happened. I think this is realistic as those hard shots are instinctive and you can’t expect a gamer to make that play completely on his own but some may not like this.

BASE RUNNING
This has been improved since the demo. On line drives to the infield base runners don’t get doubled off so easily. I saw a few situations like this and the runner got back in time properly unlike the demo. Also, the cpu will make you pay for bad throwing decisions unlike 2K10. If you try to nail the lead runner at home the other runners will advance and make you pay for not hitting the cutoff.

I actually stole a base last night with the help of lowering the cpu arm strength. I normally suck hard at stealing bases but the new sliders will give me a chance. I think I’m going to play with the cpu throw accuracy more as I go.

There is only one camera for base running after you hit the ball. I have adjusted and now enjoy the new angle on the default settings. You can play a little with the zoom and height if you want but a traditional camera is not available. This was a mistake and some may be annoyed.

OVERALL

I’m very happy with the game. It’s got some issues here and there but the pitching, batting and fielding have all improved significantly from 2K10. This game isn’t perfect but it is a lot of fun and it can be as sim a game of baseball as you want. I think the knocks that the game is arcade like are unjustified imo.

Great review Rudy, I am glad you like the game

[bigfnjoe96]

Thanks for your review rudy. I too am trying to find a middle ground on Hitting Sliders.

I think I found some good pitching, fielding & base running sliders for both User & AI.


Sent from my Awesome Phone via tapatalk

[sroz39]

Definitely gonna need to nerf the hitting even further and its not a matter of just hitting my spots. For testing purposes, I cranked my Pitch Control to 100 and put the A.I. Contact at 40 and Power at 55 (5 less than All-Star default) and through 3 innings pitching as Ricky Romero against the Rays, they've scored 7 runs.

Gonna go to the "lab" so to speak and really put some of the sliders in the game through their paces, especially the batting ones. I'm not usually one to do this, as I'm nowhere near patient enough for it and just wait for others to come up with them. Figured I've gone deep enough already (and really happy with a lot of default sliders too) that I'll just keep going and see where this takes me. FWIW, I'm noticing a small issue with A.I. runners not going home often enough on a single as well, even with A.I. Runner Aggression at 100 so I'm going to play around with User OF Arm Strength too.

Maybe waiting for a patch is a blessing in disguise, giving us time to optimize the game. Still having a blast just need to iron out the hitting.

Sent from work...or my bathroom using Tapatalk

[Watson]

Hitting a walk off home run is sweet

But that camera makes it ****.

wow.

[Kernel Pie]

Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread

Definitely gonna need to nerf the hitting even further and its not a matter of just hitting my spots. For testing purposes, I cranked my Pitch Control to 100 and put the A.I. Contact at 40 and Power at 55 (5 less than All-Star default) and through 3 innings pitching as Ricky Romero against the Rays, they've scored 7 runs.

If you're not using catcher suggestion, try turning it on. I was having the exact same problem of every AI team being murderer's row. Turned the catcher suggestion on, and threw a shutout with Jonathan Niese. I swear I think it made a big difference.