Re: Official MLB 2k11 - Impressions Thread
Very good read, man. Thanks for posting that.
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.
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.
Never would've saw that last year. One of them was bases loaded walk too.
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