Played 3 innings before work today.
The Good:
-Everything felt smooth - good frame rate for the most part - no real jerky animations that I saw.
-Pitching felt good but wasn't pinpoint - strike zone is definitely variable, very cool.
-Liked the real time presentation, no more blue flashes.
-Hit types/placement good, had an infield popups off a miss timed power swing. Didn't see any choppers but I didn't really use the defensive swing either. Did see some looping foul balls. I think hit types/differentiation will be good this year.
- Until I got used to the new throwing meter I did make a throw that pulled the first baseman off the bag. That part of the game is working.
- Had a stolen base attempt at second and the throw was slightly off line but the 2B caught it and put a tag down fast. Very realistic, can tell some work was done on tags.
- Inside edge was enabled in the demo and the hot/cold zones show up on each pitch. I like that, pitch to weaknesses like the Pro's do.
The Bad:
- Maybe it will take some getting used to, but I CANNOT pickup the ball on fly balls/line drives with that new camera after the user hits. Ground balls aren't a problem, I just had trouble picking up the ball on several hits to the outfield. Couldn't see the ball against the background at AT&T park. Hard for me to tell whether or not to advance runners, etc.
- Did see a few too many soft liners like previous years. Could be my bad swing timing though.
- Had the CPU pitcher miss stepping on the base while covering first on a groundball I hit to the first baseman. It wasn't a REAL close play, but was close, I would've been out by a step but the CPU pitcher missed stepping on the base. This was an issue last year too. It did at least charge an error though.
The Ugly:
- No commentary and no player substitutions (unless I'm just dumb and couldn't figure out how to do it) in the demo.
- WTF is up with the 1 hop throws to first base from infielders? Had a relatively normal groundball the third baseman had to range to his left into the hole, made a "green" throw and he decided to 1 hop it to first for the out. It wasn't a "short hop" but a "good" 1 hop throw to first. Maybe it was because it was Pablo Sandoval, but I did see in the fielding DD video that Rollins 1 hopped a "good" throw to first base. Infielders don't 1 hop throws unless its a very difficult, long throw to make. Just kind of wonky if you ask me, but not a deal breaker.
Overall:
This feels like an upgraded version of MLB 2K10. Nothing wrong with that at all. Errors, Injuries, Hot/Cold Streaks, Hit Types, New Cameras, etc. I don't think the game went backwards in ANY areas, only improvements all around so in my mind it is definitely worth getting. I enjoyed and played a lot of MLB2K10 and I think MLB2K11 is shaping up to be even better.