I'm only posting this because I believe there can be discussion about it. If this only holds merit in the feedback forum (where the "Presentation" thread is locked), then I understand. Otherwise, I would like other people's opinions on what refinements can be made with what is a somewhat mundane replay system.
The big thing I wanted to throw out there was the sound portion of it. While we get a slowed down video of what happens, we also get in the audio. Watch any real game, and what you normally get is a continual live crowd cheer in the background of your color commentator explaining the slow-motion replay in full as it plays out. I'd like to show video examples, but they're hard to come by on YouTube (and MLB.com has many linking issues). I'll try and clarify this more if anyone has trouble understanding what I just said, but basically think of it as the audio being independent of the video in the replay. The only time they drown out the live audio of the game is if they do a full-speed replay, where they recapture the audio of that play.
EDIT: Actually, I can provide examples through gameplay videos of MLB 11: The Show and MLB 2K11. If you just watch both games and how the audio is captured in the slow-motion replays, you'll notice how they differ (in MLB 2K11, it keeps the live audio in the background, as opposed to the slow-motion audio of the replay).
That's actually what I want to transition to next. Not all replays are in slow-motion. If a player hits a triple, they normally replay it in full speed, possibly from a different fielding angle, so they can gauge the speed of the entire play. Or, maybe they'll do something like showing a slow motion shot of where the ball was located, then a slow motion shot of the ball hitting the ground and splitting the outfield (all with the live crowd audio in the background), then one final replay following the batter in full speed, from the swing to the slide at third base (all the meanwhile, this contains the audio of that actual play, in live speed).
The third and final thing pertains to the camera angles. This may just be me, but I'm an avid fan of replay camera angles only being from possible locations in the stadium. In other words, there isn't really a camera man sitting on the field right in front of the left fielder, or there isn't really a camera that locks onto a player's waist and pans around with the player as he moves. For the most part, cameras are in stationary locations somewhere in the stands (whether they're at ground level or club level, etc.) and they only rotate and zoom, no panning (like the NFL Skycam). I know some of those other tricky replays hold some sort of artistic merit, but for authenticity's sake it might be a better decision to remove them entirely.
And as a final note, I'm sure that real-time programming is already difficult enough to make happen without some sort of branching from game state to game state, but as far as that "live crowd audio" thing is concerned, other things are also happening live during the replay's duration, such as the crowd reacting to the jumbotron replay they're watching themselves, or the PA announcing the next batter (and the crowd reacting to that as well). I'm not sure how easy any of that is, but I just wanted to make note of it.
All of this stuff probably could not be addressed in time for the 2012 version of the baseball game, but I didn't know what you guys thought of these suggested "authentic" changes either way, in case they might want to make them in the future. The first one I made note of has been in this game for as long as I can remember, and removing the "slow motion audio" would be a welcomed change for this game either way, just so the replay system doesn't feel so vapid in the future.
The big thing I wanted to throw out there was the sound portion of it. While we get a slowed down video of what happens, we also get in the audio. Watch any real game, and what you normally get is a continual live crowd cheer in the background of your color commentator explaining the slow-motion replay in full as it plays out. I'd like to show video examples, but they're hard to come by on YouTube (and MLB.com has many linking issues). I'll try and clarify this more if anyone has trouble understanding what I just said, but basically think of it as the audio being independent of the video in the replay. The only time they drown out the live audio of the game is if they do a full-speed replay, where they recapture the audio of that play.
EDIT: Actually, I can provide examples through gameplay videos of MLB 11: The Show and MLB 2K11. If you just watch both games and how the audio is captured in the slow-motion replays, you'll notice how they differ (in MLB 2K11, it keeps the live audio in the background, as opposed to the slow-motion audio of the replay).
That's actually what I want to transition to next. Not all replays are in slow-motion. If a player hits a triple, they normally replay it in full speed, possibly from a different fielding angle, so they can gauge the speed of the entire play. Or, maybe they'll do something like showing a slow motion shot of where the ball was located, then a slow motion shot of the ball hitting the ground and splitting the outfield (all with the live crowd audio in the background), then one final replay following the batter in full speed, from the swing to the slide at third base (all the meanwhile, this contains the audio of that actual play, in live speed).
The third and final thing pertains to the camera angles. This may just be me, but I'm an avid fan of replay camera angles only being from possible locations in the stadium. In other words, there isn't really a camera man sitting on the field right in front of the left fielder, or there isn't really a camera that locks onto a player's waist and pans around with the player as he moves. For the most part, cameras are in stationary locations somewhere in the stands (whether they're at ground level or club level, etc.) and they only rotate and zoom, no panning (like the NFL Skycam). I know some of those other tricky replays hold some sort of artistic merit, but for authenticity's sake it might be a better decision to remove them entirely.
And as a final note, I'm sure that real-time programming is already difficult enough to make happen without some sort of branching from game state to game state, but as far as that "live crowd audio" thing is concerned, other things are also happening live during the replay's duration, such as the crowd reacting to the jumbotron replay they're watching themselves, or the PA announcing the next batter (and the crowd reacting to that as well). I'm not sure how easy any of that is, but I just wanted to make note of it.
All of this stuff probably could not be addressed in time for the 2012 version of the baseball game, but I didn't know what you guys thought of these suggested "authentic" changes either way, in case they might want to make them in the future. The first one I made note of has been in this game for as long as I can remember, and removing the "slow motion audio" would be a welcomed change for this game either way, just so the replay system doesn't feel so vapid in the future.
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