Color me impressed! I was looking forward to analog everything and the SD team did not disappoint. Bravo to them for giving us
many options for this demo - I don't recall having this much control over a demo in years past.
I've played about 7 'games' and only one as the Giants and got shellacked - I think is because I have a moral compass that gets all switched around when I play as the Giants!
Most of my games have been playing as Texas.
Some quick thoughts:
Pitching: I love that I can control the speed of my pitch with the RS. I've had much more control is setting up my punch out pitch and I'm seeing batters chase more balls out of the zone. I'll definitely mess around with the accuracy once the retail version drops - I still feel like I have a ton of control playing on HoF and that my misses aren't missing badly enough.
Batting: It is going to take some getting used to, but when I finally established a good camera to hit from (similar to Blzer's - gotta love the slightly off-set camera!) I started to get into a good rhythm timing the ball and recognizing pitches. I'm still striking out too much, but that's cause I suck!
Fielding: This is the best implementation, imo. I played a game on Veteran and had to bump it up to AS. AS is tough and I can't wait to bump it up even further. It's gonna take some time before I stop jamming the RS to the base I want to throw to - I usually do this on hot smashes when I have more time to make an easier throw. I'm starting to get a feel for this and I love that I control the speed and accuracy (to some degree) of my throws. It took me a couple attempts to dive with R2 - I was so used to using the RS for dive in years past. The ability to stop a throw is great. Kinsler ranged into the 3-4 hole to get a ball in short RF and I jammed the stick to 1st and the circle indicated it was going to be offline, so I reestablished my throw and barely got the runner - I think Sandoval was running. That's awesome!
As always, I'll turn the commentary off - I usually get distracted by what they say and I take it personally!
I'll be 100% analog this year. The new cams are awesome and custom cams is ingenious!
This game feels fresh and new. I can't wait to play the full version in a couple weeks.