Chefdads MLB 11 the Show impressions. - Chef Matt's Blog

Chef Matt's Blog

Chefdads MLB 11 the Show impressions.

Posted on March 26, 2011 at 04:20 PM.

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This is my favorite MLB the Show yet. Previous favorite was '08.

So after a week or so with the game I feel now I can give a true impression.

Side note; I'm not into franchise, I'm a season player and usually only one. I've never really played rtts until this year. I don't care about who gets traded where, who bats where in the cpu lineup, or if the Marlins ace pitcher is Flipper the dolphin. It's my fantasy baseball world.

So much to be said.

RTTS;
I love rtts it's digital crack. Games are quick, it seems realistic and I can draw walks. I like the training segments as well. It's helped me determine pitches better. I can't wait for my first start in a big league park.

HR derby;
HR derby with the move is the best fun I've had with the move yet. Albeit very tiring. I like most of the move games but this one little "mini game" is the best of fun of them all. 1-1 motion. I see NO LAG like we saw in that one video posted at E3. Tons of fun. I'm actually going to buy the bat peripheral to go along with it.

Season
This is where most, if not all, of my time with the show is usually spent. This year I decided to give rtts a try until the real season starts. But I started a spring training anyway to get used to the controls and new nuiances before I really start my season.

I've read many complaints about the fielding feeling scripted but I don't feel that way this year. It is still very animations driven but it all feels very natural. In a game this morning I was actually able to make a diving catch with my frst baseman, in the infield, on an absolute smash between 1st and 2nd. I haven't been able to make a play like that since '08. I got video of it too to post in my vids.

Now I'm hoping outfield diving plays play out similarily. '09 was great for outfield dives. I will say on a couple of hits I felt like I could have gotten them had the need arised. We'll see. I'm optimistically holding out judgement on this area.

Pitching is fantastic. I need more work on my analog pitching because I can't seem to figure out how to let off on some heat with my pitches. They all seem to go at one speed but I'll hit up practice mode to help me figure out the analog meter. I loathe going back to the old meter now. (which I always loved)

Thank you for True Zone hitting. It really makes hitting much more rewarding when you get full on superb contact and perfect timing. So far out of about 600-700 total at bats I'm hitting about .260. YES!

That said it looks like another year of leading the league in total K's at the plate. Oh well. Thank goodness for the contact swing.

Which leads me to my final observation.

I've never ever used power swing. Always regular. This is the first year I'm using power swing thanks to 1. True-Zone hitting and 2. Contact swing. All the swings make sense and work as they should.

9.5/10 in my book. One half point off for still not fixing the silver slugger awards! That is my major beef with the game.

/read.

Comments

# 1 josh44 @ Mar 27

agree with the Rtts being digital crack and the rest of your post. RttS is a continual loop. You play games to earn points so you become better, you level up then you want to get back out there to see if your any better then you get more points LOL. Hit my first HR on an MLB pitcher last night. A HR in Spring Training off Jered Weaver

# 2 8 @ Mar 27

Good read, RTTS comes in very handy when you have a 4 month old.

# 3 dannyheck @ Mar 28

hey, when you play your season. Do you play it as one team. Or control all teams, play your teams game, and then select various games if you want to play them? I'm considering doing what I just mentioned. Play all my Royals games of course, but play hand picked games here and there as well during the season.