MLB 2K11 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (PS3/360)

[goh]

No demo for silver today. Only online play.

[tvman]

Quote: Originally Posted by timbofry1

I tend to agree on the speed of the game being very important. I do like the little subtleties now and then, pitchers walking around the mound, and so on, but speed of the game is more important to me. MVP '05 was my favorite baseball video game ever. And I was a High Heat guy before that. Then EA was out of the baseball picture and I thought 2K baseball was pretty bad after MVP '05, which was a bummer, as I'm a big baseball guy. Two years ago, after reading all the praise about the "other game," I got a PS3. Loved that game. Thought it was the best baseball video game I ever played, which it was. After playing both demos again last year, got the "other baseball game" again and had alot of fun with it for a month or two, but suddenly just became bored with it. I think the realism is very good, graphics and animations very good....very good game, the "other game." But I just got bored with it. With baseball games especially, I want to play a ton of games, because that's what baseball is about...long seasons...use your pitching staff, injuries, everything. Like I said at the beginning, I kinda like all the subtleties and all, but the most important thing is that I want to play alot of games, so I don't want them to take an hour or more to play. And the "other game" just seems stale to me now, not that fun anymore. I find the MLB 2K11 demo to be very fun so far, after playing a few games. Maybe the graphics and animations in the "other game" are a little tighter, but the analog control seems much more fun in MLB 2K11. I also love the hitting camera in MLB 2K11. In the "other game" I simply have trouble picking up whether a pitch will be off the plate or note, just too much trouble that it can get extremely frustrating. In MLB 2K11, I feel like I see the ball very well, can more easily identify balls versus strikes and lay off bad pitches. Not that I'm hitting the cover off the ball, but I'm making alot more contact, getting hits, just having alot of fun with the game. And I also like the camera angle after you hit the ball, you can immediately see where the ball is going, but don't know if you've hit a HR or if a fly ball will be caught or drop....great stuff. The analog pitching seems to be alot of fun in MLB 2K11, and I like the fielding so far too. Like I said, I've played a few games of both baseball demos, and I'm having alot more fun with the MLB 2K11 demo. I've never been a big 2K guy, but NBA 2K11 is probably my favorite video game of all time. Just love it. So maybe I'm a convert....I don't know. But mainly I just want to play good, fun games, no matter who makes it... So right now I'm very heavily leaning toward being an MLB 2K11 guy this year! I am going to wait and read a few reviews next week before making my final decision, but looking good for MLB 2K11 right now!

Pretty much agree with everything said here. I only have so much time in the day to game and while the show plays a good game of baseball it just takes sooo looong to play a game, even hitting X button to fastforward and playing on fast game settings doesn't help enough.

I really believe this is why people talk about 2k's game being fun, because it moves along at a nice pace.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by ericdrum

In the interest of providing more anecdotal data, I played 2 games last night in total (no difficulty switching, just the normal, vanilla difficulty) and hit 3 in two games. I hit using Hamilton, Cruz and Beltre. All with contact swing. I had 1 HR hit off of me in those two games.

I'm glad to hear this. I know my 3 games = 1 full game so that's not very much data but I think the gap between contact and power is still too big. Either way I'm loving the hitting in this game and can't wait to get the retail version where I can bump it up to All-Star and get commentary.

[tvman]

I just finished letting a cpu vs cpu game play out and it was pretty good. One thing i can guarantee is that the 3 innings you play are 7 8 9 cause the Giants were up 4-0 and in bottom of the 2nd (actual 8th) the Giants pinch hit for Jonathon Sanchez then after they went out they brought in Affeldt to pitch, he gave up a run to make it 4-1 and had one runner on base the next hitter got a single to put runners at 1st and 3rd this turned the game into a save situation so Brian Wilson was summoned from the bullpen to get the final out. That was nice to see, good AI also. I do wish they would have replaced Burrell in left but nope.

[pdawg17]

Question about hitting cam (after ball is hit)...it looks cool but doesn't it make it hard to know whether to send your runners or not? The dude commentating in the GT videos (in that thread) says it is cool because as the batter you don't know if you have just hit a HR or if it is only warning track power...so how do you know what to do with your runners?

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by pdawg17

Question about hitting cam (after ball is hit)...it looks cool but doesn't it make it hard to know whether to send your runners or not? The dude commentating in the GT videos (in that thread) says it is cool because as the batter you don't know if you have just hit a HR or if it is only warning track power...so how do you know what to do with your runners?

I'm getting used to it. It definitely makes it a little harder to know what to do with your runners so you really have to pay attention more.

[rudyjuly2]

Someone earlier complained about the cpu swing selection while batting saying they swing at 90% of the stuff in the zone and only swing at 10% of the stuff outside the zone. I haven't tracked this with a pen and paper but I'm not seeing a big issue with this.

The average player in MLB swings at 25% of the pitches out of the zone (1 in every 4). They also swing at 66% of the pitches inside the zone (2 of 3). I see the cpu take quite a few outside pitches but I also get them to chase. I don't know the exact percentage but it's probably not too different from 25%. And I have struck out quite a few guys while looking so I know they don't swing at 90% of the stuff in the zone. I think this area is done fairly well.

I also know from playing 2K10 that this is definitely influenced by player ratings. Guys with good eyes don't chase bad pitches as often. You can see the difference between free swingers and patient batters. I think this area of the game is done pretty well. I will reserve final judgment with the retail copy and on the higher difficulty levels. I know the contact slider for the cpu seemed to affect the cpu aggressiveness last year. I would like to have a cpu aggressiveness slider for the hitters if there is a problem but I don't think that was added this year. I didn't think it was an issue in 2K10 so I'm not too worried.

[Spongedaddy]

Why is the PS3 version so much brighter? Is it because of a difference in the two consoles or is there a way to make the 360 version the same way?