MLB 09 The Show Demo Available, Post Impressions Here

[The Management]

Outfielders are still too deep though you can get some balls by them since the ball moves faster. I don't like that a rocket to the gap is caught on the warning track. Seems they should be positioned a couple yards forward.

In testing this it seems the outfield is playing shallower for certain players

[cowboype2000]

MLB '09: The Show feels like next-gen baseball, wait, it is baseball. The actual baseball is aspect is nailed as good if not better than the best High Heat game, that is saying a lot. I got to really give if up to the developers for focusing on GAMEPLAY and not new modes and other crap that can be advertised on the back of the box. '08 already had everything a true baseball fan needs. They just need to keep fining tuning what they got because they got everything.

Pros:
- Of course, the new faster swings, you can actually pull inside pitches now. I used live on the inside corner when pitching in online games. Looks like I'll have to "pitch" more, which is a good thing. Hitting just feels right.

- You can actually get a force out to end the inning. Last year, if a runner was a 1st with 2 outs, you HAD to go to first on any grounder because of the fielder animations.

- I love the new cutoff throws to home plate. On a base hit to CF with a runner on 2nd, I threw to the cutoff man who was the 1B at the pitcher's mound. I remember in last year's game, the throw would go to the middle IF that wasn't covering second.

- Fielder speed feels a lot better and the slider actually works. IFs don't vacuum up every ground ball like in '08. I can see this game staying true to the statistic that says hitting the ball on the ground results in more base hits than hitting the ball in the air.

- I actually hit a line shot over the LF's head that landed BEFORE the wall, unpossible in '08.

- Pitching meter seems a lot better, not really the meter itself, but the fact that your pitcher doesn't seem super accurate when you nail the accuracy on the meter.

- Stealing seems to be improved. Maybe even fixed.

Cons:
- Animations still aren't perfect. 3 out 4 bunting pitchers made it safely to first on a normal sacrifice bunt because the fielders didn't rush.

- Throwing errors and wild pitches still happen too often. Two routine throws back-to-back were thrown away by my IFs. For offline, sliders should fix this. However, for online, it seems like I'll have to close my eyes on every throw across the diamond and hope for the best again.

- I was hoping for a pitching interface similar to the new swing mechanic in Hot Shots Golf, it would be somewhere inbetween classic and the meter. You would press buttons based on the pitchers windup and release. For example, press X as the pitcher is releasing the ball to set accuracy.

- I was hoping for collision detection is this year's game.

- Odd animation where the 1B catches a ball with the glove facing up on a waist high throw. Noticed it at least twice because it just looked odd.

- Audio popping/cracking at random times, probably just an issue with the demo I would think.

[joejccva71]

Quote: Originally Posted by cowboype2000

- Throwing errors and wild pitches still happen too often. Two routine throws back-to-back were thrown away by my IFs. For offline, sliders should fix this. However, for online, it seems like I'll have to close my eyes on every throw across the diamond and hope for the best again. - Audio popping/cracking at random times, probably just an issue with the demo I would think.

Throwing errors and wild pitches are a part of the game because even if you KNOW you hit the pitching meter perfect, depending on the situation, energy, etc., the pitch may still be wild. That adds to the realism that a pitcher may be under the gun, tired, wind, runners on base, and especially ...worried about someone stealing bases.

Alot of factors go into it. I think it's great that wild pitches get thrown sometimes.

I haven't heard any audio problems but I'll listen to see if mine does it.

[bengtc]

I am also noticing some things from last year that bothered me.
1. The base runners are too fast, ryan howard consistently beats out double play balls that are hit fairly hard to the third basemen.
2. The infield players still don't have a sense of urgency, when rollins hits a grounder to 2nd the 2nd basemen takes his time in throwin to first and rollins almost beats it out. Another example is I bunted with Cole Hammels and he bunted it inbetween the pitcher and third basemen and both players jogged to ball and kazmir picked it up and just did a slow turn and threw to first, no sense of urgency at all and Hammels beat out the bunt.

[cowboype2000]

Quote: Originally Posted by joejccva71

Throwing errors and wild pitches are a part of the game because even if you KNOW you hit the pitching meter perfect, depending on the situation, energy, etc., the pitch may still be wild. That adds to the realism that a pitcher may be under the gun, tired, wind, runners on base, and especially ...worried about someone stealing bases. Alot of factors go into it. I think it's great that wild pitches get thrown sometimes. I haven't heard any audio problems but I'll listen to see if mine does it.

I was judging by the amount of CPU wild pitches, definitely a few too many. And I've been hit by pitches too often as well. I'm playing on Legend difficulty if that makes a difference.

[joejccva71]

Quote: Originally Posted by cowboype2000

I was judging by the amount of CPU wild pitches, definitely a few too many. And I've been hit by pitches too often as well. I'm playing on Legend difficulty if that makes a difference.

Ahh gotcha. Yea I've had only a few cpu wild pitches, but haven't really noticed an issue with it. I play on Legend too, but I'm still new to the The Show series of games myself.

[cowboype2000]

Quote: Originally Posted by joejccva71

Ahh gotcha. Yea I've had only a few cpu wild pitches, but haven't really noticed an issue with it. I play on Legend too, but I'm still new to the The Show series of games myself.

There has not been an iteration of the MLB series where you could, by design, throw breaking balls in the dirt for a swinging strike without a high probability of the pitch getting past the catcher; seems to be the same in '09 as well. In real life pitchers throw breaking balls in the dirt. It has been much improved in '09 because this year the catcher actually cushions the ball; in '08, a ball in the dirt would hit off the catcher like he was a brick wall.

[the_riot]

Quote: Originally Posted by davewins

well i just played the most realistic 4 innings of video game baseball in my life. I am on Legend and honestly with sliders default I was still having a problem with hitting being a little bit too easy. Note that I said a little bit too easy. Well I moved contact all the way to the left and everything felt much more realistic to me. I didn't even touch other hitting sliders yet so that is awesome. Here's the box score. Rays 0 2 0 Phillies 1 3 0 I pitched great with Hamels too. I wasn't able to get the CPU to K that much before but that wasn't the case in this game. I was really concentrating on hitting the meter release point perfectly. Here is Cole Hamels (the player of the game) line. 4.0 IP 2 HITS 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 5 K I hit a HR with Werth that I timed perfectly. It was a mistake by Kazmir that caught too much of the plate. It went 407ft to dead center into the bushes/trees whatever they are lol. The only thing I would like to add as I feel it right now and it's not really a big deal but I think it would be nice is to have the option to when turning HR celebrations off to completely go off because on the HR I hit with Werth in the corner of my eye I saw him in the basepath window slowly jogging. It's certainly not that big of a deal but it does take away from the excitement of the HR. I would like to hit it and really not be sure if it's out or not and see the centerfielder go back and keep going back and when I see he gets to the wall then I know it might go out and then watch the CF look up over the wall as it clears the fence. Something about the long ball to me is very special and I love the suspence of the last 2 or 3 seconds before it clears the wall. Just thought I'd add that while its fresh in my head. I would also like to add that one thing that's very realistic about the hitting is how the HR's are hit on mistakes by the CPU. Fat pitches that catch too much of the plate. I'm not hitting HR's on 2 seamers that are low and away on the corner. That is a very tough pitch to do much with and I think this game captures that very well. I think I hit 3 HR's overall and all of them were on mistake pitches that caught too much of the plate. Very realistic.

Okay, now I'm pumped. If Davewins is impressed, it has to be good. Hopefully the ai can hold its own as a roster manager, and I'll be playing this game for a very long time.