OS Roundtable: What Do You Think of The Show's Move to Analog Controls?

[Galarius]

i am real happy about it

[rspencer86]

I love it. Think about all of the mechanics that go into a baseball swing. Even the best hitters when they are slumping will go back and watch film to see which parts of their swing are breaking down. Maybe they are stepping into the bucket, or their shoulders are flying open, or whatever.

Did pressing the X or [] button simulate that very well? Not in my opinion.

Now you might go through slumps where you are loading up too soon, or pulling through too hard, etc. And you'll have to identify that and fix it to get back to having success. Pretty cool.

Same goes for pitching. There's a lot of subtle movements and mechanics that are more suited to being represented by an analog motion rather than clicking a button a couple of times as it moves along a meter.

[StormJH1]

Wow, really conflicted about this. I'm a 360 user, but I've played The Show quite a bit on PS2, which essentially controls the same. One of the things The Show got right that other baseball games never really did was the reaction speed and timing of batter versus pitcher. If you play an analog swing game (like NCAA Baseball 2006 or the MLB 2k series), the pitch speed is slowed down because it HAS to be. There simply isn't time to preload a swing, decide to follow through, and AIM your swing with any reliability in less than a second.

Even having this as an option fractures the community, and it can cause problems with online balancing, etc. I think that they SCEA was in need of some innovations to this series, which, honestly, isn't really THAT different than it was in 2005, but I'm not sure this was the way to do it. Time will tell.

[StormJH1]

Quote: Originally Posted by rspencer86

I love it. Think about all of the mechanics that go into a baseball swing. Even the best hitters when they are slumping will go back and watch film to see which parts of their swing are breaking down. Maybe they are stepping into the bucket, or their shoulders are flying open, or whatever. Did pressing the X or [] button simulate that very well? Not in my opinion. Now you might go through slumps where you are loading up too soon, or pulling through too hard, etc. And you'll have to identify that and fix it to get back to having success. Pretty cool. Same goes for pitching. There's a lot of subtle movements and mechanics that are more suited to being represented by an analog motion rather than clicking a button a couple of times as it moves along a meter.

Pressing "X" doesn't simulate a baseball swing, but if we're being honest, neither does moving a control stick. Yes, I get the idea of moving to a more 1:1 type of control, which does work well in NHL and NBA, but only if it's well-implemented (case in point, NHL 2k's shot stick kind of sucked).

Also, "more options" makes sense when you're talking about gameplay modes, variable season lengths, and different camera views...but if it's something this integral to how you PLAY the game, it's almost like you're making a second title. There's something to be said for the fact that the undisputed king of baseball games for the past half a decade has never had any type of analog control. Usually it's the guys playing catch-up that "borrow" features from other games (as SCEA did with metered pitching borrowed from the MVP series).

[rspencer86]

I agree that neither simulate a baseball swing - only motion controls could come close to doing that. But the analog stick gives you a better feel of actually controlling the swing, and can more naturally simulate important mechanics of a swing (loading up, firing through).

And of course it has to be well-implemented to be a positive change. That goes for anything a developer adds or changes.

[Joey]

I have to disagree with you on the pitch speed having to be slowed down. If you currently use the left stick when you bat, the only thing new you will be doing is preloading your swing - which will happen I assume right before the pitcher releases the pitch. I see no difference in the 2 in that regard. Then again, it's a bit premature to be making assumptions either way since none of us have any idea how SCEA implemented analog.

Quote: Originally Posted by StormJH1

Wow, really conflicted about this. I'm a 360 user, but I've played The Show quite a bit on PS2, which essentially controls the same. One of the things The Show got right that other baseball games never really did was the reaction speed and timing of batter versus pitcher. If you play an analog swing game (like NCAA Baseball 2006 or the MLB 2k series), the pitch speed is slowed down because it HAS to be. There simply isn't time to preload a swing, decide to follow through, and AIM your swing with any reliability in less than a second. Even having this as an option fractures the community, and it can cause problems with online balancing, etc. I think that they SCEA was in need of some innovations to this series, which, honestly, isn't really THAT different than it was in 2005, but I'm not sure this was the way to do it. Time will tell.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Joey

I have to disagree with you on the pitch speed having to be slowed down. If you currently use the left stick when you bat, the only thing new you will be doing is preloading your swing - which will happen I assume right before the pitcher releases the pitch. I see no difference in the 2 in that regard. Then again, it's a bit premature to be making assumptions either way since none of us have any idea how SCEA implemented analog.

The ESPN article said you can't preload your analog swing so timing is more important making pitch speed an even bigger factor. I really hope the sliders go back to a 20 point system and have more bite.

[nemesis04]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

The ESPN article said you can't preload your analog swing so timing is more important making pitch speed an even bigger factor. I really hope the sliders go back to a 20 point system and have more bite.

Well you could but there would be a penalty with your PCI shrinking. Developing your timing from coiling to uncoiling in a fluid manner is key. Pitch speed will not be slowed down by default just because the analog feature is picked as the other poster suggested. I know pitch speed is important to you Rudy as you feel in general it is too fast. I can talk with them to see if it could be slowed down even more.