MLB 11 The Show Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here

[nemesis04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cannoncourt

overthrew on pick-off to first with tim. out of play. Guy ends up on third?

Correct, into the stands the runner gets two bases.

[idrisguitar]

My impressions, after really only owning 09 as my last show game, is WOW

firstly it looks amazing, perfection, best graphics i have ever seen to be quite honest.

second the analog pitching is BRILLIANT, sooo much more enthralling and immersive than the metre, i found myself celebrating when i painted a corner. it really puts you in total control, all in your thumb, without making it too easy. the metre was so fast that there was always an element of luck on top of your own skill, but this is perfect and as a result you feel perfect when you do well.

i cant bat to save my life, but then i have never been a good batter even with the simple button swing, but i like the feel of stepping back and swinging.

overall i had no plans to buy this game, it is not a priority i can worry about, but the great feeling of the pitching has alone made me desperately try to justify a purchase. (im in the uk, so its a little more expensive and harder to get)

[nemesis04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

The pitching system is great. I love the accuracy component -- if you miss your release point, the pitch is high or low accordingly; if you miss left/right off your mark, again the pitch reacts likewise. Couple this with the variable effort based on the speed of the upward stroke and maintaining focus on every pitch is vital. Well done. I think there is so room to play with the user pitching settings to further refine the experience. I certainly wasn't hitting my spots consistently or painting corners, but I threw a lot of strikes as most of my misses were over the plate. Not a knock on the system, but something to explore moving forward with regard to sliders. On the plus side of that, the game I threw the highest percentage of strikes was my last one and I gave up 6 runs and 3 homers. However, mistakes gravitating towards the heart of the plate was based on primarily my input, so I can't argue with the results.

What level were you on with analog pitching?

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cannoncourt

overthrew on pick-off to first with tim. out of play. Guy ends up on third?

Quote: Originally Posted by nemesis04

Correct, into the stands the runner gets two bases.

Yep. happened to the CPU vs me

Just throwing some things together while at work

I think I’ll be using analog batting over zone but it’s still up in the air. I had zero problems check swinging with analog,
which was one of my concerns going in. I know it will take a lot of practice with my team getting each players batting down too,
but I’m looking forward to it.

I have Killzone 3 still shrink wrapped and I probably won’t open it tonight either. I love the demo that much.
Tonight I’ll start messing with some sliders to see how much effect they have.
I loaded my 2010 sliders in and it wasn’t even close to the same. I tested these out using zone hitting for a few “games”.

The lighting and overall “Atmosphere” was great so I can only imagine what the retail will bring.

One thing I noticed was a few players thrown out at 2nd. In real time I swear they look easily safe.
Yet I load up the replay and they are clearly out lol.

I also had a play at the plate where my CF threw home and the throw was at the plate about 3 yards maybe on the 3rd base side.
Catcher stepped up to get it and I dove back to get the runner but missed.

I also loaded up the game and went to 3D…..
Yeah I’ll be playing it in 3D for the most part as it was freaking sweet.
I doubt I can go every game in 3D so I’ll come up with a schedule to use 3D. Maybe the first game of every series or something.
I’ll go as long as I can just to see if I do get “eye tired” with 3D, then I’ll know how long I can go.

There so much I want to do in the demo but can’t as it’s not available so that still leaves a ton of excitement waiting for the retail version.

I played ’10 to death and playing ’11 is night and day for me. Not once did I feel disappointed or had a “this is ’10 with minor upgrade” feeling.

[aces01]

Just got to play the demo, only took 13 hours to download too which is awesome...

I thought, overall, the game played well. I am a huge fan of the new analog controls. Graphically, lighting is great, I haven't gone into extra innings to see the actual night sky, but dusk looks great. Lighting makes a huge difference to me as far as atmosphere, and they did a very nice job with it.

Hitting: When I first heard about analog hitting, I was worried that it would make hitting too easy. I'm happy to see that variety is still there in the hits even though you're not using the left stick to hit anymore. The difficulty seems like a nice balance. As far as "loading" while hitting, I just load when I do in real life (right as the pitcher releases) , and it seems to work just fine. It has a nice smooth feeling while hitting, they implemented it very well. Seems like the balls down the line are curving more, and the outfield definitely seems bigger which is a big plus for me. Looks like we'll be seeing more variety of doubles and maybe even triples.

Fielding: The analog controls here will definitely make the game more interesting on the defensive side, which is a good thing. I didn't find it very difficult, just made one error in two games on the default demo settings. I'm still not even sure how far to charge up the throw to get it green, but I will look into that later. Didn't get a chance to turn a double-play yet which I'm looking forward to.

Pitching: Big fan of the new pitching controls as well. I think the best word for it is just "refreshing". Only pitched with Timmy so far, and he is dominant. There really aren't any complaints here, it's very smooth and will keep pitching more interesting. I was a fan of the meter before, but I'll be changing to analog here.

Overall: The new analog controls are a big hit for me. This is coming from a guy who was welcoming a new change, but I wasn't sure if they would be implemented very well, and they are.

As far as some of you saying that it's 10.5, I can kind of see where you're coming from. I'm not going to bash you because I like the game. It's a definite purchase for me, but if I wasn't going to be using the new controls, I'm not positive I'd make the purchase. If you were just watching the game and not playing, I could see why you would say it is very similar to 10. It does seem like they could start to add some things to make the game feel "different". I completely understand why it's hard for them to do because the game is so good already, but I can also see it from the consumer's point of view because spending $65 means things should change.

For me, like I said, it's a definite purchase. They focused on new controls this year, and I would call is a success. I'm not even really sure where the game can go from here besides presentation, but I'm sure they will find things to add.

[jpup]

I'm enjoying the demo after playing 3 or 4 games.

Quick take on Analog:

Pitching: Pretty Good. Need more game time to get the complete feel.
Batting: I quickly switched to zone after 1 game. I might switch back, but I have always loved zone hitting.

Throwing: Horrendous. I'll probably not touch it again. I just don't like the idea at all.

My favorite thing so far is all the new cameras. Right now I'm using catcher 2 for hitting and broadcast for pitching. It should be much easier to take walks this year based solely on being able to see the ball better.

Certainly looking forward to more time with the demo and March 8 can't come soon enough.

[MinnTwinFan2616]

I really like how when you do a pickoff to first base you get a different camera angle

[CabreraMVP]

I Love the Sky in this game. It transition really well from light, to sunset, to dark. And last year it would get dark after 3 innings, this year it's not dark until later which is great.

The pitching is good and very easy to get used to. I like it.

I like the hitting, and how it feels, but haven't got it down yet. I try timing the step like how I do in real life but didn't have much success.

The throwing system is nice too. It seems a little easy. How do you hit the cut off man?

Overall the game is a big improvement. The lighting and the graphics in general look much better than last year. It's not stale anymore. And the menus/on screen graphics look much more sharp.

I am on break which is nice but I have the flu so playing the game is a little hard. I was looking forward to playing the demo all week but my head is killing me. Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to hit when I'm not sick.