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

[speels]

Played my first game last night on default as the Giants. Lost 1-0 in 7 innings. Lincecum only gave up 3 hits all game, but I misplayed a hit in the outfield as I was in a hurry to gun the runner out at home, and missed the grounder completely.

I love all of the analog stuff, it actually makes me feel like I am in the game. I do need a lot of work on hitting though as I struck out 17 times in 7 innings. Need to layoff the balls outside of the zone as the CPU had 92 pitches and only 5 were called balls.

[nomo17k]

I was not gonna try the demo but since the download can proceed while I'm in bed I thought why not. MLB 10 was my first so I cannot comment on how the series has improved and such either. All the guys in this thread have a lot to say in common so I'm not going to repeat them as well.

There is one thing I wish to add on the analog control though. I really like the learning curve that the system introduces, as things can get pretty repetitive quickly with "traditional" button press control system.

However, has anyone wished that there is a way to adjust its "natural movement" of analog? The cool thing about the analog stick is that you can go in any direction, unlike d-pad which is only capable of specifying several predetermined directions. However, the analog *does* have its natural position, which is when it sticks right up at the center. The analog stick has a tendency to resume to that position.

When I use the analog for pitching and hitting, this somehow makes it difficult for me to push the stick in the desired direction.

Naturally, my thumb does not move forward and backward as defined in the controller, its forward movement is more like from the bottom left to the upper right. So if I want to paint the outside low as a pitcher (as seen in pitching view vs RHB), I feel I need to make an unnatural move with my thumb. If I just move my thumb naturally, then the pitch tends to go inside. Similar thing happens with hitting.

I think one possible solution is to "calibrate" the analog stick with user's natural thumb movement (just as you need to each time with Move), and set that as the "zero point" which, in the case of pitching, defines the "down the middle."

What do others think? I guess I can take this as a learning curve thing, but everyone's thumb naturally moves differently I believe, so it might help people to feel more natural with analog.

Just my opinion.

[Visionsofmastery]

Texas I can help you get to 300 hitter dangerous hitter with analog.
The Human Brain when training and is conscious can only focus on 1 thing while trying to perform something. It is when it becomes a automatic that we can handle more than 1 action. Now here is what I would like for you to do

1.Put the show 2011 demo back in
2.Never pitch keep going to pause and keep it on the team at the plate
3. Start with 0-0 count and visualize moving the analog crisp as the pitcher toes the mound,
4. Watch the windup and wait until he gets into the pivot point where his body is aligned right before he is about to thrust forward.
5. As he thrusts for 0-0 practice only your stride for 0-0 0-1 0-2 , strike out! These are the most common counts where you will feel pressure and I want to eliminate that first.
6. If you go up 1-0 take a swing on the next pitch
7.Once you get comfortable with your stride on 0-0 0-1 0-2, I want you then to work on getting the count to 1-0 by swinging at 0-0 good pitches and then take 1-0 2-0 2-1 3-1, the reason for this is sometimes you don't have a great hitter at the plate and letting you time a positive count strike early in the game can pay off huge in the middle late innings when the pitcher knows he has to throw a strike and you have his timing for that count.
8. Then move on trying to get the count to 2-0 before taking pitches

This will help you learn a few things
1) What your fear level is in baseball counts
2) What counts you get the feel for zoning in
3) Chase alot less breaking balls and timing will be on and when off able to adjust by keeping hands back.

Remember the key is don't pitch just keep switching the pause menu to the next team at the plate. Before you know it you will be calling your shot

Quote: Originally Posted by TexasBorn1

Whew, the analog throwing is killing me. Two errors in one inning...its gonna take me some time to get used to it and I will because I like the challenge. Analog pitching is a lot of fun as well Hitting, I couldn't hit anything not even pitches down the middle so I will be using timing based hitting only. I am not much of a baseball guy(but I love The Show been buying it every year since 07) so I have a tendency to swing at everything just hoping something good happens. Maybe when I get better I will give analog hitting a shot

[Big Shmooz]

Well, here is my initial impression. First, let me say I played so far only two innings.

On first look the game itself seemed to me to be the same as last year. (opening scene of the stadium) Then I noticed the players.The players do look a bit more natural. However Lincecum's hair kinda looked weird. I guess it is the stiffness. (non animated)

I will focus first on the graphics & things I noticed, then on the gameplay. Then on the sound.

Graphics.... Besides the Lincecum hair thing, I also noticed a weird thing on a CPU generated replay of the batter swinging & running out of the box. His shoes were bent where the toes meet the main body of the foot in a very unnatural way. (almost doubled up on to the rest of the shoe) I also noticed when Lincecum was walking around off the mound, he kind of glided on the grass rather than walked at certain points. Then I also noticed that while walking he was stepping off the mound yet his stride did not match the downward angle of walking off the mound. He kind of looked as if he was walking on a flat surface. (his feet did not angle downward)

Also, clipping still exists, as I saw the batter walk up to the plate & simply partially walk THROUGH the catcher on his way there.

On the other hand, on batted balls I noticed the sheer smoothness of the ball physics as it moved down the field. Even on foul balls. It was truly an upgrade from previous games. I liked that alot.

I also like how the ball bounces off the catchers chest protector on balls in the dirt.

I am a little disappointed that the colors of fielding gloves still seem to be a bit off in the upgrade department. (the almost "yellow like" color of the gloves some fielders use is still not in the game. The ones you see in the dugout scene post game in MLB 10 & they were the "brown colored" gloves in MLB 09)

I do like the idea of so many multiple cameras both for hitting & fielding & yes, I agree with others who like catcher view #5.

Gameplay.... First let me note that I played with the game defaults.

I found the pitching shall I say... interesting. I, like others, feel it is something to get used to. Mind you, I am not against using this. In fact I actually am leaning towards continuing to use this mode with the full game. But it does take some getting used to. (which is fine) I have always used meter pitching. (which I happen to have liked) But this does add a new dimension to the game that makes it more "dynamic". (if that's the right word)

In fielding I found myself making stupid mistakes such as not throwing the ball after fielding it, due to not being used to the control scheme of full analog. But I know these things will get better over time so this does not worry me.

I feel the need to repeat here how much I love the physics of the ball in the sense of gameplay. (in addition to my inital point made in the graphics area) This is something I feel that is very essential towards enjoying the game in a game like baseball & in this sense the game does it very very well.

I do wonder though why after a pitchout when I tried to throw the ball to first with my catcher, the ball did not throw even though the throw seemed to load up properly on the meter. I don't believe I canceled the throw since I did not simply tap it, I held down the right analog stick towards first base. Anyway, I am not going to judge this based on one time. Perhaps it was user error & I simply am not realizing it.

As far as the sound is concerned, Karros does sound different to me also, but not in the same way that some others have mentioned. In fact he sounds to me like he is closer to the microphone than the other announcers. I feel that is the best way to describe what I am hearing.

Personally I don't know why people did not like Hudler, but I guess that is personal preference & one can't debate this from a logical standpoint.

Anyway, this is my initial impression.

One more thing I would like to say. The very first pitch I got in the game, I hammered a line drive single past the shortstop a bit to his left. So I am thinking, what are people talking about here saying how hard they find it to hit? Well, after that hit, I could not get another one in the rest of the inning nor in the next. Now that itself is not that big a deal. What is the big deal, is that I don't believe I made contact on a ball in those two innings more than two other times.

So yes, I agree that hitting timing is something that I am going to need to get used to.

[jd369]

I havent gotten to play the demo yet, but I see Buster Posey got a new stance this year (looks good), after only one season in the bigs. Makes me wonder how come some of the other stances that have been off on players that have been in the league for years cant get corrected as well, especially ones that are much further off that his stance from last years game was.

[B-Man1985]

Hey fellas, new to the boards LOVE the site!

I've played about 10 games and FINALLY won. Everything has a learning curve which is awesome it makes the game competitive and unique. Reminds me of the old Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution SOccer series on PS2 where you played each new iteration and for the first few days it was frustrating and ya hated it. But after sticking through the learning curve and getting a rythm for how everything works you realize how immersed you are into the gameplay and how deep the game is and this year's MLB The Show does that for me.

Good stuff SCEA, already have my game pre-ordered at Gamestop

[MLB Bob]

Just finished playing an 8 inning game. I was hoping for a full 9 innings but hey we're only suppose to get 4. I got a pitching change too, not my pitcher but lincecum was pulled for Mota..1-0 Texas. I was hoping to see Wilson or his beard, they said he was up in the pen..but SF didnt score and the game was over. I love the 4 button hitting options..power, contact, defense and bunt..able to work counts better..for me anyway

[legend88]

I have now played 5 games and there are a few issues that have come up more than once that I can say need to be fixed. That super quick tag animation for last year has reared its ugly head again. 3 times during my last game a guy was clearly safe and then my 2nd baseman does this light speed tag and the guy is called out. The animation looks really awkward and was present last year. Base stealing is definatively easier this year, but may actually be too easy now. I have stolen 14 bases so far and have only be thrown out once and that was because I stole with a slow guy and didnt take a lead. Andrus was stolen 3rd twice already. Hopefully it is not too easy to steal this year, because this game will become a steal fest especially online. Have yet to be picked off even once. CPU still throws over alot, especially with quick runners but they have not caught me yet even with a 2 stride lead. I am a little concerned about this. Anyone else notice stealing is too easy?