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

[sbmnky]

Color me impressed! I was looking forward to analog everything and the SD team did not disappoint. Bravo to them for giving us many options for this demo - I don't recall having this much control over a demo in years past.

I've played about 7 'games' and only one as the Giants and got shellacked - I think is because I have a moral compass that gets all switched around when I play as the Giants! Most of my games have been playing as Texas.

Some quick thoughts:

Pitching: I love that I can control the speed of my pitch with the RS. I've had much more control is setting up my punch out pitch and I'm seeing batters chase more balls out of the zone. I'll definitely mess around with the accuracy once the retail version drops - I still feel like I have a ton of control playing on HoF and that my misses aren't missing badly enough.

Batting: It is going to take some getting used to, but when I finally established a good camera to hit from (similar to Blzer's - gotta love the slightly off-set camera!) I started to get into a good rhythm timing the ball and recognizing pitches. I'm still striking out too much, but that's cause I suck!

Fielding: This is the best implementation, imo. I played a game on Veteran and had to bump it up to AS. AS is tough and I can't wait to bump it up even further. It's gonna take some time before I stop jamming the RS to the base I want to throw to - I usually do this on hot smashes when I have more time to make an easier throw. I'm starting to get a feel for this and I love that I control the speed and accuracy (to some degree) of my throws. It took me a couple attempts to dive with R2 - I was so used to using the RS for dive in years past. The ability to stop a throw is great. Kinsler ranged into the 3-4 hole to get a ball in short RF and I jammed the stick to 1st and the circle indicated it was going to be offline, so I reestablished my throw and barely got the runner - I think Sandoval was running. That's awesome!

As always, I'll turn the commentary off - I usually get distracted by what they say and I take it personally!

I'll be 100% analog this year. The new cams are awesome and custom cams is ingenious!

This game feels fresh and new. I can't wait to play the full version in a couple weeks.

[Masswhole]

Ive noticed a couple glitchy animation transitions. One being after Wilson walked a guy, he had a seizure then snapped into the "receiving the catch from the catcher" position.

[JermaineDye05]

Wow. Definitely a learning curve with the analog controls.

Positives and Negatives for the DEMO (I feel I should point this out, because this is merely a demo. I don't expect the final product to be identical to this):

Positives: You're in control

-In my first inning I gave up 9 runs, walking about 6 people. I also had the funniest bad throw ever. It was a lob that just sailed way over the first baseman's head. I literally laughed out loud because of how horrible it was. I really like how everything is now our own doing.

-Player models look much sharper too.

Negatives:

-Someone mentioned this earlier, but there was a glitch with the bases loaded when a pitch bounced in the dirt to Posey and then he got up, but I couldn't move him or Lincecum. I just had to wait until it timed out. No runners advanced thankfully.

-Also mentioned before: The crowd behind homeplate was pretty blurry.

-With exception to the player models it LOOKED like MLB 10.

-Baserunners still don't have numbers in the running window.

Remember this was only a DEMO, so I figure the bugs and the visual issues will be fixed once the final copy is released. I don't know about the numbers on baserunners, but that's hardly a gamebreaker and like last year, really not that noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Really thankful SCEA released a demo. I think the demo wasn't so much meant to show us how good the game looks. I think it's mostly to give us a feel for the analog controls for when the game eventually drops. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a long way to go before they're ready to play a full 9 innings with analog controls.

I will definitely be buying the game when it comes out, though there really was never a chance of me not buying it.

[andrewochs615]

after either striking out or grounding out every at bat and throwing my control i switched to timing hitting. Im going to wait until the hit tutorial video is out and til the game comes out to use batting practice mode to get analog hitting. I mean i didn't expect much since i can barley hit well the old way on rookie with very favorable sliders lol

[blackpuppy]

I thought there was supposed to be cursor batting in this version? Is it in the demo?

[enyc718]

I only played 1 inning and boy was my pitching horrible with the analog! BUT, I enjoyed it. It gives pitching a different feel. Just like many other things in life, just have to get used to it. I got a couple of hits, again I only played 1 inning. NOW, fielding is what really got me. I caught myself pressing circle, and triangle many times. Game flowed pretty good. I'm definetly copping this game on the 8th. I'm sure a couple of patches after release day and this game should be near perfection. Love it!

[Ronstr]

Positives:
- Day to night transition, the sunset looks great!
- Eric Karros and Matt D's conversation, it made the game seem more realistic.
- Analog pitching, the motion is very fluid.
- The little things, helmet name tags, custom cameras

Negatives:
- Ananlog batting, couldn't get the timing down at all
- Analog throwing, it's probably because I'm still used to buttons, I threw the ball to home a couple times when I intended to throw to second. It also couldn't really connect with the running motion, I tried a running throw from about 60 feet from 1st to home and I got stuck in the wind up and a run scored.
- Background graphics, crowd looks like PS2 graphics (but it's probably because it's a demo)
- Tim Lincecum's hair, it looked like Timmy used a bit too much hair gel on his hair.

[analogdan]

Honestly, not sure how I feel about it.

The crowd right behind home plate looks abysmal. Why couldn't they provide good textures for the crowd you see 90% of the game?

There are still no numbers on the backs of players who are running the bases in the upper right hand corner.

The textures of buildings off in the distance are extremely poor. If the game devs are going to focus on the buildings behind the stadium at the start of the game, why not spend time making them look at least mediocre? Why put the most poorly rendered building in the middle of the center of focus when introducing a stadium?

The back of Nelson Cruz's neck looks like a twisted piece of clay. Tim Lincecum's hair looks like a spiky piece of plastic. Ian Kinsler's helmet sticks way too far out from his forehead. Josh Hamilton's batting stance doesn't look natural or realistic.

Personally, I'm just not that happy with the update so far. Analog controls are ok, but there's a pretty steep learning curve (at least for me).

Anyway, I'm on the fence about buying. We'll see. I'll probably rent first.