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

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

Yeah you should just pass this years game.....

[Socalbias]

Quote: Originally Posted by blackpuppy

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

Their is one if you go to game settings, but it is more of an oval shape that you use when your using classic hitting controls.

[legend88]

Finally starting to get the hang of analog throwing. Had my first game without an error. Still find turning double plays very difficult. A actually had a throw in the red turning a double play and the first baseman scooped the ball and made the play. I am happy that at least the odd bad throw still gets caught. I've had two throws in the red that were caught by the first baseman on the hop for outs. I also like that yellow throws sometimes pull the guy of the bag and other times they manage to hold on. I wonder if better defensive 1st basemen, like Texiera have a higher success rate at saving bad throws.

[BleacherCreature]

I like the new analog controls.
Hitting is hard but I would rather have it that way than have the game turn into a sunday league softball game.
It's pretty satisfying making solid contact for a decent hit, which I haven't had too many of. I had 1 hit in my first game, 3 in my second and 3 in my third but one of my hits in game 3 was a leadoff double on the first pitch, which has been my only extra base hit and actually the only time I've had anyone on second base.
Throwing isn't too horrible (yet). Only one error on an overthrow to first but I got the guy out when he tried going to second.

It seems this year if there's a ball in the dirt your catcher can kick the thing all over the home plate area. It happened to me with Posey. The ball bounced and he went to pick it up but kicked it up the third base line. The runner wasn't going to advance until that happened. Could be an issue in critical situations though.

Liking what I see overall right now though.
I'm sure I'll be more into it when the snow melts and it actually looks like it could be baseball season.

[BobSacamano]

First, let's get the bad out of the way first, not because the bad is more prevalent but because I think this is stuff that can be explained/fixed:

- I have seen two posters mention guys swinging and hitting pitches that bounced to the plate. One posted a video of it as well. I think it's a glitch since it just happened to me. I was batting, the pitch hit at about the edge of the grass and skipped into the catcher's mitt. I didn't swing and the pitch was called a ball, but it was just barely low. Even Matt said something about the pitch being close. Obviously the pitch was more than just barely low, it hit several feet in front of the plate.

- I'm not sure I "get" analog throwing. The CPU hit a tapper to my pitcher. I flicked the right stick very lightly towards first base, so essentially using as little power as I could. My guy did lob the ball to first, but it sailed over my 1B's head. I was only a few steps from the 1B. I thought the less power you put on the throw, the more accurate it would be. Is that wrong?

- This was complained about a bunch in the past, and I could have sworn I read that it was fixed: CPU hits a tapper back towards the pitcher. My catcher stays in place and my pitcher runs after the ball. The problem is that the ball was a much easier play for the catcher (it was probably a quarter of the way to the mound), and as a result the runner was safe. There was a runner on first base at the time so the catcher didn't have to stay home for any particular reason.

Okay, now the positives:

+ For those of you who say that the analog controls don't breathe fresh air into the series... I don't know what to tell you. I've played this game every year since '06 and this is the first time the game has truly felt "new." Does anyone remember last year's game? There were some new presentation elements but the game was functionally the same as '09. That's not the case this year. The analog controls truly are a new and welcome experience.

+ Speaking of... I love the analog controls. I love that they more closely approximate the actual physical motions made by the players. I picked up on analog hitting really quickly and I think it's because it's so intuitive. Just rock and fire with the player's natural motion. It's really that simple. Pitching is a blast, and I feel like I really work for those strikes. I'm a little iffy on analog fielding because of the issue I mentioned earlier. Also, the throw indicator is a little busy. I would rather have something simple and easy to read on the fly.

+ I've already seen some better fielding animations. An outfielder chased down a line drive in the gap in a MUCH more natural-looking stride, rather than doing that weird "gliding-with-glove-behind-body" catch outfielders used to do quite often. On the negative side, outfielders still do that weird slapping catch on easy fly balls. I'm not sure how to describe it but they basically swat at the ball rather than catch it.

+ Leading and stealing feels much better already. I took a lead and didn't get picked off (hey, new pick-off camera angles, BTW)! And then, even better, I stole second and Posey's throw was so far offline it sailed into CF. Very nice!

All in all I'm not regretting the $60 pre-order, not one iota.

+ The game looks gorgeous. That goes without saying.

[bukktown]

Bob Sacamano! Awesome name!

I haven't had a game past 4 innings. Anybody who has gone to extra innings how long does it take to get to dark sky.

[Agathos]

Tried again tonight. This time I switched teams and played both pitchers. I was terrible last time, but did a lot better this time. No walks, nine strikeouts, and I was able to paint the corner a few times. I have yet to throw a strike or draw a swing with Timmy's curveball, though.

Oddly, Timmy's changeup got hammered whenever I threw it (and yes it was low in the zone), but I was able to use C.J. Wilson's to destroy the Giants lineup. I thought Timmy had one of the better changeups out there, but now I know better.

I've given up on analog fielding, but that was never for me. I play so much RTTS as a pitcher that I'm still surprised when I find myself controlling a position player to field something. Then I push the right stick around at random and bad things happen.

[Giants4Natic]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

Ok so what are you impressions of the game itself or is that not really important