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

[Heroesandvillains]

Quote: Originally Posted by jemens

I found that too. Nice addition with the PCI. Contact swing provides more strategy. I'm expecting to always use it in the NL when pitchers batting. Unless when they're in a bunting situation I think that should result in less strikeouts, what do you think ?

Absolutely!

Okay, I know the question wasn't for me, per say, but not only do I plan on using it all of the time with pitchers, but I may almost exclusively use it with slap hitters too.

Great feature.

[swaldo]

I think the All-Star pitching could use a little tweaking. The first time I played the game I was missing alot on the analog upswing but noticed the CPU wasn't hitting my mistake pitches. Well, I just got done playing a game and what I did was purposely miss on every single pitch and here are the results...

Lincecum: 5 IP / 7 H / 2 ER / 7 SO

Wilson: 5 IP / 1 H / 0 ER / 3 SO

TOTAL: 10 IP / 8 H / 2 ER / 10 SO

So that's a 1.80 ERA with every pitch being way off. For example, if I aimed high I would purposely overthrow, if I aimed low I would underthrow, if I aimed inside I would move the stick to the left so the pitch would go towards the middle. So basically I played the game as normal but used the meter to get the pitch as close to the middle of the plate as possible. Now that doesn't mean every pitch went right down the middle - that's the good thing about analog because it's hard to place it right where you want.

I don't have a big problem if I miss fastballs because it's hard for anyone to hit 95 mph perfectly even if it's in the middle of the plate. The problem is when I hang changeups and curveballs to Josh Hamilton and he does nothing with it. Lincecum threw 85% of his pitches for strikes and Wilson 79%. At that rate the CPU should've been hacking.

In conclusion I think what needs to be done is this...

1. Moderately increase penalties for off-speed mistakes
2. Slightly increase penalties for fastballs

The good news is that you can make a mistake but if it's on the corner the CPU will still have problems with it. And I understand I can go to HOF level, but this really should be veteran level the way it's playing.

This issue aside, I'm loving analog pitching now.

[Heroesandvillains]

Swaldo,

I was feeling a little too comfortable on AS...

Until, over my last 7 IP with Lincecum, I gave up 12 Runs (over 2 games, including back-to-back dingers to open my first game).

I'm not saying I won't end up on HOF...but my last two games have been humbling to say the least.

FWIW, I turned OFF the pitching indicator (the name of the setting escapes me...the one where you don't see the MPH or ball landing zone after the pitch) and I also turned OFF the API.

Why haven't you tried out HOF yet?

[swaldo]

Quote: Originally Posted by heroesandvillians

Swaldo, I was feeling a little too comfortable on AS... Until, over my last 7 IP with Lincecum, I gave up 12 Runs (over 2 games, including back-to-back dingers to open my first game). I'm not saying I won't end up on HOF...but my last two games have been humbling to say the least. FWIW, I turned OFF the pitching indicator (the name of the setting escapes me...the one where you don't see the MPH or ball landing zone after the pitch) and I also turned OFF the API. Why haven't you tried out HOF yet?

Yea, I can also mess with sliders but we all want realistic default sliders no? That's why I posted the results. If nothing changes and I see the same results on AS I'll have to adjust somehow. Thus far my "normal" games always seem to be 1-0 or 2-0 with the runs most often coming from a HR. I cant wait to see how things go with poor pitchers.

[Heroesandvillains]

Quote: Originally Posted by swaldo

Yea, I can also mess with sliders but we all want realistic default sliders no? That's why I posted the results. If nothing changes and I see the same results on AS I'll have to adjust somehow. Thus far my "normal" games always seem to be 1-0 or 2-0 with the runs most often coming from a HR. I cant wait to see how things go with poor pitchers.

Even though results from a test like yours COULD appear troubling, I just play the game it was designed...trying to hit my spots and such. Those are the results that matter to me, and the one's I'll base any difficulty changes or sliders on.

I'd prefer Default difficulty if possible. I'm not really giving up enough hits, though. But, if I were to include my 2 games with Lincecum, sandwiched between a gem with Wilson, my hits allowed per 9 I'd gather is still a tad too low...but close.

But I'm with you. Number ones are definitely capable of giving up less than 1 hit per inning..the true test will be with 3, 4, and 5's.

I have to say, Default AS plays a pretty realistic game of baseball in the demo for the most part. If it's any indication of the retail version, I'd say it's the most realistic Default I've seen in this series thus far.

[HoozierDaddy61]

I played the demo and my first thought was "This doesn't look much better than last year. However, I played last year's version right after I finished the demo and I stand corrected. It looks a lot better graphically than 2010. I LOVE the new analog controls although it will take some getting used to. I struck out 8 x's in my first game!! Looking forward to March 8th and creating classic teams again!!!

[Russell_SCEA]

Quote: Originally Posted by swaldo

I think the All-Star pitching could use a little tweaking. The first time I played the game I was missing alot on the analog upswing but noticed the CPU wasn't hitting my mistake pitches. Well, I just got done playing a game and what I did was purposely miss on every single pitch and here are the results... Lincecum: 5 IP / 7 H / 2 ER / 7 SO Wilson: 5 IP / 1 H / 0 ER / 3 SO TOTAL: 10 IP / 8 H / 2 ER / 10 SO So that's a 1.80 ERA with every pitch being way off. For example, if I aimed high I would purposely overthrow, if I aimed low I would underthrow, if I aimed inside I would move the stick to the left so the pitch would go towards the middle. So basically I played the game as normal but used the meter to get the pitch as close to the middle of the plate as possible. Now that doesn't mean every pitch went right down the middle - that's the good thing about analog because it's hard to place it right where you want. I don't have a big problem if I miss fastballs because it's hard for anyone to hit 95 mph perfectly even if it's in the middle of the plate. The problem is when I hang changeups and curveballs to Josh Hamilton and he does nothing with it. Lincecum threw 85% of his pitches for strikes and Wilson 79%. At that rate the CPU should've been hacking. In conclusion I think what needs to be done is this... 1. Moderately increase penalties for off-speed mistakes 2. Slightly increase penalties for fastballs The good news is that you can make a mistake but if it's on the corner the CPU will still have problems with it. And I understand I can go to HOF level, but this really should be veteran level the way it's playing. This issue aside, I'm loving analog pitching now.

All-Star was made easier this year while HOF and Legend where bumped up a bit in difficulty. However if people think its to easy we have already discussed tuning updates for all pitching and hitting options.

[mrgoodkat]

Im underwhelmed. And honestly, I kind of think that a lot of what was implemented this year could have been so a bunch of years ago. Nice to have, but I'm counting how much money I have spent in waiting for some common sense improvements. And such is the balancing act as a sports game developer, and as a consumer. As I'm the latter, I'm having more trouble ponying up the money every year.

And with so much coming out this spring on all the platforms, I think this might take a backseat this year. Im weary of having to do so much 'customization' to make the game truly complete after purchase. It isn't fun. Got old many years ago. And then you have to wait on the wonderful community here to get everything squared away which doesn't appear to be getting any more streamlined through experience.

There really is no reason not to wait a month or two at least, and pick it up for cheaper, if at all. I'm sure the bug will get me, but I really am not looking forward to the list of chores needed to be done to round out the game.