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01-19-2010, 04:00 PM
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#BringBackFaceuary
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MLB 2K10 Questions and Answers (all questions answered in first post)
First things first, sorry if I didn't answer your question. It's not because I hate you, it's probably just because I didn't get an answer or just didn't have time to ask it.
If a mod could update my first post with all these questions and answers I figure it will be way easier for people to read through it. In addition, updating the title of the thread to indicate to people to check the first post for all the questions and answers would be nice. Thanks for all your questions. While it's an arduous process to get back and try to answer as many as possible, they are helpful in that I can better zone in on what I should be specifically looking for during my time with a game -- when multiple people ask the same type of question that's obviously a tip off. And I'm happy to do it because obviously you all being at the site every day is the reason I'm in a position to go to these types of things on a regular basis and so I do work for you all in the grand scheme of things -- not that I should inflate the heads of people on forums, but you get the general idea. The two half games I played were D'Backs (me) vs. Yankees and Orioles (me) vs. Braves -- I just did random select for both sides on the team select screen and played as the home squad. I used Koji Uehara (I think I spelled that right) against rookie redhead Tommy Hanson and Edwin Jackson vs. Javier Vazquez. Lastly, I will be en route back to the east coast tomorrow, so I will not be around the Internet much to check back on this thread. AND, this does count as getting back to you all tonight because I'm on the west coast where it's only 11 p.m. So there. --------------------------------------------------------- Quote:
Played the 360 version so didn't get to see PS3 (forgot to ask about comparison as well, my bad -- might be able to remedy that though). Quote:
I'm not entirely clear on every in and out of the editing system yet, but I do know you cannot give Jeter's stance to A-Rod or vice versa. Same goes for mixing and matching pitching windups. You can change the stances etc. of your My Player. So I think how it works is any MLB player is locked in terms of stance/windup. The explanation I got for why this is ties into the amount of animations that surround the swing animation for a hitter. Since each A-Rod animation (walk-up, swing, pre-pitch) sync into each other, the developers didn't want users changing one part of the hitting stance because it would make the other animations look wonky when they led into each other. And since they took a lot of criticism for how the animations looked last year, they wanted to make sure everything looked realistic in the first year when syncing together -- it seems like in the years moving forward you'll be able to edit this stuff, but I think perhaps the animation style they had in place was not ready to adjust for when you mix and match the animations. I didn't ask the follow-up at the time, but I assume you can change your My Player because he's not "real" and so they don't subject him to the same requirements because they give you customization over look in this case. Quote:
Yes, you can play the minor league games (and you'll see MLB players down there on rehab assignments and also other MLBPA players who just are not good enough to be on MLB at the time). I believe the stadiums are still pretty much all generic. Quote:
Maybe be a little more specific here? I can say that the commentary is now dynamic during a Franchise and during MLB Today games because the same type of tech from NBA 2K is under the hood there in terms of what the announcers reference from real life and what's going on in your own franchise. Quote:
It has been addressed again in that they reworked the surrounding systems (the stats and hitting/pitching mechanics). Maybe tell me what you would like to see from MLB 2K in terms of the duel and I can better describe whether or not I experienced that. Quote:
1. No, during my experience the AI hitter did seem interested in working the count -- I walked 2 batters during my 9 innings of gameplay. (While I understand why you asked the question -- the AI swung at everything last year -- I do think it still will come down to the user deciding to try to still paint the pitch or give in and throw something towards the middle on a 3-2 count, for example. But, like I said, the CPU took walks in my time with the game, but you have to throw balls to get walks as well.) That being said, I do think your pitcher's confidence and your ability to handle the pitching meter will tie into your ability to throw or not throw strikes more than it has during the past few years. 2. What specific animations bothered you the most? In general, the animations do sync together better this year, but I just wanted to know if there were specific ones you disliked more than others so I could be more specific. 3. Forgot to ask, sorry. 4. It seems better this year. I didn't drop any balls in the OF, and preloading throws looks and feels right -- I think preloading throw will nullify a lot of those quick-throw animations that really looked weird last year. Near the start of my session, I forgot I could preload a throw as I went to the left with my SS and picked up a ball, and it seemed like the game expected me to do so. The result was my player came to a stop before throwing, which looked a little odd. But later when I preloaded a similar throw the fielder kept moving to his left and made the toss while on the run. 5. Stealing is improved in that now the trigger should always respond when you try to steal -- it was a bit buggy last year if I remember correctly. The system also is changed a bit in that you now still hold the trigger until the controller rumbles to steal, but now you release the trigger when the pitcher is about to go/or has just started his pitching motion. If you release the trigger early you will leave the base before the pitcher starts his motion -- obvious problems arise if you do that for the most part I would think. The pitcher also will vary his windup times -- so he won't always start his motion to the plate in the same amount of time. I failed miserably when I attempted to steal with Adam Jones (bad jump). 6. Yes, you can. 7. So, obviously, small sample size for me. But I can say a couple things and relay a few others. First-hand experience shows me that stamina and confidence do tie more into your accuracy. It's going to be harder to paint corners when your meter is going bonkers or you're tired because the meter starts to go at a quicker pace -- those being two examples. The whole Joel Pineiro vs. Daniel Cabrera discussion is another point. Now if you're absolutely nailing the meter and motion, I'm sure you're going to have some success with any pitcher in terms of accuracy, but even then, there are attributes at work that simply won't allow some pitchers to paint the corners -- at least that's the promise. It seems like the timing and accuracy windows will also vary based on the rating of each pitch and how much control a pitcher has in general. Another nice thing is, if you are battling against an AI pitcher with bad control, if he misses the zone, he's more likely to miss the zone by a wide margin. Whereas when a good control pitcher misses, he might just be barely missing the zone. 8. When you botch a pitch, it seems dynamic this year. If I overthrow a fastball, it seems like it might just fly high out of the strike zone. If I throw a curveball and botch the pitch in a way that would lead to it going way down and outside it will go there. If I botch the pitch in a way that would leave it hanging over the middle of the plate that will happen as well. Quote:
-As one of my biggest pet peeves last year, I obviously was on the lookout for this from the start. The frame rate looked pretty locked in at 30 when a ball was hit to the OF. I mean it's not 60 frames per second or anything, but it's not chugging and I didn't notice any noticeable slowdown in the OF during my time with the game. They also took out the turbo for the fielding, which I like -- it's ratings-based now. As for fans, I didn't hit any foul balls that hugged the perimeter between in play and out of play, so it's hard to say. When I would hit a ball foul into the stands the fans certainly were still moshing around the foul ball. -As I kind of mentioned above, the infielding animations generally look better but you can ask a follow-up on this and maybe I can be a little more specific. Quote:
Are you talking in terms of creating players? I don't know if there is a cap or what it might be either way, but just so I know for future reference -- I can perhaps get something like this answered by a developer moving forward. Also, what was the cap last year? Within franchise mode those stats are dynamic and can change over time. It seems like they also were somewhat wary of sample sizes (probably not wary enough if they really want to ding Longoria after just 16 at-bats, but that could just be the stat nerd in me talking). But I say the developers were somewhat wary because if you bring a rookie up, his zones are not all going to be ice cold if you start 0-10 in the majors, and at the same time, if you start 0-3 versus a pitcher, you won't immediately be worse against him than you would be versus another pitcher. How noticeable these under the hood ratings boosts/detractors are during specific matchups remains to be determined since you're not going to really be able to decipher that for quite a few games and matchups. Quote:
1. Cursor hitting is still there, but I believe it hasn't changed at all. I also believe the zone hitting is now defunct as an option. 2. Ha, I'll be honest, I kind of forget what the meter looks like because they all sort of mesh together in my brain right now. Was 2K9 where the meter would fill up in like yellow or whatever, or was that two years ago? What didn't you like about it and maybe I can give a better answer from there. 3. It's easy to see all the stats, you just press right on the D-pad to go through the various stat breakdowns. And pitch counts will flash up on top of the screen during gameplay (as well as the balls/strikes breakdown). And the hot/cold zones for each batter flash up at the beginning of the at-bat as well. Quote:
1. I can't say how often it shows up for each type of hitter or if it's even an arbitrary/set number. It showed up a couple pitches in a row sometimes, other times it showed up once and then another time later in the at-bat etc. It won't show up for every hitter, I do know that much for certain. When it shows up, you see the pitch type in text form, but it's not overly descriptive -- "fastball" could mean 4-seam or 2-seam, cutter (depending on the pitcher's arsenal) and the same goes for when "breaking pitch" flashes on the screen. You also get a quick blue flash that tells you whether it's inside, outside, up or down. The nice part is the flash telling you where the pitch will be does not mean the pitch will automatically be a strike, so you can't just gear up and get ready to mash something because the pitch may be a ball. 2. I was surprised by how much I liked the new swing stick in my limited amount of time with it. Last year the swing stick was a joke because you could just mash HRs and rock the swing influence. And in that same line of thought, I never bought into the swing stick in any of the other MLB 2K games because I just never saw the point of it over the buttons. While buttons could still work even in the style they now are implementing, I do see inherent reasons to use the stick over the buttons in this particular hitting style. While I'm hesitant to anoint anything in such a small sample size, the new swing stick at least passes the smell test for me. I'll mention more in a second in terms of the swing types etc., but let me respond to the rest of the question first. There is no check swing this year. Obviously, that's a bummer, and I figure next year it will be back on a trigger or something. Now, as for the different types of swings (most of this info is according to answers from the developers): -You can hit home runs with the contact swing, but your timing has to be spot on. -Home-run hitters are home-run hitters, contact hitters are contact hitters. It will be very hard to use the power swing and be effective with slap hitters because it seems like not only is their power diminished, but the timing window will be smaller if you use a power swing with a contact-oriented guy. And at the same time, you won't be doing a service to your contact hitter if you're not using the contact swing to get that high average. -The defensive swing still ties into contact ratings, and when you make contact with the ball, does not automatically equal a foul ball when you use it. You can simply dribble a ball up the middle of the infield etc. So the obvious risk/reward here in a situation is you might hit an easy grounder for a double play when trying to simply foul off a pitch and stay alive. -The AI uses all the swing types. An example the developers talked to me about involved Todd Helton. When Helton has two strikes on him, he goes into defense mode and will really battle you while trying to find a pitch he likes -- so it ties into ratings in this case in terms of what AI batters will battle you harder than others. -I see a definite argument arising in terms of IF it will be possible to go up thinking you can just read and react rather than deciding before a pitch is thrown what type of swing you will take. Is anyone's reaction time going to be good enough to think "I will contact swing if it's in one place, but defensive swing if it's in another"? I do think it will devolve into a guessing game of sorts. In my play time, I relied more on the count, situation and player to decide before the pitch what swing type I would go for (assuming it was a strike). As I get more skilled will I be able to read and react more? Is it necessarily a bad thing if you can't just read and react? I'm not sure on these points. -It should be way harder to pull an outside pitch for a home run, and the swing influence seems to have been gimped quite a bit (was too effective last year). It seems like you will have to nail your timing and not try to pull outside pitches and so forth. 3. The sound was down on the TV as I said earlier today, but they said they did address the sound of the bat-on-ball sounds, and I mean while the TV was low, I still would have been able to tell if the sound was super arcadey, and I didn't get that sense. 4. Once again, hard to know for most of this since the TV sound was down. However, the developers did say they worked on when the crowd should get hyped and so on. 5. They recorded new lines for Thorne and Stevie, and while I heard Kruk faintly, the sound on the TV stops me from really saying too much in general. The developers did say Kruk adds his own charm/goofball element that obviously is different from the very professional styles that Stevie and Thorne have. Quote:
-Rule 5 is not there, arbitration is not there. There are Type As and Bs, but they automatically cost a draft pick when signing them since there is no arbitration element. I can't answer most of your other questions at this time, but I do know the rosters expand in September. Quote:
They changed the camera angle while at the plate so it's a little lower this year. I think since the camera angle is more centered it will be easier to read pitches. I walked 3 (or maybe 4) times in my limited playtime, so I was able to read pitches relatively well. As an aside, I walked on four pitches once, and also was down 1-2 before battling back to get a walk another time, so there was some variety in there on that front -- and at least part of that has to tie into how I was able to read pitches. Quote:
1. I think the stadiums, grass, cloth physics etc. look pretty solid. I think they got a lot of faces right this year as well (some did seem pretty off on the more low-level guys as well). I think, in general, the faces throw me off not because they are inaccurate likenesses, but because the textures on the faces don't seem to be up to snuff. I don't think the general color palette and art style bothers me as much as it did in the past though. It now just seems like they need to add more detail to faces moving forward to catch up with how some of the other stronger areas of the graphics look. 2. I think it will be a strong point if you liked it last year then. I mean simply adding MLB 2K Today will make the commentary way more awesome -- if you've played NBA 2K you know why I would feel that way. Quote:
1. I believe the same face tool that is in NBA 2K this year is in MLB 2K. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure. 2. Yes, you can turn off at least some of the indicators (not sure on if it's all or not). But one example is if you don't want to know a fastball is coming, you can turn off the strike zone and you'll no longer get that indicator. 3. Sorry, forgot to ask. Quote:
1. I'm not sure on the roofs point, but there are not rain outs or stuff like that this year. 2. Not sure I know what you mean. 3. Not this year, but they seem to want to get that stuff in going forward. Quote:
1. Talked about this a bit above, but yes the fielding does look smoother, which I think partly plays into the more consistent frame rate as well as the work on the animations. 2. Like I told another poster above, be a little more specific and maybe I can help describe a little better for you. In general, "feel" is tricky in that it's even more super subjective than a lot of the other stuff I may like and you may not like, so that's why I ask for a little more description on your end. 3. I didn't notice any serious delay or anything when the ball hit the bat. They did add some new walk-up animations etc. for hitters. Obviously with no check swing this year, your half-swing question does not apply. 4. Hard to get too much of a gauge on the real-time improvements at this point, but I didn't notice any of those whacked out bugs in my time with the game. With a full development cycle this year, the developers seemed to hint at the fact that they were trying to get a lot of that type of riff-raff out of the game. 5. Don't know much about online at this point. I do know you can play your single-player Franchise games online against another user like in NBA 2K, so I hope the lag is better because I loveeee that feature in NBA 2K. 6. Ha, like your pitcher/batter question it's hard to answer something that broad. Did it play like The Bigs? No. Quote:
Yes, descriptions are in this year (praise Jebus). I even saw them with my own eyes to make sure. Quote:
I am not a uniform buff, so not sure what to say on that one. As for the second question, I didn't notice the batting helmets looking incredibly silly, but now that I think about it, I didn't really look too hard. I think is partly because I was listening to developers while playing as well as trying to look at a million other things so my attention span was stretched to the max -- as it tends to be during play sessions like these (it's not the same as sitting on your couch at home and playing). Quote:
Animations: I think one of the main things they tried to focus on was making one seamless animation for a lot of the fielding moments, rather than a bunch of animations syncing together. Editing: I believe a lot of the editing tools at your disposal are the same ones from NBA 2K this year. In NBA 2K, the addition of My Player ended up benefiting real players because you could do more with them by extension. I don't think you can edit salaries etc. like in NBA 2K but I think you can mess with equipment. Not sure on the faces. Physics: Zone hitting appears to be dead like I said previously, but since timing windows are a way bigger deal this year, I think you will see more hit variety than in the past. The developers mo-capped a lot of two-man animations and so on, and the head-on collision I saw looked great because of it, and also the tag-out animation I saw on an attempted steal by me looked good as well. I didn't ask specifically about ball physics in the field though, sorry. As for how a game plays in Fenway versus. Petco, I didn't get too much insight on this topic either, but I think even if the developers had said something, that will have to be something you have to experience over a pretty long period to know for sure. AI: I felt like in my small sample size the AI was doing what it should. In the Yankees game, Granderson actually stole third on me -- I was not expecting it so he got there easily, and I also didn't keep an eye on him at second so I don't blame him for going. I also previously mentioned the Helton example that the developer gave me as a certain player battling more than another would -- so I think that ties into your non-physical ratings question. As for the fielding. The feeling I get is if you get to a ball, you can make the play in terms of catching or fielding it. It may be a bit reactionary because of all the randomly dropped outfield balls last year, but I guess that's somewhat expected. What I did talk to the developers about was the "speed" in the field. A player who is a great baserunner and has great speed on the basepaths will not necessarily have amazing range as an outfielder because he might not make great reads and have a high fielding rating -- inherently it's harder to make you as the user make a bad read, so your fielder's speed rating might be hurt in the field because that's one way to make sure you don't just sign/trade for a bunch of fast guys (they also have to have defensive ability to use that speed to their advantage). Quote:
Ha, I didn't notice the dust clouds. Quote:
The developers were not exactly sure, but I think most games that start at 4 will still end up in darkness. That being said, they were talking about there being like 15 (rough number) or so different ways a game will progress in terms of lighting etc. so it should still vary a good amount. Quote:
I assume you mean the blur factor for the distances? I didn't notice such a heavy dose of blur factor for the crowd in the background if that's what you mean, but I can't say I was looking for it too hard either. Quote:
Yes, I did get to see a walk-off celebration. The walk-off was still a little buggy in the version of the game I saw -- the game kept cutting to replays rather than showing the player coming to the home plate, but it's there now. Crowd noise hard to gauge due to low sound. Also don't know about the celebrations after clinching games etc. Quote:
No payoff pitch, and the ratings of each pitch will not vary within the game. Instead your confidence/lack of it and stamina will be more your general gauge -- you won't have confidence in one pitch but not another, though, each of your pitches is still rated etc. so if you have a good fastball it will continually be more effective than your low-rated curveball. Quote:
1. I don't believe so. 2. Yes, they said they tuned the sliders so even slight tweaks should be noticeable. Quote:
I didn't feel overwhelmed. Hard to say whether they are more complicated or not. Is it considered overwhelming when there are no options to make controls less complicated, or is it overwhelming when by default you have to do something a specific way? Quote:
You know I didn't notice any, but don't know for sure. Quote:
My first at-bat with Stephen Drew I hit a double down the line that went into the corner (it ended up being one of the only two extra-base hits I had during my whole time with the game *sniffles*). Quote:
1. Ummmm, good question. I think on my double with Drew there was some tail to the ball, but hard to say at this point overall. 2. I thought the uniforms looked solid. I think they did a lot of good work with textures/lighting on the exterior elements this year. Quote:
There's a definite difference right away because the pitching and hitting mechanics are tweaked at a core level. It didn't feel like a bad change. Quote:
I didn't have any instances where I felt completely betrayed by the responsiveness of the controls. Way back up in this question and answer session I mentioned how during one instance with my SS the animation looked a little odd because I didn't preload a throw I should have -- that's probably the most noticeable instance I ran into.
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Don't look at me, I'm hideous. Last edited by PVarck31; 01-22-2010 at 03:31 AM. |
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01-19-2010, 04:03 PM
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#2 |
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MVP
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Re: MLB 2K10 Questions
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E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES FLY EAGLES FLY |
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01-19-2010, 04:06 PM
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#4 |
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LADetermined
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Re: MLB 2K10 Questions
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01-19-2010, 04:21 PM
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#6 |
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Hall Of Fame
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Re: MLB 2K10 Questions
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01-19-2010, 04:26 PM
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#7 |
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Animal Liberation
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Re: MLB 2K10 Questions
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Ⓥ Boston Red Sox | Miami Dolphins |
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01-19-2010, 04:33 PM
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#8 |
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MVP
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Re: MLB 2K10 Questions
Does the AI swing at everything this year?
Are the animations smoother? Can you change the fielding camera at all? How is fielding in general? Did they improve stealing at all this year? I liked the stealing controls last year, but the stealing itself was hit and miss. Can we still revert to the old school pitching controls? (button only) is it still too easy to pitch with insane accuracy even with pitchers who are known to lack in control? What happens when you "miss" a pitch? (mess up the gesture) Does the AI automatically clobber it or is it just a ball or what? Thanks Chase!  Last edited by jeffy777; 01-19-2010 at 04:40 PM. |
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