News Post

Baserunning is Still my Achilles Heel

12:41 PM - August 11, 2008 by RaychelSnr

Do you have a specific aspect of a sports video game you just cannot do well at? For some it might be manual catching in football games, for others it might be making slick moves while driving the paint, and for some it could be running the bases in baseball. Patrick Williams explains why baserunning is still his Achilles heel in sports gaming in his article today.

Quote:


	"When taking a fresh-out-of-the-wrapper sports game for its initial ride, you know the game is going to have a learning curve. For some gamers this can be frustrating. Often, however, it can also be very rewarding and help give the game lasting appeal. Generally, I consider myself to be above average at sports video games. Years of playing the real sports and their video game counterparts have helped in this regard."

Game: MLB '08: The ShowReader Score: 8.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / PS3 / PSPVotes for game: 97 - View All

Member Comments

# 1 greenngold01 @ 08/11/08 12:52 PM

Theres certainly a learning curve, but I have no problems running the bases, judging what's a double or a triple (granted I get thrown out sometimes, but that's baseball)

One problem I have is on wild pitches, the camera sort of swings around from the catchers point of view to the outfielders point of view, making a 180, and I stumble on that all the time. I can usually get the man from third in to score, but if there are other runners on I usually don't have time. I know somewhere there is a button to send all runners, but I never think of it spur of the moment.

# 2 Blzer @ 08/11/08 01:06 PM

Here's an easy way for baserunning... use the analog sticks.

Left-stick advances runners, right-stick retreats runners. Press it a specific direction (up, down, left, right) to guide them. And yes... I can think of a reason to send a runner back from first. To send them all, click the left stick. To send them all back, click the right stick.

To slide, hold L2 (or L-trigger) and use the left-stick for feet first slides (left/right are hook slides, up/down are take-out/pop-up slides), and use the right-stick for head-first slides (left/right are hook slides, up/down are standard slide/take-out catcher).

To stop runners, hold R2 and either stop an individual runner with the right-stick (which I have yet to see in a video game), or click the right-stick and stop them all.

I don't see why that doesn't work just fine.

# 3 rockbottom3 @ 08/11/08 02:27 PM

Im not so good with baserunnig as well never have been..don't know why?

# 4 HechticSooner @ 08/11/08 02:39 PM

Actually I think that baserunning is also the hardest thing in real baseball. Of course certain times it is easy like the last little story, but look how many baserunning errors appear in real games. Quite a few in the Majors and that is where they are supposed to not make errors period. So I always put the difficulty of baserunning in my head as the difficulty to communicate with the players running the bases and the first and third base coaches... of course I could be just bad at it like the author and making excuses.

# 5 Blzer @ 08/11/08 02:48 PM

Baserunning errors in real life baseball come from making the wrong decision as to whether or not you should run, not that you accidentally ran or you forgot how to run back. Big difference, IMO.

Plus, most of them come from poor fly ball judgments, and in most of these games there's a landing target for people to know where it's going to land beforehand. The issue is in the controls.

# 6 Pappy Knuckles @ 08/11/08 05:34 PM

I'm in the same boat w/ baserunning.

# 7 sput @ 08/11/08 09:19 PM

I play MLB 2k8 and half the time I feel like I'm running with the Bad News Bears. On the average I get in about two or three pickles a game. I think the problem is that baserunning controls (as Blzer's post above demonstrates) aren't always terribly complicated, but are overly complicated for the period of time in which you use them. Think about it, in baseball managing the running is probably the most excitable period of time and, therefore, the most difficult to have complete control over your faculties.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

-J

# 8 Heshi @ 08/12/08 05:57 AM

I suck at baserunning as well. Big time. I thought it mainly was because as a Euro kid that didn't grow up playing baseball video games all day I just wasn't used to the very fast and accurate controller shredding that you need to guide your guys around the base paths.

Now I know it's the game's fault. Thank you.

# 9 Jgainsey @ 08/12/08 06:15 PM

I usually suck at b-running, but I like the new controls for the show. When I first purchased the game I went through the usual growing pains, but I think the new controls are pretty intuitive. I can't even remember the last time I was screwed over by the base running.

# 10 stretch45 @ 08/12/08 07:56 PM

2k8 baserunning is simple
use the left stick to control the runner
and face buttons to the bases
right stick slide

but I would like know how the MLB08 baserunning is
classic baserunning i suck at

# 11 Jgainsey @ 08/12/08 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stretch45


	2k8 baserunning is simple use the left stick to control the runner and face buttons to the bases right stick slide but I would like know how the MLB08 baserunning is classic baserunning i suck at

Sounds like it's about the same. The left stick selects the runner and the face buttons tells the runner which base to go to. R1 and L1 control multiple runners and the right stick can control sliding.

# 12 tril @ 08/13/08 12:55 AM

Through out my baseball gaming career I have lost many games cause I cant run the bases well.

My main problem with base running in MLB for me is that after I hit along fly ball into the outfield, I tend to watch the ball. What should eb a double or triple usually winds up being a single, or an out cause Ill still try for two even after I realized I only made it to first.

# 13 SDwinder @ 08/13/08 07:33 PM

Controlling individual runners at the same time in The Show 08 is a pain using the New system. It is one thing to hit the run all button, but when you want to tell one guy to go and one guy to stay, it gets overly complicated and unintuitive.

MVP 05 PC had it down great. They used the D-Pad to tell your runner to go to the next base or pre-load him to take an extra base or two. You would select which runner you wanted to give a command to with the diamond shaped face buttons, so it was very intuitive. I could control multiple runners very easy without having any issues.

I never heard any complaints either about this system. You still had your shoulder buttons to run all or go back all, but being able to choose a runner on first quickly with a face button and then press the left D-pad to tell him to go from 1B to 3B on a single, and then while he is doing that on his own, switching to the batter to see if you can go to 2B if the throw goes to 3B.

It just worked and was very intuitive for normal right brained thinking people. We need this option in future baseball games. I would love it if Sony would do a patch to put this in the current The Show 08.

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Baserunning is Still my Achilles Heel