11:48 PM - January 10, 2010 by dmbfan1970
DAY 2
First thing we did was play a FULL game when I arrived today. Russell would choose the Minnesota Twins and I chose the St. Louis Cardinals (No Holliday). After playing him yesterday for 5 innings and only seeing a run between us I knew we were going to be in for another pitcher's duel. Starting Pitcher Brad Penny (Cards) and his opposing pitcher(Slowery? - Not sure if it was him or Baker) would battle it out for 7 innings. In the 4th(thereabouts), Slowery would give up a lone solo HR to Bengie Molina. Molina got ahead in the count and hit a knee high curveball into the LF bleachers. This would be all the Cards would need. The Twins had a couple opportunities in the game but their biggest came in the bottom of the 7th when Span would lead off with a base hit. Mauer would come up and drive one DEEP to LF-CF to the track but it would be hauled in by Rasmus who had to run a long way and Span was caught by a hair as he was almost to third base. Penny was on top of his game with 8 K's. Penny's curveball was hitting the low strike zone early in the game but was falling out of the zone later and Russell wasn't able to lay off. Penny also threw inside fastballs for K's on a few occasions that locked the Twinkies out. The Twins next opportunity to score would be when Penny was taken out of the game. Ryan Franklin would be pulled with a runner on 1st and no outs in the 9th. Motte came in and slammed the door. The Cards other run came on a bases loaded 3-1 pitch by Pat Neshak (I swung too). Neshak was MASTERFUL. I couldn't figure out the submariner who was just plain hard for me to pick up the ball out of his hand. I believe Russell had 10 hits to my 8.
An outstanding game and Russell was a First Class Act taking the loss. I wouldn't have expected it any other way!
OBSERVATIONS:
There is no quick pitching!!! The pitcher cannot hit a button to speed up ONLY the batter!
Saw 2 fans at the same time down the RF line reaching over the wall near the ground trying to scoop foul ball.
PITCHING
The meter looks the same but somehow just feels better. It does seem to penalize you worse the more you miss the meter. But the good part about it is when you do hit the meter you are hitting your spot, near or very near where you wanted the ball to end up. When hitting pause you can observe each pitch and it will tell you near or very near or not.
Fireworks display after hometown HR are only if the team actually does it in real life (i.e. there wouldn't be any for the New York Yankees.
GRAPHICS
Now that I've seen the game again I conclude that they are close in comparison to last year's graphics. I'm used to ONLINE which isn't nearly as good as OFFLINE graphics. However, this isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. It's still more immersive to me this year due to the LIGHTING. It's easier to see the ball too. The animations are so smooth and there are many many new ones. I think the game is drop dead gorgeous.
BROADCAST VIEW
This is for you to decide. You may or may not like it. Your choice. There were a couple times where we should of made plays on balls but for the most part its not too difficult and after some more practice maybe we both would of made those plays.
There were new stat overlays that I hadn't seen before. I really couldn't tell you what any one of them were because for the most part we sped through those. I do recall one about about average mph for both starting pitchers.
AUDIO
The last day of CES wasn't so busy and therefore we could hear it better this time as you'll see in the videos. The crowd is WAY more lively for the home team.
OTHER THINGS
The sign in MIN will be animated when the game is released. I know someone asked that question.
Saw the 3D version of the game and as Rman said it is pretty cool. Have no idea if it will play on current PS3 with firmware.
The video recorder I was using is 720P. Have no idea why the contrast was blooming in these videos. The color therefore isn't as good as my previously posted videos.
Videos ( Keep checking back here as video links will be posted here. Some are lengthy so the videos probably won't show up for at least another 40 minutes)
1. Rman/Chris playing (Throwing strikes purposely):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFb-XssPbn0
2. Daylight Transition #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYVmHpM0PBg
3. Daylight Transition #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwjrivvGp_w
5. HR Derby #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q40UCtcvI5U
6. HR Derby #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDdnVEWorY
7. Pitching Knockout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbXcLf_HkPY
8. Pitching Training/Simulation Game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz-YdybNF6g
First thing we did was play a FULL game when I arrived today. Russell would choose the Minnesota Twins and I chose the St. Louis Cardinals (No Holliday). After playing him yesterday for 5 innings and only seeing a run between us I knew we were going to be in for another pitcher's duel. Starting Pitcher Brad Penny (Cards) and his opposing pitcher(Slowery? - Not sure if it was him or Baker) would battle it out for 7 innings. In the 4th(thereabouts), Slowery would give up a lone solo HR to Bengie Molina. Molina got ahead in the count and hit a knee high curveball into the LF bleachers. This would be all the Cards would need. The Twins had a couple opportunities in the game but their biggest came in the bottom of the 7th when Span would lead off with a base hit. Mauer would come up and drive one DEEP to LF-CF to the track but it would be hauled in by Rasmus who had to run a long way and Span was caught by a hair as he was almost to third base. Penny was on top of his game with 8 K's. Penny's curveball was hitting the low strike zone early in the game but was falling out of the zone later and Russell wasn't able to lay off. Penny also threw inside fastballs for K's on a few occasions that locked the Twinkies out. The Twins next opportunity to score would be when Penny was taken out of the game. Ryan Franklin would be pulled with a runner on 1st and no outs in the 9th. Motte came in and slammed the door. The Cards other run came on a bases loaded 3-1 pitch by Pat Neshak (I swung too). Neshak was MASTERFUL. I couldn't figure out the submariner who was just plain hard for me to pick up the ball out of his hand. I believe Russell had 10 hits to my 8.
An outstanding game and Russell was a First Class Act taking the loss. I wouldn't have expected it any other way!
OBSERVATIONS:
There is no quick pitching!!! The pitcher cannot hit a button to speed up ONLY the batter!
Saw 2 fans at the same time down the RF line reaching over the wall near the ground trying to scoop foul ball.
PITCHING
The meter looks the same but somehow just feels better. It does seem to penalize you worse the more you miss the meter. But the good part about it is when you do hit the meter you are hitting your spot, near or very near where you wanted the ball to end up. When hitting pause you can observe each pitch and it will tell you near or very near or not.
Fireworks display after hometown HR are only if the team actually does it in real life (i.e. there wouldn't be any for the New York Yankees.
GRAPHICS
Now that I've seen the game again I conclude that they are close in comparison to last year's graphics. I'm used to ONLINE which isn't nearly as good as OFFLINE graphics. However, this isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. It's still more immersive to me this year due to the LIGHTING. It's easier to see the ball too. The animations are so smooth and there are many many new ones. I think the game is drop dead gorgeous.
BROADCAST VIEW
This is for you to decide. You may or may not like it. Your choice. There were a couple times where we should of made plays on balls but for the most part its not too difficult and after some more practice maybe we both would of made those plays.
There were new stat overlays that I hadn't seen before. I really couldn't tell you what any one of them were because for the most part we sped through those. I do recall one about about average mph for both starting pitchers.
AUDIO
The last day of CES wasn't so busy and therefore we could hear it better this time as you'll see in the videos. The crowd is WAY more lively for the home team.
OTHER THINGS
The sign in MIN will be animated when the game is released. I know someone asked that question.
Saw the 3D version of the game and as Rman said it is pretty cool. Have no idea if it will play on current PS3 with firmware.
The video recorder I was using is 720P. Have no idea why the contrast was blooming in these videos. The color therefore isn't as good as my previously posted videos.
Videos ( Keep checking back here as video links will be posted here. Some are lengthy so the videos probably won't show up for at least another 40 minutes)
1. Rman/Chris playing (Throwing strikes purposely):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFb-XssPbn0
2. Daylight Transition #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYVmHpM0PBg
3. Daylight Transition #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwjrivvGp_w
5. HR Derby #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q40UCtcvI5U
6. HR Derby #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDdnVEWorY
7. Pitching Knockout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbXcLf_HkPY
8. Pitching Training/Simulation Game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz-YdybNF6g
. I went and did what I did because I love the game and wanted to see it first hand and then I shared with everyone here. 
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