MLB 15 The Show News Post

MLB 15 The Show: Directional Hitting Impressions

12:21 PM - April 1, 2015 by RaychelSnr

This year there is a new hitting mechanic in MLB 15 The Show called Directional Hitting. The idea behind this system is rather simple. It's basically timing hitting with the ability to influence the directions of your hits by pushing the left stick in a certain direction.

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Game: MLB 15 The ShowReader Score: 9/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS Vita / PS3 / PS4Votes for game: 31 - View All

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Member Comments

# 41 IceNHL @ 04/01/15 02:39 PM

Can you still predict the pitch to increase chance of contact/hit/HR?

# 42 aukevin @ 04/01/15 02:41 PM

I had a good inning last night using Directional Hitting. I started the inning off down 1-0 with a double and then successfully influenced the ball to the right side to move him over to third. Luckily the ball found a whole and I had runners on the corners. Then I started influencing fly balls to get a sac fly. That fell and I tied the game and got another runner to third. Influenced another sac fly. Using the mechanic in good situations that inning led me to a 4 run inning of mostly small ball. I liked it a lot.

# 43 cactusruss @ 04/01/15 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemesis04


	While you can do this approach this is not the intention of the mechanic.

Well whether they intended it to work that way or not, that's how it works, for me at least, and it's the most fun I've had hitting in a baseball game since MVP 2005.

Even when it was just timing hitting, I still always moved the stick to the direction the ball was going while swinging. I know that in previous games moving the stick did absolutely nothing with timing hitting, it just feels weird to me to not touch the stick at all while swinging unless the ball is right down the middle.

# 44 billyo @ 04/01/15 02:52 PM

nemesis04, or anyone who knows...hit and run with man on first using directional..is this correct? As the pitch is thrown, I push to the stick right side to induce a right side grounder to the hole and hold the stick through the swing?

OR just push the stick to the right and then let it go before the pitch?

Thanks

# 45 cactusruss @ 04/01/15 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyo


	nemesis04, or anyone who knows...hit and run with man on first using directional..is this correct? As the pitch is thrown, I push to the stick right side to induce a right side grounder to the hole and hold the stick through the swing? OR just push the stick to the right and then let it go before the pitch? Thanks

Hold it the whole time, don't let go.

# 46 Dolenz @ 04/01/15 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cactusruss


	Well whether they intended it to work that way or not, that's how it works, for me at least, and it's the most fun I've had hitting in a baseball game since MVP 2005.

Hey, I'm all for people playing however they have the most fun. But you did just have one of the development team say.

"why would he do that it's not zone hitting."

It does seem like you are trying to use it as a simplified Zone hitting, but if that is what works and makes the game fun then I say go for it.

# 47 nemesis04 @ 04/01/15 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyo


	nemesis04, or anyone who knows...hit and run with man on first using directional..is this correct? As the pitch is thrown, I push to the stick right side to induce a right side grounder to the hole and hold the stick through the swing? OR just push the stick to the right and then let it go before the pitch? Thanks

If the batter is a righty you would shoot to the right because the second baseman will create the hole breaking to cover second. I would angle the left stick down and to the right and hold for the ground ball. Going just dead right could cause a line drive situation where you could get doubled up.

# 48 cactusruss @ 04/01/15 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolenz


	Hey, I'm all for people playing however they have the most fun. But you did just have one of the development team say. "why would he do that it's not zone hitting." It does seem like you are trying to use it as a simplified Zone hitting, but if that is what works and makes the game fun then I say go for it.

Well I just don't get why they changed it from last year then, since pre-loaded directional influence was already in the game. But whatever, I guess they just accidentally made a great way to hit in this game.

# 49 torpidbeaver @ 04/01/15 03:12 PM

I'll also be one to admit I didn't fully grasp Directional hitting as a tool, I think because of the change of angle on the batting camera - it made it seem as though my guy was "looking" for a pitch at a certain spot, rather than trying to influence the ball's direction.

So I've been sorta using it like a simplified PCI, and my results have been mostly good.

Maybe I needed more explanation from the game as to how it was different from timing? I know "Direction" is in the name, but it seems like I'm not the only one who was confused.

# 50 CaseIH @ 04/01/15 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cactusruss


	It's like hitting in MVP... you move the stick as you're hitting. And just because the ball is on the outer half of the plate (as a right handed hitter) and you push the stick to the right, that doesn't mean the ball is absolutely going to go to the right, it all depends on timing too. Same with moving the stick up, down and to the corners. It feels a lot like I remember hitting in MVP... and that's a good thing. Actually, having just read the review, it seems like the reviewer is doing it different... hold the stick up (or wherever) before the ball is even thrown. I suppose you can do it like that, if you really need a fly ball or something, but if the pitch is down and away, hold up is going to make getting good contact a lot harder.

I cant remember how MVP was since its been so long, other than that's the 2nd best baseball game ever to MLBTS. Had a lot of fun with that game, and was so upset when they quit making it and I had to deal with that crap MLB2k, never seen a game so bad as those they attemptedto make for baseball.

Didn't think I would like the new hitting for analog when they 1st told us, but after playing only 2 games, I have to say I really enjoy it,an d thinkt they did a great job with it.

# 51 sink4ever @ 04/01/15 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cactusruss


	Well I just don't get why they changed it from last year then, since pre-loaded directional influence was already in the game. But whatever, I guess they just accidentally made a great way to hit in this game.

Actually no, they said the mechanic was actually removed a couple years ago.

# 52 cactusruss @ 04/01/15 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sink4ever


	Actually no, they said the mechanic was actually removed a couple years ago.

It was in the game last year... at least the game manual said it was and the controller vibrated when you did it. If they actually took it out, but left it in the manual saying it was there and still had the controller vibrate, that's pretty shady.

# 53 Heroesandvillains @ 04/01/15 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA


	why would he do that it's not zone hitting.

That's what I was asking! We're finally on the same page!

# 54 NC12 @ 04/01/15 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RLebron12


	I completely agree. I only played baseball up to 9th grade and even I understand what the directional hitting is used for. Runner on first, you want to hit and run so you want to hit it between the 1B and 2B. You are a right handed hitter, before the pitch you would push the left analog to the right to cover the right side of the plate to push the ball that way. If the ball is on the inside of the plate you would either 1) Let the pitch go by and hope your runner steals the base successfully 2) Swing anyway and have a higher risk of a not as good contact swing. But if the pitch is down the middle or towards the outside of the plate and you time your swing down you should have a higher success rate of hitting it to the right side. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

THANK YOU! Someone finally gets it lol

# 55 Gagnon39 @ 04/01/15 03:40 PM

From the sound of things and communicating with some of you guys on here, it does, in fact, sound like directional hitting is basically MVP's hitting. Which, if completely true, is the greatest thing for baseball video games in my opinion. However, there seems to be some disconnect still (at least with me) for what the developers implied about directional hitting compared to the perceived similarities to MVP's hitting engine.

In the video streams I remember them using directional hitting and talking about how it really helps certain approaches. Like, we've said, say you've got a 3-1 or 2-0 count, you can sit on that fastball inside, or wherever. On the videos it showed them holding the analog down in a particular direction, basically looking for that location. If it wasn't there, they didn't swing.

I guess my question is this, why would you EVER do that? Why not watch the pitch and try to pick up on where it's going and THEN move the analog stick in the correct direction? It seems completely useless to ever move in a particular direction until after the pitch is thrown.

I'm going to tinker with directional some more tonight for sure but as it stands I think I'll be turning the camera shift and the yellow indicators off. That way it's practically MVP's hitting engine. Recognize pitch, adjust, and swing.

# 56 aukevin @ 04/01/15 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	From the sound of things and communicating with some of you guys on here, it does, in fact, sound like directional hitting is basically MVP's hitting. Which, if completely true, is the greatest thing for baseball video games in my opinion. However, there seems to be some disconnect still (at least with me) for what the developers implied about directional hitting compared to the perceived similarities to MVP's hitting engine. In the video streams I remember them using directional hitting and talking about how it really helps certain approaches. Like, we've said, say you've got a 3-1 or 2-0 count, you can sit on that fastball inside, or wherever. On the videos it showed them holding the analog down in a particular direction, basically looking for that location. If it wasn't there, they didn't swing. I guess my question is this, why would you EVER do that? Why not watch the pitch and try to pick up on where it's going and THEN move the analog stick in the correct direction? It seems completely useless to ever move in a particular direction until after the pitch is thrown. I'm going to tinker with directional some more tonight for sure but as it stands I think I'll be turning the camera shift and the yellow indicators off. That way it's practically MVP's hitting engine. Recognize pitch, adjust, and swing.

I definitely had to turn the camera shift off. That was messing with my strikezone awareness too much.

My challenge with this mode was when I recognized a pitch down in the zone, a lot of times I pressed down out of Zone mentality habits. This made it tough batting against a sinker ball pitcher when I was trying to stay out of a DP.

# 57 RogueHominid @ 04/01/15 04:22 PM

Is there a definitive developer statement about DH that explains how it works with reference to specific situations?

# 58 RLebron12 @ 04/01/15 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gagnon39


	From the sound of things and communicating with some of you guys on here, it does, in fact, sound like directional hitting is basically MVP's hitting. Which, if completely true, is the greatest thing for baseball video games in my opinion. However, there seems to be some disconnect still (at least with me) for what the developers implied about directional hitting compared to the perceived similarities to MVP's hitting engine. In the video streams I remember them using directional hitting and talking about how it really helps certain approaches. Like, we've said, say you've got a 3-1 or 2-0 count, you can sit on that fastball inside, or wherever. On the videos it showed them holding the analog down in a particular direction, basically looking for that location. If it wasn't there, they didn't swing. I guess my question is this, why would you EVER do that? Why not watch the pitch and try to pick up on where it's going and THEN move the analog stick in the correct direction? It seems completely useless to ever move in a particular direction until after the pitch is thrown. I'm going to tinker with directional some more tonight for sure but as it stands I think I'll be turning the camera shift and the yellow indicators off. That way it's practically MVP's hitting engine. Recognize pitch, adjust, and swing.

Because of its a 3-0 count...you don't just swing at any pitch in the strike zone you want YOUR pitch. So for me depending on the batter I would probably expect a fastball and would want to pull it so I would move the directional hitting to my pull side and if it's in my zone that I am looking for I'm taking a hack at it. If not I'm not swinging even if it's a strike. Players do that all the time, just like when they are looking for a certain pitch in certain situations. But of course you don't use this for every pitch

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 59 BL8001 @ 04/01/15 04:38 PM

| <- |.....| -> |

It works like that. You divide the plate in 3rds.

As a righty you are covering either middle in, middle (the plate) or middle out.

If you want to hit to the right side you would look middle out, shifting the camera over and now this is your new eye zone. Now anything located middle or out can be taken to the right side with a higher percentage.

From what I have seen, this doesn't mean it will go to the right side automatically even if all the stars align, it just raises the chances significantly.

If you sit middle in as righty if a righty throws a slider off the inside of the plate you should feast on it.

Think of this as a direct way to attack pitching. A pitcher can bend the ball in or out or down or throw it straight.

If they are cutting or sliding the ball you can now raise your chances of hitting those pitches by selecting where you choose to hunt.

# 60 DJ @ 04/01/15 04:38 PM

I've used Directional Hitting a few times so far and am really impressed with the mechanic. Each time I've approached the AB with a specific plan in mind, whether that be trying to hit a grounder to the right-side to advance a runner or looking on the inner-half of the plate if a pitcher is pounding that area of the strike zone or I am up 2-0, 3-1 in the count.

It really adds a nice layer of strategy to an already amazing game.

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