OS MLB 09 Day 2 Community Day Impressions - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

OS MLB 09 Day 2 Community Day Impressions

Posted on January 30, 2009 at 12:40 PM.

(5)

The first blog was getting so long that I'm starting a second one, only with community leader comments, impressions and answers about MLB 09 The Show. They will be at Sony headquarters from 10 am to at least 8 pm Pacific time.

Updated as of Friday 11:00 PM EST (Jim is back and giving info)

Community Leader Comments

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Knight (#114)
-Differences in level difficulties......especially legend.
Be prepared. You must simply stay focused. It's punishing. I'll try and get more specific info.

-Sliders...greater degree of variance? Yes ..some. More importantly, they all work.

-Injuries...especially gameplay? Yes...I'll ask Kolbe if I can be more specific though. This slider works

-Do catchers take their mask off? No

-Is there rain or drizzle? No

-Interactive bullpens with players on bench? No...and no CPU pitchers warmin up ...but!...there will be more CPU mound visits to let you know that a RP might be coming in.

-Collision detection? No player to player...and once explained to me...it makes sense. I'll ask how much I can elaborate. But there are more animations in the game to deal with "collision detection".

-Any tweaking to calling pitches? Undetermined. I haven't got enough time to be sure. It feels better...but honestly, I don't think I can get enough full games in to give a definite answer on this.

-Will there be more doubles and triples? GUARANTEED

-Can more balls be hit over the OF head? GUARANTEED

-Balks? No

-Can you cancel a throw to a base and redirect it to another or cutoff? Not in animation...once you hit it...it will go to that base.

-If I hit the ball down the line...can I get more doubles (stretch one out)? Yes.....there is much more going into this....this year. The new routes...the hot shots...You WILL see a difference.

-Have foul tips/check swings been improved? I believe they have...I need a little more time with it.

-Has the 3-6-1 DP been fixed? YES-YES-YES!

-Doubles?(again) YES!

-Will coaches catch foul balls? no...and no ball girls/boys either

-Have wild pitches/passed balls been cut down? Yes. Still there...but they worked on that.

-Is there more of a sense of urgency to get outs? Yes. Especially on legend. The baserunning slider will also pump up the CPU runners considerably.

-Is there any change to the picoff mechanic? Yes....a lot of work on this.....more animations...better logic.

-Does fatigue effect performance? Yes. Right from the man himself....but it's not drastic (thankfully!)...a slight hit to performance attributes...but it's mainly an injury hit. Play a guy too low on durabiltiy and the injury chance increases greatly. YOU CAN PLAY A GUY FATIGUED w/o a big hit in his on field performance.

-Is there an option to set battery mates? No

-Manager tendencies? not yet (not that they said they might...but I'm pushing

)

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Nemesis (#124)
The way the outfielders approach the ball is an absolute thing of beauty. This detail opens up the extra base hits in the game. This detail works both ways for cpu and user.

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Nemesis (#12 in Pasta thread, on if he has seen any new cracked bat animations)
I have not seen any broken bats yet. I will be on the look out.

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Jim (#203)
I just walked out of the studio. First there are no Charger cheerleaders and no Hooters, we've been with the game all day. I'll start posting some stuff piecemeal.

Nemesis and I played a game mano y mano on Legend. He beat me 4-0. I think he had six hits and I had five. The beauty of the game was the three balls hit over our outfielders heads and one ball in the gap that the OFer couldn't get to. This is f-i-x-e-d..

I played the CPU on legend and lost 6-1, however Soriano dropped a ball in left field and I misplayed a fly ball resulting in 3 runs, or it would have been 3-1. Thing is I adjusted the default sliders and the DO work. So it appears you can play LEGEND default, make THAT even harder or by upping the sliders, or making it easier by lowering them, if you know what I mean.

Jim (#205)
You will notice a big difference in pitch types this year. The curveballs had us oohing and ahhing when we were striking out on them.

Jim (#209)
Beau Beashore, your first/last names are in the data base.
Plesha, sorry, didn't see it.

Jim (#210)
No wives. Knights is snowed in in New York. We've done nothing but this game since we've been here, we just didn't have access to a computer except for back here at the hotel.

Jim (#213)
There is an AUTO LINEUP fix this year that they really worked on. I experimented with sending some starters down and bringing up a player that would be a bench player and when I let the AI decide the lineup with AUTO FIX (several teams), it all looked good.

Just as an example, here was a Cardinals batting order in the game.

Schumaker
Kennedy
Pujols
Ludwick
Ankiel
Glaus
Molina
Greene

I put Pujols in the minors and brought up some AAA guy and hit AUTO FIX to see what it would do. The lineup was like this....

Schumaker
Duncan (brought in to replace Pujols)
Ludwick
Ankiel
Glaus
Molina
Kennedy
Greene

Experimented with several teams and saw nothing funny (like last year having Derek Lee bat lead off).

Jim (#214)
Pitchers FIELD!!! I took a screen capture of Kevin Gregg stabbing a ball up the middle....behind his back! There were several plays where the pitchers made really good plays on balls back up the middle.

Jim (#220)
There's an opening in the RF corner (wall) at Wrigley, that has a screen. I had to laugh because you could see cars driving by on the street. They have added a TON of presentation.

I grounded into four double plays when playing Knight. Everyone as smooth as silk.

Jim (#222)
Here's Milwaukee

Weeks
Rivera
Braun
Fielder
Hardy
Hart
Lamb
Cameron

I experimented and sent Weeks down and AUTO FIX gave me this.
Hart
Rivera
Braun
Fielder
Hardy
Lamb
Cameron
Hall

Jim (#226)
Someone asked about the pennants in Turner Field lacking the years. They now have the years noted.

I LEFT MY NOTES WITH KNIGHT....SORRY...HE'LL POST MORE DETAILS, ALONG WITH NEM/PARED/PASTAPADRE later.

Even Dolphin stadium looks great now. You won't believe how eye popping the stadiums are. The condos behind center field in Petco, whoa, have the proper depth of field feel.

Jim (#230)
No homerun derby.

Jim (#231)
Franchise PMs will be answered here by Knight (at the minimum). He dove into it and seemed really pleased with what he saw.

Jim (#233)
PM asked me to compare and rate 08 to 09. Let me tell you, it would be hard to go back to 08. The gameplay has been tweaked so much. The game just pops out at you with all the upgrades. I'm telling you it's absolutely solid. Nemesis, and I, when playing were looking at each other and just smiling when we played.

Jim (#236)
No generated pitch counts.

The mascots show up in the stands, for instance the Friar showed up on top of the dugout after an awful inning by the Padres. You don't see them on the field. It's situational.

Jim (#237)
Dodgerfanatic. Breath easy, I've always just swung the bat. The sliders work.

I saw two balls hit off the batters hands, breaking both bats. Both balls looked like wounded ducks barely making it over the infielders heads, one down the first base line, the other over second. There's a lot more hit variety and I saw at least one big Texas leaguer drop between two outfielders.

Jim (#238)
Pitchers pitches are now listed in the editor as MPH, for example Fastball 89 MPH, but you still slide the slider to get to the speed you want.

Jim (#239)
I don't see players walking into dugouts, but I do see them walk out of them. For example, watching a pinch hitter walk up the stairs with his batting helmet in his hand, walks up the steps, puts his helmet on and walks onto the field. It seemed to me that there is a quicker transition when players come off the field as I don't remember seeing anyone just standing next to the dugout railing.

Jim (#241)
Night games improved....ooooooooooooooooooh yeah. The entire feel of the stadiums, the lighting, the transitional lighting is just awesome. I was playing a game at Wrigley and couldn't take my eyes off all the people walking around in the level to the left of the big scoreboard. The atmosphere of the stadiums, night and day, greatly improved.

Jim (#244)
Balls down the line are flat out doubles. Now ones that aren't hit that far aren't necessarily, it still depends on how quickly the outfielder gets there, but you whack a ball down the line, you got two.

Jim (#245)
Hit a high pop up down the right field line. The ball landing marker showed it was going to be a few feet foul. I ran over to catch it a few feet in FAIR territory. It got blown back onto the field.

Jim (#249)
I'll let Nemesis explain LEGEND mode as he finally beat it. It's fun and it takes LOTS of concentration on that level. The way the pitched balls react this year is a really biggy.
I was batting against Gil Meche and I tell you I had a sweet smile on my face striking out against his curveball. You'll have to experience it to enjoy it. Sweet.

Jim (#251)
Pared will probably chime in more with sig stuff. But Youkillis looked great, Dempster turning his glove over, etc. Dempster is a hoot, but I'll let someone else who knows more chime in with that.

Jim (#255)
The pitches that are in MPH are just one number. A pitcher who throws 87 will have a built in variable so that he also might throw 88, 89, 86, 85, that kind of stuff. The editor for MPH goes from 0-99 being the highest, but the 99 has a variable that will allow that pitcher who throws that hard to also reach 100, etc.

Jim (#258)
I didn't notice the clouds moving, but they're there. Overcast days really capture the feel.

Jim (#260)
No SCEA didn't kick us out. These guys were flat out fabulous. I played one dev, Pared was playing Russell and they were hooting and hollering, etc. They actually came in and watched us play in case we picked up on anything. Long chats, they were really, really receptive and explained some things about collision detection that I didn't know and might share at a later date, but just the things they do to get lighting depends on reflections off the ground,off a colored wall, etc., etc., etc., a tremendous amount of programming and coding to do all the things we say "this can't be too hard to put in"

Jim (#268)
Okay, more detail on the lighting. I don't know what else to say, you start a day game and the shadows may go across the field, start one at dusk it will the turn dark and lights come on. Just think of the lighting this way......like in real life. They have captured this to a tee.

Jim (#270)
So you know. There are things that we flat out can't discuss. Hope you understand.

Jim (#276)
Okay, I'm heading home. The other guys should chime in shortly, no they aren't going drinking, didn't do that last night, but they do have to get up super early to catch an early flight out, I think they leave at 0800 PST.

Comments

# 1 jmik58 @ Jan 30

Has anyone said if the durability issues were fixed? For example, in last year's game the computer would ask to sit players after less than a week's service. Basically they tired WAY too fast.

# 2 rudyjuly2 @ Jan 30

Knight just said that they fine-tuned it from last year for fatigue. He did make it sound as though you will be able to play players longer than before. He also said that even though a player could be completely tired, it will have very little affect on his performance attributes. The biggest thing will be injuries for players with low durability. I'm not sure though if the cpu will constantly be telling you to sub guys out or not.

I agree that certain guys play almost every single game. There are many players that miss less than 10 games a year and hopefully after playing all day today we will find out. Jim said he started a Nats franchise. I'd be curious to see if he was allowed to continue it and how fatigue played out.

# 3 Speedy @ Jan 30

Rudy, I wish I would've seen this before I spent nearly 1/2 an hour looking thru 20 pages of a thread for 10posts. I hope you update it further as the guys share more of their findings...

# 4 rudyjuly2 @ Jan 30

I'm going to update it right now. My car sort of died on me on the way home which sucks. I've been dealing with that up until now. Time for the Show again though!

# 5 rudyjuly2 @ Jan 30

Don't forget to read part 1 too. If part two gets really long (I suspect it will), I will start a new post tomorrow. It's good reference material. I find myself re-reading it and forget some stuff.