MLB 2006: back for more

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 5:22 pm

I rented MLB 2006 for the ps2 last night - I'm on call and the kids are gone.. gaming weekend.

Anyhow, I'm at my peak in baseball bliss right now and wondered what you MLB guru's were using for tweaks in the ps2 version? What level? Any slider tweaks, etc? Anything besides not signing anyone in FA before the first game?

Thanks. For some reason, I can't get into bbmogul, ootp, or puresim. I need some graphics. I've played MVP to death and since MLB on the psp has been decent for me, I wanted to give MLB on the ps2 some attention.

Todd

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:58 pm

Todd, I think you know how much I love MLB on the PS2 and the PSP, and I can't say that I have made many slider tweaks at all. I play on Veteran level just because, from what I remember reading in the manual, you're penalized more for guessing the wrong pitch/location on AllStar level (or whatever it is).

I did turn down arm strength most if not all of the way, and I also turned down the injury slider as I seemed to be getting too many injuries when I simmed any games in my Cardinals season. I turned up human pitch speed just to give me more of a sense that I was throwing some smoke. Other than that, I don't recall messing with the power or contact sliders, though you may want to adjust if you're still striking out too much. I'll be curious to hear what you think of the PS2 version after a few days...being a Cards fan, you can't beat all of the personalized stuff they have for the Cards roster.

Cincinnati_Kid · Post by **Cincinnati_Kid** » Sun May 01, 2005 12:24 am

straight up verteran level

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun May 01, 2005 11:04 am

Thanks to the both of you.

I was using Pared's AS sliders and had some good exhibition games, although I think I'll go with your recommodations GTHobbes and play a few games on Veteran level today before I start a franchise with the Cardinals.

Do you get a variety of scores in your games? One thing I didn't like about the psp version was the lack of HR's for myself. I think I'll turn on the guess pitch feature this time to see if that helps.

You know how much I love MVP (can't wait until it hits the psp), but you're right.. I've allowed myself to sit back and enjoy the full experience of a baseball game with MLB. We all know the presentation and play by play is second to none, and I think the gameplay is finally grabbing me.

Thanks again,

Todd

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Sun May 01, 2005 12:46 pm

Glad to see you're getting some enjoyment out of the game, Todd. I'm usually able to go yard 1-3 times a game, typically when I guess right on pitch and/or location, but I'll also hit an occasional dinger even where I don't guess right with a guy like Pujols or Walker or Rolen or Edmonds. When that happens, it usually occurs when I guess wrong but am still able to push the analog stick in the location of the pitch and get a good swing on the ball. As for variety of scores, I beat Schilling 1-0 yesterday with a combination of Carpenter, Tavarez, King and Izzy. The game before that, Suppan got pounded and I lost to the Red Sox in an interleague game 10-6. Seemed like they were on everything that Suppan through in jumping out to an early 7-1 lead.

One other thing you may want to try (if you are not using it already) is the "High" camera view for hitting. For whatever reason, I'm able to pick up the ball better and hold off on swinging at pitches out of the zone when I use this view instead of the "Catcher" or "Wide" angle views. I love using either of the BTP views for pitching, but obviously that has nothing to do with hitting or variety of scores. Once you get the hang of it, I think you'll really like the guess pitch/location feature...which I have to believe is similar to the hitters eye feature in MVP. As I've said before, if I guess fastball on the inner part of the plate and don't get the flashing red, then I'll usually look for something off-speed outside and that increases my chances of success...even though I've "guessed" wrong. I still strike out 5-8 times a game, but my patience at the plate seems to be getting better and better.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun May 01, 2005 12:57 pm

GTHobbes wrote:Glad to see you're getting some enjoyment out of the game, Todd. I'm usually able to go yard 1-3 times a game, typically when I guess right on pitch and/or location, but I'll also hit an occasional dinger even where I don't guess right with a guy like Pujols or Walker or Rolen or Edmonds. When that happens, it usually occurs when I guess wrong but am still able to push the analog stick in the location of the pitch and get a good swing on the ball. As for variety of scores, I beat Schilling 1-0 yesterday with a combination of Carpenter, Tavarez, King and Izzy. The game before that, Suppan got pounded and I lost to the Red Sox in an interleague game 10-6. Seemed like they were on everything that Suppan through in jumping out to an early 7-1 lead.

One other thing you may want to try (if you are not using it already) is the "High" camera view for hitting. For whatever reason, I'm able to pick up the ball better and hold off on swinging at pitches out of the zone when I use this view instead of the "Catcher" or "Wide" angle views. I love using either of the BTP views for pitching, but obviously that has nothing to do with hitting or variety of scores. Once you get the hang of it, I think you'll really like the guess pitch/location feature...which I have to believe is similar to the hitters eye feature in MVP. As I've said before, if I guess fastball on the inner part of the plate and don't get the flashing red, then I'll usually look for something off-speed outside and that increases my chances of success...even though I've "guessed" wrong. I still strike out 5-8 times a game, but my patience at the plate seems to be getting better and better.

I switched to the "high" view about 3 games ago and I would agree that it's much easier to see the pitch. The only thing I don't like about the btp views, is that you don't get the speed of the pitch when pitching. I've been using the high camera to pitch as well as switching around from high to medium for fielding.

The pitching seems harder than MVP and I hope it doesn't become too easy as I get used to it.

Thanks again,

Todd

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun May 01, 2005 9:28 pm

I'm loving MLB right now. Switched to the over the shoulder view when Im pitching and I love it. Im in the middle of a Phils franchise...9-8. Beat Smoltz last night on an Utley Grand Slam in the 5th! MLB is the best game out this year...IMO. Its gonna make me buy a PS3 when it comes out. Sony doubled the development team for MLB last week. It has flaws but the good far outweighs the bad for me. The batting stances and batting routines are worth the price of admission. Superb animations.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Sun May 01, 2005 11:35 pm

I saw that story too, where it said that the development team is being doubled for next year's game. I know that throwing bodies at a project is not always a good thing, but in this case...I can't wait to see the results. Still can't believe the turnaround that 989 has made from where they were a few years ago.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:16 am

GTHobbes wrote:Still can't believe the turnaround that 989 has made from where they were a few years ago.

Well they are still mediocre in terms of the development teams on the whole...Gretzky hockey and MLB are their only decent franchises. Their hoops and football games have been terrible for years (both college and pro).

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:22 am

dbdynsty25 wrote:
GTHobbes wrote:Still can't believe the turnaround that 989 has made from where they were a few years ago.
Well they are still mediocre in terms of the development teams on the whole...Gretzky hockey and MLB are their only decent franchises. Their hoops and football games have been terrible for years (both college and pro).

I was really only referring to MLB, although I do like Gretzky on PSP as much if not more than any EA hockey game I've played since the NHL 93-94 days. Also, IGN seems pretty geeked about their new hoops game, but I'm not that big of a baseketball fan so I don't really know what to expect. I didn't even know they still made a football game, but I did see the preview for the new football-fighting game they're working on. Not really my kind've game, but since there likely isn't going to be an ESPN game, I'll at least give it a try. From the little I did see, I thought the player models and graphics looked pretty good compared to EA's football games.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:17 am

GTHobbes wrote:I was really only referring to MLB, although I do like Gretzky on PSP as much if not more than any EA hockey game I've played since the NHL 93-94 days.

That's funny because Gretzky PSP reminds me a lot of NHL 97/98 except the framerate was a lot better on my Pentium 1 120 with 16 MB of RAM.

I just sold my PS2 version of MLB. The resale value was so low on Half.com/Ebay that I just ended up trading it in at Gamespot for a few dollars less. At least I should be getting my hat soon. I don't place a lot of importance to batting routines and such because I don't have the time to play a game that takes an hour (in fact, one of the first things I did was turn on fast play), so the PSP version is fine for me for now.

I'm glad that they are increasing the resources for MLB. Those sales from MVP aren't just going to go to show up because there is less competition. When you sell 50K copies of a game it means you have a lot of catching up to do in at least the marketing aspects of your business.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:24 pm

This game sounds better and better on psp the more I read about it. I got to play it over the weekend on ps2 with an acquaintance and I was very impressed with the game (no freezes too). I really like how they incorporate High Heat hitting + guess pitch with MVP hitting. Every baseball game should copy this format from now on.

Is the PSP version better or just as good as the ps2? I know about no cut scenes or replays but I like that since I had fast play on the ps2 version. Is this game alone worth buying a psp? I am trying to find an excuse to buy the psp.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Mon May 02, 2005 4:21 pm

Weaver2005 wrote:This game sounds better and better on psp the more I read about it. I got to play it over the weekend on ps2 with an acquaintance and I was very impressed with the game (no freezes too). I really like how they incorporate High Heat hitting + guess pitch with MVP hitting. Every baseball game should copy this format from now on.

Is the PSP version better or just as good as the ps2? I know about no cut scenes or replays but I like that since I had fast play on the ps2 version. Is this game alone worth buying a psp? I am trying to find an excuse to buy the psp.

Imo, Nope. I like the ps2 version better than the psp version and I already have MVP reserved from EB games here in town. I took the $20 trade-in for MLB on the psp and put it towards MVP for the psp.

Part of it is because I've had only 1 freeze thus far in the ps2 version and I like all of the extra fluff of the console equivlant, but man.. I couldn't see the ball that great on the psp - even with pitch speed turned all the way down. I'm sure it's my eye sight, but to me there is just too much missing in the psp version... take that FWIW.. many people love the psp version.

BUT there are plenty of good psp games.. Tiger Woods, Wipeout Pure, Lumines.. to name a few.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Mon May 02, 2005 4:41 pm

I also like the PS2 version better because of the fluff...but the gameplay to me seems about equal though. In any case, I got the psp pretty much for this game and have not been disappointed...nothing like being able to get in a few innings everywhere I go before putting it back in sleep mode.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:31 pm

So buying the ps2 version would be just as good? I hope it's still cheap on outpost.com.