MLB 2006 The Show Demo at EBGames for a Pre-Order

Badger_Fan · Post by **Badger_Fan** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:47 am

The umpire setting works this way. Tight means that each umpire is going to call the strike zone the same way. Wide means that there will be a wide variety of strike zone interpretations. I think if you're looking for variety from the umps, go with wide. I've had some that were calling pitches well into the strike zone balls and vice versa.

Love this game, now I just need more time to play it.

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:56 am

Leebo33 wrote:I'm not convinced that the umpire setting really matters in the long run. I've been using tight lately and I'm still drawing the same amount of walks. The wide setting gives you more variety, but you do get strike calls on balls outside the zone so I think it evens out in the long run.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I've been finding the same thing. On "tight" the umps seem to never miss a call. On "wide", the umps make more mistakes, it seems more realistic. Either way it doesn't seem to affect the number of walks in the long run.

I like using "wide", especially with the great presentation in this game, hearing the announcers' or players' reactions to the questionable calls adds alot of realism.

As far as that outfield "glitch" goes, it's only happened to me twice in nine games, and both times I was running full speed in toward the ball, which got me thinking maybe it's not a glitch at all, maybe I should have stayed back more on the ball, like in r/l. Maybe baseball videogames in the past have made it unrealistically easy to come in and smother hard one-hoppers to the outfield. I dunno.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one here playing on "veteran". I began thinking either I'm getting too old, or they're making these games harder nowadays. I started a Tribe season and am only 2-7. 19th in team hitting, and 19th in team ERA.

The more I play, the more this game is really sucking me in.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:11 am

Leebo33 wrote: What intrigues me is the pitch count slider. Does this affect the CPU while pitching, batting, or both? I'm not sure I like it increased from default. I could be wrong, but to me it just seems to add more swings and misses and foul balls to increase the pitch counts. I'm seeing less offense when I turn it up due to more K's. There are more pitches thrown, but I'm not really seeing more walks and the ball/strike ratio seems to get out of whack.

I think it does add missed swings and an increase in foul balls, yep, but I haven't really seen it affecting the offense yet in my games. I also believe it affects *your* pitching accuracy, because the only times I've come even close to giving up a walk were when I had this maxxed

lexbur wrote: As far as that outfield "glitch" goes, it's only happened to me twice in nine games, and both times I was running full speed in toward the ball, which got me thinking maybe it's not a glitch at all, maybe I should have stayed back more on the ball, like in r/l. Maybe baseball videogames in the past have made it unrealistically easy to come in and smother hard one-hoppers to the outfield. I dunno.

This is when I've seen it happen to me as well, but if it is not a glitch it is very poorly represented. The outfielder makes no attempt to play the ball at all.

And because it bears repeating, the commentary is simply kick ass. The specificity of many of the remarks is incredible...I wonder how many lines these guys ended up recording.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:17 am

Not sure if this has been commented on or not, but does anyone ever notice when the CPU is at the plate, they rarely if ever take any called strikes? Is anyone else noticing this? Perhaps there is a slider to assist with this. I recall MVP '05 had a slider that worked very well.

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:22 am

webdanzer wrote: And because it bears repeating, the commentary is simply kick ass. The specificity of many of the remarks is incredible...I wonder how many lines these guys ended up recording.

I thought I read in one those "waiting for the game to load" screens 30,000 lines were recorded. I could be wrong, maybe it was 3,000? It says in one of those loading screens, I'll have pay more attention next time that screen pops up.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:24 am

webdanzer wrote:I think it does add missed swings and an increase in foul balls, yep, but I haven't really seen it affecting the offense yet in my games. I also believe it affects *your* pitching accuracy, because the only times I've come even close to giving up a walk were when I had this maxxed

True. It could be that my lineup is filled with strikeout prone hitters like Burnitz, Bay, Doumit, Craig Wilson, Eldred, etc. If I'm getting foul balls instead of balls in play it just increases my already high chance for a lot of strikeouts. Of course, I've also been playing a bit with the Phillies too and I'm striking out more than I should. It just seems to me that on default I strike out 5-8 times and with the slider maxxed it goes from 8-11.

Then again...it could be because I suck!

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:28 am

sportdan30 wrote:Not sure if this has been commented on or not, but does anyone ever notice when the CPU is at the plate, they rarely if ever take any called strikes? Is anyone else noticing this? Perhaps there is a slider to assist with this. I recall MVP '05 had a slider that worked very well.

I've seen a realistic amount of called strikes on the CPU hitters. Alot of times they were questionable calls though. Maybe that goes back to the whole "wide" vs. "tight" umpire setting. I've been using "wide".

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:29 am

sportdan30 wrote:Not sure if this has been commented on or not, but does anyone ever notice when the CPU is at the plate, they rarely if ever take any called strikes?

Do you mostly throw strikes? I find that they will take more if you throw some balls once in awhile. If every pitch is a strike then they probably shouldn't take many.

Speaking of quality and insightful commentary, have you ever been berated by Dave Campbell for throwing too many strikes

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:37 am

Leebo33 wrote:Speaking of quality and insightful commentary, have you ever been berated by Dave Campbell for throwing too many strikes

HA!

"For a guy who's been in the league as long as he has, you'd think he'd know not to leave the ball over the plate like that!"

Geeze, thanks Dave (as the batter starts his homerun trot).

I LOVE this game!

Boom · Post by **Boom** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:41 am

wonder how many lines these guys ended up recording.

I can't remember the number, but in one of the loading screens it makes note of how many lines of commentary were recorded.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:48 am

I think the pitch count slider is like magic. It allows your pitcher to be "off the mark" sometimes, make mistakes, and adds to the CPU offense, imo.

I've turned the errors up to +4 now as I still haven't seen many errors at all.

Other than that, I like both wide and tight settings for ump consistency and alternating them works quite well.

Veteran is great, imho.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:49 am

lexbur wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:Speaking of quality and insightful commentary, have you ever been berated by Dave Campbell for throwing too many strikes
HA!

"For a guy who's been in the league as long as he has, you'd think he'd know not to leave the ball over the plate like that!"

Geeze, thanks Dave (as the batter starts his homerun trot).

I LOVE this game!

LOL. I actually got lucky enough for him to warn me BEFORE something bad happened...something like..."Lieber has thrown the majority of his pitches for strikes today and has been OK so far, but he's going to get into trouble later in the game if he doesn't mix in some pitches out of the strike zone as the batters adjust..."

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:54 am

What impresses me most about the commentary is that the color commentary by Dave Campbell and even Rex Hudler is spot on. With regards to this series, I expect the main announcer to update me on game specifics, but I'm amazed that he Dave and Rex do as well.

As an example, in my season with the (Cardinals), I was playing the Reds. Carpenter was pitching wonderfully, only allowing 1 hit through 5 innings. Dunn had the lone base hit. Dunn smokes a line drive to center in his third at bat, and Campbell says something to the point "That's his second hit of the game. He's the only one who has the pitcher figured out.

Rex also made a game specific comment, but I can't recall exactly what he said, but I remember thinking "dang, why can't all sports gaming presentations be as life like as this game!".

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:40 pm

Dan, I am inclined to go with the PSP version which I think you are playing with. In trying to keep my homebrew stuff, I was wondering if the game asks you to upgrade to a newer firmware version. Also, does it give you the option to upgrade any future rosters. Thanks.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:47 pm

10spro wrote:if the game asks you to upgrade to a newer firmware version. Also, does it give you the option to upgrade any future rosters. Thanks.

Yes, I think it forces an upgrade to 2.6.

Roster updates are available online, but I'm not sure if anyone has figured out how to save them. I guess you have to download them and immediately use them in a new season to save?

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:48 pm

Leebo33 wrote:
10spro wrote:if the game asks you to upgrade to a newer firmware version. Also, does it give you the option to upgrade any future rosters. Thanks.
Yes, I think it forces an upgrade to 2.6.

Roster updates are available online, but I'm not sure if anyone has figured out how to save them. I guess you have to download them and immediately use them in a new season to save?

Thanks Leebo.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:58 pm

No problem. It's the best PSP game to date by far IMO...and that is coming from someone that thinks there are already a few quality PSP games out there.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:21 pm

Leebo33 wrote:Roster updates are available online, but I'm not sure if anyone has figured out how to save them. I guess you have to download them and immediately use them in a new season to save?

That's what I did. It's really the only way to do it...which is a shame really. Why the hell can't you save them is beyond me?

One thing I did notice. When you start a season on the PSP, you can then go in and move players around and edit them like you can on the PS2. Last year you couldn't do a damn thing so it's nice to see they got some of the functionality down. Now, it's gonna be difficult to keep with the trades and moves throughout the season, but we'll see how that shakes out when it comes time to move some big name players.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:39 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:Roster updates are available online, but I'm not sure if anyone has figured out how to save them. I guess you have to download them and immediately use them in a new season to save?
That's what I did. It's really the only way to do it...which is a shame really. Why the hell can't you save them is beyond me?

One thing I did notice. When you start a season on the PSP, you can then go in and move players around and edit them like you can on the PS2. Last year you couldn't do a damn thing so it's nice to see they got some of the functionality down. Now, it's gonna be difficult to keep with the trades and moves throughout the season, but we'll see how that shakes out when it comes time to move some big name players.

You can save them. As you get ready to log off there is a screen that says to just goto the "Features" menu/Rosters and save them. The screen refers to the roster as the "Live Roster" In short - log off, goto Features/Rosters/Save. Presto.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:52 pm

Diablo25 wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:Roster updates are available online, but I'm not sure if anyone has figured out how to save them. I guess you have to download them and immediately use them in a new season to save?
That's what I did. It's really the only way to do it...which is a shame really. Why the hell can't you save them is beyond me?

One thing I did notice. When you start a season on the PSP, you can then go in and move players around and edit them like you can on the PS2. Last year you couldn't do a damn thing so it's nice to see they got some of the functionality down. Now, it's gonna be difficult to keep with the trades and moves throughout the season, but we'll see how that shakes out when it comes time to move some big name players.
You can save them. As you get ready to log off there is a screen that says to just goto the "Features" menu/Rosters and save them. The screen refers to the roster as the "Live Roster" In short - log off, goto Features/Rosters/Save. Presto.

We are talking about the PSP rosters bro. It's completely different.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:53 pm

Diablo25 wrote:You can save them. As you get ready to log off there is a screen that says to just goto the "Features" menu/Rosters and save them. The screen refers to the roster as the "Live Roster" In short - log off, goto Features/Rosters/Save. Presto.

On the PSP? If this is true, I'm going to feel like an idiot. It wouldn't be the first time...

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:40 pm

Leebo33 wrote:
Diablo25 wrote:You can save them. As you get ready to log off there is a screen that says to just goto the "Features" menu/Rosters and save them. The screen refers to the roster as the "Live Roster" In short - log off, goto Features/Rosters/Save. Presto.
On the PSP? If this is true, I'm going to feel like an idiot. It wouldn't be the first time...

That is what it does on the PS2, not the PSP. I've got both, and they have very different menus.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:01 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:
Diablo25 wrote:You can save them. As you get ready to log off there is a screen that says to just goto the "Features" menu/Rosters and save them. The screen refers to the roster as the "Live Roster" In short - log off, goto Features/Rosters/Save. Presto.
On the PSP? If this is true, I'm going to feel like an idiot. It wouldn't be the first time...
That is what it does on the PS2, not the PSP. I've got both, and they have very different menus.

Oh, my bad

. I only have the PS2 version.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:32 pm

i tjunged it tonight...was very impressed.

damn.

kicko · Post by **kicko** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:19 pm

I figured ou the pass ball thing if anyone was wondering like i was, since i'm new to the series this year. Forgive me if this is already known, it works something like each pitch has a variable of movement, fastball will always hit about where your aiming but something like a slider will have movement. So when i would aim low with some pitches them movement would would naturally make the ball drop low anyways so by me aiming low only adds to the movement, making the ball hit the dirt and go for a pass ball. wild pitch. So 1st see what pitches do and then you can aim according.