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

[MizzouRah]

I played High Heat 2000 about the same as FPS Baseball '96. Then came High Heat 2002, which also saw alot of playing time. Maybe it's because it was on the PC and roster manipulation was so easy to do. I actually never swung a bat, just pitched and allowed my hitters to hit... I was also younger and had lots of time to play.

That being said, MLB The Show is right up there with those games for sure. Hell, the presentation alone is the best of any sports game ever. Would have been neat to see it on the PC with a good manage only mode.

OOTP is really looking good though.. I'm waiting until after release to decide if I want to purchase it or not.. first time since v2 as I haven't really gotten into 6.0 or 6.5.

[AJColossal]

I respect all you guys who at least imply (if not openly state) that the old HH might have been better than The Show, but I just don't get it. From the graphics, animations, pace of the game and overall gameplay, The Show seems to have gotten so much right that I just don't see how a 5 year old graphically challenged (even in its day) baseball game could come close to comparing. But again I respect your opinions.

Keep in mind there are people that swear up and down that Baseball Stars is still the greatest baseball game of all time.

[Boom]

I recently stopped using the guess pitch feature. While I agree that batters will sit on a pitch in a location I just don't find it realistic at all that if you guess right, you KNOW EXACTLY where the pitch will be before the delivery.

or if you guess fastball and don't see the zone light up, you already know that it's not a heater.

Batters in real life won't know it's not what they're looking for until the ball is on the way.

I think the perfect way a guess pitch interface should work would be a combination of how SCEA does it with the hitter's eye from MVP 05.

hard to explain, but I just kind of feel like I'm cheeting if I guess right and I'm totally dialed in before the pitcher makes his delivery due to aids telling me exactly where the pitch is going to be.

[Leebo33]

I respect all you guys who at least imply (if not openly state) that the old HH might have been better than The Show, but I just don't get it. From the graphics, animations, pace of the game and overall gameplay, The Show seems to have gotten so much right that I just don't see how a 5 year old graphically challenged (even in its day) baseball game could come close to comparing. But again I respect your opinions.

I think the gameplay and AI in MLB has *finally* caught up to High Heat, which says a lot about how good High Heat and how advanced it was for its time. However, I agree that MLB has now surpassed HH as far as the total package. It's not even close, really. I couldn't touch HH on a console right now even with updated rosters. I could probably play the PC version with all the mods as it would look fairly good, but why bother at this point?

[JackB1]

OK, I FINALLY tried MLB The Show last night. Played just one game on All Star level and really liked what I saw so far. The animations and overall feeling of watching the game play out in front of you is very "WE-Like". You really feel like you are watching real players playing a real game of baseball. Just like in WE, you feel like you are watching a real soccer match. The player models are the best I have ever seen in a baseball game....bar none.

That said......the actually mechanics of playing the game are very basic....push a button to swing, push a button to throw, push a button to pitch. I wish they would have added some more interactive gameplay features like some of the other games have. The basic gameplay mechanics are the same as the original High Heat......except for maybe the pitching meter and the throwing where you press hard for a hard throw. I know some folks like this "pure" style of gameplay, but I prefer stuff like analog hitting and throwing and I LOVE 2K6's pitching model.

It is hard to fault the game because how well it plays out on the field. It is clearly the closest to resembling a real ballgame in video game format we have ever seen. I also can't believe how good the game looks for a PS2 game. I do like the zone hitting as opposed to the "timing-based" hitting that all the other games have seemed to gravitate towards. My only beef is that I wish they added more innovative, cutting edge features, but I can live with that for now since the gameplay is so realistic.
Looking forward to playing some more tonite.

[sportdan30]

My only real beef with The Show is the pace of the game. It takes too long to complete a game. It should take an average of 40 minutes to play a nine inning game.

Also, they need in-game saves! Heck, every sports videogame game should have this feature.

Other than that, it's an excellent representation of baseball.

[JackB1]

Some "newbie" questions about The Show:

-The game says in All Star mode, zone hitting only uses 4 directions....up, down, left & right. So what would you press if the pitch is high and tight or in the upper left corner? Would you press up or left? Is the only way to get true zone hitting with 9 zones to play on HOF level? This is puzzling me. What if you like 9 zone hitting, but also like a lower difficulty level?

-I understand how to guess the pitch, but how do you guess the location? It says to hold R2 and move the left thumbstick, but do you just leave the left thumbstick in the zone you are guessing? Is there any way for the game to "register" the zone you are guessing? Can you just guess zone and not pitch also?

-With pitching.....are you supposed to stop the meter in the middle of the white bar (coming back down)? The game really penalizes you if you let the meter go back into the red and then you miss your mark....I like that!
Is there any way to make the meter faster or less forgiving?

-What settings, cameras are you guys using? I LOVE the low camera view for fielding, but it makes it tougher on fly balls to the OF. I am using the catcher view for hitting and the behind the pitcher view for pitching.
I haven't changed any of the sliders yet and played my first game on Allstar.

-Is HOF the difficulty level of consensus? Is Allstar just too easy?

[JackB1]

I did notice that. My first game took almost an hour. Does the "fast play" toggle help this?

My only real beef with The Show is the pace of the game. It takes too long to complete a game. It should take an average of 40 minutes to play a nine inning game.

[Leebo33]

I never liked the fast play option as it took away too much presentation. I do go into the options and change settings individually like the rituals, walk-up, or frequency of replays. I'm playing on PSP, but I also hit X a lot to get through some of the pre-pitch routines.

A major reason the games take so long is not necessarily due to presentation though. It is because it's one of the only baseball games I've played that nails pitch count and foul ball totals for both the user and CPU. It's going to take awhile to play a game with 200-275 pitches.

One thing that makes up for the time of games is the excellent fast forward feature. I usually play the whole game, but sometimes if I jump to a big lead I'll just pitch or vice versa.

[jLp vAkEr0]

I agree that, for me, using guess pitch seems like a very realistic approach to hitting. Even when you guess completely right (both on pitch type and location), there is still no guarantee that you'll do anything with the ball. I guessed once last night with Juan Encarnacion and promptly hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

I respect all you guys who at least imply (if not openly state) that the old HH might have been better than The Show, but I just don't get it. From the graphics, animations, pace of the game and overall gameplay, The Show seems to have gotten so much right that I just don't see how a 5 year old graphically challenged (even in its day) baseball game could come close to comparing. But again I respect your opinions.

I agree with you GT.

This is without a doubt, the best baseball game I have played in my life.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Since I've never been able to use updated rosters on the PSP version I ask, have you guys used uodated rosters on the PS2 version?

[Diablo25]

I respect all you guys who at least imply (if not openly state) that the old HH might have been better than The Show, but I just don't get it. From the graphics, animations, pace of the game and overall gameplay, The Show seems to have gotten so much right that I just don't see how a 5 year old graphically challenged (even in its day) baseball game could come close to comparing. But again I respect your opinions.

I agree GT. Don't get me wrong, there will always be a place in my heart for High Heat. I loved that game. The Show is done so well I have to give it the gameplay title. High Heat had a SUPER community that modded the game and its tune file like it was there job. I still frequent a forum with a bunch of those guys. Because it was a PC game there was a few more things to do with rosters, etc. It is a pleasure to know there are still developers out there that put time into their games like 989 did with the show. I shudder to think what this game will be like on the PS3

[Leebo33]

Since I've never been able to use updated rosters on the PSP version I ask, have you guys used uodated rosters on the PS2 version?

Can you get online with the PSP version? If so, you can login and when you log out the rosters are still active. It even gives you a message that the online roster is still active. You could use them to play exhibitions or to start a season. The only thing you can't do is save them, which is dumb, but really doesn't matter since it takes about 20 seconds to login and get them again.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Since I've never been able to use updated rosters on the PSP version I ask, have you guys used uodated rosters on the PS2 version?

Can you get online with the PSP version? If so, you can login and when you log out the rosters are still active. It even gives you a message that the online roster is still active. You could use them to play exhibitions or to start a season. The only thing you can't do is save them, which is dumb, but really doesn't matter since it takes about 20 seconds to login and get them again.

I tried that Leeb.

After it gives me the message that the new rosters are still active I start a new season and the old rosters are still there.

Too late anyways, I'm like 25 games into my Mets season and I ain't starting a new one unless I do it on the PS2.

[dbdynsty25]

I agree that the players models are definitely the best in the show...but how come everyone wears a size 6 shoe? That's the one thing that bothers the heck out of me in the game...

[Bill_Abner]

I respect all you guys who at least imply (if not openly state) that the old HH might have been better than The Show, but I just don't get it. From the graphics, animations, pace of the game and overall gameplay, The Show seems to have gotten so much right that I just don't see how a 5 year old graphically challenged (even in its day) baseball game could come close to comparing. But again I respect your opinions.

I'll take a stab at this seeing as how I played more High Heat 99 through 2002 than any one man ever should.

I should make it clear that I am specifically talking about the PC version of High Heat, and even more specifically High Heat 2002 PC. After spending about a week with The Show I think this is clearly one of the best if not the best console baseball game ever made. High Heat 2002 console vs MLB 06 console really isn't much of a comparison. MLB 06 is heads and shoulders better.

That said, what made HH2002 PC so special was a combo of these three things, IMO:

--A developer that knew baseball
--A mod commuinity that rallied behind it
--A platform, the PC, that allowed for a ton of both user customability and developer patches

These three things helped make HH 2002 what it was.

And, aside from #1, MLB 06 doesnt have that. And as much as I like the game, it still cannot do some of the things that I could do with High Heat 2002 PC.

MLB 06 is what it is. And that's fine. It's a lot of fun.

Can I use the 1979 Pirates home/road unis in MLB? The '84 Cardinal powder blues? Or the Stros rainbow unis? Seems trivial, but I LOVED that about HH2002.
Can create as many HOF players that I want and use them in my career?
Can I use the mouse to manipulate the rosters in a matter of seconds and get a dozen stats on the screen at one time?
Can I tweak the game to the decimal point like I could the old High Heat tune file? I could tell the game that a fastball should be .90 compared to a change-ups .67 speed. I could get that game to play exactly the way I wanted it to. I could edit the amount of ball friction on natural grass and turf. I could change the time it takes for a player to get out of the batters box to make the doubles and the speed perfect, something that needs tweaked in MLB 06.
Can I play at the Polo Grounds, Baker Bowl, Crosley, and Shibe?

Now, that's not to say that HH didn't have its issues, even aside from graphics. If you recall HH2002 had no financials at all. No Free Agency. Nuttin. It also needed two healthy patches before it was worth playing,. It was buggy as hell upon release. The ball physics are very crude compared to MLB 06 (but better than MLB 2k6 oddly enough).

Give me the same editing tools, game interface and the ability to tweak MLB 06 just like I could High Heat and I'd say that MLB is the better game. But without those tools, I think MLB 06, and every console baseball game, suffers for it.

For me baseball is a very special case where having a great GUI is vital to my personal enjoyment. A console game just cannot provide what I need, which is part of the reason why I love OOTP and Puresim as much as I do. And it was a BIG reason why High Heat was such a joy.

[wabash97]

Bill and everyone else,

All-Star or HOF?
I ask because my pitchers (Mets) are getting torched on HOF. Offense is about right, but it seemed a bit easy on All-Star.

[dbdynsty25]

Bill and everyone else,

All-Star or HOF?
I ask because my pitchers (Mets) are getting torched on HOF. Offense is about right, but it seemed a bit easy on All-Star.

HOF...and turn down the CPU batters contact and power if you're getting torched. They have sliders for a reason ya know.

[wabash97]

I've been messing with sliders and having a hard time finding a compromise between too little CPU hitting and too many gopher balls. I had contact at 8 or 9, I guess I'll go lower.

[LAking]

just wanted to chime in on how much i loved the interface for high heat on the PC, before they ruined it with a console type interface. It was more like a spreadsheet program where it was so easy to sort through rosters/stats, send players up and down from minors, change batting order, and the list goes on and on. HH was the first game to introduce minor leagues if i'm not mistaken.

I'm probably not as crazy into ultra realism as many on this board are. I kind of get turned off when i have too much control in a pitcher/batter interface. That's why i liked high heat. It was so simple yet very realistic. You simply aim your pitch in a general area, chose whether you are trying for a strike or ball, and then you let the ratings other factors determine whether or not you hit your target. Batting was equally as simple. That being said, i'm afraid we'll never see a game so simple yet so elegant again.

[Pete]

Great post, Bill. You nailed it.

High Heat did baseball things that no other baseball game did. It was so simple, but that was the only game that did those things.

[dbdynsty25]

That being said, i'm afraid we'll never see a game so simple yet so elegant again.

That is one reason I will never get rid of my copy of High Heat 2004. I pop that thing in occasionally just because it's such a badass game...even to this day. It and MVP 05 still are battling it out for my favorite baseball game ever. The Show made some headway this year...but it's still not quite in the same league.

[GTHobbes]

I guess that explains why I never really understood the appeal of the HH series. I'm in the camp that much prefers a baseball game that plays a great game of baseball, looks and sounds just like a TV broadcast, and is easy for the most part to pick up and play. After playing the Show on PS2 and the PSP this year, I don't think I could ever go back to any other baseball game I've ever played before, going back to the Odyssey 2, Intellivision and Atari days, and continuing through the sega genesis, 3DO, PSX, etc., days.

Then again, I just want to sit down and play. I usually just jump into a Season game and shut the console down as soon as I'm done and have saved my game. But I can definitely see how someone who likes to game on a pc and mess with rosters, ratings, slider tune files, etc., could miss that on a console baseball game.

In its defense, though, I'm still finding things in the menus on The Show that I didn't even know were there. Just wish I had more time to mess around with all that stuff.

[Inuyasha]

I'll put in my 2c. I never played any HH on the pc, but my first hh game was on ps2 hh2003. I tried hh2002 on ps2 and it didnt appeal to me. But there was something about hh2003 that made me love that game. There were a few slider adjustments I made but overall, it was the best baseball console game I ever played.

I think that hh game was such a different kind of game that console gamers were not used to. It really was a 'pc smart' game when it came to stats, gameplay, but also played like a old school baseball console game. I liked how quick the game played and how fast the button responses were and the gameplay outweighted Any other baseball game on a console. Console baseball was pretty dead during that time (asb, triple play) and HH gave me that mix of simulation and old school gameplay that I never expereinced before on a console.

hh2004 i thought was ok but they sort of messed with things and lost that sim-pc/console mix hh2003 had.

[HipE]

I found something kind of cool in the game tonight. I was looking at the Cubs inactive roster, and I saw they had a 6'1, 205 lb center fielder named Brian Ekberg. I added him to the active roster so that I could go into the player edit mode to check him out, and who do I see on the screen, none other than DSP poster BBReBozo! They have his actual face modeled onto the player, and when I used him in a game, the play by play guy actually said his name. Way to go Bozo!