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

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:25 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Todd,

You never did get back to me in terms of when you're picking me up for the Cards home opener! Sure was nice of you to invite Tjung, Jon, and myself.

Yeah, you can wait for me at the front gate for your tickets.

Slumberland you stink!! Get those impressions up there!

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:25 am

First of all, MizzouRah, I spent much of the first game stealing second to see if that problem you had with the demo was present... playing on Veteran, I made it safely to second with Jose Reyes, but was out by a mile when I attempted to steal with David Wright and Xavier Nady, so you're definitely safe there.

All in all, I'm impressed with certain steps that the game has taken, and still frustrated with aspects. With three games under my belt, I'm a fan of the cutscenes, the new variable umpire, and the "un-juiced" ball in this version. I've seen Derek Jeter trying to catch his breath after an inside the park home run, Gary Sheffield break the bat over his knee after his third strikeout, Matsui check his glove after leaping over the wall only to find it empty, and so on... good stuff. The variable umpire is nice, as there are pitches on the fringe and sometimes even clearly over the plate that never would have been called balls in the last two versions which now are. And I saw more choppers and interesting grounders in one game than I saw in all of last year's.

I don't have enough time to write... wish I had more... the two big problems I'm having right now are fielders sort of ignoring grounders right near them, not even attempting a play, and not having an error charged. Weird... I've seen it two, maybe three times. And while they've given you great control over your baserunners this year, there's no kind of "assisted" baserunners in which your runners will takeoff automatically in appropriate situations.. they often stand there on a base hit waiting for a command, and by the time you get them started it's too late. A solution is to set it to auto, but then you lose ALL control over your runners, including the new (and quite excellent) slide control.

There's a new difficulty level beyond All-Star... Hall of Fame.

I messed with the pitch count slider for the CPU in my last two games, after having drawn one walk in my first game, and didn't really notice a change in what the CPU was throwing me. I'll need more time with this.

I still don't like the "automatic" feel of fielding, where an animation seems to take control away from you way too early. Players get rid of the ball faster, though.

Jury's still out in my courtroom, but there are some things that do have me impressed! It's great to play a new MLB game in any case!

More tomorrow... but I'm sure you'll all be playing it by then.

jLp vAkEr0 · Post by **jLp vAkEr0** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:38 am

Slumberland wrote:First of all, MizzouRah, I spent much of the first game stealing second to see if that problem you had with the demo was present... playing on Veteran, I made it safely to second with Jose Reyes, but was out by a mile when I attempted to steal with David Wright and Xavier Nady, so you're definitely safe there.

All in all, I'm impressed with certain steps that the game has taken, and still frustrated with aspects. With three games under my belt, I'm a fan of the cutscenes, the new variable umpire, and the "un-juiced" ball in this version. I've seen Derek Jeter trying to catch his breath after an inside the park home run, Gary Sheffield break the bat over his knee after his third strikeout, Matsui check his glove after leaping over the wall only to find it empty, and so on... good stuff. The variable umpire is nice, as there are pitches on the fringe and sometimes even clearly over the plate that never would have been called balls in the last two versions which now are. And I saw more choppers and interesting grounders in one game than I saw in all of last year's.

I don't have enough time to write... wish I had more... the two big problems I'm having right now are fielders sort of ignoring grounders right near them, not even attempting a play, and not having an error charged. Weird... I've seen it two, maybe three times. And while they've given you great control over your baserunners this year, there's no kind of "assisted" baserunners in which your runners will takeoff automatically in appropriate situations.. they often stand there on a base hit waiting for a command, and by the time you get them started it's too late. A solution is to set it to auto, but then you lose ALL control over your runners, including the new (and quite excellent) slide control.

There's a new difficulty level beyond All-Star... Hall of Fame.

I messed with the pitch count slider for the CPU in my last two games, after having drawn one walk in my first game, and didn't really notice a change in what the CPU was throwing me. I'll need more time with this.

I still don't like the "automatic" feel of fielding, where an animation seems to take control away from you way too early. Players get rid of the ball faster, though.

Jury's still out in my courtroom, but there are some things that do have me impressed! It's great to play a new MLB game in any case!

More tomorrow... but I'm sure you'll all be playing it by then.

Slumb,

I'm guessing you got the PS2 version? Or PSP?

Hope to pick up the PSP version today.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:38 am

Some more things I forgot to mention...

I played on All-Star the last two games I played. What impressed me was how tough an out the really good hitters were. Albert Pujols was incredibly patient at the plate, would fall for any junk, always managed to work the count to 3-2 and force me to put something over. I'm interested to hear if others have the same experience with the premiere hitters.

On All-Star, I couldn't really hit for sh*t. I do think it's just a tad bit easier to distinguish balls from strikes than it was last year.

There's a great new camera angle for long fall balls that really shows off the stadium, very much like the one ESPN MLB 2K5 used for near homeruns.

Speaking of foul balls, a large number of them go straight back. Get used to seeing a lot of the weird shot where the camera tracks the position of the ball in closeup, and you end up seeing this long, ugly, tilting closeup of the crowd as the ball goes back. A weird shot, as the crowd really isn't meant to be seen up close.

I do like the way the crowd looks from the field this year. Lots of varied outfits within the team's color scheme... and if you have two strikes and two outs on the opposition in the top of the ninth, they really go nuts.

Didn't experience any reall problems with random past balls in my games. This was something I know a lot of people complained about last time, and which I experienced as well to a certain degree.

If it weren't for the strange brain dead fielders I've been seeing and the almost "too-manual" baserunning, I'd say it's sort of the culmination of where the game's been heading, sort of like how MVP 2005 put it all together after 3 years of work with that engine. I have to keep an eye on those two issues, however, and see if other people have the same problem.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:39 am

javi... ps2 version.

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:00 am

Hit variety (way too many "rocket" balls) and lack of walks (too big of a strike zone) were my two biggest gripes with last year's version, and it looks like the hit variety has been addressed. The jury still seems to be out on the strike zone and whether you can walk a fair amount of times.

Last year, because of all the rocket balls hit right at fielders, I didn't notice a problem fielding at all. Perhaps because there's more hit variety, and hit balls are not always right at a fielder could be contributing to the different "feel" for fielding that Slumber mentioned.

I don't remember the baserunning being a problem last year, though. Hopefully it's not a step back.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:12 am

The areas of concern Slumber mentioned are ones that gave me a feeling of detachment from the game last year. Baserunning was just a mess IMO, and I recall having to used "assisted" or "automatic" baserunning.

It seems that they are close to getting fielding right, but they somehow just can't give the gamer that total feeling of control. That's disappointing. MVP Baseball 2005 was a joy to play the field. I wish this was as well.

I just cannot understand how they continue to excel in some areas but make what should be simple controls like baserunning confusing and awkward.

By the way, thanks for the early impressions!

kicko · Post by **kicko** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:26 am

yeah so far just a fielding issue, i hope its not that bad..i'm picking this one up today.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:45 am

Ooooh, bad memories of last year are coming back to me. This was the Game I Could Not Lose while playing as the Yankees. The CPU just wouldn't score.

Slumber, did you see the CPU mounting a respectable offense at all?

EDIT: from 1up's review of this year's game:

The one niggling issue with the game overall is that it can be too easy to win with certain teams. The Yankees, Cardinals, Red Sox, White Sox, and Angels really have no problem muscling other teams out of victories. Experienced ballplayers will find that even playing at the all-star level is on the easy side. Hall of Fame feels just right, but the "superteams" problem should have been taken into account and balanced better.

I remember playing like 14 games on the hardest difficulty last year like right out of the box, and the cpu never scoring more than like 3 runs, with like 5 or 6 shutouts.

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:22 am

On the demo, I found that the CPU was able to put together a pretty decent showing on offense. I thought that this was promising because it was on rookie and only for 3 innings.

I agree that it has been a problem in past editions.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:30 pm

Thanks a bunch Slumerland, I really appreciate and trust your thoughts.

The baserunning (coming from MVP last year) took some getting used to in the demo, but after 15 or so games, it became second nature to hit L1 when the ball was in play. I think you'll get used to after more games, I really think it's quite easy now.

I've read about the goofy infielders issue though and hope it doesn't happen every game, that would get annoying and could lose and win a few games for you when it shouldn't. Not sure why they don't catch things like this in testing?

Anyhow, sounds like all of the other stuff has been fixed, which is great news.

I'm going to head out from work early and pick up my copy.

Thanks again!

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:31 pm

AJColossal wrote:On the demo, I found that the CPU was able to put together a pretty decent showing on offense. I thought that this was promising because it was on rookie and only for 3 innings.

I agree that it has been a problem in past editions.

Which is why I'm really going to play my first full game on rookie just to see what kind of offense the CPU can put up. Maybe I'm old, but I like the simplicity of hitting on rookie. (timing)

The CPU did extremely well scoring runs in the demo vs me... in fact, I've never had such a wide variety of scores after 3 innings in a baseball game before.

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:14 pm

My EB won't have mine for a couple hours. Oh well, back to work until then.

MizzouRah, gonna have some impressions soon?

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:33 pm

slumber still dressing up the kitties?

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:34 pm

Just got the call....on my way to pick up both the PSP and PS2 versions.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:39 pm

AJColossal wrote:My EB won't have mine for a couple hours. Oh well, back to work until then.

MizzouRah, gonna hve some impressions soon?

As soon as I can get out of here (work) and get home, I'll get some playing time in for sure tonight.

jLp vAkEr0 · Post by **jLp vAkEr0** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:48 pm

Just got mine at EB. PSP version.

Played a half inning. Me(Mets) vs CPU(Cubs).

Pitched with Martinez and just grooved a couple of pitches just to see the CPu make some contact.

Ended up giving up 3 runs included a Ramirez 2 run jack.

Graphics are basically the same, I can't notice it it's any better that last years.

Loading times where a bit long compared to last years version. I'll play a bit more later.

********* update*********

Went ahead and played the bottom half of the 1st.

I got 3 runs of Zambrano.

Single by reyes.
Sacrifice with Lo Duca, Reyes to 2nd.
Single by Beltran, Reyes to third.
Delgado at bat, wild pitch by Zambrano, Reyes scores, Beltran to 2nd.
Delgado flies out to shallow right.
Wright hits a 2-2 fb over the left field wall. (I used the power button)
Floyd grounds out to 1st.

Pitched where fairly easy to pick up, granted I was playing in veteran. All-star and HOF follow.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:00 pm

MizzouRah wrote:As soon as I can get out of here (work) and get home, I'll get some playing time in for sure tonight.

You should have taken your PSP to work! They don't monitor stuff like that...only Internet usage

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:07 pm

Sudz wrote:slumber still dressing up the kitties?

Pictures and impressions of cat clothes to come!

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:08 pm

I believe MizzouRah no longer has his PSP. Just a PS2 Poor kid.

Javi,

Thanks for the impressions. Do the sliders help with lowering the outfielder arm strength? How are the variety of hits?

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:18 pm

Between cats in clothing and grandpas at American Legion meetings, we're getting some very unique excuses around here lately...

jLp vAkEr0 · Post by **jLp vAkEr0** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:20 pm

sportdan30 wrote: Javi,

Thanks for the impressions. Do the sliders help with lowering the outfielder arm strength? How are the variety of hits?

Only played an inning, but all hits where basically different.

Didn't tocuh the sliders.

Lee got a triple off the wall in right and the throw from Diaz wasn't exactly a rocket to the cut-off man.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:09 pm

Regarding the rocket-armed outfielders, I don't get the impression that they're a problem this year. I think they've fixed that.

AJ, good call about pressing L1 upon contact. I can see that becoming second nature after a while. Not ideal, but all right.

Keep an eye out for those brain-dead infielders! I have the feeling that, if anything, that's going to be this version's albatross!

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:42 pm

Slumberland wrote:Regarding the rocket-armed outfielders, I don't get the impression that they're a problem this year. I think they've fixed that.

AJ, good call about pressing L1 upon contact. I can see that becoming second nature after a while. Not ideal, but all right.

Keep an eye out for those brain-dead infielders! I have the feeling that, if anything, that's going to be this version's albatross!

I played last years version alot and there were times where ground balls were hit that I thought my fielders would make the play and they just stood there. Mostly to the 1st baseman.

So, I do not think this is something new.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:45 pm

Leebo33 wrote:
MizzouRah wrote:As soon as I can get out of here (work) and get home, I'll get some playing time in for sure tonight.
You should have taken your PSP to work! They don't monitor stuff like that...only Internet usage

Sold my psp a long time ago.

My impressions will be for ps2.

I run the IT dept here, no worries.