MLB 09 The Show Sneak peek

Zlax45 · Post by **Zlax45** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 7:03 pm

Any PS2 reviews?

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 7:10 pm

Zlax45 wrote:Any PS2 reviews?

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/959/959937p1.html

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:30 pm

Geez, I don't think I need to touch that power button again. I just had a homerun fest where I lost 19-13 to the CHW playing the Angels. The CPU had 6 homers and I had five by using the X button.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:46 pm

Danimal wrote:I hate to admit it but I had to drop down to Veteran. I was getting wasted on all star, giving up 19 hits to the Rockies kind of made me go back.

Don't feel bad. I dropped down to Veteran also. Not because of pitching, though. I can't hit at all on All-Star.

I average 1 or 2 runs and 4-6 hits on All-Star. I really need to hit the cages.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:59 am

I have been getting good games on All Star...I am like 2-4. All have been 1-2 run games. The game is legit boys.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:56 am

Hit batting practice last night for about an hour. My main revelation was that I just swing at bad pitches, therefore, I just hit weak grounders and easy fly balls. When I was patient and waited for a pitch more in the middle of the zone, I made solid contact.

Pretty much Hitting 101, now I just need to take that approach in games.

Couple of things they should do with batting practice. One, speed it up. It takes way too long for 20 pitches. The pitchers take their time and do their regular wind up. They should have an option for a batting practice pitcher, a coach or something.

That takes me to two, have an option where the pitcher throws all strikes. It does help your eye that they throw balls, but sometimes I just want to work on timing.

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:07 am

I'm also tempted to drop down to Veteran, but I think I'll stick it out on All-Star a little longer. I'm 2-7, with a four game series at the Yankees next. I'll be lucky to win one of those.

I'm hitting fine. I'm 15th in team BA. Four of my guys are tearing the cover off the ball, Sizemore, Derosa, Hafner and Choo. They're all hitting around .350 - .400.

Pitching's been my problem. I'm dead last in team ERA, a little over 6.00.

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:56 am

Murph wrote:
WillHunting wrote:
Murph wrote: Hopefully, that rumored digital download (ditching UMD) version of PSP comes to fruition, but you're right about the game playing great.
The loading is still long (playing it through memory stick/custom FW) but much better than UMD.
Do you have to have an older firmware version to be able to do that?

I have the original PSP (Fat) with old firmware that I installed the custom FW from Dark Alex.

PS3: Started a 14 game season with the Mets (on Vet), lost the first spring training game, then hammered the Marlins in 2nd game with Reyes hitting a grand slam (Grand Salami trophy unlocked!). Going to play 1 or 2 more exhibition game before going to the short season. Really fun game.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:07 am

I considered dropping down from HOF as I continued to struggle with hitting, but resisted because I really thought pitching would be too easy for me on AS. It's been great so far for me this year on HOF. I had what I think was a breakout game for me hitting last night against the Mets, though. 16 hits, 8 runs, many of the hits nice solid ones (coupla HRs, doubles, even a triple.) Guess I just needed some inspiration from my cross-town rivals.

I'm like 3-6 or something now, though, which is...great, actually, considering how well I've done with this series in the past!

RallyMonkey · Post by **RallyMonkey** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:12 pm

So played 7 games thus far in my Red Sox season on AS default. Started the season being swept by the D-Rays, at home fyi, 14-4, 6-1, and 4-2. Followed that up by heading out to LA and taking two of of three from the Angels by scores of 5-3, 4-6 (the loss), and 5-2. Lastly played the A's in game one of that series and Dice-K was dominant in a 3-2 victory.

A couple of things. Like many of us, i suck at hitting. I'm anywhere from 5-9 hits per game with a stupid number of K's. Overall as a team I am currently hitting something like .218 which is awful. Like many of you I find that I am just so far ahead on pitches too often, but when i force myself to be patient and wait i end up late. It'll come i hope.

A couple of things:

1) Have you guys hit many gap doubles? It's rare, if at all, that I can remember hitting a double into the gap. Most of mine are down either of the lines.

2) Passed Balls- in my last game Oakland used their back up catcher and i think there were 5 passes balls in the game. Not pointing this out as an issue as it has not reared it's head in my other 6 games, more just curious as to what you guys have seen.

Bottom line though, this game is flat out incredible in every detail. I've never felt more a part of a game in every facet as i do when i sit down to play this one. Honestly, where do they go from here?

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:25 pm

RallyMonkey wrote:Honestly, where do they go from here?

I would like to see a new pitching interface. It doesn't have to be similar to 2K's effort but the meter and classic pitching is getting long in the tooth. Each year they put out a new and improved baserunning scheme which translates to new and even more confusing but we still have metered pitching. I don't get it.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:41 pm

I'm still not crazy about how they handle/display player fatigue. Guys who normally play 150+ games per year should not show their stamina bar half-full after playing 4 games, IMO.

Monk, I haven't seen any passed-ball weirdness, and -once I started to make good contact with the ball!- I have hit many gap doubles.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:57 pm

Yeah...the fatigue model is curious at best. That's one of the biggest complaints I have with the game. Guys like Andruw Jones, in their heyday were playing 160+ games per year and he'd have to sit after 5 games in 5 days. LAME. I forget, is there a way to turn off fatigue? I think there is. That's almost a better option and then just substituting when you think it's appropriate.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:12 pm

I picked this up last night as I was gone last week. There's is nothing like popping a sports game in and immediately recognizing how great it is. Absolutely love it and they made a lot of great enhancements this year.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:28 pm

lexbur wrote:I'm also tempted to drop down to Veteran, but I think I'll stick it out on All-Star a little longer. I'm 2-7, with a four game series at the Yankees next. I'll be lucky to win one of those.

I'm hitting fine. I'm 15th in team BA. Four of my guys are tearing the cover off the ball, Sizemore, Derosa, Hafner and Choo. They're all hitting around .350 - .400.

Pitching's been my problem. I'm dead last in team ERA, a little over 6.00.

I had the same issues and what really bugged me is every game except one I would be scoreless into the middle innings, get a lead and then promptly get destroyed by the AI offense.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:49 pm

webdanzer wrote:once I started to make good contact with the ball!- I have hit many gap doubles.

I have only played one game (due to distance of the PS3 from game room) but I had two gap doubles in it.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:33 pm

So I got ejected for the first time, not that I could control it but in a close game there must be an option to avoid the players' behaviour, no?

RallyMonkey · Post by **RallyMonkey** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:30 pm

So if anyone is like me and finds themselves jamming the left stick down when batting even on balls up in the zone, or have a hard time hitting overall, I did something that has helped me a lot. I started always guessing high fastballs. It did two things. First, on fastballs when i got the flash and ping, or just the ping, it helped me with my timing and fast ball recognition out of hand. Second, when i knew the ball wasn't a fast ball up i found myself much more capable of recognizing the other pitches and was just more comfortable moving the left stick around the zone.

I have since gone back to standard non-guessing except for obvious situations but this little trick helped my hitting a bunch.

Leadfoot5 · Post by **Leadfoot5** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:55 pm

10spro wrote:So I got ejected for the first time, not that I could control it but in a close game there must be an option to avoid the players' behaviour, no?

No.

jLp vAkEr0 · Post by **jLp vAkEr0** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:58 pm

Update 1.01 available. No idea what it fixes.

bkrich83 · Post by **bkrich83** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:00 am

Have any of you guys messed with the sounds of the show stuff?

There's a couple of threads on OS, and some guys put some sound files togther.

Now I have the supposed real walk up songs for just about everyone, real bullpen music, and the homerun music.

It's actually pretty cool and not too difficult to do.

Pretty cool having Trevor Hoffman come in out of the pen to Hells Bells.

Leadfoot5 · Post by **Leadfoot5** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:46 am

bkrich83 wrote: Pretty cool having Trevor Hoffman come in out of the pen to Hells Bells.

Yeah, I've played around with the feature a bit. It's pretty cool. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the game to play a "Wah wah waaaaah" sound whenever Hoffman blows another save....

snaz16 · Post by **snaz16** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:56 am

I also had to drop down to veteran due to a lack of hitting. 3rd game at veteran finally produced an 11-9 slugfest loss to of all teams ...the Nats. I played as Boston clubbing 6 hrs. in the loss. The wind was blowing out at 16 mph though. Before that I won as the Rays vs. Dodgers ,2-0. Cool thing I have never seen in any "Show" game was R. Zimmerman trying the "hidden ball" trick after D. Pedroia tripled. He scampered back just in time,and proceded to yell at the 3rd base coach. Good stuff.
A couple of things I was never aware of, is that you can lead your runners off bases,and steal bases even if you have running set to auto. Also, I can snap throw behind a runner with the catcher,although I never have picked a runner off with my pitcher before.It keeps them closer to the bag. Were those items in the game last year?

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:01 am

I'm going to mess around with the sounds of the game stuff this weekend. I burned a lot of music to the PS3 last year because I thought you could already do this -- it'll be a great touch to the game.

I really like hitting this year. It seems easier and more realistic to get around on pitches. I don't know if they tweaked that or if I'm just a little better with a year of The Show under my belt, but I'm pulling balls a lot more than I used to, especially if I get a pitch I'm looking for.

The other cool thing is, with the larger spring training rosters, I can start my franchise right now and just play it out from this point, instead of having to start with a 25-man team that would be out of date by the start of the real season. Nice to see the CPU also sub a lot in the spring games.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:28 am

I am also going to mess with the sounds this weekend. I put a yell into the game and had it come up when Votto was up. You could hear it but it was muffled. I am going to play around with the mic setting and see if that helps.

I took batting practice again last night right before I played an exhibition. It seemed to help as I hit the best I ever had with 8 runs on 13 hits, 6 extra base hits with 3 HR's. I was playing as the Tigers as opposed to my usual Reds. Not sure if that had anything to do with it. I may try to take a little BP before every game as it gets me used to batting.

Lastly, I think hitting on Veteran is the way to go right now, but thought pitching might be too easy. I turned off the pitching ball marker and strike zone and that made it much tougher. This is Classic pitching. With Classic, you can't pin point your pitch but with no ball marker, it makes it even harder to locate.