MLB 2K11 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (PS3/360)

[DirtyJerz32]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

1. A pinch runner in the second inning of the game for the CPU.

Quote: Originally Posted by sroz39

I might be wrong here, but I've seen some weird subs in the demo as well and I can only attribute it being a 3 inning game and the A.I. takes this as the 7th, 8th and 9th innings of a game.

The cpu knows the game is over soon. (7,8 & 9 innings) so it's doing all it can to win. I think this is a good thing IMO.

[DJ]

After spending a bit of time with the Demo, here's my impressions:

Positives
-Pitching. I just love the gesture controls. It was still fairly easy to throw the pitch where I wanted to, but that's b/c the Demo is on default PRO. If you give up a couple of hits, you do lose accuracy and once we have the retail version and can tune the Pitch Accuracy slider, I can see that making a big difference.

-A.I. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but the CPU will pitch guys in your lineup differently, depending on the situation. I had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and Lewis (I was the Giants) pitched around my No. 8 hitter to get to Cain. Smart move by the CPU, as I grounded out to 2B. I also noticed that my own catcher will call for more pitches out of the zone with the No. 8 hitter up, knowing that the pitcher is on-deck. I like the implementation of sound baseball strategy.

-Batting camera. Man, I love this view! Couple that with an appropriate pitch speed (you'll still get fastballs blown by you if you are looking off-speed but you have time to react if you do guess fastball) and you can realistically work the count. I drew 2 walks in my first game and got Lewis to throw over 40 pitches in 3 innings.

-Fielding. Definitely less robotic than last year. I need to go back and look at the controls to figure out how to dive, though. I really like the new mechanic of catching flyballs in the outfield. It's not gimmicky, at least to me, and I think it will again make you bring more strategy into the game, which is a great thing. I like the throw meter as well. Very clean and easy to see where you need to let go of the R-stick to have a good throw. Rocket arms are definitely gone. Yay!

-Hit variety. This looks to be improved from last year. I've seen a couple of hot shots down the 1B line and a nice bloop single so far.

-New defensive strategy window. This will pop up at various times during the game, telling you how the defense is playing you, or how you are aligned to play a CPU batter. Nice addition.

-Variable strike zone. Very, very happy this is in. I saw close to 10 pitches that in 2K10 would've been a strike 100% of the time that were called either a ball or strike in the Demo.

-Graphics. I thought this last year, too, but I really like the look of day games in 2K. The player models are good (I'm not a huge graphics guy) and the faces are hit and miss. Some look spot-on, others not so much. Again, not a huge deal for me.

-CPU batters swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. Nice to see they will chase. They also don't swing at every pitch, which was an issue back in 2K9, so again, nice to see them mix in patience and aggressiveness.

Negatives
-Real-time presentation is cut way short. I would guess that is due to 2K cutting stuff out for the Demo.

-No audio. Again, this was for Demo purposes but I think it's a mistake not to put the commentary in there because that is a strong suit for 2K.

-No extra innings if the game ends tied. Not a huge deal since it's only a Demo, but still, it would be nice to play things out until there is a winner.

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I have to say I came away with a better feeling about 2K11 after playing the Demo and I will definitely be picking the game up Day 1. Good job, 2K, I think you've got a winner on your hands this year.

[nils005]

Quote: Originally Posted by Giants4Natic

The hurry up function is no good in baseball games. Baseball is the one sport where patience is a virtue and in order to get cemented in the novelty of the sport you have to go through the little things that make it great.

What's important to me, even more than the spectacle of the game are the stats. And I can't rack 'em up if a single game takes an hour.

[ChaseB]

DJ press RT to dive.

[JayhawkerStL]

The lack of commentary is a size issue. The demo run 726 MB, as opposed to 3 gigs for the game that shall not be named. And size is a huge issue on the PS3, as it can take forever to download a game. So to be fair, the 360 also gets a small size demo.

Audio is huge because you have to send so much more tan is needed a game. And it is probably a risk for al kinds of crashes if they try to pick and choose what is really necessary.

That's almost all sports games ship without commentary.

[BlackBetty15]

Can someone confirm if adrian beltre battign stance is back in the game after it was mysteriously missing in 2k10. (its not a big deal, just want to know if 2K at least shored up this small mishap with beltre, soriano, and cantu among others that were missing from last year.)

[DJ]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChaseB

DJ press RT to dive.

Gracias. Oh, forgot to mention that I didn't notice any framerate issues, except for foul balls that went over the backstop. I don't think that will be a problem with the retail version.

[mike24forever]

Quote: Originally Posted by sroz39

Played two games, one as each team. Some thoughts (both negative and positive) not in any particular order. - impossible not to notice how much smoother the game is overall compared to last year. Just moving your guy in the field feels perfect. - graphics, though not world-beating, are improved and I especially noticed the improved lighting and player models. - stadium looked much better than last year's, though I would've liked to have seen some clouds instead of just the blue sky (may just be the default weather set for the demo, like the 18mph wind in The Show demo) - pitching, as expected, is a dream. I try to pitch to the catcher's recommendation 90% of the time (I also use API in The Show) and I had alot of 2-2 and 3-1 counts. Corners can definitely go either way. Not much else to say about the mechanic itself, I like The Show's analog pitching, I LOVE 2K's. Just awesome. - hitting is so much more improved and it's mainly because of the added frames of animation. In last year's game, it seemed like the large majority of the time you were either right on the ball or way too early or way too late. In the demo, there's alot of in-between stuff too, which leads to choppers and soft liners. Something about this hitting too that just feels...right. I hit a jack with Pat Burrell my first game and though it wasn't a no-doubter by the game's standards (didn't get any special camera) I just KNEW I hit it out based on timing, trajectory etc. Felt great. - absolutely love the camera after you hit the ball. Probably my favourite addition. - don't like the size of the numbers and font on the back of jerseys. (Still) way too big. - really like some of the presentation elements, despite no commentary. - it was mentioned earlier that in between pitches when you're up the batter steps away and steps back in but the computer doesn't. I found the A.I. batter to do this often, just not every time. Might be something to look for in the final buld. - I had zero frame rate issues at any point other than foul balls that went straight back into the screen. It was silky smooth. - transition animations definitely need work but they are better. - love the fielding and the throwing meter. This aspect of the game is just great all-around. One aspect I didn't like was a particular scenario when throwing. I like to pre-load all my throws when I field. It just makes everything look better. Problem is, if you pre-load any throws in this game where the play takes you away from the bag you're throwing too, it always triggers an off-balanced/spin and jump throw, regardless of how much time you have to get the runner. I would like for the game to determine if it's necessary or not to trigger those animation (like The Show does) and if you DO have enough time, to catch the ball, plant and throw instead of always making an unbalanced throw. - one other aspect that was also evident in the Phillies/Rockies video that is still in the demo is where there's a grounder that's low but the animation the fielder is doing causes the ball to morph up into the fielder's glove. I'm not going to say this is a fielding problem per se, as it's probably more of an animation issue. - one aspect about pitching that The Show does that I would like to see incorporated in this series is the breaking of pitches, particularly when it's thrown in a certain spot. I'll try to explain it as best I can. Say you have a righty pitcher and a righty batter. Say you want to throw a curveball. If you were to throw a curveball inside to the righty, the ball would break less than if you were to come across your body a little more and throw a curveball to the outside part of the plate. The Show has the pitches break less in those scenarios (also in scenarios where you throw a breaking pitch up), whereas in this game, the pitch breaks the same amount regardless of location. Small detail but one I'd like to see worked on for next year. It's been brought up that this game reminds some people of MVP 2005 and I couldn't agree more. Not in the sense that it plays the same or anything like that. But in the fun factor. I find The Show is a sim game of baseball with some fun elements behind it, whereas I find this series to be a fun game with some sim elements behind it (not unlike MVP). For the first time in a while though, and this is assuming the final build comes together like the demo seems to show it will, you can talk about both The Show and the 2K baseball game in the same sentence without sounding silly. I very much enjoyed the demo and look forward to the 8th

This is an opinion that I trust! Thanks sroz39!