From Pasta Padre:
From the Operation Sports Forums:After about five hours with the game today and more than that to come tomorrow there will be plenty to discuss about MLB 09 The Show. I wanted to get some initial thoughts up now and follow that up with one that will probably be more extensive tomorrow night.
First, there are some restrictions to what I am able to talk about. Those basically amount to the topics that are slated for coverage in the upcoming weekly Playstation Blog postings. Ill be able to go over those areas a day after they are released. So if it seems like I am leaving out certain areas of the game or not answering certain questions that could be why. Or it might be that I just dont have an answer or opinion on it based on what Ive gotten through.
We have been cleared to snap screenshots using the built-in feature in the PS3 as well as save highlight clips. Im hoping to have a bunch of those to post up tomorrow or over the weekend. Thanks to those who left some requests on Twitter. I was able to get a few of them and will look at grabbing more as I go.
The build being used is near final as there is still some final bug fixing going on even as I write this. I spent all of the time today playing exhibition games with tomorrow being when Ill dive into Road to the Show and possibly Franchise. So at this point I can only offer up some general thoughts and observations.
Throughout the evening the group was joined by a stable of producers. Chris Cutliff (Director of Product Development), Chris Gill (Senior Producer/Gameplay), Chris Clements (Lead Animator), Brian Ma (Senior AI Programmer), Jason Villa (Producer/Online), Jody Kelsey (Producer), Kolbe Launchbaugh (Senior Designer), Aaron Luke (Designer), Marcus Efting (Lead Production Tester). Much appreciation goes out to them for committing the time to interact and go over different aspects of the game.
For those people who played MLB 08 it is a very familiar feeling jumping into 09. Unfortunately I cant talk about the changes to the pitch meter yet as that did take a little while to get acclimated to. But outside of that not much has been messed with. Theyve only taken what they had and made pretty much everything that much better.
It would be impossible to point out everything that is right about MLB 09. So just to mention the first thing that jumped out at me the lighting looks fantastic. The outdoor elements add a unique feel as well as the differences between sunny, partly cloudy, overcast, and night games. It especially is striking how good the game looks in the two new stadiums.
The chant creator worked really well. It took the recorded chant and made it sound like it was coming from the crowd and not an individual. While this is something I still doubt Ill be using I think anyone who is looking forward to it will be pleased.
A new post game highlight reel has been added. This is a really nice presentational touch, one that I would actually sit through which is not the norm. Impressively the replays being shown were very much relevant to the outcome of the games. Home runs and strikeouts at critical moments were what I saw the most of.
It is difficult to proclaim anything about the game considering all the variables. User skill, difficulty level, acclimation to the new game, ect. However it seemed to me that runs were being scored primarily off home runs. The hit variety I saw was actually quite encouraging. I just couldnt seem to string hits together, and watching some of the games that were played on Legendary difficulty (which I wont even bother attempting) they were getting singles and doubles but were scoring their runs off the long ball.
As far as collision detection they have tried to limit the situations where players cross through each other. There are still instances where it happens though. While it is a visual oddity it really doesnt take anything away from the game for me. It would obviously be better if it didnt happen, but it doesnt affect the outcome on the field which is the most important thing.
While online is an area that I cant speak to the specifics on yet, I can say that I am more encouraged about it having received much needed attention. I spent some time talking to producer Jason Villa about what theyve done to improve performance, the online leagues, and a few other various enhancements that will be found online. However well only know for sure if the game runs well online once it is released. As far as Playstation Home there is nothing for this year but expect some tie-ins next year.
Overall Rating: #1 Red Sox - #2 Yankees - #3 Cubs - #4 Phillies - #5 Mets. More ratings info to come tomorrow.
Now to respond to a few questions and a few more random observations:
Mets outfield wall is blue. SCEA was not provided many details about the new stadiums and have done the best they can with them under the circumstances.
All uniform details are taken directly out of the MLB provided style guide and following it exactly is a requirement. So if any combos or specifics are off that is out of the hands of SCEA.
There is a mandatory HDD install the first time you start up the game.
I dont believe there is any weather effects other than wind and the sunny, partly cloudy, overcast, and night conditions.
The sunglasses look nice. Dont remember seeing the eye black on a player but I wasnt looking for it.
Guess Pitch is still in the game as an option
The throwing urgency for infielders seems better. There were some instances where they were still a little slow getting the ball out but I didnt have any that resulted in hits because of it.
Still had times where the SS would run for a ground ball up the middle and it would just go by him without any attempt animation being made
I also felt frustrated on some check swing calls when I felt like I held up. I could be wrong though.
Just a minor observation but it seemed like an awful lot of foul balls were lined right at and bouncing off the benches down the foul lines. It happened an inordinate amount of time almost as if those benches were attracting the lined fouls.
There did seem to be more doubles, or at least the potential for them. Got some nice doubles over the heads of outfielders.
Saw a pitcher wearing a jacket when running the bases, looked really cool.
Alright that is all for tonight. Make sure to follow my Twitter as Ill continue to do some updates there during the day and will give about an hours notice if I am able to do a live blog from the room.
Jim416 said:The game jumps out at you. The lighting especially. We have been able to take screen shots and should be able to post these soon enough. Textures of the players uniforms, the player models themselves, the transitional lighting (it will knock your socks off at how well they pulled this off), and the scores of added animations, cut scenes, etc. just had us drooling.
Pared made a chant jeering Jose Reyes and the audio make it sound like the entire crowd was chanting and not just one person, it was hilarious to hear. This addition is going to be ton of fun for people. Where to begin? There's so much. So I'll just start with some observations and answer some of the questions.
1. The double play problems are g-o-n-e. The force outs at second, the first to SS to pitcher double plays, smooth as silk. Something new added this year.The computer hit a ground ball to first and the pitcher started running towards first. Well, I was going to throw to the pitcher, but he was going to be late covering. Last year we would have seen that big,high underhanded lob, runner safe. This year the AI is such that if the pitcher isn't going to get there on time, the throw button "0" will cause the first baseman to take it himself to the bag. Works like a charm.
2. I had another ball hit to my first baseman who had to charge in and towards the mound, he made one quick turn and side arm throw off his left foot to get the ball to the pitcher who ran over to cover first base.
3. Had two line shots down the left field corner, both doubles. Playing one of the devs he had a runner on 1st and started his runner. His batter hit a shot down the left field line, the runner heading for second scored and the batter had himself a double.
4. A nice touch is some of the replays on hits go to the press box view and you get a really good shot of the entire field.
5. A nice new edition is you don't have to hit the START button this year to pause the game, go to the bullpen, etc. You simply hit UP on the D-Pad and it opens a window and you scroll through the options you want, bullpen/pinch hitter/pinch runner, etc. This is a really nice touch and speeds things up a bit.
6. Lint, this one is for you. Your last name is in the name data base. As a matter of fact they have first name/last names in the data base.
7. A pinch hitter came up out of the dugout carrying his bat and putting his batting helmet on, nice touch. There are tons of new scenes like this, for example, guys coming in from the bullpen, etc.
8. For the Bluejays fan, the strip of wall that was too light and interfered with the pitch ball has been darkened (dark gray now) and I had no problems picking up pitched balls.
9. Eight styles of sun glasses.
10. Stirrups.
11. Ryan Dempster does that little flicking motion with his glove when pitching.
12. There is a great highlight reel at the end of each game that automatically plays all the game highlights/recap.
13. When playing Franchise mode the game automatically generates overcast skies, cloudy skies, etc. They really pulled off the effect of a game being played on an overcast day.
14. Knight was playing and was screaming that he had a couple balls hit over his outfielders heads.
15. Warm up jackets on players.
16. The Free Agent list has a bunch of legend players (I think 80???) that can be assigned to your team before you start your franchise. I put Al Kaline on my Nats before I started my franchise.
17. I didn't see a single beachball and understand they are still there, but perhaps more stadium specific.
18. The crowd. This is a big leap. It was really difficult to try to pick out duplicate people in the crowd. They're there, but the way they pulled it off it's hard to pick them out. Also the graphics/animations of the crowd is greatly improved.
19. The roster control is different this year. Instead of having three screens, ML/AAA/AA a teams roster is on ONE screen and you scroll down, then look to the right to see if they are ML/AAA/AA. Here is where you also have it noted if they are on the 40 man roster, or not.
It was a bit cumbersome for me at first because I wasn't used to it, but I can see where it's going to be better because you only have to look at one screen now, not flip the pages to see the AAA/AA. The lineups, pitching rotations are still set up the same.
20. There don't appear to be as many devs in the game. They are still uneditable, however their player ratings are not high, their attributes are not high, mostly look like AA type players rather than ML types.
Okay, just a break here.
- You CAN play any game on the schedule. I started a franchise with the Nats, but also played some other games on the schedule of other teams.
You can still put roster control ON and keep the other teams rosters current.
- You could actually take the legend guys from the FA list, replace an entire roster and play your franchise with the legend guys if you wanted.
Scooters name is in the database (don't know if it was there last year, or not)
- just gotta say that seeing this game in action, in HD.......wow. You can tell they work hard on it. One of the devs took me into his cubicle and showed me how they program everything right down to the angles/speeds/player reactions/jumps/dives, etc., etc. and I tell you, it IS rocket science. It's amazing to watch and see these guys sitting for HOURS in front of their monitors programming the things we take for granted and demand in the game.
- We are NOT playing a final build.
Please keep questions to PM and not in this thread.
There is something else new with fielding and it shocked the heck out of me. For example, you dive for a ball.....last year you could completely dive over it, but this year the AI will determine if the fielder is actually going to dive, or just stretch out and field the ball. It's something to get used to but I saw it twice when I pressed dive where the player merely bent over, stretched out, fielded the ball and threw to the base.
- I've got to say that my favorite presentation moment yesterday was seeing a pinch hitter walk up OUT of the dugout, on the stairs, with his batting helmet in his hand.
Pared said:Well I know I'm freakin' exhausted.
I won't go into too much; Jim covered a lot already. Just a few things I wanted to add:
-Legend mode is HARD against number 1 starters. You get a better feel against a 2 or so but number 1's on the top teams are just... exhausting. You have to be completely focused and into every single pitch. It's tough to gauge on such a small sample but I don't know if people will want to play an entire season against the CPU on it. But it's awesome that it is there.
-I saw the actual style guide. Wasn't a good thing, as the Mets jerseys had some inconsistencies and I'm sure there were a few others. But man, the MLB style guide just is NOT correct. I see the developers bind in delivering what we want and what the MLB dictates.
-The stadiums are just incredible with the new lighting. You can lose a hit by having the ball shadow disappear into the shade! Very, very cool feature!
That's all I'm getting into for now. I'm not completely sure on what we can/can't discuss so better safe than sorry. Once we get all that sorted out we'll be able to get to most of your questions sooner or later.
As for the game... WOW is all I have to say. The best just got better... and that's saying a lot for what most consider the best sports game of last year. Any baseball fan would be pleased.
One last thing: All the complaints about hitting are thrown out the window at this point. If you think you'll have consistent games with 10-15 hits on a few runs, then you'll be surprised. A lot of work has been put into the batter-pitcher interface and it shows. Amazing.
- Ok, I lied; One last thing.
Catch region indicator was fixed! You can not play with the region on and the actual spinning ball off, just like you could 2 years ago.
More tomorrow!
EDIT:
Ok, last one. Swear.
The replay angles are beyond ridiculous this year. There are so many new ones that are just... indescribable. Just like you'd see on an actual broadcast.
Much work was put into them and it shows.
- Ha, Jim is up early as well.
About the uni's: many are fixed. I should get final word later on but not every team is 100% correct to the point where a fan will go, "Now that is every correct uni for my team." For instance, the Mets don't have their all black away uniform that says NY at all, but they DO have their all black uni that says Mets. To add insult to injury, it's only possible to select it while away.
There's a Rockies fan on the team so I'm sure their black sleeve alternates are in. Like I said, we can look up the jerseys today.
The build is NOT final, so there is no worries on my end in terms of anything we're seeing not being addressed. I would hold any sort of freaking out guys want to do until the final disc is in your hands. Any sort of gaffe anyone of us has mentioned has been addressed 100% by the team and they are more than willing to have things fixed.
I'm truly amazed at the amount of work put into the new stadiums. Apparently it has been very difficult getting correct info on the specifics of each stadium and while they may not be 100%, they look so damn good I can't do anything other than praise their effort.
There so much I want to say, but like I mentioned earlier I'm holding close to the NDA.
BTW, the signature animations are really, really good. My only complaint, if you can even call it that, is you can really see the goofiness of BSG shine through at times. It's not THAT bad but the obsessive guys you are will notice it right away and it may bother some. BUT... and this is a bit but... they are few and far between. Much better than last year.
Jeter's signature throw to first is in and looks great.
- Lots of guys have new motions. They look immensely better than what we've had.
Personally I still feel like the pitchers don't seem to put enough "oomph" when they throw a pitch. Hope that makes sense.
But leg kicks, glove positions... a good amount of them look very good.
I'll add my favorite presentation moment:
The game introductions. Only slightly changed but simply... "Wow." Still the best in the business.
Again, the replay camera angles. Close ups on the face of the pitcher right before a pitch.... incredible.
Knight165 said:Truly....truly impressive.
I can't think of a better way to state it.
The lighting gives this game a whole new state of "wow". Not a jump out of your chair wow, but a sit back and take it in sense of impressiveness. You'll see what I mean.
Fielding is much improved.
Franchise mode is going to be FANTASTIC.
Little things? ....that is going to be one LOOOOONG thread this year!
- Differences in level difficulties......especially legend.
Be prepared. You must simply stay focused. It's punishing. I'll try and get more specific info.
-Sliders...greater degree of variance? Yes ..some. More importantly, they all work.
-Injuries...especially gameplay? Yes...I'll ask Kolbe if I can be more specific though. This slider works
-Do catchers take their mask off? No
-Is there rain or drizzle? No
-Interactive bullpens with players on bench? No...and no CPU pitchers warmin up ...but!...there will be more CPU mound visits to let you know that a RP might be coming in.
-Collision detection? No player to player...and once explained to me...it makes sense. I'll ask how much I can elaborate. But there are more animations in the game to deal with "collision detection".
-Any tweaking to calling pitches? Undetermined. I haven't got enough time to be sure. It feels better...but honestly, I don't think I can get enough full games in to give a definite answer on this.
-Will there be more doubles and triples? GUARANTEED
-Can more balls be hit over the OF head? GUARANTEED
-Balks? No
-Can you cancel a throw to a base and redirect it to another or cutoff? Not in animation...once you hit it...it will go to that base.
-If I hit the ball down the line...can I get more doubles(stretch one out)? Yes.....there is much more going into this....this year. The new routes...the hot shots...You WILL see a difference.
-Have foul tips/check swings been improved? I believe they have...I need a little more time with it.
-Has the 3-6-1 DP been fixed? YES-YES-YES!
-Doubles?(again) YES!
-Will coaches catch foul balls? no...and no ball girls/boys either
-Have wild pitches/passed balls been cut down? Yes. Still there...but they worked on that.
-Is there more of a sense of urgency to get outs? Yes. Especially on legend. The baserunning slider will also pump up the CPU runners considerably.
-Is there any change to the picoff mechanic? Yes....a lot of work on this.....more animations...better logic.
-Does fatigue effect performance? Yes. Right from the man himself....but it's not drastic(thankfully!)...a slight hit to performance attributes...but it's mainly an injury hit. Play a guy too low on durabiltiy and the injury chance increases greatly. YOU CAN PLAY A GUY FATIGUED w/o a big hit in his on field performance.
-Is there an option to set battery mates? No
-Manager tendencies? not yet(not that they said they might...but I'm pushing )
More later....
Nemesis04 said:For my fellow Yankee fans: Girardi is in with the proper number, he looks good. He is always yelling at the players,lol. In one of the games where I was getting killed, I swung at a first pitch and popped up and Girardi was giving Damon mouth. Matt and Dave were commenting on how Damon should have taken some pitches being down and Girardi was getting his point across! LOL
