Just got this and suck badly but want to play online. Anyone playing this? PS3 btw.
Graphics are insane. Controls are tough to pick up. This game is to baseball what Madden is to football. So many controls that it’s hard to just pick up and play.
I can’t do it. I have a romantic view of baseball video games that harken back to the days of RBI Baseball, All Stars and Bases Loaded on the NES - but those were simpler times. Nowadays, the games are too hard. I got through most of a season on 2k5 - but even then it HAD to be on easy. I could never get a walk, lefty batters couldn’t hit homers, and the automated lineup/rotation business was broken. And I sure as hell don’t want to deal with managing AAA down to A ball.
I might (might) pick up The Bigs 2, because it seems to be a cartoony, dumbed down baseball game. But I just started Batman: AA, and today found Demon’s Souls on clearance at Target for $42 lord help me.
But if it turns out to be an easy(ier) game to pick up on, and there aren’t major issues, I might give it a look. I want to be in love with a baseball game again, I really do.
I bought 09 on opening day, so to speak. I love the realism, graphics, and personality of The Show series. I love that you are able to play awesome mind games while pitching against the computer. I love that the Phanatic can be seen in the game and you can set your own music for when you come to bat. The attention to detail is incredible. I like using the instant replay camera to explore the stadium. (Speaking of which that reminds me of one small nitpick I never liked about the game. The stands are filled with far too many clones. Stop looking exactly the same baseball fans! And, especially don’t sit in the same section and cheer the same way!)
But, I agree with Munch on the game’s difficulty. Unlike Madden, there was never a way to make the game easy. In Madden football I’m always able to play at rookie level and win every game by 99 points. In MLB The Show I am playing at Rookie level and still eeking out 1-0 wins when I am playing the Hall of Fame team against minor league teams. I don’t mind the highest levels being impossibly hard, but the rookie levels should be piece of cake easy to make up for it.
I’ll still pick it up. Just because I enjoy owning the games the year after the Phillies get to play in the Fall Classic. But,I am going to wait until the game is heavily discounted.Which means I miss out on a lot of online play, but that is ok since that is not my favorite part of the game.
Munch:
The Bigs 2 is what you want. It is an arcade style baseball game. The players skills are all emphasized. Ichiro isn’t fast he is FAST. Pujols doesn’t just hit home runs he Roy Hobbs the hell out of the ball. And, it is a lot easier to pick the game up and just have fun swinging away and running the bases.
I got the game…actually, I’ve gotten all of them except for '09. I don’t find the game particularly difficult, though. It is a little harder than other baseball games have been, but I like that because your numbers end up being more realistic. I hate finishing a season where half my lineup hits 60+ homers. With that said, it does slightly irk me that a) when you’re pitching, batters have otherworldly strike zone judgment on 2-strike counts, and b) when you’re batting, every single pitcher has 5 pitches, all of which he can precisely spot on any of the corners.
They didn’t fix any of the most irritating aspects of the game in this iteration either. There’s a load screen between almost every single transition. I mean, really? It needs 30 seconds to load the opening menu? When you’re on base in RTTS mode, it takes FOREVER for the batter to either strike out or put the ball in play; usually they’ll just foul off pitch after pitch after pitch and then eventually work the count all the way to 3-2 before striking out. I used to intentionally get myself caught stealing home to skip ahead to my next AB, but now in '10, the manager will bench you for getting thrown out too much. Lame.
But all in all, I think it’s the best baseball series ever made, and I’ve played just about all of them.
I have it and am quite enjoying it. It’s the first action-y baseball game I’ve owned since… one of the Ken Griffey games on the N64? It’s been a while. (I say action-y because I have and love several of the OOTP numbers sims.)
I have done 95%+ of my playing in the Road to the Show mode as a pitcher. I don’t actually think it’s that difficult; I am on Veteran and I haven’t had any trouble moving through the minors to this point. I spent my first year as the sixth starter in Double-A, so I made a bunch of relief appearances and maybe 8 or 10 starts down the stretch when one of the other starters got injured; I finished something like 12-6 with 3 saves and a ~1.70 ERA. I am halfway through my second year, this time as a full time starter in Triple-A: when I get home from work tonight I’ll be starting for the International League in the AAA All-Star game, as I’ve come into the break with a 16-2 record and a ~2.70 ERA.
My biggest complaint about the gameplay is something ReticulatingSplines mentioned: with two strikes, Double-A and Triple-A hitters are completely ridiculous with the strike zone judgment, laying off 91-mph fastballs that are an inch off the plate, and never even thinking about touching breaking stuff that is in the zone until the last possible moment. This makes it harder to strike guys out than it really should, and pushes the balance really strongly in favor of pitching to ground ball contact when possible.
The game has more than enough going for it to offset that and any other nitpicks I could come up with, though. Very glad I picked it up, and it’s very welcome as a change of pace from the other stuff I am playing (the FF13s of the world).
I want it but don’t have a PS3 yet. Still playing 07 & 08 for PS2 (07 is easier for Career pitchers); skipped 09.
The pitching’s not too bad (although your reliability with a low-stat pitcher is terrible), but the hitting’s been cranked up in difficulty each year.
This year it got especially tough for me, because I can’t pick a falling ball very well. I’d previously used to pick pitches on the 1/4-zone method, so that if I chose the low quadrant and the ball was sinking it’d show where the ball would cross the plate.
It doesn’t do that any more, so I’m stuffed.
I’ve played two games of Road to the Show, and it’s now sitting next to my PS3, mocking me. Of course, it’s sitting next to Heavy Rain which I’m not keen to play either because it’s a pile of pooh, but that’s not doing anything to encourage me to commit the time to learning the baseball game before I can play it.
I’ve got it, and I enjoy it, but I agree with the assessment of difficulty. I play almost exclusively in RTTS mode. After making kind of a mockery of the '08 and '09 versions by setting everything as easy as I could (and completely skewing the User contact/power settings in my favor), I figured that this time around, I’d give it a more honest go.
I really did try on Veteran for a while. But as much as I have pretty decent hand-eye coordination for real-life sports, I cannot grasp the timing of pushing the stick in the right direction at the same time I’m trying to swing. I just can’t do it. And it frustrated the hell out of me because even when I was reading the pitch properly, I couldn’t make myself push the stick in the right direction. I swear I’d make more contact standing in a real batter’s box facing Tim Lincecum than I did playing RTTS. So I finally gave up and went back to Rookie mode. And while there’s a part of me that feels a bit crappy that I paid $60 to essentially “cheat” at a game, I’m enjoying the experience more this way than I was otherwise, so at least I’ve got a shot at getting my money’s worth.
On the other hand, I will say that playing Veteran Mode as a pitcher (in prior year’s versions – I haven’t made a pitcher in '10 yet) is very playable.
Other comments:
[ul]
[li]While the crowd is still annoyingly clone-ish, it’s slightly better than last year’s. I vastly prefer people getting up and down from their seats and vendors walking the stands to last year’s beach ball that bounced around the crowd randomly without anyone actually reaching up to hit it.[/li][li]I also like that they’ve included some basic physics laws when it comes to players running into one another instead of running through each other (although this seems to come into play most after scoring and then being impeded because the stupid umpire is blocking your path back to the dugout).[/li][li]I’m no programmer, so I have no idea how complicated this is to fix, but this version, like the previous ones, has the weird issue of showing current information instead of prior information during replays. In other words, my character hits a towering solo shot in the bottom of the 3rd inning to make it a 1-0 game. When I come up in the 8th, the score is now 5-3. As they show a replay of my majestic bomb and the ball flies by a scoreboard, the scoreboard reads 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th. Stupid, but it irks me.[/li][li]I really wish they’d find a different animation for baserunners during a foul ball. It is comical, but eventually annoying, to watch everyone on base do a synchronized leg kick/helmet hold every single time.[/li][li]I do enjoy the fielding training in RTTS, even though it is also glitchy (tagging a runner who runs RIGHT BY ME is the wrong move?).[/li][li]I like the fact that the RTTS manager now punishes you for getting caught stealing too often or for ignoring signs.[/li][/ul]
That reminds me, I HATE when the third base coach calls for a hit-and-run, but the pitcher throws the ball into the dirt or three feet off the plate. If you swing and miss, you fail the goal, but if you let it go, you get knocked for ignoring the sign. Would it be THAT hard to program it to only penalize you if the ball was a strike?
Agreed, actually. There have been at least two times when I’ve attempted to swing on a hit-and-run, but my player has automatically jumped out of the way because the pitch was way inside. And then I get yelled at after the game.
Hey Asmovian. I saw you online tonight playing. I was going to try to play you but I have no keyboard or mic so I wouldn’t have been able to communicate. So if I try to play you do me a favor and throw mostly strikes (believe me I’m no threat) as I’m still working on batting basics.
Also, when you use the right stick to choose the direction of your hit or fly/grounder do you have to hold it WHILE you push X or do you just push it and let go to swing? The instructions don’t specify and holding that stick while hitting x with the same hand is not easy.
One more thing. On the PSP version you can slow down the approach of the pitch to let noobs learn how to read them and actually get some hits. Can you do this on Ps3?
Tap it after the pitcher starts his motion, but before he lets go.
You can. Go into the settings and you’ll see some Player Settings, CPU Settings and Global Settings. I don’t know which it’s in, but I think it’s called “pitch speed” or such.
At least they fixed the “glitch” where you can guarantee that your bullpen will blow a 9th inning lead by giving up 4 or 5 runs while simming. It used to be that if I was up by 2 runs before I simmed the 8th and/or 9th innings, I could count on losing. That doesn’t seem to happen anymore.
And I love how customizable your character is. My batter looks JUST. LIKE. ME. The girlfriend is creeped out by it but I love it.
Ah, but you don’t get yelled at for getting picked off! Stop stealing home and start leading off too far.
Tip: For some reason, in Rookie mode, the batter’s eye is NOT off! I guess the pitch, and if I’m right, I move the now-invisible batter’s eye to that spot. I’m batting .477!
[quote=“Asimovian, post:8, topic:533430”]
[li]While the crowd is still annoyingly clone-ish, it’s slightly better than last year’s. I vastly prefer people getting up and down from their seats and vendors walking the stands to last year’s beach ball that bounced around the crowd randomly without anyone actually reaching up to hit it.[/li][/QUOTE]
The beach ball’s still there, though. I think it’s funny.
[quote=“Asimovian, post:8, topic:533430”]
[li]I really wish they’d find a different animation for baserunners during a foul ball. It is comical, but eventually annoying, to watch everyone on base do a synchronized leg kick/helmet hold every single time.[/li][/QUOTE]
I actually just do the dance with them, right there on my couch. It’s leg kick-CLAP-helmet tap!
[quote=“Asimovian, post:8, topic:533430”]
[li]I do enjoy the fielding training in RTTS, even though it is also glitchy (tagging a runner who runs RIGHT BY ME is the wrong move?).[/li][/quote]
Well yeah. You’re supposed to get the lead runner.
Even worse is when you’re the runner on first and the coach calls for the hit&run, but he revoked your green light already. If you run, you gets benched indefinitely for “stealing on your own” but if you don’t steal, then you get yelled at for ignoring the sign.
No, you just hit it once and let go. But remember, that’s the influence a fly ball, not to guarantee one.
Yeah. It’s called Pitch Speed and it’s in the Global Sliders section.
Hot damn, you’re right! I could have sworn one time I got picked off and it was counted as caught stealing, but I don’t see it now.
You also don’t get in trouble for stealing if it’s 3-2, 2 outs. It’s impossible to actually steal in that scenario, of course, but the coach doesn’t begrudge you the head start.
I’m actually talking about the lead runner. Runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out, I’m playing 3rd base. A ground ball is hit to me, I automatically tag the guy running by me and then throw to first (usually too late to get the runner coming into second). I get dinged for it.
I have '09 The Show. I bought it used to test it out because I wanted a new baseball game badly and had heard The Show franchise is the best in sports. This game is brutal. I’m not great at baseball games, but I can’t be this bad, either. I think I’ve lost the last 25 games in a row. And I’m on rookie! I don’t get it.
The funny thing was the very first game I played I won 3-0 and pitched a CG SHO with 9 Ks. Since then I think I give up 4 runs a game and score .5. The CPU never, ever, EVER takes a strike or swings at a ball. Each CPU at bat is a minimum of 5 pitches so all my starters are dying by inning five. And 80% of my pitches go half a plate away from where I intended them (but never in a good way; either right down the center or ten feet outside).
I’m still having some fun because every game is competitive, but I’ve noticed there’s a “Madden-Eff-You” mode in this game. Every single time I take a lead, it’s a 100% chance the CPU retakes the lead in the next inning. They suddenly get every call, every hit is a line drive in the gap, etc… More practice for me, I guess!
I do have one question. When the little glove indicator pops up to show where the computer thinks you show locate your next pitch, is there a penalty if you don’t select their suggested pitch and location? This computer is fucking stupid sometimes with how they suggest pitches (3-0 and they want my worst pitch right where the slugger’s hot zones are? Fuck off!), but I seem to get a lot more passed balls and pitches in the dirt than in other baseball games I’ve played.
Try guessing the pitch. Each pitch has a viable location that will yield a hit. 4SFB are best hit down the middle or inside. The lower the pitch, the more ‘scoop’ the batter will give so you should aim for the gap. High pitches need to be hit right back to the pitcher, because they’re most likely line drives. Curveballs and changeups already have that ‘scoop’ built in, so higher up in the zone will allow your batter to deliver the power to get over the wall. Lower pitches will end up in the dirt.
Once you guess the pitch correctly, move your (invisible) batter’s eye over the spot. A full stick of deflection moves the center of your eye to the edge of the zone. So if the pitch is on the black, move the stick all the way over. I know that in Rookie mode, they say there’s no batter eye, but there is. And it matters. Could be a glitch, but I’ve ‘proven’ it to be true.
And the most important and hardest part, is to TAKE STRIKES. If you guessed the pitch wrong, don’t swing at it unless it’s the perfect pitch (hanging curve or changeup). Otherwise you’ll ground out. Wait for your pitch, aim for the gaps, and exercise some discipline. Practice. You’ll be hitting .400 in no time.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve actually been doing that (guess pitch, lay off anything else) for the past half dozen games or so. It’s to the point where I’ll set the controller down if I guess a pitch wrong so I don’t swing anyway. Nothing helps, though. I had to turn down the CPU pitcher’s “first pitch strike” slider because laying off pitches put me 0-2 on every single at bat (one pitcher threw 58 strikes and 1 ball in a game before getting pulled). Just lost another 3 games in a row, up to like 28 in a row total. Every inning I scored, the CPU scored the next half inning. I’ve tried absolutely everything. It’s kinda comical because the very first batter of their “cheating” inning will line the ball into the outfield and it’s pretty damn obvious I’m not getting anyone out until that guys scores. I’d be laughing at my historic futility if I weren’t so pissed off.
At least my last three losses were in extra innings, so I’m making it close. I’m just about ready to snap the disk in half though. There’s no excuse for the CPU taking pitches when the ball ends up IN THE ZONE (they still get the call) and there’s 2 strikes.
Hmmm…I’m on the road right now and am playing it on my PSP and am finding the rubberbanding AI to be very blatant and it’s pissing me off big time.
As an experiment I played the Cubs season mode and played opening day, Cards/Cubs 3 times in a row. Each game I was able to put up 2-3 runs in the first 3 innings, striking the CPU out or forcing pop-ups/easy grounders and then, without fail, the AI was able to pretty much hit anything, anywhere, they wanted to. Hitting everything right down the foul line or in the gaps. Basically rallying 2-3 runs in the 3rd or 4th inning. It was amazing how each game went the exact same way, with each rally starting with Holliday hitting a double down the rightfield line, the next batter hitting one in the gap between right and center, then Pujols hitting either a homer or a liner down the line, scoring 2-3 RBI’s with 0-1 outs on the board. I would quit the game after their rally, start over, and the game would progress exactly the same way. It really broke the illusion that I “had a chance”.
Pretty disappointing, especially since I was on rookie mode.