First info on MLB 11: The Show

[theproof]

What would you say if I told you that the best Christmas gift you could get for a video game sports fan would be a pre-order on a game that doesn’t come out until March?

Baseball fans or fans of baseball fans all here? News has been popping up all over the internet about SCE San Diego Studio’s newest franchise installment, MLB 11: The Show. The consensus: the best baseball simulation ever made.

The problem with most sports games nowadays (I’m looking at you, Madden) is that they don’t really improve on the previous iteration. They update the rosters, the graphics, add some shovelware and boom! $60! For anyone who has played The Show series, you know that’s not the case with these games. The developers do a great job of adding more and more content each year, making The Show easily stand out against other sports games.

To say this year’s edition will be the greatest baseball game ever made is actually not that difficult to imagine, considering MLB 10: The Show replaced MLB 09: The Show as the greatest baseball game ever made. There’s a trend here.

It’s a shame, really, that it’s a Sony-owned studio that makes this franchise, because Xbox 360 users are forced to play the 2K series to get their baseball fix. If The Show went multi-platform, 2K would have to bow out of the competition all together. It’s that much better.

Enough about the franchise as a whole and on to the actual info that’s been released about MLB 11: The Show.

First and foremost is the change in controls. Instead of having 10 billion different button combinations to do different things, MLB 11 is moving to pure analog controls. To throw to first base, you move the right analog stick in that direction. MVP College Baseball used these controls before the franchise was discontinued, and they worked great, so I’m really glad to see MLB 11 take suit of that. There is an option, for those of you who despise change, to use the older, outdated button controls.

Another awesome addition is the new co-op feature. It seems like something that probably should have been there from the beginning of the franchise, but (understandably) that can be difficult to make work with a baseball game. In MLB 11: The Show, you can play 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 2 v 1, or 2 v CPU. This includes online play, a wonderful feature that is greatly welcomed by myself.

The amount of customization players enjoy in co-op is what really makes this relevant. There are literally too many options for me to list without rambling — but, for example, you could have one player be the hitter and one player be the fielder. You could have one player play the pitcher and outfielder, while the other player plays infield. The combinations are endless, and the game really caters to whatever you want to do.

The dismissal of the goal system for a new, performance-based rating system is another welcome change. Instead of getting goals such as “Drive in the Run,” you’ll be scored on how well you do in different situations. So, if there’s a runner on third and one out, you’ll be expected to drive him in. This, combined with a performance-based growth system, will make for a much more realistic and entertaining experience.

I don’t know about you guys, but I know I’ll be at the store on day one to pick up this beauty.

http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.p...-baseball.html

[Gigantes4Life]

Like I said in the Giants forum, unless they fix the fielding I'm not getting it again.

Every damn backhand grounder would get through.

[theproof]

Yeah, that pisseds me off too, especially when it happens online where it seems most frequent.

[VRP723]

I can't wait, my favorite game.

[Mane]

****ing sexual. cannot wait. even though i hate baseball, nothing is better in sports games than the show mode.

[VRP723]

I have a question Mane, can you turn off fielding in Road to the Show? I hate wasting my time fielding routine ground balls.

[DamnGoat]

Like I said in the Giants forum, unless they fix the fielding I'm not getting it again.

Every damn backhand grounder would get through.

Not just that, but everything down the 3B line would get through even with the best fielders. And if I hit a ball like that it should be an easy double but a lot of times I'd get thrown out at 2B, which is pretty unrealistic IMO.

Plus the fielding in the OF was pretty bad. Unless you absolutely scorch the ball it's gonna be caught easily.

Not that I tried to draw many BB's in the game, but when I did it seemed nearly impossible even with a wild pitcher on the mound.

[Mane]

I have a question Mane, can you turn off fielding in Road to the Show? I hate wasting my time fielding routine ground balls.

I sure as hell hope so..