Not So PC
Friday, August 13, 2010
NCAA '11 PS3 SLIDERS
DIFFICULTY AA
GAME SPEED Slow, 7 min
SPEED DIFFERENTIAL 50
OFFENSE HUM CPU
QB ACC 45 50
PASS BLK 50 45
WR CATCH 50 55
RB ABLTY 50 65
RUN BLK 50 100
DEFENSE HUM CPU
PASS COVERAGE 35 50
PASS RUSH 50 50
INTERCEPTIONS 30 45
RUSH DEFENSE 50 90
TACKLING 55 55
SPECIAL TEAMS HUM CPU
FG LENGTH 35 20
FG ACCURACY 25 50
PUNT LENGTH 20 65
PUNT ACCURACY 35 50
KO LENGTH 30 45
Thursday, August 5, 2010
New Man and Zone Pass Coverage Sliders
There have been many complaints about how good man pass coverage this year. The effectiveness of man vs. Zone coverages has been debated in the past. Adding separate sliders for these things instead of a simple overall pass coverage slider would allow everyone to fine-tune the game to their liking.
Pass Deflections
There have been many complaints about super leaping LBs that knock down passes far over their heads. Prior to NCAA 10 we had a defensive knockdown slider that could actually be used to affect this. We need a new slider to determine how often a ball gets knocked down by a defender. Reducing the slider would reduce the defender’s range when deflecting passes.
Option Run Blocking
The cpu has always struggled to run the option. Teams like Oregon and Michigan are less successful running the ball compared to teams like Alabama that run a one back set. Having a separate slider for run blocking on option plays may be the solution to this.
Play Action Pass Blocking
The pass rush on play action passes is overly effective in NCAA 11. This is a crucial area because play action passing has often been too effective in the past. Allow us to adjust this to our liking.
Fumbles, Fatigue and Injuries
Madden has sliders for fumbles, fatigue and injuries. I think these would all be a great addition, especially a fumble slider.
Those are all the thoughts I have for now. I do NOT want Madden’s slider system which involves global and sub slider menus. It’s too confusing and I love sliders. The NCAA slider system is simpler and better. Please do not change the overall structure. Just add a few more sliders to help us tweak the game to our liking.
Anyone else have some other suggestions?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I’ve played almost 3 games now with seven minute quarters and I’m enjoying it. I wasn’t blown away at first but I think I’ve grown to like it more as I continue to play it. I still feel that after three games it’s still way too early to judge how the game will play but I think this will be a good game.
Gameplay – I think the highlight of the game is the running game. Reading blocks, breaking tackles and the added momentum really makes this the best part of the game. Surprisingly I prefer the slow speed. I think locomotion could be heavier but I’m largely fine with it.
The pass rush does seem weak for the human, even with the DL set to aggressive all game. There seems to be no penalty for an aggressive DL vs. the cpu so you might as well set it there. I haven’t played with a great pass rushing team yet so I can’t tell if it needs to be boosted. I am worried that a great pass rush will result in too many pick 6’s on All American. The cpu passing game needs a little help at default and the cpu running game needs a lot of help on default imo.
I do like the passes missing the targets and you don’t have to lead receivers deep anymore. The targeting system is good. I’ve also seen receivers have to stretch out and dive to catch balls (have a nice deep one on EA sportsworld) both across the middle and deep. No automatic YAC.
The DBs in the game have really bad hands which helps limit the INTs. I do notice that DBs mirror the WR routes at times and you better not force that pass. It doesn’t happen all the time and I don’t have a big problem with it as you can usually tell early on that the DB will have the edge and you better not throw it there.
The cpu kickers still have overly strong legs but do miss quite often. I wish the game would default to the FG Block play if using the play suggestions on FGs/XPs. It would be simpler in obvious situations.
Overall I’m happy with the game. I need to play more to determine just how happy I will be.
Fluff – I think the graphics are good. I’m not blown away by them but all three games were at dusk due to playing last night. I know the graphics tend to stand out more in day games (especially true for the baseball games) but either way they are fine. The presentation would be a lot better with more stat pop-ups. I think the crowd sounds are good – way better than NCAA 10. I do miss Corso a bit. Not sure why he was removed. Every injury needs to be announced as well.
One thing I find very annoying – the replays are cut off at the beginning if they are long! I have a PS3 – we all have hard drives. Why was this necessary? I had a great run with John Clay where I broke a ton of tackles and all I see is his sprint into the endzone. All the good stuff was cut out. The camera seems to pan more than the demo but I still like it a lot more than NCAA 10. Extra camera angles along with in game saves would be great next year EA! There is still some lag in the menus and scrolling for the PS3. I wish that was eliminated entirely. I’d still like sliders for fatigue, injuries and fumbles although all three do seem pretty good on default.
Kicking game – I did some testing in this area. You really need to drop your angle on FGs to kick long ones but I think they really got the strength of the user kicker’s leg right. The cpu kicking game is too strong though. Users are too accurate but cpu kickers are not.
Cpu punters have a fair leg while users out kick a cpu punter by roughly 5 yards so that needs to be toned down imo. The problem is the user punt length slider doesn’t work well. 10 points = 1 yard so I dropped user punt length down to 0. I now kick the same length as the cpu punter.
Kicking Sliders I’d recommend.
SP TEAMS HUM CPU
FG LENGTH 50 35
FG ACCURACY 25 50
PUNT LENGTH 0 50
Game Notes – I was tweaking sliders after each game, sometimes at half time to test some things out.
Game 1 – Notre Dame & Michigan (me). I got the custom stadium sounds in and beat Notre Dame 24-10! Can’t say I outplayed them as they had 18 first downs to my 11. Notre Dame turned the ball over four times and I scored two TDs directly off of them. I intercepted an option pitch for a TD and had a pick 6. I struggled to run Michigan’s offense but Craig Roh did have 7 tackles including 2 sacks. ND’s QB was 21-42-239-0 TD-2 INT. Forcier 8-16-82-0 TD-1 INT. Shaw led all RBs with 20 carries for 76 yards.
Game 2 – Wisconsin (me) @ Iowa. I destroyed them 66-10 including a time expiring TD as Kirk scolded me. John Clay was a beast as he rushed 24-264 yards and 4 TDs. I totalled 32-345-6 TDs on the ground. I also threw 11-15-209 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT. Iowa just seemed to lay down in the second half. Progressive fatigue? I upped the cpu run defense after this game as I shouldn’t shred them like that. Clay had well over 100 yards after contact – loved it. Iowa’s QB was 8-25-82 yards, 0 TD, 2 INTs. His receivers dropped 5 balls! It’s the only time I’ve seen too many drops but that’s life right? Iowa did rush 22-89 yards and 1 TD. I only got one sack but did pressure the Iowa QB into some bad throws.
Game 3 – Penn State (me) @ Alabama. After a final slider tweak I wanted to see how well I would do against Bama. Too bad I crapped the bed early on. I made a terrible decision on a late pitch they picked off and took to the house on the first play of the game. I threw a pick on my next possession as well to go down 14-0 early and 24-0 in the first half. I did get back to 24-14 but was losing 38-14 at the end of the third and shut the game off. It was midnight, I was tired and I wasn’t coming back. Ingram broke a bunch of tackles and was 18-173-3 TDs. Royster only rushed 14-28, 1 TD for me. I was 8-20 passing, 132 yards, 1 TD and 3 INTs. McElroy was 10-15, 107 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs and no sacks. Bama still punted three times through three quarters.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The big ones I want to see added are errors, injuries and a slider to make pitching accuracy harder. Here is my full list.
• Add errors to the game. It’s an integral part of baseball.
• Add injuries! Managing a roster over 162 games is much more interesting when you have to use your bench/minors more.
• Remove the auto fielding. It needs to be in the user hands more. There are a ton of great camera options for batting and pitching but only one lousy one for fielding. Please provide a more zoomed out camera like 2K9 and hopefully more than one option.
• Tone down the opposite field power. Most major leaguers pull their home runs outside of the really big hitters. Johnny Damon shouldn’t be hitting 400+ foot HRs consistently to left center.
• There is too big a difference between the contact and power swing. Contact swings don’t result in enough power.
• User pitchers need to be less accurate but most importantly, provide sliders to help adjust this.
• Fix the fatigue. The DH position should actually rest your player a little. Pinch hitters need fixing too. A guy coming off the bench for one at bat should still get some rest for the next game instead of getting tired. Furthermore, shortened seasons like 50 or 100 games need to have the fatigue formula changed to reflect that. A day off in a 50 game season should equal 1/3 a day off. Otherwise you can play the same players every day and use a two man rotation.
• Base running AI is bad. They delay too often. Futhermore, everyone needs to take off running in certain situations like 2 outs on 3-2 counts. I’d like an option for auto baserunning or at least auto stealing as I suck at stealing bases.
• Better hit variety. It improved post patch but not enough choppers or infield pop ups.
• Better cpu roster management. They take starting pitchers out too quickly in NL games and the first reliever they bring in a game is usually left in far too long. They also need to manage the bullpen better for lefty/righty matchups.
• The game would benefit tremendously from extra sliders. Sliders needed include Throwing Power and Accuracy for fielders, fielder reaction time, injuries and errors (outfield errors, booted ball errors, throwing errors), pitcher accuracy (patch improved this but still too easy to hit our spots), cpu batter aggressiveness (to help adjust how often they swing at pitches out of the zone), separate fatigue sliders for starting and relief pitchers, wild pitches/passed balls
• Please give us an option to remove the HR indicator. I don’t like how it automatically gives away whether a ball at the wall is a HR or will hit the wall. I want to remove that arrow.
• Give us easy access to more stats in the game (pitch counts, fatigue of bullpen)
• Give us the ability to save our camera angles. Just add this to the option menu. I think another great addition would be to have stadium specific default camera angles as well (http://kotaku.com/5518531/broadcast-...-2k10/gallery/)
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Many of these smaller RBs are special because of their quickness and speed. If they can only handle 15 touches a game so what? I'd rather have 15 good touches than 20-25 mediocre touches. More teams are realizing this now in the NFL as many of them now want two running backs to shoulder the load. Plus having two good backs will allow them to use different styles and protect against injuries.
Case #1: Steve Slaton. He had a great rookie year and rushed for over 1200 yards. He was always a quick and fast player and played at 199 pounds. He bulked up to 215 last year and sucked. He did have some injuries which hurt but he wasn't the same back. This year he's going back down to 199.
Case #2: Kevin Jones. He rushed for over 1100 yards his rookie year with the Lions with much of that coming in the second half of the year. He averaged 4.7 ypc. After that rookie year he never rushed for as much as 700 yards and his best ypc in any year since was 3.8. He currently weighs 228 pounds but he's not a bruiser. He went from being a big play guy in college to very average in the NFL as a bulked up back. He was listed at 209 in college and had great elusiveness. You would never know he was elusive watching him today. Here's a clip from his VT days.
I'm sure there are many examples of this. I'm just tired of hearing NFL coaches asking running backs to bulk up for the NFL. I'd rather have a RB that can do something good (like get outside) than bulk him up so he's not particularly good at anything. Why add that bulk to handle 25+ carries when it makes you lousy? The expression "Jack of all trades but master of none" applies here. When you see guys like Chris Johnson, Brian Westbrook and Warrick Dunn all excel despite their size, why change that?
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
· I thought the pass rush was pretty good on AA. Played 5 games on that level and it's too easy despite my rust. I went 4-1 and beat OSU pretty easily with Miami.
· Playing as a DL is a lot of fun. Less suction blocking imo. I was able to get some nice sacks with the Miami DE and the Clemson DE. It felt instinctive and fun with the r-stick moves. Probably too easy to get user pressure as opposed to my cpu lineman teammates although I never tried any game planning stuff.
· Sideline awareness is a lot better. You can swing passes out, especially on the short side of the field without smacking yourself in the head for even trying it.
· Locomotion is nice but part of me wishes it was even more effective (heavier momentum). I still think receivers can get in and out of “out” routes a little too quick. Certain routes should require a little more slow down imo.
· Some people are saying the deep ball is too easy. Not sure about that but I did hit a few and if it's too easy I'm OK with that. I saw a WR beat a CB jam on one play and toasted him. Very nice.
· I feel with the toned down passing speeds I'm a factor on defence. Madden 10 passing speeds were too slow imo - these feel just right.
· The camera is good. I like it better than NCAA 10’s. It doesn’t pan around like it did but I still can’t get used to the player lock camera. I’d like a true defensive perspective camera but I’m happy with what they have on the demo!
· PS3 ball rotates in replays! Play of the game works on PS3 demo.
· I like that auto strafe is back.
· The graphics look good and the play seems smooth.
· I like the ESPN music and pre-game stuff. I like seeing a player spotlighted in warm-ups again along with in-game fan cutscenes.
· The trajectory of passes does seem improved. Leaping defenders are toned down. It’s subtle but I snuck a pass in the end zone that never would have been completed in the past.
NEGATIVES
· Too many fumbles imo. I hope there is a fumble slider. I’d like to hear more about the slider system and options as well.
· The worst thing about the demo is the play call screen limiting you to 3 plays and the slow cycling. This is worse on defence imo. You better know your playbooks. I wish they hadn't changed this as the old way was a lot better imo. I will have to learn to adjust.
· Why did the cpu win the coin flip in OT and go on offense first? Wasn't this fixed already?
· CPU QB still makes a few too many bad decisions on default AA imo. AA is too easy in the demo but sliders will help at retail.
· Definitely saw a few instances of warping to the ball (WR sped up to catch).
· The cpu tried to run about three screen plays – never even completed one pass.
NEUTRAL
· I don't have a good feel for the running game yet and barely tried the option. I saw some nice runs but didn’t see enough of the pro-tak and gang tackling yet. Need some longer quarter games and more play time to get a good feel for it.
GAMES
· I beat OSU with Miami 28-7 in my first game. Pryor threw 3 picks (one pick 6).
· Beat Texas with OU 14-7 in OT. CPU coin toss logic needs fixing for OT.
· Lost to FSU with Florida 7-3. I need work running the option.
· Beat Mizzou 17-3 with Clemson.
· Beat OSU again with Miami 17-0.
· The computer hasn’t scored more than 7 points on me (all on AA). Will try Heisman out tonight.
OVERALL
Overall I liked it. I won't say I was blown away by it but this demo is infinitely better than the NCAA 10 demo. It started to grow more on me as I got comfortable. I definitely like the locomotion and added momentum but I think it might be even better if it was more pronounced. It may be fine too – I need more game time. The two minute quarters aren’t so bad but you really can’t establish a ground game in such limited time. I haven’t tried turning on the auto sprint. I’ll try that tonight.
You can definitely tell that the underneath engine is still the same core engine. If people were expecting a totally different experience I think they will be disappointed. But the addition of locomotion and a lot of refinement makes the game a lot better than NCAA 10 imo. It's a lot more polished. Definitely a day one purchase for me at this point.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
1 Rams - QB Sam Bradford. They need a new face for the franchise.
2 Lions - DT Ndamakung Suh. Could go LT here due to value at that spot.
3 Buccaneers - LT Russell Okung. Freeman needs his protector.
4 Redskins - LT Trent Williams. Chris Samuels retired and needs to be replaced.
5 Chiefs - S Eric Berry. Berry is a terrific player but they would love a LT.
6 Seahawks - DT Gerald McCoy. McCoy slips a bit but Seattle is loving it.
7 Browns - QB Jimmy Clausen. The Browns need a QB.
8 Raiders - DE Jason Pierre-Paul. Raw but a physical freak the Al Davis loves.
9 Bills - OT Bryan Baluga. They need a tackle and hope he can play on the left side.
10 Jaguars - CB Joe Hayden. They could use a pass rusher and a WR but take the best CB.
11 Broncos (From Bears in Cutler deal) - WR Dez Bryant. Looks like double speak but they didn’t want to pay Marshall and need weapons. Bryant easily the best WR.
12 Seattle from Dolphins (proj. trade) - OT Anthony Davis. Dolphins get an extra 4th to move down while Seattle beats SF to get the best remaining tackle.
13 49ers - FS Earl Thomas. Could be the best safety in the draft. Another Ed Reed.
14 Dolphins from Seahawks (proj. trade) - OLB Jerry Hughes. Is a 3-4 OLB that can rush the passer. May be a little high so Miami may move down some more.
15 Giants - MLB Rolando McClain. He falls in to the Giants laps who may have to move up to ensure they get him.
16 Titans - DE Brandon Graham. The DL is depleted.
17 49ers (From Panthers) - CJ Spiller. Gore gets hurt and Coffee is a plugger. Spiller is always a big play away from scoring.
18 Steelers - C/G Maurkice Pouncey. The OL needs to be restocked.
19 Falcons - DE Derrick Morgan. They need a bigger pass rush.
20 Texans - CB Kyle Wilson. CB big need. RB also strong possibility.
21 Bengals - TE Jermaine Gresham. They need more weapons for Carson Palmer and TE has been bad for awhile.
22 Patriots - RB Ryan Matthews. New England is old and thin at the skill positions on offense. Matthews brings back some balance.
23 Green Bay - OT Bruce Campbell. A physical freak and the Packers need OL help. Could draft a CB too.
24 Eagles - OL Mike Iupati. Need to improve the OL.
25 Ravens - TE Rob Gronkowski. Todd Heap is old and not the same player anymore.
26 Cardinals - OLB Sergio Kindle. Fits the 3-4 system and will replace Joey Porter in a year.
27 Cowboys - OT Roger Saffold. They released big Flozell and need a new LT.
28 Chargers - NT Dan Williams. They need to replace Jamal Williams.
29 Jets - DE Jared Odrick. A 3-4 DE or a smaller DT. Will help boost the Jets defense.
30 Vikings - CB Devin McCourty. Have to slow down the Saints!
31 Colts - OT Charles Brown. Have to protect the franchise.
32 Saints - LB Sean Weatherspoon. A great all around LB.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Edit April 10th - I've dropped cpu steal success back down to 35. At 40 they steal too easily and at 35 they probably aren't successful enough. But at 35 I don't get pissed off.
Edit 2: Post patch I'm dropping fatigue from 60 to 50 and base running speed from 55 to 50. I'm also dropping user pickoff down to 30. I really like how you aren't as accurate anymore so pitching gets harder.
Edit 3: I'm finally raising throwing meter from 0 to 50. Post patch the arms are toned down and I'm simply seeing too many routine double plays not turned due to the slow time.
GAME SETTINGS
Pitcher Fatigue 50
Strike Zone Off
Batting Camera Default
Pitching Camera Pitcher 1: 1,1,10
USER BATTING
Batting Contact 35
Batting Power 40
Bunt Contact 50
Bunt Success 50
USER PITCHING
Pitch Meter Speed 85
Pitch Speed 55
Pitch Break Influence 100
Pitcher Composure Influence 30
USER - FIELDING
Throw Meter Influence 50
Fielder Speed 30
USER - RUNNING
Base Runner Speed 50
Pickoff Success 30
Catcher Throw-Out Success 50
CPU BATTING
AI Batting Contact 45
AI Batting Power 100
AI Bunt Contact 50
AI Bunt Success 50
CPU PITCHING
AI Pitch Success 60
AI Strike Zone Tendency 45
AI Pitcher Composure Influence 30
CPU FIELDING
AI Fielder Speed 25
CPU RUNNING
AI Hit' n' Run Tendency 80
AI Sacrifice Bunt Tendency 65
AI Squeeze Tendency 30
AI Base Running Aggression 75
AI Steal Aggression 60
AI Steal Success 35
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
VISUALS
Visually I don’t really care for the player models. They just look off and the way they move reminds me clearly that I’m playing a video game. Some animations are nice but often they are jerky. Just watching a player round a base looks odd as they practically make right hand turns at the bags rather than a nice arc around them. The Show certainly does a better job of making it look like a real baseball game imo.
I think the stadiums look really nice and the colours are great. The fans in the upper deck are 2D but I only really noticed that once in three games. I played at Comerica, Target Field and AT & T (SF) and the stadiums all looked very nice to me. Again, the colours do stand out to me.
I do like the camera options for hitting and pitching. I haven’t played with the options much but they are nice. My biggest beef is with the fielding camera. What happened here? I thought the fielding camera in the 2K9 demo was great as it really zoomed out on fly balls so you could track them. This is much more of a zoomed in camera that doesn’t let you track them at all. It’s far more of a broadcast camera and there doesn’t appear to be any options. I’m definitely disappointed in that.
PRESENTATION/AUDIO
I think the commentary in this game is fantastic. The presentation is also excellent and that includes the organ music throughout the game. I’ve always been a sucker for organ music at a ball game and this is good. The atmosphere seemed great to me in all three games. When Kruk was talking about Morneau he mentioned that he was a Canadian and they don’t play many games in Canada. I thought that was cool and he’s right. The focus is on hockey up here and it gets colder sooner making baseball a summer sport only.
Can I say the menu system sucks? Why do I have to use an analog stick to move around? I did get used to it over the course of the night but I’m not a big fan. It would be nice to see what hand the batters are in the lineup somehow when I warm up my pitchers. Right now you just see the lineup and have to know them on your own. I don’t know the scrubs on most teams.
When you strike out someone the game often replays the pitch sequence for the entire at bat leading up to the strikeout. I thought that was pretty cool. The end of game stuff is really nice too. You can watch the Top 3 plays of the game along with selected highlights for certain players. As cool as that is, it would have been even better if you could record them! You can only record replays immediately after they happen and you can make highlight reels. I haven’t played around with this but it would be a lot better if you could save those highlights that they have available at the end of the game.
There is a slow motion camera that I left on. I think I only saw it twice in three games so it’s not overdone and I think it looks good.
Overall the presentation is excellent.
PITCHING
This is the biggest reason I decided to go with 2K10 this year. I needed a change of pace and the r-stick pitching does not disappoint. I’d say this is easily the strength of the game and it’s done better than I thought. Right now I’m not too good with the gestures and miss my spots quite a bit. I only walked one or two batters in three games because I was giving in. The hits and runs allowed reflected that. But I was certainly not pinpointing my pitches and my pitch counts were good. CPU hitters were working the count nicely. They would also chase good pitches out of the zone and I struck out at least two batters looking.
Furthermore, if I missed the gesture it wasn’t a meatball or a wild pitch. Most often it was simply a ball. You really have to blow a gesture for it to be a wild pitch which is good. In real MLB you should only see a wild pitch about every two or three games. This part of the game is a lot of fun. I love pitching with a zoomed out look behind the pitcher and I liked the way the catcher called the game although I often took my own advice.
I’m sure Pro will get easier for me and initially I thought pitching was too easy but I certainly ended up giving up quite a few runs. I gave up 5, 11 and 9 runs in three games. In my final game I was leading 4-3 until I gave up 6 runs in the bottom of the 7th. I put most of the blame on my weak stick skills at the moment but I do think the pitchers’ composure affects them too much when rattled in this game. There is a slider for this and I really think I will reduce this affect. Other than that I’m pleasantly surprised by how well pitching is done and the strategy with setting up the hitters.
BATTING
This area is mediocre imo. 2K10 has a very different feel from the Show which isn’t necessarily bad but requires a big adjustment for me. Pitches come in much slower but your bat speed is also slower giving it a different feeling. With the Show I always dropped the pitch speed to 0 since I find it too fast (I don’t understand the Show’s weak slider system). With this game I find the default pitch speed good and I actually dropped it a touch in my last game so I could draw more pitches and pull more balls as well. The slider is VERY responsive so I’m sure people can find a speed they like. I found myself hitting most of my balls up the middle or pushing them initially. But once you get used to it you can pull balls down the line although I still find more balls go up the middle.
Hit variety is not that good. I’d say 95% of grounders are automatically scooped by the infield or super fielding pitcher and are out. I did see two or three balls sneak through the infield but it’s certainly rare. You need to hit it to the outfield if you want to get a hit. A lot of balls did go up the middle although that was early on. I would caution people to not boost the pitch speed too much as I think it may get worse that way. The timing window shrinks and it may hurt this. I did see a nice variety of foul balls while playing. I don’t have any issues with that. I had read about the lack of doubles and triples so I had reduced fielder speed to 25 for all my games and I saw a triple and a number of doubles so I think that does fix that part of it.
I think there may be too much opposite field power but I’m not so sure. I hit four home runs in the game and one was a pull, one to dead center and two to opposite field. I used the power r-swing every time. I do like the r-stick system and I’m not sure how often you will hit a HR with a contact swing. I have a feeling I would like it to be more often but I did hit a couple strong doubles in the gaps with contact. I usually tried to power swing with my bigger hitters until I got two strikes. I’ve always been a timing only hitter so this system works fine for me.
One complaint I have though is that hitting a HR is a dead giveaway. There is no suspense since an arrow sits on the wall and the announcers comment on it usually. Some home runs were barely over the wall and I didn’t like the spoilers. I also felt that some of my home runs were too much like line drives and didn’t have as much arc to them as they should.
I was looking forward to trying out the hitter’s eye but it only works with the strike zone turned on. I had it off most of the time I was playing since I prefer a more natural look and that removes this option. I did see a green ball flash one time on my screen. Is that a meatball indicator? I have no clue.
Overall hitting was fun but increased hit variety and an infield that doesn’t suck up everything is needed imo.
FIELDING
This is easily the worst part of the game and the most disappointing to me. First I am disappointed in the fielding camera and that there are no options for something else. I’d like it to zoom out more on hits to the outfield, especially pop flies. Although it probably doesn’t matter what camera angle you use since this game is pretty much an auto fielding game. This is very annoying. I feel I have little to no control over my players when making plays. Other than trying to make the occasional dive with an infielder, they are sucking up balls before I do anything. Pitchers suck up almost any ball around them too although I did have one ball get by the pitcher and infielders on a ball up the middle. The outfielders have super suction that does all the work on routine pop flies. I don’t want auto fielding with a manual throwing system. I just don’t like the way the game does this at all.
Furthermore, in three games I have yet to see a single error by either team. No throwing or fielding errors. I haven’t touched the sliders here but I will certainly have to as the default settings on pro are not good in this area.
Maybe this is a 360 issue as I don’t have a problem with the strength of the player’s arms. With the speed of the base runners I think it’s been fine. They might be too accurate but I saw plenty of players score from second to home on singles including slow ones with nobody thrown out. I know I had read complaints about fast players being gunned down at home on bloop singles but I didn’t see this at all. I did have Magglio get thrown out at first on a hard one hopper to right. It was annoying seeing the cpu even attempt the throw to first from the outfield as this is extremely rare in baseball. However, I don’t see that as an outfield arm strength problem as much as a defensive positioning problem. It seems to me that both the infield and especially the outfield play way too shallow. In MLB most outfielders play near the wall and try to guard against extra base hits. In 2K10 the right fielder seems to want to play shallow to have that quick throw to first.
GLITCHES
I have to say that I saw two bad base running errors including a glitch and both happened in one game. On a gap shot to left center the cpu had a runner on first. He was way too timid in running as though he was worried it would be caught but it wasn’t even close. The runner only ended up on third but the batter stayed at first. This was a ball that was up against the wall in left center and he could have had a cup of coffee on second. That was odd. Worse was soon after when the cpu had a runner on second and the batter also ran to second and just stopped about 15 feet short of the bag. My third basemen had the ball so I simply ran over and tagged him out. He never even moved.
OVERALL
This game is a pretty decent game. I think the player models and animations could be better but the presentation is top notch. I think the selling point of this game is the pitching system. It’s a lot of fun AND I think produces great results. Hitting is a mixed bag as the hitting variety could be better. It is hurt by the super suction infield. The fielding needs a lot of work. I’m not sure how much of that I can take after playing 50 or more games. It definitely needs to be patched to allow more user control and I would love more camera options on defence as well. So far the game has probably been about what I expected and that’s decent. Not great but not bad either. I will keep on playing this game as I had fun in the 3 ½ hours I played last night. I’ll see how much fun I will be having in a couple weeks.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Many fans of the Show will flock to the stores and buy it on day one. I won’t be one of them. I consider MLB ’09 to be the best baseball game I ever played. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than anything in the past. I expect MLB ’10 to be a great game. But will it be significantly better than ’09? Everyone will have a different opinion on that. Some of the bigger changes like catcher mode in RTTS, online leagues, franchise mode improvements or broadcast camera angles may be a big reason for someone to love ’10 much more than ’09. Those things don’t do much for me. I am looking forward to real time presentation (RTP), the fix of DH fatigue and the new Minnesota stadium. Will those improvements justify paying $60 for the game? Possibly.
How the pitch speed slider works is important to me. I have slow reflexes and play with pitch speed bottomed out. Any increase to this will hurt my enjoyment of the game. I need to ensure this hasn’t been changed for the worse for me. I won’t go back to the way ’08 played. Will I see more fielding errors than last year which were almost non-existent? I certainly hope so as it drove me nuts initially. The fielding error slider didn’t even work right last year. I’m hoping that got fixed. Until I play the game and double check that certain pet peeves are fixed I will not blindly buy this game.
Call me old and cranky but sports games are no longer automatic purchases anymore. They have to justify a new purchase with more than a few minor upgrades and a roster update. Everyone has a different opinion but mine is the one that matters when I open my wallet. And I need to see evidence before I buy.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
I left my hitting camera alone but I've pitched from the pitcher ('07 and '08) and outfield ('09) camera exclusively the last three years. This is where I've felt the most bored with the game lately. But I switched to High and I really struggled. It's a behind the batter view (which is obviously a big difference) but a bit higher up so it doesn't feel like the hitting camera I use. I was really struggling to hit my spots and that felt good. Plus the transition to the fielding camera is a bit nicer.
I think we could fix a burn out with any sports game by changing camera angles up from time to time. Your enjoyment of a game is really tied into the fun factor and preference of particular camera angles. Take heed EA and your football teams! Some people like high camera angles. Some like low ones. Some like the action zoomed in while others want a zoomed out look. Try to cater to everyone!
And what’s with these people in the before pictures? I know you are being paid to sell a product but I always find it hilarious that in the before pictures people are so depressed that they can’t smile, put on makeup or comb their hair. In the after picture, people are all smiles, neatly groomed and sucking in their guts and flexing. Anybody would look better doing that – with or without the P90X.
So I hope all you people doing this program are doing great. And don’t forget to take before and after pictures to sell to the company. Any day now your face could be one of 100 ads popping up on my internet annoying me.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Is the Universe a Friendly Place?
Dr. Peter Jensen talked about a lot of things, many of which can help your personal life. He talked about eliminating stress. He talked about how to get the most out of your abilities. He talked about learning more about yourself. Einstein once asked the question, “Is the universe a friendly place?” The truth is that each of us will answer this question differently. Some will say yes, others no and some maybe. There is no wrong answer. You just have to know how you answer it and how that can affect your decision making. Peter joked that his wife asked him, “Why are you always so defensive when students question you?” He replied, “I’m not being defensive!” Knowing that you may behave like this can help you make the changes necessary to improve. A person can’t change from being a negative person to a positive person. But if you truly recognize the areas that you are weak in, you can adjust.
Managing Stress
There are many ways to deal with stress. One of the best ways to deal with it is only worrying about the things we can control. Worrying about things we can’t control does no good. Peter joked that we shouldn’t worry about the problems in this world. His mother-in-law does that for everyone. The old expression, "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” is a truly great one.
The other ways to deal with stress are to maintain relationships and discuss our problems. Women live at least five years longer than men. And a significant portion of that is due to men’s inability to discuss their problems and deal with stress. Studies have shown that the best support group for a cancer patient is other cancer patients. Shocking! Talking with people that can understand your problems is a tremendous benefit.
The Power of Visualization
People do not realize the power of visualization. It can have a significantly positive or negative affect on your body and your ability to deal with adversity. Constantly beating yourself up over mistakes only creates more stress and problems. There was a study where athletes had their brain patterns analyzed when committing a mistake. They studied the neurological affects from a physical error and then had the athlete visualize the same mistake. They found it had the same effect on the body. So when an infielder boots a ground ball and then relives it in his head another four times, he’s actually committed that error five times. He needs to let it go much like a cornerback who got beat on a touchdown pass. Noted speaker Ben Zander has stated that after every mistake we should say, “How fascinating!” We learn through mistakes. Taking risks and aspiring to be great are positive things so don’t dwell on the screw-ups.
A post-Olympic study of Canadian athletes showed clearly that those who did their personal best at the 1984 Olympics used mental imagery two and a half to three times as frequently as those who did not perform up to their expectations. The four minute mile was once a psychological barrier. Nobody thought it was possible until Roger Bannister did it in 1954. But as soon as he did, that barrier was broken. Within 46 days someone else broke four minutes. By the end of 1957, 16 runners had done it. You can’t do it if you can’t imagine yourself doing it.
Change Your Perspective
Sometimes we allow ourselves to get frustrated. We get angry or stressed and our body and mind tenses up. When our adrenaline kicks in, our mind can lose the ability to process a lot of information. Ever got into a heated argument with someone and minutes later wished you could have remembered some key points that seemed to go blank in your mind? It’s because you were too hyped up to process things properly. There are times when we need adrenaline to have key focus and there are other times where we need to use techniques such as breathing or refocusing to regain our composure so we can perform at a high level.
Dr. Peter Jensen told a good joke.
One day a mother was driving her seven year old daughter to school. The daughter turned to the mom and asked, “Where are all the bastards mommy? I don’t see any bastards.” The mother replied, “They only come out when your father drives.”
The father viewed every driver on the road as an annoyance which raised his stress level. The mother chose to remain calm. Instead of allowing some things to annoy us, we need to relax and refocus. Allow ourselves to become an observer rather than just viewing a tough situation in a first person perspective. “Act as if” you know what you are doing. Some guys have a tough time approaching girls as a teenager. When approaching a girl you can act like the no-confidence dork you feel like. Or you can act as if you are cool like some other guys you have seen. Act as though you know what you are doing. Visualize success. After winning a major Johnny Miller once said that it wasn’t just him that won it. Whenever he was looking at a tough shot, he visualized another great golfer making a similar shot from memory. Everyone gets nervous. You are not your feelings. Even though you may be nervous, you don’t have to act like it or let it govern your actions.
How We Deal with Challenges
When Bell was declared a monopoly and broken up into smaller companies, many middle management employees had their livelihoods threatened. A total of 207 of these managers were studied over the course of seven years to see how they handled it. They examined the differences between those that ended up getting promoted and being successful versus those that languished behind. They found the floundering managers had seven times the amount of sick time used as the successful ones. This wasn’t a case of the lousy employees dogging it. This was an example of how negative energy and worrying actually affects your physical well being. The mind and body are connected.
When faced with challenges, you can choose regressive coping or transformational coping. Regressive coping is negative. “Why me?” “Why can’t it go back to the way it was?” These types of questions do not help deal with your problems. The successful managers took a more positive attitude. “What skills do I need to learn to be successful?” “How can I use this opportunity to better myself?” We can choose how we deal with challenges.
Conclusion
This experience was great. Dr. Peter Jensen told quite a few good stories and provided some great examples of how we can challenge ourselves to better deal with the issues we face. Hopefully some of these comments will be useful for anyone struggling with stress or problems either on the court or off of it.
Friday, November 6, 2009
I own a PS3 and my family does have a Wii which largely collects dust. The party types of games are hits for parties but that’s about it. A good first party game with poor graphics comes out once in awhile to keep people interested but there really isn’t much to like for a sports gamer other than Tiger Woods. This machine feels like it was entirely created by hype and somehow Nintendo has ridden this propaganda into massive profits that Microsoft and Sony will never come close to matching. Nintendo can make all kinds of claims about the Wii. It’s a great party system! It’s a workout machine! It’s unique since you have to shake your wrist at the screen! Their commercials even show grandparents joining in on the fun. And every time I see that crap I just shake my head. People get suckered into an idea that the Wii is great fun and then this overpriced console gets used once a week and pads Nintendo’s profit margins.
Call me a bitter fanboy and you will be right. I take delight in seeing Wii sales down 40% from last year and I hope they continue to fall. I want the gaming industry to focus on making high quality games with high quality graphics for myself and not some glorified stick figure game for a seven year old. Nintendo is innovative and creative. Nobody can dispute that. Nintendo is also the next gen console leader without question. And that makes no sense to me.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The original Uncharted was a sleeper hit that eventually sold well over two million games. It was a third person shooter that featured a good shoot and cover system and solid gameplay. But what really sold people on the game was the story and character development throughout. This game felt like you were playing a movie rather than a video game. The musical score was fantastic and the graphics were solid. Throw in some platforming, treasure hunting and a little puzzle solving and you had one of my favourite games of all time. You were Indiana Jones without being Indiana Jones and who doesn’t love Indy? Or should I say who doesn’t love Nathan Drake?
How Does the Sequel Compare?
Uncharted 2 has many similarities to the original game. We still have the same cover and shoot system that worked well in the original. There are still many different guns you encounter over the campaign to keep things interesting as well as provide strategy options. The game forces you to choose between short range, long range and clip capacity and you can only hold two guns at once (a hand gun and a large gun). Thankfully the game removed the six-axis controls for grenades making them easier to use.
There are a few improvements to the game from the first one. First, the graphics and locations look great. You can be fighting in the jungle, a burning city or find yourself in the middle of a snow storm. Each environment feels unique, looks great and often has different objectives. The original Uncharted seemed to bog down a little near the halfway point due to excessive fighting in the jungle. The sequel does a better job of mixing up the locations and it keeps the game feeling fresh throughout rather than repetitive.
Second, stealth is now a true option and occasionally a necessary one in gameplay. You can sneak up on a bad guy and take him down without causing a scene. This certainly helps level the playing field when facing numerous enemies. You can still choose to shoot first and ask questions later but it’s a subtle improvement to the game. I personally like throwing a guy off a ledge without using my gun.
Third, the hand to hand combat got a bit of an upgrade. While still using only a single attack button (square), you do have a counter move button (triangle) that can make hand to hand combat more fun. While the game still centers on gun play, hand to hand combat is used a little more than the original which rarely required it.
Game of the Year?
So with all these improvements, is Uncharted 2 better than the original? As with all sequels, they face a challenge when trying to out perform an original that was loved by many. I loved the original and there are a few things with this game that held me back from stating that it was better than the first.
Too Linear
Parts of this game were simply too restrictive for my tastes, particularly the first half which I found slightly disappointing. The original Uncharted was linear but not to this extent in my opinion. The Uncharted series is not a sandbox environment but this game featured so many cut scenes and animations that it sometimes felt scripted. In the opening sequence alone, climbing the train was full of animations of the train falling apart. You have to wait for an event to play out before regaining control of Drake. Is this great story telling or an example of the lack of control over your character and outcome? Another example of this is a fight that the game requires you to use hand-to-hand combat. Never mind that I’ve pumped a few rounds in a guy that has no armour – this has zero effect. I have to wait for him to charge me and then engage in hand to hand combat. Often these cut scenes and animations are great but the scripted feeling did bother me at times.
While I praised the new locations as being more varied and less repetitive, they are also smaller and more restrictive in design for the first half of the game. Exploration seems to be an afterthought. There is always a burning bus or a closed gate preventing you from checking other areas out. The original game also restricted access but you could usually backtrack to where you came from after a gun fight to fully explore for treasures. The sequel pushes you forward constantly. Often times a leap from a building results in the platform falling down preventing you from jumping back. Many times a door gets closed, the floor caves in or the previous path seems to get cut off somehow. Keep it moving is what the game is screaming at me! You have to get to the next cut scene to advance the story! The first game certainly had elements of this but not to this degree. There is a more frantic pace in this game than the original. Some may like that while others may not.
Furthermore, the smaller environments of the first half lead to more cramped fighting areas. We get a bunch of quick gun battles in tiny spaces that don’t require a lot of strategy simply because you can’t move anywhere. The second half of the game was much better for my gaming habits. The environments were bigger, we got some **** gun battles over large areas and the pacing seemed to be a little less hectic. I just wish they would have spread these areas out over the entire game a little better.
Treasure Hunting
Treasure hunting is frustrating in this game. Normally I am not much of a trophy or treasure hunting nerd. But I found myself searching like crazy for them in the original. I would spend all kinds of time looking for them and got 38 out of 60 in the original (41 the second time). It was fun. The sequel made it frustrating as they were too hard to find. I felt like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Uncharted 2 has 100 treasures but I was only able to find 34 on my initial play through. And that was mainly due to a few chapters leaving out some easy treasures to pad the stats.
Overall Thoughts
Uncharted 2 is a very good game that every PS3 owner should experience. It’s similar to the first one and the story and development of the characters is second to none. If you loved the first game you will probably love the second game. The graphics are outstanding and the varied locations add to the overall enjoyment. However, the first half of the game was just too linear and scripted for my tastes to consider one of the greatest PS3 games ever made. The original Uncharted still has a special place in my heart as my favourite PS3 game of all time.
86/100
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