Sweeeep the leg, JOHNNY! The MLB 08: The Show uberthread

[gellar]

The level of insanity is high on that forum.

gellar

[WinoMcCougarstein]

I think you're right.

And speaking of OpSports... did you guys read this story?  It's in the thread regarding where people picked up their copy of the Show:


BP gas station 7780 Springboro Pike Dayton Ohio.....why do I post a gas station address for mlb the show 08. Well, I call Walmart at 8480 pikesboro lane or whatever In Dayton, Azura says they have the game. He confirms by checking the 08 part and that Ryan Howard's is on the cover.......I say I am in Cleveland, Its 3 hours away, but if you will hold it for I will drive the 221 miles.

My wife laughs, but says what the hell, lets do it. I get there, they have the game, I pay for it...now its time for the trip back to Cleveland. As i fill up for gas, and go to pay inside, my wife cleans out the car......and little to her knowledge, she threw my game away with some of the trash from our trip. We did not find this out until we got back home from another 221 mile trip..

The game is sitting at this address in the gas station trash can....its the 1st pump in the first lane next to the building. Please if anyone is there, grab the game and have it, at least I know someone from here is going to play it......Ask Kodiak and Extreme Gamer for confirmation of my trip down as I tried to get EG a copy also , but they were all out.

442 miles = $65 in gas
$65 for the game
$20 for food
Not having the game after all of this........priceless

- - -

The cool thing is, some guy on the forums there reads this guy's post, realizes he lives pretty close to the gas station, goes and finds it (in the garbage), and calls the guy to tell him he found it for him.  That is just a crazy story.

The only answer is divorce.

[triggercut]

I'll join the insanity.

I'm buying a PS3 tomorrow.  Because of The Show.

Best videogame baseball series, ever.  Ever.

[gellar]

I'm actually going to end up buying two copies of The Show.  One for PS3 (Franchise) and one for PSP (RTTS mode).

Can't wait.

gellar

[depward]

I'll join the insanity.

I'm buying a PS3 tomorrow.  Because of The Show.

Best videogame baseball series, ever.  Ever.

That's hardcore.  And I approve of this.

[TheMissingLink]

Shout out to Safeco's heavenly garlic fries

[leo8877]

I thought that the Giant's stadium was the only one with garlic fries...who knew?!?!?!

[gellar]

I thought that the Giant's stadium was the only one with garlic fries...who knew?!?!?!

No we just have the best ones.  There are MANY imitators

gellar

[wonderpug]

Are you guys seeing the players move through each other much, or did I just see a rare anomaly?  On my bout with the demo I had a guy slide for 2nd and then arise through the chest of the 2nd baseman.

[Lockdown]

From what I've read, this "collision issue" is present in both games this year.  Apparently it only happens when it's not important to the outcome of the play, but don't quote me on that.  I've been reading so much stuff on both games, my head is going to explode soon.

[ras752000]

Are you guys seeing the players move through each other much, or did I just see a rare anomaly?  On my bout with the demo I had a guy slide for 2nd and then arise through the chest of the 2nd baseman.

I actually saw a pitch go through the batter's chest in the game I played Sat. night.

[Lockdown]

1 day away!  Man, I am excited


edit:  Looks like online play is a bit choppy?  Devil, when they iron it out we need to give it a go.

[naednek]

I thought that the Giant's stadium was the only one with garlic fries...who knew?!?!?!

No we just have the best ones.  There are MANY imitators

gellar

and they last on your breath for days

[TheMissingLink]

Just got a call from Aries with GameStop - they said tomorrow "morning."  Maybe I can get some gametime in before 1:30pm, when I gotta go to work

[Devil]

edit:  Looks like online play is a bit choppy?  Devil, when they iron it out we need to give it a go.

You're on!

Wonder if voice is going to work???

[StitchJones]

I know some of you like me REALLY are ready to have this game.  So to tide you over, here is a full game played.  This guys played as the Nationals against the Dodgers.  Check the 13 minute mark of the first video.  Nomar comes up to bat in Nationals stadium and the crowd begins to chant OVERATED!  It's hilarious.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2422/mlb-08-the-show-first-full-game#more-2422

[Dan Lorenzen]

I was reading the ign reviews of this game and they mentioned one thing that in particular that bothered me.

"The same can be said for baserunners, who appear to have a hitch as they're transitioning from their running animation from one base to another. This really stands out near first base, as a runner will appear to hesitate for half a second before reaching or stretching forward during their run. That little hesitation is often enough to get called out on a close throw, which can be infuriating."

BTW this animation problem was only mentioned in the ps2 and psp versions of the game.

Does this animation hitch hurt baserunning a ton? Is it station-to-station baserunning now? Not much 1st to 3rd on a single now? Just wondering how big of a problem this is. I don't have a ps3 but is this baserunning problem in that version of the game too?

Dang I was going to get the psp version for sure but now I'm not so sure...

[Lockdown]

Dan:  I think I know what they are talking about, but I'm not positive.  First off, I can only speak for older versions of the game and the demo of '08.  My belief is that it is an intended mechanic of how baserunning works, and that it is in every version of the game.  I have seen it transitioning from 1st to 2nd base most commonly.  I have found that (as the user), it can be overcome by judicious baserunning skills most of the time.  Your question of whether or not baserunning is station-to-station is a good one.  I believe that if you want full control of your baserunners, than it is indeed. (Someone else correct me if I'm mistaken here please).  If you give control to the CPU for baserunning, it functions more fluid.  I will assume you are asking from a user-controlled standpoint, as otherwise it is a non-issue from what I've experienced.

The key to avoiding the hitch is to "pre-load" your runner to advance, which if you are not familiar with the awkward baserunning commands, can be an issue.  If I have a man on 1st when my batter singles, I have advanced the runner to 3rd more times than I can count without any issues whatsoever.  Quite often it depends on my ability as the user to recognize the circumstance, and tell my runner to run right through 2nd to 3rd before it's too late.  If you don't do this, he can hitch at 2nd base, and I believe that is intended.  Also of note is that I use classic baserunning, and have no clue how (if at all) the newer baserunning style effects things, although I wouldn't think it does.

Another thing to keep in mind is that The Show has two attributes per player in regards to baserunning.  One is a speed attribute, which is common to all baseball games.  The other is a baserunning ability, which from what I gather is an overall rating of how intelligent/quick thinking/prone to mistakes, a player is on the basepaths.  How this attribute relates to what goes on out there is beyond me, but I'm sure it plays a part as well.

Hopefully someone with more psp/baserunning experience than I will have more specific answers for you.  I consider myself I pretty crappy baserunner in these games, but it's too much fun to give control over to the cpu, so I keep plugging away at it.      

[Jag]

I know some of you like me REALLY are ready to have this game.  So to tide you over, here is a full game played.  This guys played as the Nationals against the Dodgers.  Check the 13 minute mark of the first video.  Nomar comes up to bat in Nationals stadium and the crowd begins to chant OVERATED!  It's hilarious.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2422/mlb-08-the-show-first-full-game#more-2422

One of the fans in the front row won't sit down and it's pissing me off. Now that's realistic!

[The Grue]

I know some of you like me REALLY are ready to have this game.  So to tide you over, here is a full game played.  This guys played as the Nationals against the Dodgers.  Check the 13 minute mark of the first video.  Nomar comes up to bat in Nationals stadium and the crowd begins to chant OVERATED!  It's hilarious.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2422/mlb-08-the-show-first-full-game#more-2422

One of the fans in the front row won't sit down and it's pissing me off. Now that's realistic!

I like the twins in the white shirts cheering behind him when he bats.

[Lockdown]

Game's out!

 

[The Grue]

Game's out!

 

Getting it later today even though I can't play it until I finally get my TV back tomorrow.

[gellar]

Once 2pm hits (the supposed time Best Buy will have God of War and The Show in stock), I am out the f'ing door.

gellar

[Jimmy the Fish]

I just picked it up from Best Buy. There's a coupon in it with a code that you can redeem online for a free baseball cap. Bonus!!

[TheMissingLink]

Grabbed it and had time for just ONE game before work called me early to come in

It was pretty cool.  I was the Mariners and I chose to play against the Angels.  Firstly, Safeco is recreated almost perfectly.  Maybe it's because I finally went to quite a few games last season and can notice that, but I was impressed.

And the graphics, overall, have much more of a POP that didn't exist last year.

My game started off slow, until the Angels ripped off a 3-run 4th inning, where Bedard struggled to control his pitches and ended up walking a dude in.  And then Vlad ripped a double down the line

But the Mariners came back.  Lackey FINALLY hung a pitch and Johjima absolutely crushed a hanging curveball.  And from then on, Lackey was rattled.  Leaving stuff high in the zone, and I proceeded to hit TWO MORE homers with Sexson and MY MAIN MAN Beltre. 

The Angels threatened a few times, but Putz came in and shut the door in the 9th.

It was thrilling just to play a baseball game again, and I'll have updated and REAL impressions later tonight when I get off work

[triggercut]

Got it!

My career is off to a fine start--I'm in AA right now, pitching out of the Cardinal bullpen.

What I really like is that RTTS now shows you where you gained and lost training points from a previous appearance at the end of the game.

[Xmann]

i caved and bought siege's copy this morning.   will enjoy reading everyone's impressions and comments until then

[Dan Lorenzen]

Dang I guess everyone has ps3s but me. I'm really getting ps3 envy right now. Don't blame everyone for getting the ps3 version but if anyone gets the ps2 or psp version I'd love to hear their impressions.

[Devil]

Got it - No play until Thursday night though. 

[The Grue]

Got mine tonight.  Will play tomorrow.

[Knightsabre]

Picked up the PSP version - this is my first time with the series, so the options at the start feel a bit overwhelming but I finally just started a season mode with the Angels.  I had played through just the first couple innings of the first spring training game when, unfortunately for me, I started to feel very sick, very suddenly.  Not because of the game, by the way - I'm fairly sure I had food poisoning.  Anyway, I plan on continuing to dig in with the game today, as I'm finally feeling better after a long, painful night.  Graphically, seems very similar to the demo, so if you played that you know what to expect.  Feels like a great game so far, with a ton of depth.  I haven't even touched the road to the show feature, but I'm sure I'll get there.  Now a question - I'm not a big time baseball fan, so whats a fun team to play with for the season mode?  Any opinions?

[TheMissingLink]

Had my first foray into the Road to the Show mode...

Created a second basemen and I'm going to try to relive the "glory" days with Brett Boone when he was on the Mariners.  Man, this mode is pretty intense!  There's quite a bit of action being a second basemen.  I've already missed a few double play opportunities!

Really addictive, so far.

[Eduardo X]

I really ought to try this series out again. I wasn't a huge fan of last year's version, though I admit I barely gave it a chance before returning it.

[depward]

I'm not the biggest baseball fan in the world... but I do enjoy the demo.  And, for whatever reason, I like to change up the camera angle for both pitching (behind the pitcher) and hitting ("high" view).  Find that it's - for whatever reason - a bit more enjoyable.  And I also really like the subtle things... like how I hit a grounder up the middle, the pitcher swiped at it and the ump leaned out of the way.  Cool things like that.

That being said, I'm just not entirely sold on using some monies on it.  Road to the Show or whatnot seems like fun but I dunno.

[Lockdown]

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but for a big fan of baseball videogames, this game has got to be the closest thing to heaven I have ever played.  I won't bore everyone with the unbelievable amount of awesomeness The Show '08 brings to the table, but I seriously couldn't be happier so far.  I've already played 8 full games, 6 of which are part of my Astros season.  My record is 2-4, and have seen such diversity already in terms of hits, pitcher performances, diving plays, errors, commentary, etc...

Remarkable game. 

[The Grue]

I played an exhibition last night with me as the Rockies against the Rays.  The game is just awesome.  I ended up winning 2-0 by getting two runs in the 8th.  The first run came with the bases loaded, when I hit into what I figured would be a double play, but my runner at first just beat the throw.  I then tacked on another run with a single.  In fact, I got nothing but singles and the announcers even commented on it saying my guys needed to eat their spinach and other of the guys made the Popeye "Huh-ke-ke-ke" noise.

I am still trying to figure out the batting, though.  I know I can use the left stick for location of the bat and the right stick for nudging the ball in a direction.  Is it true that you have to pick one or the other?  I thought I had read in the thread someone saying if you hit the right stick in a direction it remembers it, but there is no feedback to indicate that is true.  I did one hit in the game where I used the right stick and held it while  swung and it hit the ball over in the direction I pointed.  Same with a bunt.  I know you definitely can't hold both sticks during the swing.

Anyway, game looked great and played great.

[TheMissingLink]

Bloops.  I can't remember ONE bloop hit in last year's game.  This year's got 'em

Waiting for opening day rosters to start my franchise (although there's hardly any movement until that time).  Weekly roster updates/player attribute changes rock!

Gonna play some games online in the next couple of days...add me to your buddy list (done within the game)!

[gellar]

The Giants suck, so I planned on destroying their roster anyway... I've started already.

BARRY ZITO, GO AWAY.

gellar

[Dimmona]

I bought my PS3 last month purely for this game.

After 2 days of playing I'd have to say that the purchase was justified!

[denoginizer]

I bought my PS3 last month purely for this game.

After 2 days of playing I'd have to say that the purchase was justified!

Wow.