|
OperationSports.com has an interview with MLB The Show Senior Designer, Eddie Cramm, up on their site. He dives into what we can expect to see with the PS3 version of The Show as far as what got left out and what. It's a very good read. "Operation Sports: Does the PS3 version also have Manage Only mode? Eddy Cramm: Yes, Manage Only Mode, or as we affectionately call it, “MOM” will make the jump to the PS3. We can’t just forget about MOM. Operation Sports: Have there been any improvements made to the pitcher fatigue/confidence/substitution engine? Eddy Cramm: One of the key focus points this year in general was the overall balance of the game. We are fortunate that we are building on a pretty strong gameplay foundation, and because of it, it allows us to focus more on these balance and polish issues. The pitcher fatigue and confidence has been a very big focal point. Not just is the durability of starting pitchers, but in the difference between short relievers, long relievers and closers. Substitutions go hand in hand with the fatigue. As the fatigue becomes more accurate, so does the substitution logic. As for confidence, one of our new features this year creates realism with confidence that hasn’t existed before in a baseball game. A pitcher’s confidence isn’t a blanket that covers all aspects of his game. It is possible that a pitcher loses confidence in his curveball and starts to rely on his fastball too much. That lack of confidence could be from him being unable to locate the pitch, getting the pitch hammered, or because he just isn’t throwing it enough to be comfortable with it. All of these aspects exist in our new Pitch Command System. Your confidence grows as you have success with a specific pitch. This system not only rewards you for good pitching and penalizes you for poor performance, it also keeps you using all your pitches. Never again will you be able to go 8 innings without throwing that slider and then decide to break it out and paint the corner with it. Substitution logic is also tied to confidence. The A.I. will do a very accurate job of knowing when it is time to take a pitcher out that is getting lit up like a Christmas tree. Operation Sports: Is there going to be any sort of dynamic lighting? Are the shadows going to move across the field as they do in real life as the game progresses? Eddy Cramm: This is one of the features that will make its debut on the PS3. Dynamic lighting and self-shadowing are both on the plate for the first title. Operation Sports: Will the sliders have more of an impact on the gameplay this year? Eddy Cramm: Most definitely! We’ve been getting a lot of requests to add more sliders to the options…and we did. Now you’ll be able to tune the game even more to your liking with dozens of these. We’ve broken down the sliders to include every aspect of the game like pitching, batting, fielding and base running, so now the game tuning is in the consumer’s hands. Operation Sports: Will there be more "Hit Variety" for all difficulty levels this year? Eddy Cramm: This is probably my favorite improvement to this year’s game. Although last year’s title played very well and got a lot of great feedback, I still felt that the game resulted in a lot of “hit it hard, or don’t hit it at all” game play. As a result of this, it felt like the only way a pitcher could feel like he has success is with the strike out. But what about the Maddux’s of the world? What about the ground ball pitchers? How do we represent THEIR effectiveness? This year that has all changed. We have improved ball reactions to more truly depict what would happen on the field. Now if you swing ahead of that change up on the outside edge, instead of missing, you will probably roll over the ball and bounce out weakly to the left side. Now that the system reacts better to the ball/bat impact, you can fight pitches off and try to work deep into the counts. But personally, my favorite thing is what it does for the pitcher. I can now feel that I beat a batter by making him my pitch. I can try to induce that ground ball for the double play. I can jam him. I can dominate a game without ever striking someone out." READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
|
