ESPN MLB 2k5

"SwampYankee" wrote:
"Prederick" wrote:
"SwampYankee" wrote:

Prederick: I want my albums back.

Eh?

Jeez, that post was so long ago I had to look it up.

The ""I want my albums back"" was in referrence to finding out youe were a Yankees <spits> fan.

You see ""Albums"" were what we called these huge vinyl disks that music was recorded onto before you kids got your newfangled ""compacted disks"" and ""Empee-Threes"" ;)

Wah-wah-wah-""We hate you and your titles""-this, wah-wah-wah-""outaded musical equipment that"".

Anyone know the trick to hitting in this game? I grabbed it a few days ago and swinging the bat has been an excercise in futility. I can pitch reasonably, but I never seem to be aiming the bat right.

When you play offline, set the pitch speed at about 90 or 100 (It will usually be on anywhere from 5 to 15.
The pitches will come very fast, but it might help with pitch recognition and will definately help when you go back to a 5 or 15 pitch speed.

Oh and I forgot. Don''t be afraid to take pitches, especialy early in the count. Don''t swing at everything. Patience, grasshopper.

Remember, even the best baseball players fail 7 out of 10 times at the plate.

What he said. And - Practice, practice, PRACTICE!

We should play a game when we meet for you to give me my albums back.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

What he said. And - Practice, practice, PRACTICE!

We should play a game when we meet for you to give me my albums back.

Sadly, there''s no chance of anyone viscerally enjoying my duclet baritone voice until May, and that''s only on the PC, since I am not a proud owner of XBox Live (can''t use it here on campus).

However, if you would like, we can re-kindle our Germanic-Russo relations via PBEM and i''ll call you a stinky whooer via e-mail, and you can pretend it''s my sexy, sexy voice doing the talking.

Alas, I ran out of opponents for that game and she no longer resides upon my hard drive.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

Alas, I ran out of opponents for that game and she no longer resides upon my hard drive. :(

Bah. I am entirely sequestered from GWJ Multiplayer fun here on campus. I''m going to have to find a substitute.

I just want to hit one, just one.

Are you talking about baseball Spy? or something else ...

"Highlander" wrote:

Oh and I forgot. Don''t be afraid to take pitches, especialy early in the count. Don''t swing at everything. Patience, grasshopper.

Remember, even the best baseball players fail 7 out of 10 times at the plate.

Well, the thing really is the ""True Aim"" system. I''m not sure whether i''m guessing a location, and then swinging, or aiming my bat as I swing. The instructions are a bit fudgy on this, so i''m not sure what i''m doing at the plate? Am I guessing a location, and if the pitch goes elsewhere, i''m screwed? How long do I have to guess? And if not, why is aiming the goddamn bat so freaking hard?

EDIT: CHRIST. So freaking difficult. I''m being 3-hit by the Rockies. This is actually so difficult it''s making me consider getting MLB 2005 (through no-money to EA means, of course).

No you can ""guess"" the location by moving the left stick and pressing the x button. If you guess right you either get the insipid slamzone thing or you get a tipoff of where the pitch is going. You can swing anywhere. The guess and your actual swing are two different things. Having said that though. Once you make a guess as to where you think the pitch is going, look for the pitch in that general area and don''t swing if it''s not there. If you are looking low and away and the pitch comes in high and tight, don''t swing. Just take the pitch. You have three strikes to play with.

On two strikes, the general rule is protect the outside part of the plate, but be ready to adjust to an inside pitch. Especially if you are 0-2. If you are 0-2 you will probably not get anything in the strike zone and the pitcher will make you chase a bad pitch cause he has pitches to waste. That being said, you should swing at anything close to try to foul it off.

A lot of it is ""guessing"" and seeing where the pitches have been. If you get two fast balls inside, chance are high you''ll get an off speed pitch (changeup or curve) outside. Click your left thumbstick when you are batting and you will see where the pitcher has thrown the ball.

I focus on the pitcher''s hand as he comes over the top and try to get a read on the pitch. Fastballs and change up will come out of the hand pretty (ANOTHER EDIT. I MEANT LEVEL, not quick). Curves and sliders will have more break to them as soon as they leave the hand.

*sigh*

Practice, practice, practice, right?

Jeebus. I just got 5-hit by Adam Kennedy. And it was embarassing. DMC3 has NADA on this.

Yeah I am having batting frustrations as well - I am at the point where I dont aim at all I just swing with timing and either foul it away or hit to the first basemen - every once in awhile I get a hit. Occasionally I get brave and power hit. I have hit one home run by accident and well that was my high point with the game so far.

I would use the power hit with your 2-6 guys in you lineup. But if one of them has two strikes, use the contact hit .

Use contact hit for the 1 and 7-9 batters.

The analog stick is pressure sensitive. If the pitch is low and over the outside part of the plate, don''t push the stick all the way to the lower right. You will pop it up. Be gradual about it.

Ohhhh...I so miss my xbox!

Submit! And join the league. Submit and join the league. yeah.

Where''s the league?

Uh.. Well, there isn''t one yet. We''re going to wait until football enters the playoffs. That way more guys can play.

Sheesh. I haven''t ever, ever, EVER given up on a Sports game, and i''m a hairsbreadth away from doing it here. After taking a 6-0 shellacking from the Tigers when I was playing the Cooperstown Legends, i''ve just about had it.

It''s really not the game, it''s partially my own habits. For instance, I find the pressure-sensitive swinging incredibly frustrating. When I see a pitch coming inside, my fingers do not think ""pull gently to the inside and swing"". I just don''t react that fast, nor am I that gentle. My brain tells my thumb to YANK the controller to the inside and swing, which ends up dribbling to third. Every freaking time.

Moreover, after upgrading to a level harder than rookie (where I blew anyway) my pitching is now god-awful. It''s getting incredibly frustrating to watch the CPU take two strikes, then not swing at ANYTHING outside of the strike zone, even by the smallest fraction, and then drill anything inside of the strike zone.

I''m sure, once you learn it, it''s great, but this may be the single least Newbie-friendly sports game i''ve ever encountered, ever. I can''t believe i''m saying this, but I''m pretty sure i''ll be buying MLB 2005 over spring break to get my baseball fix, since i''ve heard the learning curve on that isn''t so ginormously huge.

I thought you guys would enjoy seeing the thoughtful, incisive, and well written response to my complaint about the color of the fielding circle. God, I should never leave the GWJ forums.

http://www.2ksports.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=69447

I don''t think I''m a videogame wunderkind by any stretch, but I haven''t had too many problems in batting (on baserunning, don''t get me started). Last game I played I got 18 hits (I''ve only played two or three games-- maybe I just got lucky) on the next to highest setting. I contact hit almost everything, except for a few select swings with power hitters. I never punch the control stick all the way-- just little, subtle adjustments. Watch the ball from the hand. The most important thing seems to be timing. The easiest way, it seems, to get a general hand on the timing (and the stick control, really) is to play that home run derby. Edge the stick down a bit, try to follow the pitch to where it will go on the plate, and get the timing down. Once you start whacking those out, I bet regular batting will get easier.

What he said. Hit the ball where it is pitched.

Swampy - I agree on the public boards thing. Sometimes its like people just post their first thought without thinking about what they are talking about and commenting for no real reason but to say they did. Kinda like I did just now.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

I thought you guys would enjoy seeing the thoughtful, incisive, and well written response to my complaint about the color of the fielding circle. God, I should never leave the GWJ forums.

http://www.2ksports.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=69447

Wow, that Vizier sure is grand!

Do not question him. His logic is as indisputable as his spelling.

Having played another two games, and experimenting a bit, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that when you''re hitting you move the control stick before the pitch is thrown. Essentially, you''re guessing where the pitch is going to go. Once the pitch is thrown, you''re committed to that guess. At any rate, after playing a bit more, that sure is my impression. When I''m two strikes down, I stop making any kind of aggressive guesses, just little ones. It seems like guessing approximately correctly will result in better hits, but at the cost of a higher chance of a strike if your guess is off by quite a bit. I only say this because I wasn''t clear if moving the stick after the pitch does anything. Anyway, it works for me. 13 hits in my last All-Star game, but I get the impression that it would be much harder to hit against a human.

It would be nice if their instruction manual explained more...

I am not seeing that Poppinfresh. I don''t think that once you commit to the guess (pressing the X button) that you are locked in. I think that is just a tool to try to get an advantage on the pitcher.

I make my guess as to the location before the pitch. If I do not get a target from that guess, I then guess at another location during the pitcher''s windup and adjust my swing as I see the ball leave the pitcher''s hand. If you time it right, you adjust your swing and hit the ball where it is pitched. I get about 11 to 13 hits against the computer on All-Star with the pitch speed cranked to 90.

I think moving the stick after the pitch IS how to hit the ball.

I think I am glad that I only paid 19.99 for the world''s most archaic and cryptic virtual batting and frustration simulator.

Highlander-- maybe you''re right. That''s what I thought at first... now I have no clue.

Anybody feel like risking life and limb on the official forums to figure out what the answer actually is? Does that instructional video have any pixels of wisdom for us? Lordy, they do make this tougher than they should...

Hate to ressurect a somewhat oldish thread, but after playing some more games and actually reading the manual, it is now pretty clear that Highlander is definitely right. While you make a ""batter''s guess"" before the pitch is thrown, you also use the left thumbstick to direct your swing after the pitch is thrown. It''s what the manual says, it looks like it is reflected in the batter animation, and I seem to do much better when I adjust the left thumbstick after the ball is thrown.

Yeah, the guess is just an extra. Get it right and you will be told teh ball is coming there and you can then concentrate on timing.