Pet peeve (Signature styles) LONG POST

[Rob_NYY]

One thing that bothers be about Joba Chamberlain's Pitching Style is that he hops around like a jack rabbit after he throws the ball. He doesn't do this in real life.

And just going through the list of pitching styles, way too many of them have this hop-into-fielding-position follow through. They re-did Beckett for this year, and he hops in his follow through as well. Why?

The thing that confuses me is players that hop in real life, Mussina, Gagne, Mike Hampton, for some reason don't do it in the game!

Like I've said before, a lot of the pitching motions need to be totally re-done. Chris stated that he fixed Wangs, and from the windup it is PERFECT (good job, Chris), but from the stretch it doesn't resemble Wang at all.

[beau1221]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob_NYY

One thing that bothers be about Joba Chamberlain's Pitching Style is that he hops around like a jack rabbit after he throws the ball. He doesn't do this in real life. And just going through the list of pitching styles, way too many of them have this hop-into-fielding-position follow through. They re-did Beckett for this year, and he hops in his follow through as well. Why? The thing that confuses me is players that hop in real life, Mussina, Gagne, Mike Hampton, for some reason don't do it in the game! Like I've said before, a lot of the pitching motions need to be totally re-done. Chris stated that he fixed Wangs, and from the windup it is PERFECT (good job, Chris), but from the stretch it doesn't resemble Wang at all.

i agree.. from what i've seen i really wish they'd redo some of them for 09.. even if they dont have the time to redo aton of them, just set aside some time and pick alot of the main ones that are off for the big namers and really work on them (ala 2k's sig styles) even if we only get two dozen pitching animations and two dozen solid batting animations i think it'd be worth it.. they could leave all the old ones in there besides the ones they redo

on the demo (since i STILL dont have the game) i noticed a few.. i dont watch many Red Sox games so i dont know them real well but a few i did see that were off was like you said, Beckett (the hop); Manny (much to bent over); Papelbon (just.. off)

[templeusox]

I think that for the most part, the sig. styles in the game are well done. Perfect? No. Room for improvement? Yes. But, they aren't horrid.

Baseball, unlike maybe any other sport, is defined by its individuals. So certainly baseball fans expect their games to reflect those idiosyncrasies. I think the frustration with some people in this thread lies in the fact that The Show 08 set a standard so high for itself in so many aspects of the gameplay, that other aspects which cannot feasibly reach those standards take the brunt of the criticism. The player faces look so good. The stadiums are beautiful. The minutiae of baseball is captured unlike any game before. Yet, we still have sig. styles which are simply not up to par with these other areas.

I think the most important part, however, is to see this game as an evolving franchise and not a series of unconnected games. I see The Show 08 as a system seller. A franchise Sony can raise up as a selling point for the PS3. With that, comes more resources pumped into the franchise to make each iteration bigger and better.

Am I disappointed that The Show 08 doesn't have an accurate style for every player in the game? Sure. But I also realize that there is a 2009 edition, which will also have a longer development cycle than the 08 version. If I do not see improvements in that version, then I will be worried.

[brunnoce]

i think they really need to fix santanas motion(after he releases the ball) theres just not enoug leg movent...
and santanas leg movment is one of his best weapons to decive batters...

also CC Sabathia needs a new mo-cap...

[Rob_NYY]

Quote: Originally Posted by templeusox

Am I disappointed that The Show 08 doesn't have an accurate style for every player in the game? Sure. But I also realize that there is a 2009 edition, which will also have a longer development cycle than the 08 version. If I do not see improvements in that version, then I will be worried.

I realize this too, which is why I'm on this mini-crusade to get them to re-do a lot of the pitching styles, there are just so many that are off. I'm hoping by The Show 2010 all the inaccurate and sometimes laughably bad ones that are still around from MLB 2006 are gone.

Some of the pitching motions don't even look like they were captured by real athletes/pitchers, the mechanics are WAY off on some of them.

The problem I'm seeing is the new ones added for 08, Beckett and Chamberlain to name two, still suffer from the same silliness that plagues the old ones that have been in the game for years. But then you look at Wang's new one, and it's ridiculously perfect (from the windup). It's kind of strange how some are spot-on perfect, and then some others are so WAY off.


And it's not only the pitching styles, the batting stances need to be updated as well. It's strange how they got every batters walkup, pre and post pitch routines so perfect (please, don't change them SCEA, they are awesome!), but then the batters get in the box and their stances are off. Even huge stars like Jeter, A-Rod, and Manny are pretty inaccurate.

The pitching styles and batting stances are my only major gripe with the game. If SCEA can get their pitching styles and batting stances up to par with 2K's, it just wouldn't be fair. At this point, it's the only thing 2K7 has over SCEA in my opinion, and it's not even close at this point. 2K's sig styles blow The Show's away.

I'm hoping Chris realizes this (hopefully he doesn't take offense) and aims to correct it.

[onetonmartin]

Brandon Phillips doesn't flip his bat around as much as he should.

Maybe once every at bat instead of 2 or 3 times per pitch.

[Rob_NYY]

*wonders what happened to Chris' reply*

[wsu_gb23]

How come Ryan Braun didn't get a signature batting style.... the one in-game doesn't even look close. The show definitely needs to step up their pitching and batter sig styles....

[ericjwm]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob_NYY

The pitching styles and batting stances are my only major gripe with the game. If SCEA can get their pitching styles and batting stances up to par with 2K's, it just wouldn't be fair. At this point, it's the only thing 2K7 has over SCEA in my opinion, and it's not even close at this point. 2K's sig styles blow The Show's away. I'm hoping Chris realizes this (hopefully he doesn't take offense) and aims to correct it.

I just tried 2K8 & man do they have a TON of signature animations.
It's no secret how immaculately recreated the pitcher follow thru's are in the 2K series. I think the pitchers even have personalized celebrations after a big strike out. The step-in and step-out batter routines are also better as they seem to be longer & more precise than The Show's. I'm sure you've noticed how the AI batters in The Show will just stand there waiting for the pitch an extended amount of time, since alot of the step out/in routines are too short.

The batting stances are better in 2K because they have less of a looped animation to them (i.e. Sheffield waggles the bat differently every other time, compared to the Show's constant extreme waggle over & over). Alot of the ones from The Show were carried over from the PS2 version, so those all have to go & soon.

Other than that though..... The Show is far superior to 2K8.

[Rob_NYY]

Quote: Originally Posted by ericjwm

I just tried 2K8 & man do they have a TON of signature animations. It's no secret how immaculately recreated the pitcher follow thru's are in the 2K series. I think the pitchers even have personalized celebrations after a big strike out. The step-in and step-out batter routines are also better as they seem to be longer & more precise than The Show's. I'm sure you've noticed how the AI batters in The Show will just stand there waiting for the pitch an extended amount of time, since alot of the step out/in routines are too short. The batting stances are better in 2K because they have less of a looped animation to them (i.e. Sheffield waggles the bat differently every other time, compared to the Show's constant extreme waggle over & over). Alot of the ones from The Show were carried over from the PS2 version, so those all have to go & soon. Other than that though..... The Show is far superior to 2K8.

I couldn't agree more! It's exactly how I feel. And you're right about the batting stances being too looped. Look at Jeter and A-Rod's for example. Sheff is another good one.

And some of the pitching motions in The Show aren't THAT bad, it's just the follow throughs that make them seem terribly inaccurate.