MLB 2K11 News and Info

[BDSooner72]

'MLB 2K11' goes deep with My Player, Franchise improvements

http://espn.go.com/espn/thelife/videogames/blog/_/name/thegamer/id/6113083/mlb-2k11-goes-deep-my-player-franchise-improvements?readmore=fullstory

[Jason]

Destructoid has posted a preview of MLB 2k11

The hitting camera hearkens back to the zoomed-out view from two years ago -- Bailey told me that “if people liked the 2K9 camera more than 2K10’s, they’ll love 2K11’s.”

I like the sound of that 

[Ted]

That's good to hear.

[BDSooner72]

Gameplay footage with a sneak peek at Top Spin 4 at the end

http://www.operationsports.com/news/469422/mlb-2k11-video-first-gameplay-shaky-cam/

[Ted]

Looks like the crappy semi-hurry up is still in there, but the fielding camera looks better.

[Jason]

I thought I saw a part where it showed the batter's entire routine before a pitch was thrown. I'll have to double-check and see if I can catch the time that it happens.

[Ted]

I thought that too, but I think it is an at bat before the first pitch is thrown.  They show the whole thing when it's like that in 2k10 too.

[Jason]

Finally some gameplay videos (looks like Hurry-up baseball can be disabled):

MLB 2K11 Gameplay Video: Phillies @ Rockies

[Jason]

Not loving the camera while the ball is in play. Hopefully it's adjustable.

[Ted]

Sigh.  I don't know what to think at this point.

Thumbs up about the choice to not hurry up.  Thumbs up that Steve Phillips is still on the analysis, but I'm wondering if he has recorded anything new for this version since the debacles  a year or so ago.

Thumbs down on Kruk.  Big thumbs down on no congratulations by teammates at the plate after the homerun.  Still the same boring every runner walks back to the dugout after they cross the plate.  No emotion.  Bleh.

Don't like that camera, but I can live with it if it is only for batting.  If they force that camera during fielding then I'm probably out, at least until it is 10 bucks on steam.

Has there been any "official" word injuries, errors, and high pop ups to the infield and foul territory?  Any videos to confirm these have been brought back in?  If not it's a huge thumbs down.

[Jason]

The camera is supposedly just for batting. If that's the case, then they should offer the option to change it while batting. What about two-player games on the same console?

Injuries, errors and pop ups are in. I'll try to find the link where it was mentioned.

[Jason]

"MLB  2K11 features new hit types based on your timing.  Poorly timing a defensive or a contact swing can result in infield choppers.  While they  usually result in a ground out, players with top end speed (Ichiro,  Carl Crawford, Andrew McCutchen to name a few) can actually record  infield singles this year when hitting choppers to third or deep short.   While they are a result of a poorly timed swing, choppers can still  result in an infield single.  Add this to the fact that the third  baseman risks an error when he’s forced to quickly charge, bare-hand and throw on these choppers,  and now we have baseball.  Poorly timing a contact swing can also result in pop-ups behind the plate and near the dugouts, balls playable for the catcher.  There is also the  chance to hit an infield fly ball when poorly timing a power swing.   The new hit types added to MLB 2K11 mean your catchers first baseman,  and third baseman will have to cover much more ground in foul  territory.  These subtle additions provide a much more realistic gameplay experience at the plate.  In addition to new hit  types, we also re-worked our ball physics to behave according to the  surface with which  the ball is interacting.  The ball will have  different physics depending on whether the surface is grass, turf, dirt  or brick.  Part of the ball physics improvements also includes hits that  slice or fade.  Hitting a ball that slices down the first base line,  barely foul, gives you that “oh so close” feeling when combined with the  new hitting cameras from the plate perspective."

MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #3 - Pitching and Hitting

[Ted]

   
A “Pitcher Control” slider is one of several new difficulty sliders that we added to the game this year. Through the Pitcher Control slider you can change the concept of control to be more or less challenging. This new slider will allow you to customize the pitching experience to your liking. This is a sensitive slider that will make it noticeably easier or harder to throw strikes. And don’t worry,we are not disabling achievements this year if you change the sliders. It’s your game and it should be played however you want to play it.

I am glad to hear that about the achievements.  I hope that goes for the baseball cards as well.  It might be silly, but I thought it was fun to collect the cards as I went along during the season.  It sucked that the cards were disabled if you adjusted sliders, even if you made the sliders harder

[Jason]

Errors are in (plus some other videos):

MLB 2K11 Fielding Comparison - Betancourt vs. Rollins

MLB 2K11 Fielding Comparison - Ichiro vs. Garrett Jones

MLB 2K11 Fielding Comparison - Sandoval vs. Longoria

[Jason]

MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #4 - Revamped Fielding System

Hi everyone,My name is Jonathan Rivera and I am a Gameplay Designer for Major League Baseball 2K11. You may remember my Developer Insight on Fielding last year. I’m going to go over all of the changes that we have made this year to differentiate players and add more of a fun factor to fielding.

We were all very happy with the improvements that MLB 2K10 made in hitting and pitching, but you may have noticed how much we’ve emphasized the revamped fielding system in the lead-up to MLB 2K11.

I’m an avid gamer and the most important part of any sports game is player differentiation. I expect a 75 rated player to feel different than an 85 and so on.  This is always difficult to accomplish because, traditionally in sports games, there are so many ratings and trying to make each attribute affect a player’s performance can be very challenging. In MLB 2K11, our fielders are differentiated by three skills:
1)      Range â€" broken down to range and anticipation
2)      Glove
3)      Arm â€" broken down to strength and accuracy

By simplifying things, it allows us to introduce new elements of gameplay and, more importantly, differentiate the players.  With that said, let’s get right to it and introduce the new features.

New Features
When we began working on MLB 2K11, we knew exactly what we wanted to improve for fielding.  We wanted to make it more challenging by breaking down the three basic skills of fielding and adding decision making and player differentiation to each one.

1 - Finding and getting to the ball
Do you ever wonder why fielders like Carlos Gonzalez and Ichiro are always leisurely jogging under balls, while others are diving to make the same catches?  This is because getting a great jump, determining where the ball is going to land and then getting to that spot takes a lot more than just speed.  The players that have mastered this skill seldom need to run at their full speed because they can just casually get to the spot.

In MLB 2K11, we display this factor with our new Dynamic Landing Indicator.  After the ball is hit, a white circle will appear in the general area of where the ball is going to land. The better your fielder is, the smaller that circle will appear, giving a more exact target for the user to run to.  After you move the fielder to that area, a smaller yellow circle will appear where the ball will land. Again, the better your fielder’s ratings, the sooner the smaller yellow circle will appear, making it easier for your player to make the catch.  In the video below, you will see the exact same hit fielded by two different players with very different ratings.  The first part of the video shows Ichiro, who has a 92 range rating, casually jogging under the ball to make the catch.  The second part of the video shows Garrett Jones (51 range rating) struggle to get to and find the landing spot.  Even though the play is made in both instances, you can see how much our ratings are actually affecting this situation.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Once you have played with this new feature, you will be able to tell how much of a difference it makes.  As I’m writing this, we are in the middle of our in-house developer tournament.  One of my co-workers was talking to me about how this new gameplay affected his approach to a late inning situation.   In the tournament, he is playing as the Giants (of course, now everybody wants the Giants).  He needed a pinch hitter late in the game to bat for the pitcher.  The best bat he had left was Aaron Rowand. However. in his mind, he had already planned to use Aaron Rowand later in the game as a defensive substitute for Pat Burrell and didn’t want to take Burrell’s bat out of the lineup this early.  Taking this into account, he was forced to look to his next option and used Travis Ishikawa instead of Rowand.  In the at bat, Ishikawa ended up getting a hit and he was able to use Rowand later in the game as a defensive substitute.  Now, there are many different ways to play this situation, but the fact that this was such a big factor in his mind is a testament to what we were trying to accomplish defensively.

2 â€" Making the Catch
Getting to the ball is only part of the challenge. This year, the fielder’s glove rating will make a big difference in how smoothly your fielder plays the ball.  The first, and most obvious, change from MLB 2K10 to MLB 2K11 is that we have added errors and bobbles to the fielding.  The fun part of making this addition was differentiating between a bobble and an error. In real life, there is an average of just over one error per game, but there are a lot of mishandles and bobbles that the fielder recovers from to make the play.  Even something as simple as stopping a hard hit ball, keeping it in front of you and then throwing the base runner out would never happen in any of our previous versions of the game.  In the past, if you got your fielder to the ball, he’d make the play 100% of the time, guaranteed.  Not this year! This year, the glove rating will make these plays less automatic. This leads to more infield singles, players rushing to get the throw off, etc… the same kinds of things that happen in real life. 

In the video below, you will see a hard hit ball to Yuniesky Betancourt (51 glove rating) and the same exact hard hit ball to Jimmy Rollins (92 glove rating).  You can see that Betancourt bobbles the ball and fails to throw out the runner at first.  In the second part of the video, you see Jimmy Rollins make the same play much easier.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

In addition to making the glove rating drive the probability of errors and bobbles, our fielders will have certain animations locked by rating which means that, not only will great fielders make nicer/smoother looking plays, but they’ll also have a wider array of animations to choose from.

3 â€" Decision making/throwing the ball
When you are fielding the ball, you also need to be thinking about where and how you are going to throw the ball.  Do you need to rush it?  Is it going to be an easy play?  Am I moving away from my target or am I already squared up and in a good position to throw?  How accurate is my player’s arm? Do I need to use the cutoff man? All these thoughts and more race through your head while you position your player to field the ball, and all of these elements need to be considered before you start your throw.

The first thing that users will notice is our new throw meter.  Let me break down the three parts of the new meter:

Light green (early part of the meter) â€" If the user stops the meter in this area, it means that the fielder will attempt a safe throw. The throw will have less velocity but it will always be accurate.  This is intended to be used for routine plays.

Dark green (the “sweet spot” of the meter) - Like in MLB 2K10, there is a dark green “sweet spot” that indicates the perfect throw.  This is the hardest possible throw that the player can make while being 100% accurate.

Red area â€" This indicates that the fielder will make a bad throw.  Now, a bad throw can simply pull your teammate off the bag, one-hop it so the ball is bobbled, or, sail the ball over the target’s head.  There is also a chance that, if the fielder receiving the throw has a very high glove rating, the bad throw will be saved by a scoop out of the dirt.

Again, one thing that we wanted to make sure that we addressed was not only having three areas of the meter but, also having a clear distinction in players’ fielding abilities.

In the video below, you will see two examples of how the meter looks in-game with two very different players.  In the first example, you’ll see Pablo Sandoval, who has a strong arm (85 rating) but shaky accuracy (64 rating).  As he rushes to throw out the base runner at first, he sails it over the first baseman’s head.  In the second part of the video, you’ll see Evan Longoria, who has both a strong (95) and accurate (97) arm, make the play with ease.  Notice the difference between the two players in the video.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

The other part of throwing, that we addressed based on your feedback from previous MLB 2K editions of the game, is that players threw too hard and that there wasn’t as much player differentiation as in real life when it comes to arm strength.   We devoted a lot of attention towards making sure there is significant variation between the hardest and softest throwers so that, once again, the user is able to tell the difference when they see the fielder throw in-game.

Another throwing improvement that you’ll find in MLB 2K11 is that throws sometimes are one or two hopped to their target.   It always bothered me that fielders were able to backhand a ball from deep short, turn around and throw to first base on a rope while fading away into left field.  This year, you’ll see those throws one or two hopped to first base and, sometimes, lead to an infield single.  Just like in real life, it’s sometimes better to take your time, set your feet, and make a stronger throw.

This is where decision making comes into play.  When fielding in MLB 2K11, you will find yourself constantly having to make decisions like: “Do I want to risk going for the ‘sweet spot’ on this routine throw and risk putting it into the red, or just make a safe but slower throw?” You will find yourself throwing to the cutoff man a lot more with guys like Jason Bay, and throwing straight to the bag with players like Jayson Werth.  We’ve made it necessary for users to have to think about how they are going to play each defensive situation rather than just moving the player to the ball automatically.

Tags
When we sat down and played MLB 2K10 and looked for areas that needed improvement, we all agreed that the tagging system needed an upgrade. We set out to make tagging more realistic.  We created all new tagging animations to support the new tagging system, and what we accomplished was a spectacular tagging system that delivers realistic results.  Even when I play our game, I’m constantly surprised by how quickly the fielders get their tags down and how much better the new tag animations look and feel compared to previous years.

Animations
We are always looking to add new animations to create a more authentic looking game.   They could be signature animations specific to each player, or realistic improvements to dugout behavior.  This year, we added a lot of new animations that stand out in-game and refresh the look of our game significantly.

I’ll go over the key areas where we added new animations and break down what you can expect to see:

Tags â€" As I mentioned previously, we have many new tag animations to improve that system.  Here’s a quick example of the new types of tags that you will experience when playing:

Quicker tags â€" fielders have more of a sense of urgency on their tag attempts

Offline tags â€" these occur when a fielder is not in the direct path of the base runner and needs to come back to the basepath to attempt a tag. If a catcher makes a bad throw on a steal, our fielders can recover and try to apply a tag from whatever position the ball was caught in.

Different tag heights â€" we have added many new tags from different heights and angles.

Third Out only catches â€" In order to improve the casual look of our player models, we need to make the players aware of the context of their animations.  The best example of this is our third out only animations that will trigger when a fielder catches an out to end the inning.

Credit/Excitement â€" Not only did we want to make the fielders aware of the situation that they are in when it comes to outs, we wanted to make them aware of what just happened.  This means that the first baseman will pump his fist after a big defensive play, or the pitcher shows emotion after getting out of a tough jam.   It also means that the pitchers credit their fielders when an amazing play is made.  These kinds of little touches add a lot to the overall experience and presentation when playing the game.

First Baseman Stretches/Bobbles â€" It always bugged us that our first baseman stretches weren’t as extended as they are in real life on a close play. We captured quite a few new stretch animations as well as casual first baseman catches to be used on routine plays.  In addition to that, there are new animations that include bobbles and misses if the infielder makes a bad throw to first.  These animations look very cool and give our fielders a refreshing new look.

Restricting animations by ratings and weight â€" We wanted to continue to add to our realism and get rid of as many “that player wouldn’t do that in real life” moments as we could.  We did a couple of very interesting things to limit that in the field this year.  The first thing we did is limit animations to different ratings, so certain animations won’t trigger unless your glove rating is greater than 90, etc.  We also limited animations by height and weight so that, even if a player has a good glove or arm rating, you won’t see bigger players make amazingly athletic plays.

No more “football catches” â€" Playing MLB 2K10, we cringed every time we saw a shortstop run backwards and make what we called “football catches”.   We knew that we wanted to address that issue by adding new animations.  We added animation coverage that has the fielder turn around while the ball is in midair in order to catch it.  These animations look very smooth and make our game look more authentic.

Sliding catches â€" We have a good database of diving catches already, but we didn’t have many catches where the outfielders are sliding in to catch the ball.  You see this frequently in real baseball when an outfielder is charging a ball and, instead of diving head first, they slide feet first.  We added quite a few animations to add variety and refresh our diving catches.

Barehand queue ups â€" Last year, we introduced the ability to preload a throw and the fielders could trigger these smooth catch-and-throw animations.  This year, we took that a step further by adding the same kind of plays from barehand gathers.  That means that if a ball is hit into the gap and the ball stops at the foot of the outfield wall, if you queue up a throw, your outfielder should be able to just pick up the ball and fire it into the infield in one smooth animation.  These animations are my personal favorite when they appear.

Catcher specific animation set â€" In previous versions of our game, the catcher shared all of the same movement animations as the rest of the fielders that were the catcher’s size.  However, catchers always move differently because they carry a lot of gear.  This meant that getting our catchers to look more like catchers would require us to capture all of the animations with the catcher in his gear.  After we captured all of the animations and put them in-game, we would clearly see a difference in how our catchers move and catch the ball.  We hope that you guys will be able to appreciate this change as well.

Sliders
As my colleague Sean Bailey pointed out in the Pitching/Hitting Developer Insight, changing the sliders will not prevent you from earning achievements in MLB 2K11.  We didn’t want to discourage users from getting the experience that they are comfortable with.  It seems like a lot of you are very happy with this specific change from reading the feedback. In addition, we wanted to give users even more options to customize their gameplay experience.  I’ll quickly break down all of the new sliders that we added for fielding specifically.

Throw Accuracy â€" Modifies the difficulty of the throw meter when fielding.

Gather error frequency â€" Increases the slider to see more gather errors and decrease to see less gather errors.

Throwing error frequency â€" Modifies the frequency of throwing errors by the CPU or when putting the meter into the red.

Outfield & Infield Throw Speed modifier â€" Tunes the throw speed of the outfielders and infielders separately.

Outfield & Infield Run Speed modifier â€" Adjusts the running speed of the outfielders and infielders separately.

Baserunner speed â€" Tunes the running speed of the baserunners.

Catcher Arm Strength and Accuracy â€" Tunes how hard and accurate the catchers will throw on steal attempts.
All sliders can be adjusted separately for the user and CPU.

* * *

When you take into account all of the new animations, tagging system, and specific focus to player differentiation, the fielding in MLB 2K11 has changed the approach that many of us take while in the field; whether it’s play-to-play decisions or finding the best defensive lineup.  MLB 2K11 is the only baseball game that I’ve played where I feel that I make decisions similar to real MLB managers, choosing between an inferior fielder with a great bat and a great fielder with an inferior bat.

We hope that after reading this, you are excited to try all of these new features and play MLB 2K11 on March 8. Otherwise, hear about the Fielding Improvements from Floria Marlins outfielder Mike Stanton. WATCH THAT VIDEO HERE!

- Jonathan Rivera
Gameplay Designer