Hello again everyone. This is Eddy Cramm, Senior Designer for MLB 10: The Show, and I am here today to talk about the new Catcher Calling the Game feature. Catchy name, huh? Road to the Show, since its inception has been a very well received mode because it gives the gamer a very deep, realistic, and fun alternative to the traditional career mode. The mode allows you to create the guy you want to create, in the position you want him to play. Depending on the position that you choose, you will be asked to do different things in the field that are specific to your position. Last year, as we looked back on our game, there was one position we wanted to improve upon. That was the catcher.
In MLB 09: The Show, the catcher had the same basic responsibilities as any other fielder: Field balls in your area, cover your base. The only thing unique to the catcher was the task of throwing out base stealers. But as “baseball guys,” we know that the catcher is a lot more involved than that. The catcher is a key part of every single pitch in the game. He is arguably just as responsible for the outcome of a pitch as the pitcher. So when making MLB 10: The Show, we kept that in mind.
This year, we have added “calling pitch selection” and “calling pitch location” to your RttS catcher’s responsibilities. When you are in the game defensively as a catcher, you will be responsible to select the pitch that you want thrown. The system works just like it does for selecting pitches as the pitcher does. The pitcher might shake you off, or he might accept that pitch. If he does shake you off, you choose a pitch again. If you choose the same pitch, he will figure it’s really what you want and will accept it, at this point. Once you have selected the pitch, you will be responsible to select where you want the ball thrown. You can choose any of the nine zones within the strike zone, or you can choose eight areas outside of the zone if you want the ball off the plate (four outside edges and four outside corners). Now just like in real life, this doesn’t mean the pitcher will hit his spot. It just means this is where he is aiming. The better the pitcher you have throwing to you, the more effective your location calling will be.
Adding this has really made the Road to the Show catcher more involved in the game like you would expect him to be in real life. I hope you enjoy the new Catcher Calling the Game feature when it, and the rest of MLB 10 The Show hits shelves, March 2.
Aaron Luke here to bring you the next edition of the MLB 10: The Show posts. This entry will discuss the additions made to the MLB All-Star Week festivities.
When we set out at the beginning of the year, one area we knew needed to be addressed was the addition of the Home Run Derby. As we began to dive into the feature, we thought rather than just offering it as a stand-alone feature (which it is), why not include it into all season-based modes’ MLB All-Star Week festivities. Now when you’re playing in Season, Franchise or Road To The Show, you’ll have the opportunity to play in the Home Run Derby.
When playing the Home Run Derby, you have the choice to set which players are controlled by player 1, player 2, or the CPU – except in RTTS, where you only get to control your created player. You also will have fast-forwarding abilities, in case you want to skip the CPU-controlled player’s at bats.
After tackling the Home Run Derby addition, we thought why not go all-in and include the All-Star Futures Game as well. So, we’ve done just that. Now you get the full All-Star package. The All-Star Futures Game is available in both Franchise and Road To The Show – and just the same as the derby, in RTTS you will only have the opportunity to participate if your player was selected.
As you can see, we’ve paid a lot of attention to offering you as much of the MLB All-Star Week festivities as we can. These enhancements are available in all of our season-based modes, with the exception of the All-Star Futures Game, which is available in Franchise and Road To The Show only.
Trailer: http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/805/0
This patch fixed SOME of the problems, but created new ones. Online play was still laggy, career stats were still screwed up beyond belief, RTTS was still being worked on (but they did give that "great" workaround!) and the patch now created a problem for Franchise seasons that had already been started.http://www.operationsports.com/newspost.php?id=308848
On behalf of the entire MLB The Show development team we would like to take this time to first thank everyone for playing MLB 09 and being so patient with us as we work through some of the issues the community has experienced. We are very aware of these problems and we would like to announce that we are indeed working on a patch to fix the most glaring offline and online bugs and glitches you have encountered in this years game. When the patch is ready for deployment we will give an update with the contents of the patch.
In meantime, we have found a work around for one of the most glaring bugs, the Road to the Show crash. If you skip all training sessions (batting and base running) during the month of September you should be fine. We know this is not ideal, however until the patch is ready for public release this will allow you to continue playing your RTTS save files (if the save file is before entering a training session). We take these issues and concerns very seriously and we do apologize for the inconvenience. Once again, thank you for your time and your patience. We will update the community as soon as the patch release date is set.