Analog Controls in The Show: Love/Hate Relationship - jmik58's Blog

jmik58's Blog

Analog Controls in The Show: Love/Hate Relationship

Posted on February 24, 2011 at 11:50 AM.

After playing the demo, there are some things that stand out as being improved in terms of fielding realism (although the fielders still appear to be way too quick, fast, and perfect in their routes). An adjustment of the fielder reaction time and speed sliders to the left did the trick. A minor pitch speed slowdown later, and the game felt just like The Show of old.

That is, until you try the analog controls for pitching and batting.

While most love or hate the controls alltogether, I contend that those emotions can be broken down into which aspect of the game you're playing.

I love the controls, yet I absolutely hate them.

I love the analog controls for pitching, but for the use of hitting I think it's a horrible mechanism.

In my opinion, it all boils down to the anatomical abilities of the human thumb. No, I'm not trying to get scientific; but point blank: The thumb ain't meant to move that way.

There's a reason that people talk about eye-hand coordination and not eye-thumb coordination. The thumb is meant to pinch towards the hand. The thumb is not an athletic digit. Your thumb is not making the 1st team All-American Apendage team.

The hitting mechanism requires you to react to the actions of the pitcher. Pull your thumb down with your hand at a horizontal position in response to the release point of the pitch. The tough work is all on your eyes and your brain. You have less than half a second to decide if you want to swing, at which point you then have to reverse the unnatural anatomical motion by pushing your thumb "up". I say "up" because we all know that with the limited range of motion with your thumb, there is no such thing as a consistent and normal "up" when you have to do the action so quickly.

The problem isn't so much with the motion, as it is with the timing and quickness involved with hitting a moving ball. In golf games, the right stick works great because the motion is at our own pace. We start on our own, the speed is up to us. In other words, there is not the "reaction" factor that makes it so tough when hitting. This is why I enjoy the analog controls for pitching so much, because it works.

I like the variability that pitching with the analog stick creates. I'm not going to paint corners all the time, yet I feel like I'm in control of where the ball goes. The contrary is true with hitting. I feel like I have no control whatsoever. It's spray and pray with the bat

With this in mind, I still enjoy the classic zone push-button hitting on The Show. It's much easier to coordinate a button-push with something as difficult as hitting a pitched ball. The final point on hitting though, is the fact that we have the option. I think I'll play with analog for fun, but when my dynasty is on the line, my thumb ligaments will be on vacation.

Comments

# 1 DJ @ Feb 24

Good blog and I agree with you; it's just too difficult to coordinate all you have to do to hit the ball with Analog controls. It'd be OK if you just loaded the swing and pressed up to hit, but trying to push up and to the left or right is really hard, especially when the pitches come at you so quick.

# 2 jmik58 @ Feb 24

Totally unrelated to the point, but I played a game today at lunch and I have fallen in love with the lowest two "catcher" batting cameras. It's so much easier to read the pitch. I think 2K11's default batting view is very nice based on the recently released video. Hitting just became so much more fun and reasonable.

Oh, and move that stinking pitch speed slider so far to the left it's touching the West Coast.