Video game deals?

Web said he had lag.  It was the smoothest online baseball game I've ever played.  He hosted so I don't really understand the lag on his end.  There is far less button lag than NCAA.  The bit of lag I saw was in the form of an instant pause and then resume while the game synched up I would guess.

I don't like the hitting nearly as well as EA's game, but I like the pitching quite a bit more.  I need to learn to hit in this game.  The game plays longer online than the EA game.  We went about 65 minutes last night and we were skipping through nearly all the replays and walk ups.  And I wasn't being nearly as patient at the plate as I am against you in MVP.  I just can't read the pitch well yet.  The worst part of reading the pitch is that balls in the dirt look like strikes to me.  I don't even see the ball hitting the dirt and it's past the catcher and I still swing because it looks like a pitch at the knees from my perspective.  I need to adjust to stop swinging at anything that looks below the belt.

I really don't like the infield fielding in this game.  I just don't have any control of the fielder.  It's almost automatic and the ridiculous part is that it's easier to field hard grounders (which make up 90%) than choppers.  It does that EA hesitation thing where your fielder decides he's not going to field the ball only in this version it is worse.

I think Web wants to play kinda regular.  Since I own it it's easy for me to say yes to the rotation.  I think Slumber likes it and will be around.  It would surprise me if you didn't like this game, but I don't think it is as good a game as MVP 06.  I'm happy to play ladder games with it for now though.  The bottom line is that it plays a smooth game.  It is fair and balanced and pretty fun once you get adjusted to the different mechanics.

Also, the game has the most professional presentation of any baseball game I've played and surpasses the excellence of the previous versions of the series in that regard.

Regarding variety of hit hardness, it's light years beyond last year's game.  I'm definitely seeing a lot of different speeds off the bat, and even some neat flares that manage to drop between the infielders and the outfielders for hits.

I feel you on the fielding being sort of automated, but I've gotten used to it.  Some of the animations are just so good, and the diving feels great when you pull it off manually.

Ted, I highly recommend the offset camera for batting.  It makes judging speed and height just a bit easier, at least to these eyes.