for the first year in many years, I didn't buy a baseball video game somewhere around Opening Day.
So I'm a little late to The Show, if you will
I've played about 15 games (mostly in franchise).
A few things that stand out so far:
-the graphics and lighting look exceptional (oddly, looks better on our Vizio than the more expensive LG TV in the living room)
-hit types have expanded quite a bit. It's the biggest hit-type overhaul I can remember, aside from when MVP Baseball literally released an entire version of a game (before patches were around!) in which left-handed hitters
could not hit home runs due to weird batted-ball physics- aside from an occasional liner to the first row
-This year I am trying to exercise great discipline, and not repeatedly click 'x' to advance to each pitch. To my delight, I've been rewarded by a variety of displays or cut scenes that I wouldn't have known existed otherwise. It's like the baseball equivalent of not fast-traveling in Elder Scrolls.
-Pitching with the 3-click meter is so darn sexy. I love taking some velo off, or saving the max velo for specific situations, I like how you can compensate on the final click if u had a rough first click, It just feels so good.
-I want to make a shoutout to the creators of
OS Realism Roster. No affiliation, just an incredibly ambitious roster set that, from what I can tell, is the best roster of the year (some of the 'overalls' seem off but the specific rankings are on point)
-It seems like people have a love/hate relationship with Harold Reynolds. I lean more toward the love side. And so far I've enjoyed his comments, but it's way too soon to tell how limited/repetitive it all is. goofy note: In the early 2000's I met Harold and Orel Hershiser in a diner back east. If you can guess which city/town this happened, you win a virtual gold star. I was a kid and boldly asked for his autograph, though I'd never approach him now after seeing Sean Penn get harassed at a Brazilian food place in west LA. And now it just sounds like I'm bragging about people I've met which wasn't the original purpose of this at all.
-I'm trying Dynamic difficulty this year, curious to see where the cpu places me. Hopefully it won't be like when I was 4th chair clarinet in middle school. Things seemed fine at the time, but years later, it became clear that they invented 4th chair just for me! and it was because I played clarinet like how a dog eats a muffin.
-lastly, I am beyond grateful that re-starting a fantasy draft (if you hate the way it's going) is far quicker this year. I've spent hours of my life cancelling--> having it autosave--> exiting --> clicking 'new franchise' --> tweaking the settings for a new franchise--> choosing a team --> hoping to get a particular pick (it's a video game... I want my favorite guys!) --> not getting that pick --> advancing to autosave -->exiting-->clicking 'new franchise' again-->rinse and repeat... and don't get me started on all the time spent deleting those dozens of save files! where da 'group delete' option at!?
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some issues that I'd hoped were fixed for this iteration, that weren't:
-In fantasy draft, I'd say about 30% of teams select closers with their 1st or 2nd overall pick. This just seems unrealistic... though it's tough to complain since Trea Turner was still available after taking Arenado 3rd overall.
-Could be my wifi, but the entire Diamond Dynasty interface is super laggy. Gameplay is fine, but the drop in quality (from single player) is enough to keep me playing franchise 90% of the time.
-I still think swing followthroughs need work, and have for some time. There have been incremental improvements and mild increases in variety, but I'm still not seeing the gravity/force of a real followthrough, except on signature homer celebrations. Something about it still feels... mechanical. Same goes for some throws to first base, where arm slots and foot positioning go in some weird unnatural angles, not unlike how an inexperienced driver might overcorrect after clipping the lip on the outside edge of the road.
-As you can see though, the praise far outweighs the complaints. To this point, this version has the feeling of one of those signature 'Shows' that works its way into your heart. And I haven't even played with Griffey yet!