Which baseball game best captured user walks?

[snate]

I was thinking about this today. This has been the single biggest problem in baseball video games since they started making them.

I'm talking about AVERAGING about 3-4 walks per game when pitching and hitting. Not getting on occasional walk. A game that can capture Carlos Zambrano's 4.84 bb/9 he averaged last year. Last year, 46 times a team walked 10 or more in a game. Have you ever walked 10 in a game? Last year, teams walked 6 or more 650 times. When was the last time you walked 6 while pitching or walked 6 times while hitting in video game baseball? If you can't get walks right, you can't get statistics right, and if you can't get statistics right, you can't get baseball right.

Which console baseball video game best captured user walks for both pitching and hitting?

The only three I contenders I can think of are:



I remember that the control sliders worked pretty well in this game. A good amount of hitting walks could attained. Pitching walks I think were harder to make accurate. No cursor pitching helped a bit. A trouble with the control slider was that it made often pitchers more wild into the strike zone - ie meatballs. The awkward player models,camera angles, and animations made pitch recognition tough and affected overall enjoyment.



I still think this is the best pitching mechanic and the best at replicating pitching control. In real life, as a pitcher you aim for a quadrant, not an area the size of a baseball. The only game where even if you try to lay one down the middle, you still may throw a ball. Hitting walks were a little low if I remember correctly. Was 2003 better in this respect?



I didn't play this one too much, but I do remember getting very good hitting walks with some slider tweaks. Pitching walks were tougher to come by. The college game has even more walks than MLB and I know this improved on MVP 2005 with regards to walks.

In the end, while these three come the closest, all come up short in this respect.

Thoughts? Comments? Please share.

[Sandman42]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

With good sliders on MVP 2005 I was able to achieve anywhere between 3-8 walks per game. The highest I think I was ever walked in that game was 12 times.

[snate]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

With good sliders on MVP 2005 I was able to achieve anywhere between 3-8 walks per game. The highest I think I was ever walked in that game was 12 times.

Please share these sliders/settings. I remember a lot of quick ab's on both sides.

[Knight165]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

With good sliders on MVP 2005 I was able to achieve anywhere between 3-8 walks per game. The highest I think I was ever walked in that game was 12 times.

Yeah...but unless you modded the meter to a ridiculous proportion(to the point where it was a MISTAKE if you got it IN the right location) I could never walk anyone. It has to go both ways IMO.

M.K.
Knight165

[bsb13]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

MVP 05 and 06 had the best BB/9 while I was hitting and high heat had the best BB/9 while I was pitching. I thought the walks that I threw in high heat felt kind of random and completely out of my control, So although it was more realistic, I didnt really like the way it went about it.

[funky_chicken]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

Seeing the pick of the High Heat box sure brings back some great memories. HH is still may favorite baseball game to date.

[bcruise]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

You could draw any number of walks on MVP '05 and '06 (can't remember if 03 and 04 had this) simply by increasing the ball rate slider, but as was already pointed out, that doesn't help the user give up more walks. The only real way I found to throw walks was to crank the CPU's contact and power and put the fear of God into myself for throwing anything that might hang over the plate. The swing rate frequency slider had some effect too, though not as much as I would've liked.

Seeing the pick of the High Heat box sure brings back some great memories. HH is still may favorite baseball game to date.

I would say HH04 finally took a back seat to the Show last year, but it's definitely #2 to me (with MVP 05 a close third). And I still have the game to boot.

[coffeeholic]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

Although IMO the best is yet to come-I think I'll vote for ESPN 2K4. My biggest gripe with that game(besides goofy face graphics and dopey swing animations) was not being able to pull enough foul balls on my behalf. That is a problem I have with all console games in general. that is important because drawing fouls helps wear down the pitcher and could possibly draw more walks. So, I think the two go hand in hand. Brings up a good question now-which one of these games can you draw a decent amount of fouls balls?

[metal134]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

If you can't get walks right, you can't get statistics right, and if you can't get statistics right, you can't get baseball right.

THANK YOU! I've been trying to make that point foir years! You hit the nail right on the head!

[bukktown]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

A couple weeks ago I dusted off High Heat 2004 for the 1st time in 3 years and I fell in love all over again. If you aim for the corners, its a ball more than half the time with an average pitcher.

The lack of user pinpoint pitching is great, especially vs. the computer. Sometimes in head-to-head you prefer to have the pinpoint control though.

[pberardi]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

I was thinking about this today. This has been the single biggest problem in baseball video games since they started making them.

I'm talking about AVERAGING about 3-4 walks per game when pitching and hitting. Not getting on occasional walk.
Which console baseball video game best captured user walks for both pitching and hitting?

The only three I contenders I can think of are:










Thoughts? Comments? Please share.

I can't speak for High Heat. I heard nothing but great things about it.
My game is MVP 05. I have CPU ball rate from 5-8 and CPU control at -21 and I get 4-8 walks per game depending on the usual variables of whose pitching, fatigue, team ranking.

Last night I played a game with my Marlins Franchise vs. The Phils. The boxscore was:

Marlins: 5 runs, 9 hits 1 error.
Phils: 4 runs, 9 hits, 0 error.

I had 5 walks, 4 strikeouts and 2 homers.

The Phils got 1 BB and k'd 7 times.

The Phils tied the game in the 7th on a 2 run homer. I hit the go ahead homer in the 8th.

It was such a well executed and played game that I actually gave the game an ovation! I felt like I was in a real game. The nerves were rattlin' with every pitch.

These type of games are not an anomoly. They are very much consistant in this series. Boxsore are very real with the exception of user pitching. Once you master the meter and the outside pitch, you dominate the CPU.

Hitting is the best I've experienced, including MLB. If we could get MLB's user pitching with MVP's hitting engine, we might have a perfect game.

I simply cannot put this game away even though I've tried because they're not making it anymore. I always come back. Working the count and drawing walks is the main reason oddly enough. MVP05 really rewards you when you work the count....smartly.

[snate]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

I've actually dusted off MVP 05 and I agree. It is very well done and you can get realistic numbers.

[wrmdrgnazz]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

Although IMO the best is yet to come-I think I'll vote for ESPN 2K4. My biggest gripe with that game(besides goofy face graphics and dopey swing animations) was not being able to pull enough foul balls on my behalf. That is a problem I have with all console games in general. that is important because drawing fouls helps wear down the pitcher and could possibly draw more walks. So, I think the two go hand in hand. Brings up a good question now-which one of these games can you draw a decent amount of fouls balls?

I totally agree with you that hitting more foul balls would increase walk totals. The more pitches a pitcher has to throw in a count will only increase the chances that he throws more balls. i remember in espn mlb2k4 that either myself or the cpu didn't hit enough foul balls. I can't remember which one, but maybe it was me since you didn't hit them too frequent. I believe HH 04 had a foul ball slider, so that was the most accurate game i played to increase foul balls.

[PATRIOTS07]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

HIGH HEAT series cuz you could really 'work' counts pitching and hitting , it wasnt just fire and swing, it was about being patient at the plate and working into a hitters count and the game moved at a nice pace and was not sluggish . played many great games in 25-40 minutes with very real stats.
the pc versions were the best baseball video games every made cuz it played like 'baseball' even though the graphics always were picked on but i thought they were very decent,, the breakthrough in the series was 2001 but 2003 was the best and you could print box scores of every game 'play by play boxes' 2004 it changed , looked better but it just wasnt the same game

[dp68]

Re: Which baseball game best captured user walks?

If you can't get walks right, you can't get statistics right, and if you can't get statistics right, you can't get baseball right.

That is awesome! This should be printed on a piece of paper and stapled to the forehead of every baseball game developer.

I totally agree. One of the reasons I have always played text sims on the PC and shied away from console games is because of the difference in statistical realism. I'm a big Moneyball guy, and I look at OBP a lot more than I do AVG.

That being said, I have MVP 2005 on the PS2. I love the "feel" of the game. Constructing your stadium in owners mode, making a few key trades, managing the team budget. But mainly it is watching the games take place on the field - the play appears very realistic and flows naturally.

I prefer to be a GM and manager only in owner's mode, constructing my roster, trying to turn a profit. Then I start the daily games, set the controller to "CPU vs CPU," and sit back pretending to be Billy Beane watching the game from his box. I find this to be really fulfilling, especially if you watch the games closely and see where weaknesses exist defensively, or where a certain hitter just kills your lineup.

I'd like to come up with a good set of sliders for "CPU vs CPU," something which will generate a good amount of walks. Runs/hits/HR's seem a little high in the games I have watched too, so some further tweaking is needed.

Anyone ever set sliders for CPU vs CPU to generate realistic stats?