All Star Baseball... First Impressions & Questions for those with the game

[FWhite]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions & Questions for those with the

hey dicksmalls I got this allready payed for on my credit slip in my pocket right now...I want to ask you I liked last year game and I love WSB to witch im getiing all so...If I liked ASB last year is this slip in my pocket worthy of getting this game...I know you probaly ansered this Q befor Is this game HOMEr happy or not...What level are you playing it on right now and how are the graphics...thanx

[FWhite]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions & Questions for those with the

hey dicksmalls I got this allready payed for on my credit slip in my pocket right now...I want to ask you I liked last year game and I love WSB to witch im getiing all so...If I liked ASB last year is this slip in my pocket worthy of getting this game...I know you probaly ansered this Q befor Is this game HOMEr happy or not...What level are you playing it on right now and how are the graphics...thanx

[fossen]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions & Questions for those with the

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Can you trade minor leaguers from team tpo team?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
In "base" roster management, it doesn't look like it. I checked the TRADE PLAYERS option, and the Minor Leaguers weren't available. In Franchise/Expansion, you can trade Minor Leaguers.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Are minor leaguers accessible in regular roster manegement(non-franchise mode)? This would help with roster accuracy.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post"> They are available to be edited, but not traded.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Who are some of the more noteble players in the FA pool? Are there alot of FA's.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
A good amount of FAs, including:
Shawon Dunston
Chuck Finley
Ron Gant
Rickey Henderson
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Ray Lankford
John Rocker
Kenny Rogers

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Any surprising player omissions?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">Not suprising to me, but there are the usual "No MLBPA Rights" people - new players this year (Matsui, Contreras, Reyes, etc.) and some others who aren't with the MLBPA (Millar)

[fossen]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Can you trade minor leaguers from team tpo team?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
In "base" roster management, it doesn't look like it. I checked the TRADE PLAYERS option, and the Minor Leaguers weren't available. In Franchise/Expansion, you can trade Minor Leaguers.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Are minor leaguers accessible in regular roster manegement(non-franchise mode)? This would help with roster accuracy.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post"> They are available to be edited, but not traded.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Who are some of the more noteble players in the FA pool? Are there alot of FA's.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
A good amount of FAs, including:
Shawon Dunston
Chuck Finley
Ron Gant
Rickey Henderson
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Ray Lankford
John Rocker
Kenny Rogers

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Any surprising player omissions?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">Not suprising to me, but there are the usual "No MLBPA Rights" people - new players this year (Matsui, Contreras, Reyes, etc.) and some others who aren't with the MLBPA (Millar)

[dales]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

Why is David Justice in the FA pool? He retired. Aren't these rosters up to date as of March 1 (w/ the d/l roster update)?

[dales]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

Why is David Justice in the FA pool? He retired. Aren't these rosters up to date as of March 1 (w/ the d/l roster update)?

[fossen]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Why is David Justice in the FA pool? He retired. Aren't these rosters up to date as of March 1 (w/ the d/l roster update)?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
So did Jordan.

Twice.

They are updated, but I think it's probably better to have him in the pool than not. If somebody really wants him on their team, they should have their chance.

[fossen]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
Why is David Justice in the FA pool? He retired. Aren't these rosters up to date as of March 1 (w/ the d/l roster update)?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
So did Jordan.

Twice.

They are updated, but I think it's probably better to have him in the pool than not. If somebody really wants him on their team, they should have their chance.

[snake21104]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

What are the hitting ratings used? Are there any vs Left or vs Right ratings? How about pitching ratings?

[snake21104]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

What are the hitting ratings used? Are there any vs Left or vs Right ratings? How about pitching ratings?

[dragan24]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

They show stats of how your batter has done against lefties and right-handed pitchers as well as lifetime stats.

[dragan24]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

They show stats of how your batter has done against lefties and right-handed pitchers as well as lifetime stats.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

FWhite, my friend, worry not...if you even remotely liked last year's game, you should LOVE this one. I think a true testament to a great game is one that has you thinking about playing it when your doing something else. Last year I enjoyed alot of ASB's attention to baseball detail but found alot of quirks in it's engine, gameplay and lack of franchise features which frustrated me as much as it delighted me. This year's version just from my first few days playing exhibition games, and getting into Franchise mode with a newly created Expansion team, I am really having a blast playing it. I can play a few games one after another and still feel entertained by it whereas last year, after one game, I was a bit drained and exhausted.

The Franchise mode, as I said earlier, is tight and very polished and most importantly, deeper than anything I have yet seen since OOTP baseball ( text game ) Alot of the little things are there that make the franchise very exciting.

When you start your Expansion Franchise, you have a much wider range of options such as cities, mascots, stadiums. You pick the league to play in and the CPU adds another expansion team along with yours to balance out the league without forcing you to replace any teams...(Great move by Acclaim ) Also you dont just get any players but you have to draft players from a free angent pool which is real cool too and each pick you make, the cpu then picks one next for it's other expansion team. Most players are medicore but there are still some decent players which should allow you to draft a middle to sub middle of the road team that your going to have to develop, which is great. You can also create and edit any players as well so if you want yourself in there...done!

Also the game starts you out in Spring Training mode rather than throwing you into season right away to allow you to make your observations and I guess, minor improvements. Also there are coaches, trainers, scouts, managers that you have to set a budget for as well that should seemingly have a slight global effect on your players and team's overall franchise. Little things also add up like the ability to see detailed boxscores from other games played and sections to view of your player's performance totals from last year as well as a seperate are to see how he is doing over the last 10 games.....Who's Hot, Who's Not section is back and cleaner looking. ect , ect. So much to cover that I cant rememebr it all. And I still havent explored alot of it.

Gameplay has really gotten a workover as well....defensive ratings are more important and you see the differences out in the field. Outfields are more vast allowing for a much greater variety of hit balls and blunders...Ball physics have been very noticeably tightened and improved allowing alot more variety in the hitting department. Even fielder animations to player control has been tweaked and tightened. Player movement and control seems more fluid , responsive and less 'motion capture-ish' feeling like it did last year. A variety of throws, and tags have been added as well as a much improved basestealing system that looks and plays more realistically. A manual instant replay system has man implemented with several camera angles that looks great.

Homeruns seems to be realistically scaled and harder to hit this year and teams produce more runs thru manufacturing with hits, walks, errors, aggressive baserunning, ect.

Sorry to go on but I am trying to sum up the game as best I can to help for those of you who like to know as much about it as possible before you buy it.

I am having fun with it...Im playing it on the VETERAN level because I am having a tougher time hitting the ball this year to due to a more precise cursor to ball system that isnt as friendly to give you the smashing contact as it did last year when your cursor was near the ball but not on it. But I am getting hits now that I have been practicing. It's realisitic because at bat it's all about patience and working the pitcher and waiting for that one or two pitches that are very hittable and jumping all over it. Very realisistic so alot of Triple Play/SlugFest or even High Heaters may get a bit frustrated adapting to the patience and adjustments of hitting in this game. Also the dull atmosphere of last year has been improved with umpire sounds, organs playing, rally feet stomping in the stands, check swing appeals that really work well...realistic strike zones, ect. Mound visits, Lefty Pickoff throws from a windup that actually work now. Improved bunting, ect ect.

Pick up your copy...you wont be dissapointed. This is pretty real baseball. If you dont like it, I really dont know what else to recommend. It's Baseball captured realistically and it's not over the top or gaudy. The designers didnt try to make it something it's not....they have really captured the essence of the game.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

FWhite, my friend, worry not...if you even remotely liked last year's game, you should LOVE this one. I think a true testament to a great game is one that has you thinking about playing it when your doing something else. Last year I enjoyed alot of ASB's attention to baseball detail but found alot of quirks in it's engine, gameplay and lack of franchise features which frustrated me as much as it delighted me. This year's version just from my first few days playing exhibition games, and getting into Franchise mode with a newly created Expansion team, I am really having a blast playing it. I can play a few games one after another and still feel entertained by it whereas last year, after one game, I was a bit drained and exhausted.

The Franchise mode, as I said earlier, is tight and very polished and most importantly, deeper than anything I have yet seen since OOTP baseball ( text game ) Alot of the little things are there that make the franchise very exciting.

When you start your Expansion Franchise, you have a much wider range of options such as cities, mascots, stadiums. You pick the league to play in and the CPU adds another expansion team along with yours to balance out the league without forcing you to replace any teams...(Great move by Acclaim ) Also you dont just get any players but you have to draft players from a free angent pool which is real cool too and each pick you make, the cpu then picks one next for it's other expansion team. Most players are medicore but there are still some decent players which should allow you to draft a middle to sub middle of the road team that your going to have to develop, which is great. You can also create and edit any players as well so if you want yourself in there...done!

Also the game starts you out in Spring Training mode rather than throwing you into season right away to allow you to make your observations and I guess, minor improvements. Also there are coaches, trainers, scouts, managers that you have to set a budget for as well that should seemingly have a slight global effect on your players and team's overall franchise. Little things also add up like the ability to see detailed boxscores from other games played and sections to view of your player's performance totals from last year as well as a seperate are to see how he is doing over the last 10 games.....Who's Hot, Who's Not section is back and cleaner looking. ect , ect. So much to cover that I cant rememebr it all. And I still havent explored alot of it.

Gameplay has really gotten a workover as well....defensive ratings are more important and you see the differences out in the field. Outfields are more vast allowing for a much greater variety of hit balls and blunders...Ball physics have been very noticeably tightened and improved allowing alot more variety in the hitting department. Even fielder animations to player control has been tweaked and tightened. Player movement and control seems more fluid , responsive and less 'motion capture-ish' feeling like it did last year. A variety of throws, and tags have been added as well as a much improved basestealing system that looks and plays more realistically. A manual instant replay system has man implemented with several camera angles that looks great.

Homeruns seems to be realistically scaled and harder to hit this year and teams produce more runs thru manufacturing with hits, walks, errors, aggressive baserunning, ect.

Sorry to go on but I am trying to sum up the game as best I can to help for those of you who like to know as much about it as possible before you buy it.

I am having fun with it...Im playing it on the VETERAN level because I am having a tougher time hitting the ball this year to due to a more precise cursor to ball system that isnt as friendly to give you the smashing contact as it did last year when your cursor was near the ball but not on it. But I am getting hits now that I have been practicing. It's realisitic because at bat it's all about patience and working the pitcher and waiting for that one or two pitches that are very hittable and jumping all over it. Very realisistic so alot of Triple Play/SlugFest or even High Heaters may get a bit frustrated adapting to the patience and adjustments of hitting in this game. Also the dull atmosphere of last year has been improved with umpire sounds, organs playing, rally feet stomping in the stands, check swing appeals that really work well...realistic strike zones, ect. Mound visits, Lefty Pickoff throws from a windup that actually work now. Improved bunting, ect ect.

Pick up your copy...you wont be dissapointed. This is pretty real baseball. If you dont like it, I really dont know what else to recommend. It's Baseball captured realistically and it's not over the top or gaudy. The designers didnt try to make it something it's not....they have really captured the essence of the game.

[evilive]

Re: All Star Baseball... First Impressions &amp; Questions for those with the

So, is Matsui or Contreras in or not?

I know there will be a roster update, but are they on the shipped rosters??

When is the first roster update scheduled or have they even said anything???