Best Baseball CPU v CPU videogame

[kingdevin]

Since these polls have been going around I figured I'd start one re: watching games. I usually like to be GM/manager and make changes during the course of games or pre-game to affect the outcome of whatever team I favor.

Question is what is the best b-ball game to watch. In breaking down one's answer consider these things among others:

1) simulation gameplay
2) graphix/visuals including camera angles
3) realistic stats (and ability to affect sliders to reach realistic stats)
4) atmosphere

I really liked College b-ball 06. i felt it had a good balance of all 4 of the stated considerations. The sliders allowed some realistic stats, the visuals were good for me (es the progression of day to night visuals. My favorite fielder view - ariel view was there and the atmosphere was pretty nice.

MVP 05 is right up there w/it!!

Now MLB2k8, the more I watch, I like. The ariel view is there and the simulation/stats/gameplay seems to be pretty cool so far. The audio needs work. I actually like Miller and Morgan - they make up for the lack luster stadium sounds.

The show is a solid game but I have little nicknacks about it such as ball speed off the bat. Yes there is variety but too often the hits are IMO too fast. In addition, the high view is as close as I can get to ariel but ariel is so much better as done in MVP and 2k8. When I actually go to b-ball games, the speed of the ball and the ariel angle is closest to my experience at the park. Another thing is the excessive use of the cutoff man. I think that at times a runner would be out if not for the AI constantly using it much more than not.

HH was pretty good too BTW.

Pro Yakyu spirits has a chance to really make it happen this year. I would just like to see more pop ups, fouls behind the plate and less line drives.

Anyway, thats my take. I'd like to hear from others.

[bcruise]

Re: Best Baseball CPU v CPU videogame

Interesting. Here's my list:

1 - MLB '08 The Show - this series continues to improve with the CPU watch game every year. It really doesn't need sliders at all to make the pitcher-batter battles work, and only a slight power tweak is needed to keep the hitting stats in line. But the defaults do very well, and the Show's excellent presentation only adds to the immersion factor.

2 - High Heat 2004 (PC): Two words - tune file. Out of the box HH is actually quite arcadey, but with a special file you can adjust almost any paramaters of the game - things like runner speed (even measured in feet per second!!), throwing and pitching speeds in mph, the time it takes a guy run after swinging the bat, the friction of the ball on the grass, and so on into infinity. It's a lot to take in, but it basically means you could duplicate just about anything in real life. The game had a ton of sliders too, not that you'd need them.

3 - MVP Baseball 2005/06 (I didn't buy 07) - This is the dark horse, but it had a CPU Ball frequency slider which allowed for a pretty good walk rate. The CPU still had a tendency to swing too much, but raising that slider also meant it would chase more pitches.

The one thing all three of these have in common is something I consider very important in baseball games, that sets them apart from the others - Walks. It means the CPU is willing to work the count, see a lot of pitches, probably foul a few off, and sometimes have the possibility of missing the zone four times. That's very important to me in CPU games because it doesn't look like baseball when at-bats are always one or two pitches long.