Things Power Pros Has That The Show Doesn't?

[econoodle]

I was curious.
I hear a ton about how deep and realistic the Power Pros series is, but never dove in head first.

Now that i have a wii [again] was gonna get that game.

What features, mostly concerning franchise/season modes, does the PP series have that the Show does not?

I read of a few that the Show NOw does have that PP had first, such as, Pink Mothers day Bats and Milestone announcement stat overlays.

What have u guys seen?

[duke776]

Re: Things Power Pros Has That The Show Doesn't?

Well, I don't necessarily know what power pros has that the show doesn't, because I have never played the show on ps3(I've played most the ps2 versions, but from what I've read and general assumption I'm pretty sure the ps3 has many more little things in it). Also, all this info is from the 08 version, the originla MLB power pros does not have some stuff that was added to the 08 version.

At the end of innings, when you get a force out at first base, you can press R1 and flip the ball to the first base coach. Nice little touch(even if it doesn't happen in real life).

If you catch a flyball for the last out of the inning in the outfield, sometimes when you press a button(I believe it's triangle, but it could be R1) the outfielder will occasionally turn around and throw the ball into the stands. Pretty cool touch, although it seems pretty random as to when it will work, or when he'll just throw the ball to second base.

I don't know there's many features in season mode(it's called season, but it's a 10 year franchise), that are not in the show. They have a different type of progression system, which I personally don't like. The only way players progress is by you selecting which practice to be in. You can put them in trajectory, contact, power, fielding, speed, stamina, top speed, breaking ball, special(where you acquire special abilities), or rest. I believe that's all of them. You can also purchase upgrades that make those individual practices better.

The reason I do not like this, is because the computer generally puts guys in defense or speed practice when they shouldn't really. I get the upgrading defense part, but they seem hell bent on making everyone with low speed faster(which makes some below average hitters never become better, or some above average hitters never become great). Then for the relievers, the cpu always sticks them in stamina practice, because they have low stamina. When really, they should put them in say top speed control or breaking ball practice, because the relievers don't need any more stamina then they already have.

I also find it a little too easy to make your players way too good, which is why I generally set limitations to who/how much I can upgrade.

Players do start to regress at age 35, and I think the regression works well. Regression cannot start earlier or later than 35, and it will continue til they retire.

There is one thing I know you can do in power pros season mode that you can't in the show. You can include money(called owner points in the game) in trades. They also have the feature that the show just introduced this year, where there's a waiting period for trades to be accepted or declined. It's 5 days, but the cpu can choose to accept or decline it before those 5 days.

In season mode, they have players of the week, players of the month, rookies of the month and end of year awards. You get bonus owner points if one of your players earns any of these awards. You also get owner points for winning series in the playoffs(not 100% sure if you get any for making it, but I believe you do). You also get owner points for revenue sharing after the season is over.

There are injuries, although in season mode you don't get to choose who gets put on the DL, and who doesn't. But, the game is usually pretty smart about how they put guys on the DL and such. If a player is injured, and he's not placed on the DL, you can always just send him to AAA(where they don't play any games), and call him up when he's fine. Although, I remember there being a rule in the original version where you had to wait 10 days to recall a player after being sent down, but I tried it in the 08 version and it seemed like I could freely call up/send down players. I wonder if there is an option for it.

The injuries are pretty well done too, IMO. If you overpitch a pitcher, he'll get elbow pains most likely. You'll be able to tell if you're overpitching him or not, because he'll be basically panting(like a dog) on the mound and if you choose to continue to pitch him you're risking injury(although they will not always get hurt). If you hurl your player into the wall, he can get injured. I believe someone said they broke their catchers neck by diving into the wall behind homeplate. I've gotten my outfielders hurt by running at full speed towards the wall and and jumping to try to rob a homerun. Players can get hurt when diving for the ball, sliding into bases, in collisions at home plate.

Players wear their team jersey in the all star game, and don't just wear a generic all star uniform like other games. I completely understand why though, there's so much more detail on the jerseys in the show and 2k which would drop the framerate big time. With power pros, they don't have all that detail in the jerseys, so they can easily pull it off.

There are 40 man rosters in spring training and september in this game. There is AAA, but it's only a holding place for players, and I think you can have up to 20 guys in AAA.

Another thing about season mode, spring training is 4 weeks, but there are only 4 games. This is the time where you can teach players new positions, teach pitchers new pitches, teach them new batting stance(helps if you suck with a batting stance, because it may be all in my head but I do suck with some stances), teach them to be a switch hitter(obviously not the most realistic, but this game isn't hardcore realistic), etc. Or you can just have them train in a regular area, and they progress big time in spring training, not crazy amounts, but a good amount IMO.

I will warn you, there is no create a player. You can either find a guy with a similar birthday(main thing is birth year really), or if you don't care about age you could just edit whoever into another player. You can completely customize anything about the players.

Updating the rosters can be a pain. It's not as simple as the show or your typical baseball game, where you can release, or trade guys between teams. Nope, you have to go into Arrange mode, select the base team you want to start with, go and pick the players you want(and remove the players you don't) and put them on that team. You have to do this with every single team, if you want to update rosters.

Honestly, I love this game. It's good fun, and can be realistic(but don't expect too much realism, because there's certainly areas where it's not). If you try and take this game too seriously, I don't think you will enjoy it, because there was a time when I tried to and personally I couldn't enjoy it. Now that I took a step back, I enjoy it for what it is, a very fun and fairly realistic game.

Umm...I'm almost positive I posted more than you wanted, but if your curious about the game, I guess this should help.

Edit: Here's a little thing too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDiinrT9U3s

[econoodle]

Re: Things Power Pros Has That The Show Doesn't?

Duke, thanks!

no it wasnt too long
1 line or a hundred is cool.
really good stuff there! got me excited to try it now.

elbow pain for pitching too long, i love it.
a lot of cool touches there that will add to th realism
its funny, it has all the trappings of a text based sim, but by all accounts has the physics and all that of a video game sim.
awesome.

love that little thing in the you tube vid

[duke776]

Re: Things Power Pros Has That The Show Doesn't?

There's also some little things in the gameplay I forgot about.

When your outfielder is coming in to make a catch and you dive for the ball, sometimes he'll do a summersalt, which is pretty cool.

Fielders will throw from their "knees" also. Although as you might have already seen, they don't have knees, but they pulled it off pretty well.

You can also flip the ball while laying on the ground. Say you dive for a ball up the middle with your shortstop, if you press triangle quickly, he'll flip the ball with his glove to the second baseman. I've even done this when there wasn't a runner on first. Dove for a ball up the middle, flipped it to my 2nd baseman and he threw out the runner at first. One of the best plays I've ever seen/done myself.

Also, I'm not sure if every stadium has them, but I know when you hit a homerun in cincinnati(as the reds obviously), the smoke stacks will go off. I'd assume that more than just GABP has the homerun celebrations, but I can't say for certain because I've mostly played as the reds and cubs over the course of the two power pro games.

[DAVDAVZACH]

Re: Things Power Pros Has That The Show Doesn't?

For some more of the HR celebrations.

Houston: A train goes in a loop around the staduim.

I've been playing the bigs 2 latley so I've forgot a couple.