Questions for the serious sim guys

[jjoe]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

Excellent choice. No better game of baseball out right now.

[MizzouRah]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I'm having so much fun with ESPN. The computer is really good in this game, the challenge is definitly there.

It's not as smooth as MVP plays, but the gameplay logic is much better, imo.


Todd

[MizzouRah]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I'm having so much fun with ESPN. The computer is really good in this game, the challenge is definitly there.

It's not as smooth as MVP plays, but the gameplay logic is much better, imo.


Todd

[MizzouRah]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I'm having so much fun with ESPN. The computer is really good in this game, the challenge is definitly there.

It's not as smooth as MVP plays, but the gameplay logic is much better, imo.


Todd

[wildcatchild]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

If the baseball games were entered in the Kentucky Derby next week, ESPN would be the winner by 13 lengths. It's that much better than MVP, my second choice this year. ESPN is the only game I bought. I traded in my PS2 for an X-Box just to get it and have not been let down.

[wildcatchild]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

If the baseball games were entered in the Kentucky Derby next week, ESPN would be the winner by 13 lengths. It's that much better than MVP, my second choice this year. ESPN is the only game I bought. I traded in my PS2 for an X-Box just to get it and have not been let down.

[wildcatchild]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

If the baseball games were entered in the Kentucky Derby next week, ESPN would be the winner by 13 lengths. It's that much better than MVP, my second choice this year. ESPN is the only game I bought. I traded in my PS2 for an X-Box just to get it and have not been let down.

[Brando70]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

Yeah, seriously Diesel this game is like crack. I can't stop playing it.

You can definitely draw walks and it seems like they pitch around the better players, or will pitch around a batter if a weak hitter is behind him. Plus, in NL games, if you have a runner in scoring position and the 8th batter is up, they will often walk him to get to the pitcher.

I don't know if stealing is tied to catcher ratings, but the steals make sense. The guys who should steal do. If a slower player goes it's almost always as a hit and run.

[Brando70]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

Yeah, seriously Diesel this game is like crack. I can't stop playing it.

You can definitely draw walks and it seems like they pitch around the better players, or will pitch around a batter if a weak hitter is behind him. Plus, in NL games, if you have a runner in scoring position and the 8th batter is up, they will often walk him to get to the pitcher.

I don't know if stealing is tied to catcher ratings, but the steals make sense. The guys who should steal do. If a slower player goes it's almost always as a hit and run.

[Brando70]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

Yeah, seriously Diesel this game is like crack. I can't stop playing it.

You can definitely draw walks and it seems like they pitch around the better players, or will pitch around a batter if a weak hitter is behind him. Plus, in NL games, if you have a runner in scoring position and the 8th batter is up, they will often walk him to get to the pitcher.

I don't know if stealing is tied to catcher ratings, but the steals make sense. The guys who should steal do. If a slower player goes it's almost always as a hit and run.

[DIESEL]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I got the game last Friday night, but did not get to play as much as I would have liked this weekend. But there was a lot to like in the handful of exhibition games I played.

1. First game I played Furcal leads off with a drag bunt base hit. It looked really sweet.

2. Furcal takes off for second in the first inning. That's one less stolen base attempt than I saw in about 40 games of MVP!

3. K. Ishii of the Dodgers walked me 6 times in 5 innings. He threw over 100 pitches! It was the first time i've played a baseball game where it really felt like the computer was just scuffling and trying to survive out there. They finally pulled him after 5 runs.

4. Milton Bradley stole third on me ! I was so surprised I threw down to second base like a moron.

5. I've had a few 10+ pitch AB's where I was able to foul of pitches to stay alive. Very Cool!!

6. The sliders work!! I'm still tweaking them to my liking ,but I can actually notice a difference when i make an adjustment. That should be standard in all games, but we know that's not always the case.

7. I almost forgot the most important one. I gave up a home run to J. Damon. I could deal with not hitting homeruns myself with leftys in MVP. But to have no fear facing Bonds and Giambi just killed any realism for me.


Now I don't want to make this a total lovefest for ESPN. It has some flaws too:

1. The swing animation is pretty disgraceful. How could these guys make some of the most realistic visuals I've ever seen and allow that in their product. I knew it was bad when my girlfriend who has never swung a bat in her life told me, "it looks like they're swinging wiffle ball bats!!"

2. The double switch function is all jacked up. You can do it but you end up wasting a player. The way they have it set up makes it pretty useless.

3. Not a big fan of the fielding camera view. You can't see fly balls in the air, so its hard to judge when you should jump or dive.

Overall the good things greatly outweigh the bad. I also think the pitch effort meter is a little more complex than I initally gave it credit for. It seems pitchers with great stuff can get buy much easier with less effort. This seems pretty realistic to me. On the other hand the effort you have to use for average guys makes stamina go down much faster and makes you feel good if you can get 5 or 6 good innings out of them.

Well I just intended to give a few impressions about ESPN and I ended up writing a small novel. So I just wanted to thank the people who have been posting on this board. I'm glad I got the game, and I think any diehard baseball sim fan would be too.

[DIESEL]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I got the game last Friday night, but did not get to play as much as I would have liked this weekend. But there was a lot to like in the handful of exhibition games I played.

1. First game I played Furcal leads off with a drag bunt base hit. It looked really sweet.

2. Furcal takes off for second in the first inning. That's one less stolen base attempt than I saw in about 40 games of MVP!

3. K. Ishii of the Dodgers walked me 6 times in 5 innings. He threw over 100 pitches! It was the first time i've played a baseball game where it really felt like the computer was just scuffling and trying to survive out there. They finally pulled him after 5 runs.

4. Milton Bradley stole third on me ! I was so surprised I threw down to second base like a moron.

5. I've had a few 10+ pitch AB's where I was able to foul of pitches to stay alive. Very Cool!!

6. The sliders work!! I'm still tweaking them to my liking ,but I can actually notice a difference when i make an adjustment. That should be standard in all games, but we know that's not always the case.

7. I almost forgot the most important one. I gave up a home run to J. Damon. I could deal with not hitting homeruns myself with leftys in MVP. But to have no fear facing Bonds and Giambi just killed any realism for me.


Now I don't want to make this a total lovefest for ESPN. It has some flaws too:

1. The swing animation is pretty disgraceful. How could these guys make some of the most realistic visuals I've ever seen and allow that in their product. I knew it was bad when my girlfriend who has never swung a bat in her life told me, "it looks like they're swinging wiffle ball bats!!"

2. The double switch function is all jacked up. You can do it but you end up wasting a player. The way they have it set up makes it pretty useless.

3. Not a big fan of the fielding camera view. You can't see fly balls in the air, so its hard to judge when you should jump or dive.

Overall the good things greatly outweigh the bad. I also think the pitch effort meter is a little more complex than I initally gave it credit for. It seems pitchers with great stuff can get buy much easier with less effort. This seems pretty realistic to me. On the other hand the effort you have to use for average guys makes stamina go down much faster and makes you feel good if you can get 5 or 6 good innings out of them.

Well I just intended to give a few impressions about ESPN and I ended up writing a small novel. So I just wanted to thank the people who have been posting on this board. I'm glad I got the game, and I think any diehard baseball sim fan would be too.

[DIESEL]

Re: Questions for the serious sim guys

I got the game last Friday night, but did not get to play as much as I would have liked this weekend. But there was a lot to like in the handful of exhibition games I played.

1. First game I played Furcal leads off with a drag bunt base hit. It looked really sweet.

2. Furcal takes off for second in the first inning. That's one less stolen base attempt than I saw in about 40 games of MVP!

3. K. Ishii of the Dodgers walked me 6 times in 5 innings. He threw over 100 pitches! It was the first time i've played a baseball game where it really felt like the computer was just scuffling and trying to survive out there. They finally pulled him after 5 runs.

4. Milton Bradley stole third on me ! I was so surprised I threw down to second base like a moron.

5. I've had a few 10+ pitch AB's where I was able to foul of pitches to stay alive. Very Cool!!

6. The sliders work!! I'm still tweaking them to my liking ,but I can actually notice a difference when i make an adjustment. That should be standard in all games, but we know that's not always the case.

7. I almost forgot the most important one. I gave up a home run to J. Damon. I could deal with not hitting homeruns myself with leftys in MVP. But to have no fear facing Bonds and Giambi just killed any realism for me.


Now I don't want to make this a total lovefest for ESPN. It has some flaws too:

1. The swing animation is pretty disgraceful. How could these guys make some of the most realistic visuals I've ever seen and allow that in their product. I knew it was bad when my girlfriend who has never swung a bat in her life told me, "it looks like they're swinging wiffle ball bats!!"

2. The double switch function is all jacked up. You can do it but you end up wasting a player. The way they have it set up makes it pretty useless.

3. Not a big fan of the fielding camera view. You can't see fly balls in the air, so its hard to judge when you should jump or dive.

Overall the good things greatly outweigh the bad. I also think the pitch effort meter is a little more complex than I initally gave it credit for. It seems pitchers with great stuff can get buy much easier with less effort. This seems pretty realistic to me. On the other hand the effort you have to use for average guys makes stamina go down much faster and makes you feel good if you can get 5 or 6 good innings out of them.

Well I just intended to give a few impressions about ESPN and I ended up writing a small novel. So I just wanted to thank the people who have been posting on this board. I'm glad I got the game, and I think any diehard baseball sim fan would be too.