Big let down in baseball games this year...MVP is more arcade ball, AI is very bad...teams carrying only 10 position players....ESPN is so close to capturing the Hight Heat mantle, its frustrating..I still think the best game this year is HH 2003 or 2004. What ESPN needs to do:
1. The game is still very station to station, yeah I do get some doubles and triples, but even with the sliders turned all the way up on aggressive, I have never thrown an opposing player out at a base from the outfield because he decided to test my gun. There are no close plays at the plate where I throw out the CPU, it seems the CPU calculates the likelihood of making it to a base perfectly.
2. Have you noticed that the CPU only pinch hits for the pitcher? It will never pinch hit for say Enrique Wilson in the 8th inning of a tight game. I have been calling on this for years, but for each player, you should be able to adjust pinch hitting frequency as an attribute.
3. The CPU cannot bunt effectively with pitchers. There is something wrong with the sacrifice bunt animation that causes the CPU to miss pitches repeatedly and often strike out. Please ESPN, please make sacrifice bunting practically automatic, its almost like it should be a stock animation with the occassional screw up.
4. There needs to be more commentary about context of the game. Baseball is all about the big series in September or the battle for first place in August. The color commentary should mention that we are in a September battle for first place, with the two aces of the teams on the mound etc....
5. Manager profiles. Managing against Tony Larussa is very different from managing against Art Howe. We should be able to adjust stealing frequency, hit n run percentage, bunting, pulling pitchers, l/r matchup etc. for each manager. For once these sliders should have a huge effect on gameplay.
The game is one or two steps away from greatness. As you can see from above, it just needs to capture more of the "excitement" of real baseball (close play at the plate, bringing in the lefty specialist to face Bonds, big series in September, "small ball" Rickey Henderson in his prime gets on steals second next batter bunts him over and then Sacrifice fly to score the first run).
1. The game is still very station to station, yeah I do get some doubles and triples, but even with the sliders turned all the way up on aggressive, I have never thrown an opposing player out at a base from the outfield because he decided to test my gun. There are no close plays at the plate where I throw out the CPU, it seems the CPU calculates the likelihood of making it to a base perfectly.
2. Have you noticed that the CPU only pinch hits for the pitcher? It will never pinch hit for say Enrique Wilson in the 8th inning of a tight game. I have been calling on this for years, but for each player, you should be able to adjust pinch hitting frequency as an attribute.
3. The CPU cannot bunt effectively with pitchers. There is something wrong with the sacrifice bunt animation that causes the CPU to miss pitches repeatedly and often strike out. Please ESPN, please make sacrifice bunting practically automatic, its almost like it should be a stock animation with the occassional screw up.
4. There needs to be more commentary about context of the game. Baseball is all about the big series in September or the battle for first place in August. The color commentary should mention that we are in a September battle for first place, with the two aces of the teams on the mound etc....
5. Manager profiles. Managing against Tony Larussa is very different from managing against Art Howe. We should be able to adjust stealing frequency, hit n run percentage, bunting, pulling pitchers, l/r matchup etc. for each manager. For once these sliders should have a huge effect on gameplay.
The game is one or two steps away from greatness. As you can see from above, it just needs to capture more of the "excitement" of real baseball (close play at the plate, bringing in the lefty specialist to face Bonds, big series in September, "small ball" Rickey Henderson in his prime gets on steals second next batter bunts him over and then Sacrifice fly to score the first run).
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