After fairly extensively playing every baseball game except Inside Pitch, WSB is the best.
IMO, with timed (non-cursor) hitting, and using the following settings, this game does the most important things, collectively, substantially better than the competition.
CPU pitcher effectiveness: 92
CPU hitting: 12
Strike eye: 40
Ball eye: 85
Throw strikes: 1
Stealing: 100
Errors: normal
Pitch speed: Very fast
Pitch cursor: off
Vibration: off
Variable pitching: Medium
Also, I'm not sure if it matters, but I also have it set on:
All-Star
Batting cursor: Very small
The above sliders, IMO, give the most realistic baseball experience, and produce numbers that fairly replicate what one could expect to see at the Major League level.
The timed hitting option more accurately replicates the hitting experience. The disjunctive cursor hitting, which fprces you to move a cursor with one hand while hitting with the other, doesn't work. That's not the way hitting works. Hitting is a fluid function, which does not translate into moving cursors. If you've played baseball, I think you'll understand what I am saying. Short of actually being able to swing the bat, timed hitting is the only way to reflect the experience of hitting.
Also, the ball physics are good "at the plate." By that, I mean this: I know the ball floats sometimes once it is hit, but at the plate, outside pitches are often hit to right field, or hit weakly to the left side (for a right handed hitter), and inside pitches the opposite. For some reason, and I am not sure what it is, you actually get the feeling of "reaching" for the outside pitch, and pulling the inside one.
Foul balls, essential to baseball, are also accurately reflected. "Nubbers" off the end of the bat come off as such, and if you swing a fraction early or late, the ball is going into the LF/RF stands, respectively. Because a somewhat early/late swing results in a foul ball rather than a swing-and-miss strike, you get the feeling of "staying alive" at the plate, and--most importantly--pitch counts end up fairly realistic.
Finally, the pitch speeds are done very well. You have to "look" fastball, or you'll have no chance. But, it's reasonably possible to read the pitch, and you can still adjust to the offspeed if need be.
There are problems, most notably with the size of the massive strike zone, the oft-cited "stickball" bats, the size of the infield and positioning of the players, the ease of stealing bases (which can be taken care of by raising catchers' throwing ratings), and obviously, some faulty AI in some situations.
However, in toto, I think the game is the closest thing to real baseball that we have.
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