OOTP 14: What's Hot with this year's game - RaychelSnr's Blog

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OOTP 14: What's Hot with this year's game Stuck

Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:32 PM.

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In case you missed it today, the newest version of Out of the Park Baseball was announced today in OOTP 14. As a long time fan of the series, I'm pumped about this year's game as much as ever. Here's what I especially like to hear about after reading the new features list...

What's Hot

New Player Origins - This is a huge step towards realism and developing your franchise in a realistic manner. International players do not simply get drafted like other players, and now I can decide to spend a ridiculously ludicrous amount of money on that prized Japanese pitching prospect like the Red Sox, Rangers, and several other teams.

New Fielding Ratings Development - No longer is it going to be acceptable to simply draft a stud shortstop and keep him there for twenty years, you now have to consider, as time goes on -- what to do with a player with diminishing skillsets. Move him? Trade him? Bravo OOTP, bravo.

Expanding Real Time Simulations - Being able to watch games unfold live was a great new addition to Out of the Park. Expanding that feature this year is the logical move. Kudos to the OOTP crew for recognizing this and the fans love for this new feature.

Nixing Trade Offers for Good - The annoyingly persistent AI trade logic can now be shut down with a simple, 'not now, not ever' type of reply to a trade offer of a certain player, thus keeping your trade inbox clean from repeated offers of the same type over and over again.

Improved AI - In a sense, Out of the Park always plays it safe and progressive. Each year, the AI is touted as improved and each year, the AI is improved. It's that logical year over year improvement you definitely learn to appreciate in sports gaming that makes you realize just how good some games are.

No rocking the boat - The OOTP series is one of our genre's most consistent and one of it's finest. I like that the development team knows they have a winning formula and thus chooses to make incremental upgrades instead of taking huge risks. While big box console gaming can get flak for doing just this, in the case of Out of the Park there is really not much of a reason to really rock the boat except one key feature...

What's Still Missing

Public Relations - While Out of the Park does feature some basic functions, I really feel that the Public Relations/Media Relations aspect of Baseball franchise management is really something the game could add an entirely new dynamic to itself. I think having to appease fans in a deeper sense as well as the media is something that's overlooked. Football Manager is clearly out in front on this issue, and it's definitely something OOTP doesn't seem entirely interested in at this point, but I would love to someday see a deeper system like this included within the game.

More Accessibility - The interface in OOTP has traditionally been observed by many a game critic as the series true weak spot. From the screenshots, veterans of the series will know what's going on but newer users could be overwhelmed still. It'd be great to see the game take some time to realize it's big, deep, and daunting and perhaps to address that with either a 'simple' or 'beginners' mode or something like that. Mainly, I just want to see the game be more accessible so more people can enjoy it. Out of the Park Baseball really is that good.

What new features are you most excited about with Out of the Park Baseball 14?

Comments

# 1 woodjer @ Feb 13

100% agree on the last part. I've purchased the game a couple times but usually just end up staring at a screen wondering where to start. I'm always amazed at how much can be done but just never know where to begin. I would love to see one of two things (both would be awesome!):
- A tutorial/scenario mode...Put me in a situation, explain what the goal is, make suggestions for how to accomplish it, and show me where to go to do it. Yes, it may seem like too much hand-holding but at least it can help me ease into it.
- An "advisor" option...during game setup (and subsequently under an options menu), allow me to turn on an advisor. Allow the advisor to make suggestions on strategy and such. To really be effective for beginners, it should also include reasoning behind the suggestion or a pros & cons list of making the move.

# 2 RaychelSnr @ Feb 15

Maelstrom -- You are pretty mistaken. EA doesn't own ANY MLB rights whatsoever. Else, how is SCEA developing The Show this year?

# 3 brettryantalley @ Feb 17

i believe that it's 2k that has MLB rights, and it's only 3rd party rights, meaning that Sony can make their own MLB gamen for the ps3 (ie, the show) and technically, nintendo or microsoft could make their own for their respective systems.

# 4 BeatArmy @ Feb 19

It will ship with MLB Rosters so Maelstrom is wrong.

# 5 hfield07 @ Feb 24

if you spent three seconds on the game's forum (best game community anywhere i've encountered) you'd see what you could do. real logos, rosters, career stats, uniforms and coaches? you bet. this game is deeper in terms of franchise mode (along with the most customization) than any other baseball series EVER.