Operation Sports is proud to present our interview with Tim Granich, Product Manager of MLB SlugFest 2006. We'd also like to thank our community for submitting some great questions!

Operation Sports: What are all new gameplay modes that we can expect from this year's game?

Tim Granich: We’ve got the usual Quickplay and Season Modes that everyone expects… but we added Playoff mode which allows you to go straight to postseason play without playing a whole season. Challenge mode, which is an arcade style mode where your goal is to beat every MLB team with the team of your choice. Home Run Derby, self-explanatory. We also added Create-A-Team and Create-A-Player modes, which allow the user to make their own custom designed teams and players.

Operation Sports: What gameplay AI has been refined or improved? CPU pitching, fielding, batting, etc.?

Tim Granich: We revamped our hit system so there would be more variation in the hit locations. You’ll see a lot of different types of hits in Slugfest 2006 versus the older editions.

Operation Sports: What new things can we expect from the season/career mode in MLB Slugfest 2006?

Tim Granich: Season mode is a 52 game season, plus the DCS, LCS, and World Series. The user can simulate any regular-season game along the way. They can also use their player created teams in season mode as well.

Operation Sports: Will this be the last MLB Slugfest game we will see? Are there any ideas as to what will take place after this year?

Tim Granich: Unfortunately for baseball fans everywhere, MLB SlugFest will be sitting on the bench following this season. Major League Baseball and the Players Association have a semi-exclusive agreement in place that precludes Midway from playing in the, “Bigs,” for the next six years.

Operation Sports: How were you guys able to make an MLB Licensed game even though Take-Two owns the 3rd-party license exclusively?

Tim Granich: The agreement that Midway has with MLB and MLBPA was in place prior to that license being constructed.

Operation Sports: Will all the big name players be instantly recognizable with signature batting rituals, stances, swings & Homerun reactions? Will that also apply to pitchers in terms of personalized windups & deliveries?

Tim Granich: We added signature batting stances and warmup swing animations for quite a few of the big named players. Pujols, Texeira, ManRam, Lee and more.

Operation Sports: Are there going to be any gameplay sliders?

Tim Granich: We have a good degree of difficulty balancing in our 5 difficulty presets, as well as 12 different game option toggles, but there aren’t any sliding adjustment meters.

Operation Sports: Will there be any extreme weather conditions, like rain or snow in this year’s game?

Tim Granich: There is rain…. No snow however. Major League Baseball doesn’t play in the snow, what do you think this is, Blitz? :)

Operation Sports: When faced with a similar situation, the Blitz team decided to take the freedom of having a no league license. Why did the Slugfest team decide to stick with the MLB for another year?

Tim Granich: In the case of Blitz, Midway decided that in order to build the type of game that football fans and videogame players wanted most, we needed to be uninhibited by the license. We are very proud of the results. The over-the-top, on-fire action of the MLB SlugFest franchise has always been very appealing to baseball fans and videogamers alike. With this final year of our contract we wanted to give those gamers a great final, “At Bat.” Where will we go from here? You’ll just have to stay tuned. ;-)

Operation Sports: Will the Baseball Mogul engine be used again for this version?

Tim Granich: Nope, we went back to our adrenaline style roots.

Operation Sports: Will we have full rosters or just the basics with slim backup?

Tim Granich: We have 25 man rosters.

Operation Sports: Who will be doing the commentary?

Tim Granich: We went back to our Bread and Butter…. Or is that Butter and Bread? Whatever, Tim Kitzrow and Jimmy Shorts are at it again with their quick-witted banter. We added a ton of new commentary.

Operation Sports: How accurate will the stadiums be?

Tim Granich: We modeled all of our stadiums with onsite photography as reference. Our lead artist working on the stadiums is also very knowledgeable in architecture so we feel they are very accurate.

Operation Sports: What has been done in terms of improving user control when fielding?

Tim Granich: We added a User Assistance function to our Rookie difficulty. Not only will it help the player take the correct line to the ball, but it will flash text on the screen to aid the player in remembering the controls for specific actions, as well as telling you when you’re swinging too high, low, late, or early at the plate.

Operation Sports: For those of us whose gaming focuses on the single-player experience, will there be a Franchise mode in MLB Slugfest 2006?

Tim Granich: No franchise stuff, but there are plenty of modes available for a deep single-player experience, as I mentioned above.

Operation Sports: Will this Slugfest return to the classic Midway gaming style, over-the-top action and effects, but with a quality gaming engine/AI enhancing the experience?

Tim Granich: Yep. We decided to stay away from taking this game too far over to the sim-style this year. We went back to the old-school things that people liked about the original Slugfest franchise, over-the-top adrenaline style action that is extremely easy to just pick up and play. No manual necessary (although we still have one) :)

Operation Sports: What kind of new camera angles have been added this year?

Tim Granich: We have 6 selectable batting camera angles, and multiple fielding camera angles that are dependant upon the action at hand.