Out of the Park Baseball 19 Review: Another Achievement for the Series

[RaychelSnr]

Out of the Park Baseball is one of our favorite series here at Operation Sports. Year...

Written By: Chris Sanner

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[tfcfan4life]

Best baseball game this year! Love how deep the game is. The UI is nice too. Having the ability to change how the home screen looks is a great feature and that all sports games should have.* Should be in the running for best sports game of the year. Wish more people would give this game a try.

[kamackeris76]

Agree about the new player... I have the game but I just can't get into it. I'm from the UK and my love of baseball comes from MLB The Show. I just can't seem to get started.. It just seems daunting! How do people play this game? Play out every game or sim the majority?

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[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by kamackeris76

Agree about the new player... I have the game but I just can't get into it. I'm from the UK and my love of baseball comes from MLB The Show. I just can't seem to get started.. It just seems daunting! How do people play this game? Play out every game or sim the majority?

I do a lot of simming, but will play out key games in a series and often during the playoffs.

I'll also watch some minors games or play games at the ML level when there's a prospect I want to see play. I don't know how faithfully the played out game represents whatever is going on under the hood, but if I see a kid get robbed of hits a lot or a pitcher giving up runs but not getting hit hard, I'd feel better letting them learn in the majors if I can.

So a lot of times, I watch games to try to see the why of performance the player is getting, especially if they are doing poorly.

But some play out every game like they would on The Show. Someone just posted they do just that in the franchise thread. It really depends on you.

I think that's what I love most about OOTP - it really depends on what you want to see and do (be it a purely historical league or purely fantasy off the wall with wild stats and players) and the game will show you the outcome with no bias...or at least with the bias you tell the game to have.

[Sev7vant]

Sony San Diego should look into merging with Out of the park developments and perhaps prep for the next generation of Playstation console and the future of eSports gaming.

[Mike Lowe]

Been playing this game since OOTP 3. I've been saying for years that this is the best baseball game on the market, and that's no different this year. While most console games can outshine their text-sim counterparts, the opposite is true of the OOTP series. That's a remarkable accomplishment.

[Yari]

I also agree that we need to find a way to help out the new players. I remember when I first got into OOTP a couple years ago and then set it aside for a few months because it felt very overwhelming. However, I did stick with it and I'm very glad that I did. The same may not be able to be said for every new player though. I wonder if it might be beneficial to have a tutorial game loaded in the spot for "load game" if a user isn't transferring into the newest game that takes the time via prompts to guide the user through the interfaces and nuances in a way that makes sense even if you've never heard of baseball before. Yes, there is always reading the manual, however, this usually isn't the best way to get a new user involved. That said, I feel keeping the manual is always a benefit but it shouldn't be the only way to explain to someone how to play the game.

From my perspective, OOTP 19 is a very nice game and I've thoroughly enjoyed my latest game of being a manager only and seeing where things go from there. When in-game (actually playing baseball), I usually play either in classic webcast on my surface or on my decently sized laptop I'll go into classic 3-d mode just to see the shifts and little players running around. This isn't a knock on the modern interfaces, I do like them, however I prefer the way the info is presented in the old interfaces just a bit more. I will also add that the modern interfaces in-game are way more touch screen friendly which is a plus. My only complaint is that I wish smaller screen resolutions (1366x768) had been given a bit more love because with that resolution or smaller it begins to get very difficult to navigate menus or to see the information on the interfaces while in-game. Granted I can just customize the in-game widget coordinates but without a way to save that it becomes difficult. Hopefully though the small pitch tracker from the modern interfaces will eventually be available for the classic choices too.

[WaitTilNextYear]

No offense to anybody that might have a different opinion (including the author of this article), but I am frankly sick of hearing about how we have to cater to noobs at all times and in all places. Same talk with The Show and same rationalization for why that game has stalled in many ways while making way for alternative modes that hog resources and only superficially resemble simulation-style baseball.

I miss the old fashioned way where noobs would have to learn how to do things and keep working at it until they either: (a) progressed in their enjoyment of the game or (b) put the game down and picked up something else moire suited to their interests.

The main problem with catering to noobs is that it runs counter to everything that has made OOTP great (depth, numbers and management features out the yang, and hard won observations through the experience of playing it). How did any of us old timers learn how to play OOTP in the first place? By complaining that it was too hard of a game to learn? Actually, no. It was by trying it out, asking questions, reading/researching, and having some level of agency instead of an opinion that because I can't learn to do this within 5 minutes, then it's broken and needs to be tailored to me.

Hold on a sec while I climb off this soapbox...