Operation Sports MLB 13 The Show Community Impressions Thread

[Majingir]

Even in fantasy draft ,AL East is loaded.

4 of the teams are in top 10 of the MLB in overall rating!

This is same prob I had last year, where even the worst team in my division is better than most teams in any other division.

4th place finished with 87 wins(NL west leader had 89 wins)

[stealyerface]

Pulse Pitching with no Ball Marker is flat out awesome. I have Human Accuracy and Consistancy at 0 and could not be happier.

I would have loved to see the Pitch Selection Thing have three settings. On, Off, and Off for CPU. I love the idea of the clean screen, and championed that for the last few years, but I would still like to see it when I am pitching. Just so I can quickly see what is working for me in the repertoire. I may actually shut it off, and just try to memorize the pitches I have.

The animations for fielding are slick and very well done. I see new ones every game, so I love that.

Still not thrilled with the collision detection between teammates and runners/fielders, but I was given a personal response as to why, so I am good with that.

Did I mention that the new pulse pitching with no ball marker is freaking awesome..?

Still wrapping my head around the baserunners' issues coming around third, and cannot decide if it was totally intentional or there is something wrong in the branch animation when they hit the base... If they are honestly accounting for baserunning skills, speed, and decision making via the runner's attributes, I tip the cap and bow.

The player faces and crispness of the graphical artwork tweaks are very nicely done.

I think they once again tweaked the scale of the players to the field. Excellent job.

Pure Analog Fielding with No Feedback is still my favorite way to play. Have not tried the button/meter thing yet.

If my player gets injured in an Exhibition game, why can I not find out what happened to him, as far as the injury he sustained?

If the CPU continues to throw the first pitch of my at bats right down the middle, I will continue to pound those balls 400 feet. This needs to be looked at. I lowered the CPU accuracy, Consistency, and CPU Strike Frequency down to 2, and this has helped, but it still is too high, especially the second time through the line up.

So far, I have encountered no stuttering, issues, freezing, and wall/graphical glitches at all. Zero. I do have a Samsung HDTV and have it set to game-mode, so that may be doing something, but so far... so good.

Actually, so far, so great.

I love it.

~syf

[slthree]

Ran 2 games against the same test team, the Orioles (I love those orange unis)

First game took the Indians to Baltimore and ran with Myers on the hill.

They beat him up pretty badly. I loved how Classic Pitching highlighted the deficiencies in Meyers repertoire. Especially, when I tried to pitch around Weiters by throwing a ball basically at his ankles, only to have it drift over the plate for a 2 run double.

On offense I was helpless. Their number 1 didn't even bother pitching around my lineup. Threw a lot of strikes.

Then I brought the Tigers to Baltimore and immediately noticed his differences.

First, Verlander was on point and he rarely missed his spots. Only once did he get hurt and it was on a 3-2 change up to Machado that was supposed to drop in the dirt (up to that point most of my k's were from that pitch) but never dropped. Machado put it off the top of the wall in left center, scoring the only 2 runs of the game for Baltimore.

Offensively, they must have been scared of the Tigers lineup because the very same number 1 who threw lots of strikes against the Indians pitched around just about everyone in my lineup.

Classic Pitching may be even better than previous years, and I thought it was near perfect then. It so separates what you can do with elite pitchers that you can't with inferior pitchers.

No regrets having purchased this game!

[slthree]

By the way, I have the digital download version and have not experienced any stuttering whatsoever.

[stealyerface]

Slth, have you tried out Pulse Pitching with no Ball Marker and API off?

It is like Classic Pitching, except with user input having some bearing on the result. If your #1 has his cutter working, the rate of pulsing slows down, to replicate having a "feel" for that pitch.

When the Curveball leaves you, and you are standing out there with just two working pitches, you had better think long and hard about who you want to try and regain the feel on that pitch against...

To make it more realistic, and to make the Pitch Pulse vary greatly between your #1 and #5, and to really have white knuckles when the relievers come to the bump, turn the Human Accuracy and Consistency to 0 and just use the New Pulse Pitching, no ball maker.

Try a game just for fun, and see what you think.

~syf

[sroz39]

Been playing quite a bit of RTTS and a few Play Now games since grabbing the game. Not much to say that hasn't been said. This really is the best sports game on the market (subjective to so many factors, I know) and this year is no different. The improvements range from subtle and incremental (fielder's ratings matter more than ever, physics a step up from last year's overhaul, graphics and animations a touch better etc) to some significant changes (RTTS, hitting, Franchise) but this game has improved in almost every single way from 12 and that was a stellar game. Kudos to SCEA for the work they put in, year in and year out. The effort is very noticeable.

Since there's so little actually wrong with the game, I'm going to point out the few things that annoy me. First and foremost, hitting the pitcher with a ball back up the middle. There's got to be a better way than what's in the game. I understand the pitcher is going to either catch or block SOME of these. But if I hit one on the screws right back up the middle, they'll either dodge out of the way as best they can, or it'll deflect and carom far off where ill make it to first. As it is now, they just sit there and take it and it feels like I'm hitting line drives into a pile of gym mats. The ball just drops right in front of the pitcher who's feeling no ill effects from getting a ball hit them at about 100mph. The ONLY thing in this game that frustrates me.

Other than that, I've had the stutter occur in game on occasion but I know the good guys at SCEA will patch this pronto or have a workaround of some sort. Any other issues, really, are so minor they can be tweaked or mitigated with sliders.
A couple of little side notes: the game takes a lot of slack for its commentary/presentation. I know I'm in the minority, but I truly love both aspects in this game. The addition of Steve Lyons is a welcome one and makes a huge difference and I love all the overlays, score bug and presentation elements. All the guys complaining about stretches of silence...baseball is the type of sport where sometimes just letting what's happening do most of the talking is preferable over a constant barrage of "analysis" and play by play. IMO, they can always tweak the presentation/commentary, but an overhaul? There's many other aspects I'd rather they continue adding to and tweaking as opposed to devoting the time and resources to this.

A big thank you for the direction Franchise has gone in. Full disclosure, I haven't even touched it yet. But, what's on paper sounds amazing, along with the impressions people have of it on here. I don't WANT to worry about parking and seats and ads and all that nonsense when I'm playing a Franchise Mode. I want to be the GM. I don't care how we acquire the funds to run the team. I care about how we allocate them. The formula seems simple enough; win and you'll have more. Lose and you'll have to cut costs and rebuild through younger, cheaper players. This plays out every year in every sport and I'm beyond thrilled this is the direction the team has taken this mode. If there's a desire in the community for the older version of Franchise mode, please add another mode called Owner Mode or whatever and leave this one fundamentally the same, with obvious tweaks and additions to make it better every year.

One last thing: the Broadcast Fielding Cam, I wish that we could get the true to life angles from every stadium, like we have with the pitching one. I know when I play at the Rogers Centre, the angle is nothing like when I watch a Jays game at home. Itd be a small but welcome addition to an already outstanding game.

[jeffy777]

PROS:

+ Last year I had to play on Rookie or Veteran with the pitch speed all the way down, because my reflexes aren't the best (and probably due to some TV lag as well). This year I can play on All Star (with the pitch speed still turned down), which is great because the AI pitches much more intelligently and realistically.

+ Hit variety is improved.

+ Ball physics are noticeably better.

+ This is fixed:
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...post2043518121
Hallelujah!

+ More camera angles in between pitches and plays.

+ Postseason is a great mode. Love the atmosphere.

+ RTTS changes are cool for the most part (minus the whooshing sound). I like the zoomed camera views, the ball trail, and it's now easier to track the third base coach and still see the ball. The new baserunning controls also work well.

+ Love the new sim screen.

+ The new pause screen is an improvement.



CONS:

- Not digging the Guess Pitch changes. They should've left the old options in.

- The new throwing meter is too big and ugly.

- Dont like the overlay/stat screens where there's just a black background. Looks unfinished.

- Steve Lyons' voice is fine, but most of his lines are just recycled, word-for-word replicas of Campbell's old lines, some of which have been in the game since ’06. Not sure why they didn't rephrase and freshen the lines up a bit since they went through the trouble of re-recording them.

- The whooshing sound in RTTS is already getting old. Also wish they would've left in the commentary option for those who want it.

- Some stadiums/ballparks still don't look as nice as others.

[slthree]

Quote: Originally Posted by stealyerface

Slth, have you tried out Pulse Pitching with no Ball Marker and API off?

I tried it the first year it was offered, maybe last year? But, in terms of pitching I don't want user input to have to much of a bearing and I really don't want to know ahead of time if I missed my spot.

With Classic pitching, I have to watch the pitch from the moment it leaves my hand to the moment it arrives before I know if I hit or missed my spot. If I used any form of meter pitching I would know before visually seeing the pitch travel out of my hand if I missed my spot or not.

I've read yours and other impressions on pulse pitching and it seems like it's great.