BigRog Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Website http://mlbdugoutheroes.gamescampus.com/ You need to sign up for the Beta at their website Beta Download http://files.filefront.com/MLB+Dugout+Hero...;/fileinfo.html Review by IGN IGN.com reviewed MLB Dugout Heroes in their PC Game section http://pc.ign.com/articles/954/954012p1.html Here is what they had to say: MLB Dugout Heroes First Impressions We round the bases with this fully-licensed, free-to-play, online PC ballgame. by Avi Burk February 12, 2009 - Yesterday I got my hands on MLB Dugout Heroes for the first time, participating in the game's closed Beta testing session, and I must say I had a very enjoyable time of it. MLB Dugout Heroes, an online PC baseball game that's fully licensed by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, makes full use of all 30 MLB clubs and their logos, every ballpark in the league, and features MLB players from every era, allowing gamers to create dream teams like never before, then put those teams to the test against live, online competition. The game, which is being published by GamesCampus (gamescampus.com), also includes an RPG element, as each win will earn users points that they can spend to purchase new equipment and uniforms, as well as to boost their players' attributes and purchase new players for their team. The game won't require a subscription when it launches, and it will be fully playable as a free-to-play game, but there will be optional microtransactions that allow players to customize their characters. Dugout Heroes will begin open service tomorrow, Feb. 13, at 3 p.m. PST and will have continuous service through the holiday weekend (until Monday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. PST). Users can download the game at FilePlanet.com on Friday, and will need to register for a GamesCampus ID to sign in and play at www.mlbdugoutheroes.com. Get ready to play ball! TEAM CREATION Creating your own team in MLB Dugout Heroes is extremely easy. All users have to do is select a team name, then choose which MLB team they'd like to play with and set their roster. In the closed Beta that I took part in there was no option to draft my own teams (which Games Campus assures me we'll be able to do once the game is officially launched), so there really isn't much to report about team creation at this point. BATTING MLB Dugout Heroes' mouse-only batting controls are really easy to pick up and play. Gamers use the mouse to aim their swing throughout the strike zone and the mouse wheel to switch between their batter's contact swing and power swing (which causes the batter's sweet spot to change from a large, irregular oval to a small, perfectly round targeting reticule); you execute your swing by clicking on the left button. To bunt at the ball, simply click on the right button. While the controls are very simple, it's actually fairly challenging to time the ball as it travels to the plate. Pitchers typically have several pitches in their repertoire and can mix speeds and movements to throw off your timing and make it tough to predict where a pitch will cross the zone (or if it will sail outside the strike zone). I spent the first couple of games I played swinging at pretty much every offering, trying to get the timing down and figure out how effective I could be playing as a "bad ball hitter" (like Vladimir Guerrero). I quickly learned that Dugout Heroes makes it pretty tough to thrive if your strategy is to take a hack at every offering indiscriminately, and that toggling between my contact swing and power swing made a definite impact in my ability to put the ball in play. I didn't have much success swinging for the fences, even with my team's best slugger (Manny Ramirez), striking out at an alarming rate when going for the long-ball. However, I did do considerably better when swinging for contact, driving several balls into the power alleys for extra bases and making several more "loud outs". Over the course of the five games I played, I also laid down a handful of bunts with varying degrees of success. Playing as the Dodgers, I asked my leadoff man, Juan Pierre, to lay down a trio of bunts and he did a decent job of it. He recorded a bunt single and a successful sacrifice bunt, but popped-up his other attempt for an easy out. Batter up! PITCHING The pitching controls in Dugout Heroes were also extremely easy to pick up. In fact, I only spent about two minutes in the pitching tutorial before I jumped right into gameplay and felt perfectly comfortable on the mound against live competition. To throw a pitch all you have to do is click on the arrow corresponding to the type pitch you want to throw, then use the mouse to locate the pitching target and click on the left button and hold it to charge the pitching power, releasing the button when the power meter is full, then click to stop the meter as it slides back towards the location sweet spot indicator. Since I was playing the game against live competition, I can't identify any overarching pitching strategies that a user should implement apart from the traditional strategies that our favorite major leaguers have been using to baffle hitters for years. I found that relying primarily on my off-speed pitches, using them to set up my fastball in two-strike situations worked very well against most of the players I matched up against. Those breaking balls on and around the corner did a great job of getting my opponent to look for movement in my pitches before swinging, allowing me to lock them up with the heat and strike them out once I got two strikes on them. FIELDING The CPU handles all the fielding for both teams, which is nice in that it allows gamers to focus entirely on batting and pitching. All that gamers will need to worry about in the field is throwing the ball once it's fielded, which can be done using either the mouse (by clicking on the base that you want to throw to) or keyboard (by clicking the key that corresponds to the bag you'd like to throw to). It seems somewhat counter intuitive that a game populated by cartoon versions of MLB players would feature some really smart, slick AI fielding, but Dugout Heroes definitely does a great job handling the defensive side of the game. Balls that should be caught are caught, while balls that should fall in actually drop. In a lot of ways, I think that the fielding AI in Dugout Heroes rivals what you'd find in the big console titles. It definitely exceeded my expectations. You're oooout!!! BASE RUNNING Like throwing, base running in MLB Dugout Heroes can be controlled either with the mouse or using the keyboard, but I found that using the mouse was just a little bit too slow to be practical. I'd definitely recommend mastering the keyboard controls for base running rather than trying to rely on the mouse. Dugout Heroes does a very good job of making base stealing a risk-reward proposition, as even the speediest runners can be gunned down by an astute opponent with a quick trigger getting the ball down to second (or third). While the base running in Dugout Heroes didn't blow me away, I thought it was definitely adequate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrigleyville33 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Sounds ok, I'll try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetsReyes777 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Cool, thanks. I'm downloading it now..should hold me over until March 3rd... B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetsReyes777 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Just tried to play an online game. The controls werent working or anything. It forfeited everything for me. WTF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pistonj92 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I like GamesCampus. (Shot-Online, FishingChamp) so I will definitely pick this up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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