Obsolete Pc?

[furball]

Ok. I get that we have to run the system date back to August 1st, 2012, to play MLB 2K12. That's just a silly thing the coders overlooked.

I get that there are lots of glitches in MyPlayer. That's an innovative thing that the coders didn't have enough QA people to debug.

I even get that the development company decided that they couldn't make a product that would be good enough to make a profit for them this year - which is a pretty damning thing after all these years of development. . . I mean, you can't make a BASEBALL game that will sell to the millions of PC users after all these years? Of our national past-time?

But what really gets me is the dead-end of the MLB Today and MLB Season Today side of the product. They are just totally dead now in this product. When all is said and done, that was just a whiz-bang, "feel the moment" side-show that had nothing to do with statistics, baseball history, or the abiding connection many baseball fans have with the game we love. It was the hoopla and glitz of the "SEE IT NOW! BE THERE!" style of marketing that attempts to promote hype over substance.

But if you go to Out Of The Park Baseball, you'll see that, instead of insisting on so many bells and whistles to sell a $60 game each year, they actually include historical data that allows you to play almost ANY historical year of baseball without paying year after year for the privilege. And the data they provide is in a standard, "comma separated value" format. (If you don't know what that is, it's a data file standard that lots of baseball stat companies provide their raw data in. You can edit, or read or print the data very simply with standard Windows or Mac editors.)

And that's a German company!

Now, I grant you that the OOTP baseball game doesn't have the cool graphics and arcade-style gameplay of MLB2K12 or The Show, or even of MVP by EA.

But it is a very serious simulator and database for baseball fans. And it is fun and engrossing.

I've only played the demo (several times) and I am not a paid shill. But it galls and surprises me that a German company puts more heart into a baseball game for the PC than any American company does this year.

This almost goes double for the editors! Ty's editor was great, but we lost him. And Vlad - the Russki! - can't be convinced to get his product up to speed with instructions and support! But OOTP, by supporting the simple CSV (comma sepated value) format, and providing interfaces to faces, stadium and other graphic details, is just as moddable as any American product.

Anyway, as I say, I haven't bought it, but there is a free demo for OOTP. As usual,you should go to their forums and see what the people using the product are saying.

IMHO, baseball, 2Ksports and yes, even EA should be ashamed that they all dropped the ball by not providing us millions of Americans with PCs an opportunity to play the best, most recent version of our national past-time with them.

It's not enough to say that we didn't spend the money on the game. THEY didn't spend the time to learn our passion. Google OOTP and see what they've done. Granted - AGAIN - the glitzy arcade stuff isn't there. But the history, the data and the attention to detail IS!

[LouisvilleLipp]

Good post. As far as 2KSports is concerned, they didn't drop the ball with NBA2K13, that game is fantastic !! Why didn't they put forth the same effort with MLB2K12? I would think a baseball game would be easier to replicate than a basketball game which features much more simulations.

[profit89]

Good post. As far as 2KSports is concerned, they didn't drop the ball with NBA2K13, that game is fantastic !! Why didn't they put forth the same effort with MLB2K12? I would think a baseball game would be easier to replicate than a basketball game which features much more simulations.

I agree. MLB 2K series can be a really great game. Particularly on PC with all the great help of the modding community (which I believe 2K should embrace - modding is extremely popular nowadays). They wouldn't have to do all that much imo except improve collision detection system (it's severely lacking), increase animations, and improve crowd graphics.

[Hollywood70]

Ditto to everything said above. Historical data is something that has been sorely missing since the days of High Heat 2000-2003. Even once MVP came along, a "SAV Reader" program had to be created for tracking all aspects of your franchise from year to year (great program, btw. Wish we had one for 2K12). Was that a Ty Wiggins program? 2K12 doesn't even track minor league stats from year to year. How hard could it be?

[oldtimey]

Though not a PC game, MLB 13 The Show for the PS3 shows the same thing that I find at OOTP--that the developers love the game of baseball. I have played OOTP,and though it has great management capabilites that cover single season to a complete replay of baseball history, there are some ingame issues that leave me lacking. But if you have been playing simulation baseball from tabletop/diceroll to pc, MLB 13 The Show is the game you have been longing for. Now, I was one that thought I would never opt to play a console video game over a PC game, but we were looking for a Blu-ray player to upgrade our home entertainment system. Then my brother suggested we purchase a PS3, stating that it was a Blu-ray player plus a lot more. I took his advice, and because i saved some money by getting it on sale, decided to order The Show. Folks, there is no better simulation of baseball available. No, it is not moddable, because of the format, but its onfield, ingame representation of major league baseball is second to none. It seems to me that all the aspects that made Earl Weaver Baseball, High Heat, and MVP 2005 great were thrown into a pot, then the love and passion for the game of baseball and s determination to see to even the smallest details were added and thrown into the fire of the PS3 technology. It's all of that with breathtaking graphics. To give you an exmaple of one of the small things that blew me away: April game in Wrigley, Edwin Jackson, Cubs pitcher reaches first. Before I can complete the thought "If he puts on a jacket, that would be something." the announcer is saying, "because of the chilly temperatures, Jackson will ask for his jacket." And the scene is cut to Jackson in his Cubs jacket on first. There is so much MLB realism packed in this game. And I don't pitch a ball or swing a bat. I have never been a joystick player. I play GM/Owner for all 30 teams. Nobody makes a move without my approval. So there is no wacky AI trades or roster moves. The game is perfect for this. I just pick a series to observe as the season rolls on. I have never enjoyed simulating a baseball season more than with this MLB 13 The Show. And, as an aside, the above-mentioned NBA2k13 is the same for basketball as MLb 13 The Show is for baseball. I think my PC gaming days are over!

[profit89]

Though not a PC game, MLB 13 The Show for the PS3 shows the same thing that I find at OOTP--that the developers love the game of baseball. I have played OOTP,and though it has great management capabilites that cover single season to a complete replay of baseball history, there are some ingame issues that leave me lacking. But if you have been playing simulation baseball from tabletop/diceroll to pc, MLB 13 The Show is the game you have been longing for. Now, I was one that thought I would never opt to play a console video game over a PC game, but we were looking for a Blu-ray player to upgrade our home entertainment system. Then my brother suggested we purchase a PS3, stating that it was a Blu-ray player plus a lot more. I took his advice, and because i saved some money by getting it on sale, decided to order The Show. Folks, there is no better simulation of baseball available. No, it is not moddable, because of the format, but its onfield, ingame representation of major league baseball is second to none. It seems to me that all the aspects that made Earl Weaver Baseball, High Heat, and MVP 2005 great were thrown into a pot, then the love and passion for the game of baseball and s determination to see to even the smallest details were added and thrown into the fire of the PS3 technology. It's all of that with breathtaking graphics. To give you an exmaple of one of the small things that blew me away: April game in Wrigley, Edwin Jackson, Cubs pitcher reaches first. Before I can complete the thought "If he puts on a jacket, that would be something." the announcer is saying, "because of the chilly temperatures, Jackson will ask for his jacket." And the scene is cut to Jackson in his Cubs jacket on first. There is so much MLB realism packed in this game. And I don't pitch a ball or swing a bat. I have never been a joystick player. I play GM/Owner for all 30 teams. Nobody makes a move without my approval. So there is no wacky AI trades or roster moves. The game is perfect for this. I just pick a series to observe as the season rolls on. I have never enjoyed simulating a baseball season more than with this MLB 13 The Show. And, as an aside, the above-mentioned NBA2k13 is the same for basketball as MLb 13 The Show is for baseball. I think my PC gaming days are over!

Nah.

PC Gaming is, and always will be, the best and only way to game. Nothing beats that customization and constant updating. It always keeps things fresh.

That's why I think Developers and Publishers like 2K should embrace this whole new modding generation. Everyone knows that modders always move on to the most recent version of a game release. If anything it would only help sales of any new iterations of a game. Everyone wants the most updated and current version in order to keep up with the mods.

PS3? Xbox?,,,, Nah, they have you by the balls. You have absolutely no control over your expericence.

[Kccitystar]

Nah.

PC Gaming is, and always will be, the best and only way to game. Nothing beats that customization and constant updating. It always keeps things fresh.

That's why I think Developers and Publishers like 2K should embrace this whole new modding generation. Everyone knows that modders always move on to the most recent version of a game release. If anything it would only help sales of any new iterations of a game. Everyone wants the most updated and current version in order to keep up with the mods.

PS3? Xbox?,,,, Nah, they have you by the balls. You have absolutely no control over your expericence.

SCEA San Diego has been the only company, from personal experience, that has legitimately given a damn about what baseball means to them. Every single year, there has ALWAYS been a wishlist thread on Operation Sports that would probably 90% of the time have something from it that's implemented in the following year's version of MLB: The Show. They're a company who actually listens to their fan base and as such have created a sports game so well-received that people have literally bought a PS3 for MLB: The Show that would have never bought one in the first place.

Sports games by default are infinitely more fun to play on a PC, but we (the community) are the minority, and not worth the investment for a port (as far as a version of MLB2K13), let alone a version of the game specifically designed for us. I have vented many times with how frustrating it can be playing sports games on the PC, because we used to have so many choices, and over the past decade have dwindled to nearly nothing. I don't play the NBA/FIFA games, so for me, this means I have to choose between playing an 8 year old title that I no longer physically own in MVP Baseball 2005 (I can't find the disc), a game that I have to constantly have a workaround for to even work in MLB 2K12, and a statistically deep but text-based game in OOTP.

Ridiculous.

[oldtimey]

I feel your pain, KC. That's the way I felt before My Show Experience. I tried OOTP 13 and got to the All-Star Break. Then, the modders on this site released MVP 12, so I tried that and that lasted half a season. This is when I discovered Youtube videos of cpu vs cpu games played on MLB 12 the Show. I have never owned a console before now, so I thought that you had to have at least one joystick player to play these games. When I found out that there were sliders to customize gameplay, and that it could play cpu vs cpu (the only way I play), I was hooked. So I orderd and waited for MLB 13 The Show. My whole thing is gameplay. i really don't care if my the ballparks don't have the latest signage, or if player A should have a full beard as opposed to a goatee, or if I have all the jerseys needed to turn back the clock. Just give me realistic gameplay with sound baseball AI with roster updates containing full minor leagues, The community and support team has provided these essentials. And you are right about the developement team. I made a comment about in a thread concerning the use of the foul ball cam and HR celebration cam and my inaccurate response was corrected by Ramone Russell himself! So,SCEA does pay attention to what the community is saying and wanting in their product. I don't know how the PC can compete with with the PS3 platform, and now we are on the verge of PS4! Modders have made some good games great and some great games greater. But if the developers create a great game and continue to support it, why would there be a need for third-party modifications? What a concept! A company taking pride in its product and seeing that is stays fresh and up-to-date. Isn't this what we have always wanted? We cried when 3DO left us during the HIgh Heat series, then cried again when EA Sports abandoned MVP. If some of you guys have been playing simulations as long as I have, you remember gravitating from tabletop games with dice or fast action cards and keeping stats with pencil and calculator, to the Radio Shack TRS-80, then to the Commodore 64 then t28, where you probably augmented your baseball sim with a stats compiler program and stadium disk. Then, the Commodore Amiga and Earl Weaver Baseball, the grandaddy of them all. From that, we discovere the IBM-PC, first DOS and all the versions of Windows and updates to RAM, graphics cards and sound (remember Soundblaster!) to enhance your gaming experience. Remember working through all the compatablitiy issues, when you first needed the help ot the community forums to get back to, or start your dynasty. I would not discard by Windows XP tower just because of MVP 2005. Just tucked it in the corner of a spare room and attached a 22-inch HD monitor. Now I have taken the next step: Playstation 3, MLB 13 the show is the next plateau in which we enjoy our simulation of major league baseball. If you are like me, you worked like hell to get your system to meet system requirements, then all the sliders, datafiles and .ini files to get the game to play its best. Getting the The Show to do its thing on the PS3 is so easy, it makes me feel guilty. And, yes I am selling my copy of MVP 2005 in its original box with Best Buy price tag and with the original instruction manual and jewel case (both disk 1 and 2 were only used for installations, as I used Game Jackal to actually play the game) if any one is interested. I'm done with PC gaming, as I once was done with C64/128/Amiga gaming.