REVIEW: Out of the Park 11

[Brian the Automator]

I'd like to take crewcrazy again this year for his review of Out of the Park 11. Brewerfan.net is fortunate enough to receive an advance copy for review each year, and while that's a nice reward by itself, playing the game comprehensively and writing up a review still takes a fair bit of time:

 

Those of you that are familiar with Out of the Park Baseball know that

every year, the baseball sim tries to get more and more realistic. Last

year, that meant adding a realistic arbitration system in which you

submit your offer for the player while being blind to what the player is

demanding, as well as a free agent compensation system that's more

true-to-form. You may remember my review from last year, in which I

said it was the perfect time to jump back into the series if you haven't

played it in awhile.

 

Well, somehow the folks at OOTP

Developments managed to out-do themselves again. Everything from last

year's game is there, but here are some of the biggest improvements:

 

THE

DRAFT

Whereas last year's version of the game focused on making the

offseason more realistic, this year's game has an emphasis on in-season

management, most notably when it comes to the draft. In years past, the

draft was the source of a lot of frustration and didn't seem to be very

realistic. There were only a few players worth anything in every draft

class, and even guys with decent potential started out with ratings so

low that you knew there was no hope for them ever developing.

 

That's

where the changes start this year. Drafts are deeper (although there

still seem to be a lot more middle relievers available than starting

pitchers), and players start out with ratings that will allow them to

succeed in the lower levels. Prospects can still flame out or hit a

wall, but at least now they're doing it at the Double-A level rather

than in Rookie ball.

 

In each draft prospect's profile, you can

now see their numbers for that season at their college or high school

(even if you don't play with feeder leagues), look at the competition

level, and determine if a player is likely to continue to play well

professionally (the schools are real, too -- everybody from the

University of North Carolina to UW-Milwaukee is included).

 

The

biggest change to the draft system, though, is the ability to negotiate

signing bonuses and the "signability" of draft prospects. As far as I

can tell, the signability for each player can vary for each team, so if a

player doesn't want to join your system, you're probably going to have

to fork over millions of dollars to get him to sign. On the other hand,

if you draft a kid from a school in your area, he may be so giddy he'll

sign for the recommended slot bonus. After the draft, your negotiation

screen will appear, and it looks a lot like the arbitration negotiation

screen. The game gives you two months to sign your first five picks

(everyone else is automatically assigned to your minor league system),

and if you aren't able to sign someone, you will be compensated with the

same pick in the following year's draft, and the player will go back to

school and show up in later drafts. One small detail I enjoyed was the

fact that if you do fail to sign the player, it still shows up in his

history that you drafted him, so you can track the "ones that got away,"

so to speak.

 

The new system is another incentive to keep an eye

on your budget. The money available for signing bonuses comes out of

the total you have available to sign free agents, so if you're short on

cash, you're probably going to have to pass up on a better prospect in

favor of one you know you can sign, unless your strategy is to just get

the compensation pick in next year's draft.

 

IN-GAME DECISION

MAKING

For those of you that like to play every game out

individually, chances are you've gotten frustrated when a runner was

gunned down trying to take an extra base, effectively killing a rally.

With OOTP11, that decision is no longer in the hands of the AI. If a

situation like that arises, the play-by-play will stop momentarily and a

dialogue box will pop up describing the situation (ex: "Do you want to

try to score with Ryan Braun? The ball is in shallow right and Jason

Heyward has a cannon"). It allows you to play as aggresively or

conservatively as you'd like, and is one of my favorite new features.

As with anything else in OOTP, the results are hard to predict if you

send the runner, but do tend to be realistic. The game will tell you

about the fielder's arm strength, but won't tell you how accurate they

are, so that's where it probably helps to do some advance research on

your opponent.

 

PLAYER COMPARISONS

Speaking of research, if you

like to dive deep into statistics, you're probably going to like the

new player comparison feature. Not only are you able to compare any two

players in the game, but when you enter a player into the comparison

engine, the game also generates a list of comparable players in the

history of your league. Since starting a real-life MLB league means

importing the entire history database, the resulting lists look a lot

like the ones you'll currently find on Baseball-Reference. Another

small-but-cool feature that I like, not to mention the head-to-head

comparisons of current players makes it easier to figure out who should

be starting without clicking through multiple screens.

 

MASS

PROMOTIONS/DEMOTIONS

The last feature I'd like to outline comes on

the player transactions screen, which is largely unchanged -- you still

have the four separate windows that will allow you to see who's at

various levels, you can still drag and drop players to different levels

with ease, etc. The big change here comes with the ability to select

more than one player at a time using checkboxes, so you can easily mass

promote or demote players. This comes especially in handy when you're

dealing with massive rookie league rosters at the end of the year and

you're re-assigning them to your various A-ball teams if you feel like

they're ready to move on. It also makes mass releases easy if you have

20 crappy middle relievers sitting on our Rookie League team for a few

seasons. It's a nice simple feature that I've personally been wanting

for years.

 

OTHER NEW FEATURES

- Re-designed manager home page

that displays your owner's expectations for the season and how happy (or

unhappy) he is with your performance

- Manager Notes page that

functions as your in-game notepad, allowing you to build reminders for

yourself into the game (ex: Check on the progress of my top prospect)

-

Customizeable news inbox allows you to only see the news you want to

see (awards, great performances, scouting reports, personal messages,

etc.)

- Record Book that now includes single game records, as well as

in-game acknowledgement if those records are broken (ex: "Fielder

breaks the Brewers single-game record for RBI!")

- Comparisons for

historical leagues, so you can see how your historical sim looks

compared to what actually happened

- 2010 rosters, including some of

this year's top draft prospects in the draft class (Bryce Harper is a

beast)

- Two-way players available in the draft

- Option to have

your league evolve over time, including rules changes and expansion (ex:

in my game, the league ruled to increase the minimum time on the DL to

22 days instead of 15)

- What OOTP Developments calls "storylines,"

where the news is related to the results on the field (ex: Matt LaPorta

was hitting .190 for Cleveland in late May, and was suspended for

attacking a reporter that asked him about his poor play)

- Players

can suggest counter-offers in contract negotiations.

 

Overall, I

can't imagine there being another baseball game out there that so

closely simulates the real world. If you bought last year's game and

think you're content sticking with it this year, give the trial version a

try.

[crewcrazy]

Just like last year, I'd be glad to answer any questions about the game if you don't have it already (while I'm not busy turning the Brewers into a dynasty). http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Oldcity]

I have OOTP 10. It sounds like there are still way too many middle relievers. Do you know the reason for this? Almost all pitchers begin as starters right when they're drafted. That's honestly probably my biggest complaint about the game, which I think is great otherwise.

[RyDogg66]

I got fired by the Brewers today in mid 2011, which is probably pretty realistic when it comes to Melvin's job security if he doesnt turn it around.

 

Here are some complaints that I have about the game.

 

- still way way way too many trades, even with trading frequency set to low.

- way way way too many injuries without setting them to Very Low.

 

As an addendum to that, while injuries were set to regular (Classic OOTP) my ENTIRE AAA pitching staff was on the DL in mid to late 2010 and each and every one of them was out for a minimum of 6 months. But here is the kicker, a I dont know if this is a glitch or what, but Manny Parra was on the shelf for "Neck Stiffness" and he had a return time of 47-48 months. Chris Capuano had the same injury and was out 12-13 months.

 

Is that a glitch in the game?

 

Also, somehow all my pitchers have ERAs above 5.00 (even Gallardo, my traded-for David Price and FA acquisition Cliff Lee), while all my hitters have OPS below .800 (Braun, Fielder, Gamel, Hart, etc. etc.) Is this normal?