Can I play international tournaments in custom leagues now?

Yes, FHM 11 introduces international play in custom games. Now, the structure of international tournaments will adapt based on the setup of your custom leagues. This offers flexibility in shaping global tournaments to fit the unique configurations of custom leagues, enhancing the international experience.

What’s new in historical mode?

Historical mode now includes fully playable minor leagues, starting with the American Hockey League (AHL). You’ll have access to the AHL’s complete history from 1940 to the present, with all players included, allowing for a richer historical simulation with a focus on minor league hockey development and tracking.

Has the AI trading system been improved?

Significant updates have been made to the AI trading system. The AI now uses a broader range of trade models and addresses previous loopholes in trade logic. This results in more realistic trades and challenges for players managing a team. Additionally, the European transfer system AI has been adjusted similarly, which adds more realism to player movement in international leagues.

What is the 4 Nations Faceoff Tournament?

The FHM 11 game now includes the NHL’s new 4 Nations Faceoff Tournament in its modern game mode. This addition offers players a chance to manage teams in a popular international event that brings together some of the world’s top hockey talent.

How does job security work in this version?

Job security mechanics have undergone major revisions to provide a more realistic experience. In FHM 11, owners set specific goals for team managers, such as improving team performance or acquiring certain players. Failure to meet these objectives could impact your job, while meeting them can improve your standing with the owner.

Can I track my players’ development more closely now?

FHM 11 includes a development tracking feature that lets you monitor the progress of your players over time. This tool helps assess player growth, making it easier to make informed roster decisions and to develop younger players effectively.

Do coaches have tactical preferences?

Yes, in this release, coaches now have specific tactical preferences. A coach will be more effective when using tactics they are comfortable with, and they will employ these preferred tactics more frequently, providing an additional layer of strategic management.

Are there updates to young player generation and talent distribution?

FHM 11 introduces changes to the database of younger players and the overall player generation system. There’s now a smoother distribution of NHL-caliber young players, as well as adjustments to maintain a steady top-end quality among new prospects over the course of the game, aiming to prevent talent saturation.

What changes have been made to the 2D game engine?

The 2D engine now features improved play execution logic, building upon past play-calling improvements. Teams are more likely to stick with their set plays longer, and the passing mechanics have been updated to allow for more indirect passing. This provides a more strategic and lifelike in-game experience for players.

What new league reports are available?

New reports have been added, including a Hall of Fame monitor and a review of past draft sleepers and busts. These reports help players keep track of key league achievements and draft history, offering more depth in evaluating players and understanding team progress.

How has the AI’s roster management improved for offseason changes?

The AI now better handles roster management during the offseason. For example, it can anticipate roster changes due to expiring contracts or players becoming free agents after July 1, resulting in a smoother transition between seasons.

Are there any additional features?

The update also includes previews of playoff series in the news, a mid-season award candidate preview, and new design elements. Player and team rosters are updated for the 2024-25 season, along with small improvements across the game.

These updates in Franchise Hockey Manager 11 provide a well-rounded and engaging hockey management experience for players, from improved international play to detailed development tracking and tactical preferences.

To talk all about the newest release, come join the discussion on the /r/gmgames reddit!

The post Franchise Hockey Manager 11: New Features for 2024-25 (PC, Mac) appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

Buckle up, because OOTP 25 is breaking new ground with its official partnership with the Baseball Hall of Fame. For the first time ever, you can step into the shoes of baseball legends and rewrite history. From Babe Ruth’s towering home runs to Jackie Robinson’s groundbreaking debut, the Baseball Hall of Fame partnership brings the sport’s most iconic moments to life like never before. Get ready to manage your dream team of legends and etch your name in baseball history!

But that’s not all. OOTP 25 is also introducing the game-changing Player Power Lab—a revolutionary feature that puts you in the driver’s seat of player development. Say goodbye to cookie-cutter training programs and hello to a whole new level of customization. With the Player Power Lab, you have the tools to sculpt your players into superstars. Want to turn that promising rookie into the next MVP? With advanced training programs, drills, and virtual reality simulations, the sky’s the limit.

And let’s not forget about the drama on the diamond. With cutting-edge AI algorithms and player personality systems, every player has their own story to tell. Manage egos, motivations, and relationships to unlock their full potential. Whether you’re mentoring a rookie phenom or reigniting a veteran’s fire, the Player Power Lab adds a whole new dimension to the game.

But wait, there’s more! Out of the Park Developments has listened to the fans and expanded the Minor League System. Dive deep into the world of scouting, drafting, and player development as you build the next generation of superstars. From rookie ball to the big leagues, the Minor League System puts you in control of every aspect of your team’s future success.

Out of the Park Baseball 25 is a home run for fans of the sport. With its partnership with the Baseball Hall of Fame, cutting-edge Player Power Lab, and expanded Minor League System, OOTP 25 delivers an immersive and exhilarating experience that will keep you coming back for more. So grab your glove, lace up your cleats, and get ready to write your own chapter in baseball history with OOTP 25!

Discuss this story on r/gmgames

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The Franchise Hockey Manager series returns for the 2021-22 season with plenty of new additions.

OOTP Developments and Com2uS has packed many new features and improvements into it. Driven by community feedback. FHM 8 is their strongest entry yet in the longstanding NHL®-licensed PC hockey strategy series.

[This press release is made courtesy of OOTP Developments]

Choose one of dozens of leagues around the world and select a team to guide to glory, including a chance at the ultimate prize: FHM 8 is licensed by the NHL®, allowing you to take the reins of your favorite franchise to capture the Stanley Cup®.

Take control of a national team and try for international supremacy. Choose a historical game, where you can begin in any year in NHL® history right back to the beginning in 1917. Or if you’d like to create your own customized league, you can do that as well!

.

Release the Kraken!

Draft your own version of the expansion Seattle Kraken or enter the league with their real lineup.

Take control based on in-game events

Alter players’ styles and tactics in response to game events.

All new for Franchise Hockey Manager 8:

• NEW FINANCIAL SYSTEM!: Build your Legacy with the new financial system, allowing you much more control over your budget and operations.
• NEW ON-ICE DECISIONS!: You directly influence your players’ choices on the ice!
• UP-TO-DATE 2021-2022 NHL® ROSTERS: The fans are back in the stands, and we have fully-updated rosters, teams, leagues, and stats for the 2021-2022 NHL® season!
• A LIVING, BREATHING HOCKEY WORLD!: New rumours, news stories, and new stats reveal your hockey world.
• IMPROVED 2D GAME MODE!: The 2D game system has undergone many changes to improve player behaviour, animation, and statistical output, and received some new graphics and aminations too!
• REALISTIC HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: Junior, College, and European leagues in historical games have been significantly fleshed out, so young players will no longer just be free agents before they’re signed or drafted, and the Sponsorship/Affiliate system that was used by the NHL up until the 1960’s is now simulated as well.
• BUILD YOUTH SYSTEMS: European teams will now be able to take steps to improve the quality of the young players entering their youth systems.
• ADJUSTABLE TRADE DIFFICULTY: Trading difficulty can now be adjusted, allowing for easier or more difficult trade negotiations – or nearly impossible ones!
• MORE POSTGAME FEEDBACK! A new postgame analysis screen points out the good, the bad, and the ugly of both teams’ performances.
• WATCH HIGHLIGHTS: 2D Mode now has a “highlights” option that’ll allow you to view only the game’s key moments, or just the goals.
• NEW CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS: Custom games can now add tournaments that allow the participation of teams from multiple leagues, and can add new leagues after the game has started.
• YOUR OWN NOTEPAD: Players now have a user-editable “Notes” view that can be used to record your own notes, reminders, etc. regarding them.
• HOCKEY CARDS! We’ve added a new “hockey card” style for displaying player portraits on some screens.

FHM 8 is big, bold, and packed with improvements – continuing to build on the foundation of the long-running hockey strategy series.

Join in the conversation about FHM 8 on discord or below on Reddit..

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So let’s set those thoughts to the side right off the bat: Returning players will find settling back into OOTP 22 as comfortable as ever, with the usual attention to detail and a handful of new features that only enhance the experience of simulating baseball the exact way you imagine it. The only obvious sign of Out of the Park Developments’ new parent company is a positive one (so no worries about intrusive in-game purchases, for example), and the choice of mimicking baseball in its current form or rewinding the clock on America’s pastime two or more years is completely up to you. Yes, that means you can even dispense with the runner on second to start extra innings if that’s what keeps you up at night.

What’s new in OOTP 22?

OOTP Developments put obvious work into the 3D ballparks this season

While the full complement of viewing options is still available for every ballgame in OOTP 22, you’ll want to check out the Modern 3D mode to admire the effort the devs have made to improve the visuals. Not only do the stadiums look impressive, but the players on the field look less like stickmen and more like actual athletes. There are still occasional glitches like passed balls phasing through the backstop or balls caught on the warning track that appear to rebound back into the field of play, but these are rare exceptions overall. OOTP 22 is arguably the first game in the series where watching the action unfold approaches the immersion factor of reading the description of each at-bat, and in a few years, new players may not even realize this franchise started out as a text-base affair.

Fittingly, the 3D Ballpark Construction Kit has also received an upgrade, with a number of new options and a slightly more intuitive feel overall. For those with little free time and no design talent like yours truly, it’s a feature you may just check out once and move on, but it’s not hard to imagine gamers who want to fully tweak every detail of the ballpark of their dreams getting lost in it for hours at a time.

For Franchise mode, the most interesting new features aren’t necessarily the real world additions — though everything you’d expect has made it into the game, including the 2021 minor league system — but the revamp to the coaching systems. Coaches now feel like they really matter, as they can pass along specific skills to prospects and help teach young players the way you want them to play. If player development is your thing, you can now tinker in this area in ways that, say, your friends who play Football Manager have always been going on about. There are also noticeable effects that coaches can have on teams built to play young talent or contend now while a championship window is open, so it pays to explore what coaches can do for your squad.

The KBO arrives

You can say thanks to the KBO for curing your baseball withdrawal by simming a season or two

There’s a decent chance that most American baseball fans only became familiar with the teams and players of the Korean Baseball Organization in the spring of 2020, when it was literally the only game in town for a bit. Indeed, ESPN aired a number of KBO games while MLB teams were still sidelined due to the pandemic, and it was refreshing to see live baseball played at a fairly high level while American ballparks awaited the return of their teams (albeit a bit strange at times seeing ESPN broadcasters call the action from half a world away).

Thanks to Com2uS arriving on the scene, OOTP 22 now has a full KBO license for the first time. Admittedly, this is going to be a feature that only ranks highly with the subset of players who are interested in truly simming the entire world of baseball, but it also should satisfy anyone wondering if the game has any new leagues. If nothing else, it’s a welcome bit of immediate synergy from Com2uS who otherwise seems to have wisely decided not to fix anything in the game that wasn’t broken.

Feeling a (Perfect) Draft

Alas, not every player on your Perfect Draft roster is going to be quite this good

Perfect Team was always destined to be one of those “hate it or love it” features of OOTP, but there’s no denying that the dev team has continued to make this collecting and team-building mode more interesting with each subsequent release.

(As an aside, if you’re a baseball card collector and in the know about how much the prices of new cards have gone up over the past year, Perfect Team might be the best way to scratch the itch for busting packs without simultaneously destroying your wallet.)

The marquee new feature in Perfect Team this time around is the Perfect Draft mode, which is exactly what it sounds like: a chance to draft a Perfect Team squad from a selection of cards that changes with each round. You then take your drafted team into competition against other players’ draft teams, vying for Perfect Points which you can then spend on packs or players to boost your regular Perfect Team. It’s a mode that console sports gamers will recognize right away as most EA Sports titles have something similar.

The best part of Perfect Draft is how quickly it allows you to assemble a team and get it into play. Instead of being given a certain amount of time for each round, you have a time limit for the overall draft, allowing you to agonize over that 100-rated player in Round 1 or the five bottom of the roster gentlemen you select in the last round according to your whims. Once all teams are drafted, the simulations start shortly thereafter, and if you choose a smaller tournament, it’s possible to see it through to its conclusion pretty darn quickly.

On top of that, it simply slots in alongside everything that Perfect Team has to offer very nicely. If this is your favorite part of OOTP, you’ll be able to have Perfect Draft competitions, tournaments and your standard Perfect Team league all going in parallel, and really maximize your chances of earning Perfect Points while doing so. It’s not going to change the minds of people who don’t care for this relatively recent trend in sports gaming, but for everyone else, it’s a fun and logical extension of what Perfect Team already had to offer. As an added bonus, you’re likely to learn quite a bit about baseball history just from drafting players from decades past a few times.

Overview

OOTP 22 simply looks and plays better than ever

It’s getting increasingly difficult with each new release to either find some new way of praising OOTP that hasn’t already been said, or to find glaring flaws or omissions that jump right out at you. Every game prior to this year has been an impressive feat of simulating a sport that has so many intricate details below the surface, and OOTP 22 is once again the gold standard in filling any kind of baseball league you can imagine with both realism and personality. On top of the beast of a simulation engine, this year’s edition rewards gamers with improved visuals that, while still not perfect, reflect just how far this franchise has come over time.

As it turns out, neither the change in ownership nor the chaos of real life has done anything to knock OOTP 22 off its perch atop the baseball sim genre, and it easily contends with any title out there for overall sports sim supremacy as well. It’s hard to imagine any diehard baseball aficionado who hasn’t already checked out one of its predecessors, but even more casual fans are sure to come away impressed by its scope and style.

Official Download for Out of the Park Baseball 22

Leave a comment for Nick or GM Games on reddit…

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The Franchise Hockey Manager series returns for the 2020-21 season with plenty of new additions.

A return of the deepest, most authentic hockey strategy gaming experience you can find. Choose one of dozens of leagues around the world and select a team to guide to glory, including a chance at the ultimate prize: FHM7 is licensed by the NHL®, allowing you to take the reins of your favorite franchise to capture the Stanley Cup®.

[This press release is made courtesy of OOTP Developments]

Take control of a national team and try for international supremacy. Choose a historical game, where you can begin in any year in NHL® history right back to the beginning in 1917. Or if you’d like to create your own customized league, you can do that as well.

However you choose to play, you have control of your team and can oversee finances, select strategies, hire your staff, make trades, sign free agents, and draft the newest generation of stars as you try to build a championship team – and then make it into a dynasty.

2D Engine

The game simulation has been rebuilt from the ground up, and now shows games in a top-down, fully-animated view that lets you see every second of the action.

All new for Franchise Hockey Manager 7:

• Historical International Tournaments: International games have been added to historical play, so you can control a team in legendary events like the 1972 Summit Series and the Miracle on Ice in 1980. We’ve also added a large number of non-NHL players to the historical database, so if you want to see what the cold war-era NHL would’ve looked like with the stars of the Soviet bloc added, that’s now possible.
• More Customization for Custom Leagues: Custom league setup much more flexible – you can now add as many leagues as you want, all of them fully customizable. The playoff editor also has a new custom configuration option in addition to the pre-set default systems.
• Redesigned Scouting System: The scouting interface has been simplified and made a little more visually appealing with the addition of maps showing the coverage your team (and individual scouts) have. Scouting reports have also been changed to provide more useful and relevant information, and Scouting Levels now include an estimate of the player’s likelihood of reaching his potential.
• Reworked Draft Screen: Mock drafts, a draft review, and scout recommendations have been added. Additionally, we’ve moved the draft dates in modern and custom games – they now occur in early July, as they do in historical, which allows expansion teams to participate in them during their first season.
• Configurable Historical Evolution: When when you opt to turn on historical editing, you can now specify if you want changes like league foundings/closures, team expansion and deactivation, and rule changes to continue as they did historically or not, in any configuration you want.
• More Farm Team Control: If you want more control over your farm team, you can now have direct control over their depth charts and staff hiring.
• Schedule Editing: A long-requested feature, schedules can now be exported for editing, and then re-imported.
• Waiver and Intraleague Drafts: The beloved Waiver Draft has been added to historical play in the years it existed, along with its predecessor, the Intraleague Draft. Additionally, both are also available as options that can be activated for any other type of league.

Other significant changes and additions include:

• Reworked the news screen to show more headlines and flag personal messages and those which need a reply.
• Real-life full-career stats are now included on the player screens in historical mode, so you can see if a player is matching his real performance…or cheat a little, if you want to see how a potential draft pick really turns out.
• A team search tab has been added to the player and staff search.
• Various international upgrades: national teams run by the user no longer clear rosters after tournaments end, so you don’t need to rebuild them, international staff histories are now recorded, and we’ve made various UI improvements and fixes to get the international screens working a little better.
• The continue button now alerts to you to upcoming events like drafts and trade deadlines.
• Database improvements like significantly expanded international stats histories for players, award histories for most leagues, and more
• The success of a national team now has an effect on the quality of new players generated by that country.
• Players can now be designated as Untouchable if you don’t want to get trade offers for them, and players on other teams can be flagged as “Not Interested” if you don’t want them to be included in trade offers to you.
• The Aging attribute had been split into Aging and a new attribute, Development Rate to make our modelling of player career arcs more flexible.
• Roster AI has received a number of adjustments, mainly in the area of how the AI determines player value; most of these are designed to take advantage of systems (line chemistry, etc.) that didn’t exist when the last major roster AI revision was done. AI teams’ free agent-signing behaviour has also been improved.
• The player search screen’s filter now allows minimum ratings scores to be included in the filter criteria.-We’ve made some database and player generation changes to significantly reduce the memory usage of long-term leagues, allowing much better long-term game performance for users with limited RAM.
• Many new things are editable on the player, team, and league screens – contract settings, favourites, foreign player restrictions, among others.
• Boxscores can now be exported as csv files.
• The later years of historical player data got a lot of re-work, fixing some inaccuracies and significantly adding to the number of post-2010 players who haven’t made the NHL yet

In addition to all of that, there are the usual large variety of smaller and internal changes, tweaks, database changes, interface improvements, and the 20-21 team and player updates!

Join in the conversation about FHM 7 on discord or below on Reddit..

The post The Puck Drops on Franchise Hockey Manager 7 appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

Founded in 1999, OOTP is a German company that provides PC-based sports management games such as Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP Baseball) and Franchise Hockey Manager.

OOTP Baseball is a management game that has secured the license of MLB, an American professional baseball game, and is currently being serviced through the Steam platform and online downloads.

Com2uS is expecting high synergy between the two companies with this acquisition of OOTP. Com2uS, which already has the know-how of global sports licensed games such as MLB, NBA, and KBO, plans to strengthen its competitiveness by adding OOTP’s management genre capabilities. In addition, the company is in a position to successfully lead the global market expansion of OOTP games and mobile version services through organic collaboration.

Com2uS has raised its brand status through global business performances in the United States and Europe, as well as a long-established global business network, and will further promote M&A for overseas companies in the future.

Markus Heinsohn, CEO of OOTP answers questions about the acquisition:

Q: How long do you intend to stay on board before the next project?
A: I have absolutely no plans to leave the company anytime soon. It’s my dream job and what I can do best, so why change? Andreas will retire in about 3 years, he’s already a grizzled veteran. 

Q: I know that COM2US has kinda good in-game graphics in their mobile games, such as MLB 9innings. Can I expect their graphic nohows can be adapted into OOTP pc?
A: We do not know yet how the 3D engine of the Com2uS products work, so for the short- & medium-term future, the OOTP 3D engine will stay in place.

Q: And do you expect a change in the billing policy to occur? I know that Korean games are very charge-inducing.
A: No change here, shop systems will remain the same.

Q: Will there be a price increase for the next product?
A: I am pretty sure the answer to that is no. We have toyed with that idea in the past, since games have been at the same price for decades while everything else got more expensive, but I think $39.99 is still the sweet-spot for us.

Q: I know Com2us has a different league license (eg KBO). So, do you have any plans to make other leagues a reality like MLB?
A: Yes, that is the plan.

Q: As you know, Korean fans of OOTP have long wanted to translate OOTP into Korean. Is it finally the moment they’ve been waiting for?
A: Yes, translation work starts immediately and we hope it’ll be done in time for the OOTP 22 launch.

Q: Congrats. What would you anticipate to be the biggest positive impact or difference in the game in 3 years due to this sale?
A: Thanks! I think all areas will benefit, as we now have bigger resources and more experience in the background. If I had to guess though, the biggest progress will probably be made with our mobile product(s), as here our experience so far has been quite limited.

Q: What does this mean for the development of PT? Will you be drawing on COM2US for development advice, given their track record in running microtransaction-model games?
A: They are very happy with PT, but you are right, they have lots of experience with these kind of game modes. We’ll see if that experience can be applied to PT in a meaningful way… I personally expect this to happen more for marketing purposes than the game design itself.

Come join the discussion about the acquisition…

The post Com2uS (Korea) has acquired 100% stake of Out of the Park Developments (Germany) appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

In a statement, Out of the Park Developments cited a change in direction for the studio and a lack of resources to continue dedicating to the project. Jim Gindin partnered with Out of the Park Developments in February of 2018 and has been working on the newest iteration of Front Office Football ever since.

Despite the optimism, the project had been plagued with a lack of communication and long development times. At the time of their split, the game still does not have a release date. Out of the Park Developments has seen a lot of recent success and have moved to a yearly release model for their most popular franchises which include Out of the Park Baseball and Franchise Hockey Manager.

The good news is, Out of the Park Developments released all of the code for Front Office Football 9 and the naming rights back to Jim, the original owner. Jim Gindin and Solesmic Software have been releasing critically acclaimed football manager games for years and this project should not hamper those efforts. The game might not look the way fans had imagined when the two first teamed up but as of now, there is still hope for a release of the next Front Office Football game sometime in the future.

Simply put, we won’t be able to allocate the resources we need to deliver the Front Office Football product up to the standards that our fans expect and deserve for a long time, so we’ve chosen to go in a different direction. Jim Gindin is and will always remain a good friend, and we expect that whatever he decides to do next with his franchise will be extraordinary, and we will support him the best we can. We gave him full ownership to the current FOF9 code and wish him all the best moving forward.

(Markus Heinsohn, CEO OOTP Developments)

You can read the full statement by Out of the Park Developments here.
You can follow up with Jim’s blog here.

Join in on the discussion on reddit…

The post OOTP Developments and Solecismic Software Part Ways appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

[Press release has been produced by Major League Baseball]

Major League Baseball, in conjunction with Out of the Park Baseball, today unveiled the MLB Dream Bracket presented by DraftKings, which will begin on Monday, April 20th. The MLB Dream Bracket is a 32-team best-of-seven simulation featuring all-time teams for each of the 30 current Major League franchises, as well as teams consisting of Negro Leagues Stars and 25 & Under Stars. Starting today, fans can use the DraftKings mobile app to register and compete in free-to-play pools based on the upcoming game simulations, which will be produced by Out of the Park Baseball.

Game simulations will begin with eight round-of-32 matchups being played each day on Monday, April 20th and Tuesday, April 21st. Select game simulations, featuring various Game 6 and Game 7 matchups, will be available via livestream on MLB Network’s Twitch channel on Monday and Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. (ET) as well as within the DraftKings mobile app. MLB Network’s Scott Braun and Jon Morosi will provide play-by-play and analysis of the games, which will also stream across MLB Network’s social channels and MLB.com.

The 26-man rosters for each of the teams, compiled by the MLB.com beat reporters, consist of 15 hitters and 11 pitchers. For the simulation, players are rated using the average of their three best seasons on a single team. Rosters were constructed with balanced depth to specifically compete in a simulated regulation game.

The full rosters for each of the 32 competing teams, which include a combined 185 Hall of Famers, 115 Most Valuable Players, 61 Cy Young Award winners and 67 Rookie of the Year Award winners, can be viewed at www.mlb.com/news/mlb-dream-bracket-rosters. The 32-team bracket is split by league with teams seeded hierarchically based on World Series titles won; pennants won; Postseason appearances; and regular season winning percentage. The Negro Leagues Stars and 25 & Under Stars are No. 8 seeds in the American League and National League, respectively.

For more information about the MLB Dream Bracket, please visit mlb.com/dreambracket. For more information about Out of the Park Baseball 21, please visit Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP 21).

The post MLB and OOTP Baseball Unveil MLB Dream Bracket Presented by DraftKings appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has thrown a damper on thoughts of balls hitting bats any time soon, but that hasn’t stopped OOTP 21 from arriving to keep the spirits of baseball fans up. As always, the dev team has made sure this year’s edition has been fully updated to reflect what baseball will look like in 2020 whenever it gets going, but there are also enough new features and additions to ensure everyone from first-time buyers to hardcore OOTP fans has a valid reason to pick up the new game.

What’s new in OOTP 21?

Game Flow allows you to customize which events get called to your attention

One of the greatest strengths of the OOTP series is also the very thing that can make it a bit daunting for newcomers. When you can create a sim of any kind of baseball league you can imagine, current, historical or fictional, starting at any year and with the rules tweaked to be exactly the way you’d like them, how do you prioritize the most important decisions you want to make and keep extraneous tasks off your plate?

OOTP Developments devised a tool called Game Flow to solve that very riddle. Put simply, it’s a way to customize the ‘Continue’ button so that every time you click on it, the simulation will stop for the exact events you want called to your attention. There are six different parameters, for your own team and your league, that can be toggled in Game Flow, as well as the time you want to sim once the current day’s game has been played. It’s a simple but very effective way to walk the line between giving players the exact information they need to run their teams — particularly in Challenge Mode, where virtual careers are on the line — and keeping seasons running along at a nice pace.

When playing your first season under current MLB rules, you might be a bit surprised by the number of players on your roster and how you can deploy your bullpen. That’s because the 2020 MLB tweaks are included in OOTP 21, meaning 26-man rosters and separate Injured Lists for pitchers and position players are in effect. Perhaps the one that takes the most adjustment is the three-batter minimum for relief pitchers; it’s a bit of a shock when you put in a specialist to face left-handed hitters and then get a message from the game that you can’t take him out because he hasn’t faced the required number of batters, but that’s the kind of realism the series has long brought to life.

In-game presentation has been spruced up as well, with new camera angles for the Modern 3D engine. Options to choose a different angle before and during the pitch, as well as after the ball is put in play, bring the level of customization for action on the diamond up to the series’ high standards for flexibility in all other areas of gameplay. What you shouldn’t expect is a ton of detail: The players still look like faceless ball-playing automatons, and they always take the field in home whites and road grays instead of making use of the wide variety of uniform combinations utilized by current MLB squads. Still, no one plays OOTP 21 for its cutting edge graphics, so its small but steady visual improvements are always welcome, and the game’s passionate mod community can undoubtedly take care of a lot as it always does.

Field of (your) Dreams

Tinker with all parts of your dream stadium in the 3D Ballpark Construction Kit

An even more ambitious visual upgrade comes in the form of the 3D Ballpark Construction Kit. As the name suggests, this tool gives you the ability to tailor a ballpark to your exact specifications, with control over the overall size and shape, field texture, seating sections, and the height and distance of the outfield fence in all areas. While most of the features simply provide a selection of five or six preset components, you could easily get lost in tinkering with the fence for an hour or two alone, seeing as you can set individual posts and then move them up or down, in or out as your heart desires.

The devs have been pretty open about the fact that this is a first stab at a 3D ballpark editor and that improvements will be released as the year goes on — and again, you can bet your star pitching ace that some ambitious mods are already being worked on. Regardless, even in its infancy, this is an impressive feature that is very much in line with the overall OOTP ethos of creating the exact baseball world you have in your imagination.

Perfect Team 21

Perfect Team is back and better than ever

There seemed to be a bit of a mixed reaction to Perfect Team when it first arrived in OOTP 19. On one hand, team-building modes are all the rage in sports games these days (though more commonly on consoles than PC), and the idea of one that was shot through with OOTP’s dedication to realism was extremely appealing. On the other, such modes are inherently seen as pay-to-win affairs that ask players to spend more money on microtransactions after already buying a full-priced game, which leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many.

Still, Perfect Team has managed to stay on the better side of that debate so far, and even dabbling with it for just a few days is enough time to show how much promise it has in OOTP 21. Everyone starts with a handful of packs to get started before being placed in a pool of other beginner teams. After graduating from there, your squad gets placed into a robust league system with promotion and relegation a la European soccer leagues.

Perfect Team makes a nice complement to standard sims

But the best part of Perfect Team in relation to all other team-building modes in other sports games is its pace. Games are simulated at regular intervals, leaving you time in-between to obtain new cards — which you can do for free by racking up Perfect Points from achievements — and make modifications to your lineup. This means that unlike other sports titles where modes like this need to be the main focus of your time, Perfect Team can be played alongside whatever regular seasons you are working on. The pay-to-win aspect may indeed be real for people aiming to get to the very top, but it’s fun for even casual play.

The list of missions has been expanded as well, so it feels like every card you acquire can help you make progress toward additional cards or packs. Add it all up and Perfect Team is worth a look this year even if you have ignored it to date.

Overview

Everything you expect from the series is easily evident in OOTP 21

OOTP Developments has what is in some ways an enviable task with each new release, because the OOTP series is already so well regarded that the devs’ primary goal is likely just not to mess things up. It’s to the team’s credit that they don’t rest on their laurels and continue to find ways to improve the overall experience. The result is that you don’t have to worry about OOTP 21 being “just a roster update,” as features like Game Flow, Perfect Team 21 and the presentation updates prove.

The 3D visual improvements still feel like a work in progress, and the overall code during my review time was definitely a bit unstable — so if you’re an early adopter, make sure you save often until OOTP Developments gets a chance to release more patches and squash all the bugs. Besides that, there’s everything to love about OOTP 21, and it can certainly help satisfy any baseball craving you have both for now and once the real thing is back.

Official Download for Out of the Park Baseball 21

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The post OOTP 21 Review – More ways than ever to create the baseball world you want appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games.

Out of the Park Baseball 21 – the 21st version of the award-winning sports strategy franchise – delivers the most new features and improvements in series history! It features unprecedented depth and customization, brand-new guided experiences for newcomers and veterans, authenticity licensed by MLB and the MLBPA, and a bounty of offline and online experiences found nowhere else.

[The content narrative is courtesy of Out of the Park Developments]

Out of the Park Baseball 21 is the biggest and best version ever made. Built upon the foundation of a series that has twice won Metacritic’s PC Game of the Year – the only game to ever do that – it delivers unprecedented baseball authenticity across the board.

“OOTP is an astonishing accomplishment!” – Boston Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry

Out of the Park Baseball 21 Basic Features

Discover new talent, draft the next superstar, negotiate with free agents, enter trade talks with other teams, build your dynasty and guide a franchise into an infinite future! As a manager, dive into the more hands-on management and set your team’s lineups, pitching staffs, in-game strategy and call the shots from the dugout. You can oversee your league at a high level, or play out each game in the redesigned 3D game mode, managing play by play or even pitch by pitch. OOTP has it all covered!

OOTP 21 comes with accurate 2020 MLB and MiLB rosters featuring ultra-realistic player ratings, schedules (including the London Series and the MLB at Field of Dreams), and league rules. Plus, all historical MLB seasons (1871-2019, including full historical minor leagues) and dozens of international pro and independent baseball leagues from around the world, featuring accurate 2020 rosters and player ratings. You can even create your very own fictional baseball universe with fictional teams and players, the possibilities are endless. The Infinite Baseball Sandbox!

New features in OOTP 21 include:

• All new Game Flow guides you through the unique OOTP experience in a smart, fully customizable way! Not sure what to do next? Game Flow gets you where you want to be, depending on what is happening right now. Whether it is Spring Training, the dog days of summer, or the offseason, it is easy to find what to do next. A fun way for newcomers and veterans alike to experience Out of the Park Baseball!
• At long last – build your franchise’s dream ballpark! 3D Ballpark Construction Kit 1.0 allows you to configure a 3D stadium to your whims. Choose from many different field shapes and sizes, ballpark layouts and architectural elements and combine them with Ballpark Factors to emphasize the kind of organization you want to put together – defense, power, speed, gaps, you name it. This long-awaited feature lets you live a childhood dream – building your own ballpark!
• Upgraded Live Services! The smashing success of Live Starts expands this season, with additional information being used to make each Live Start even more authentic. Start your OOTP 21 experience from any date of the 2020 MLB season – from Day 1 through the end of the 2020 Postseason – with up-to-the-minute Rosters, Injuries, Trades, Standings, and more!
• New 2020 MLB rules, tactics, and player strategies! Baseball is changing in significant ways, and we have got everything in place. How will you use the all-new 26-man rosters to your advantage, as well as the new 28-man September configuration? How will you strategize around the new 3-batter-minimum for relief pitchers? What will your lineups and rotations look like with separate 10- and 15-day Injured Lists for pitchers and hitters? It is a whole new world!
• Community-driven User Experience improvements! A beautiful new interface with fully customizable player page statistics. Plus! Player lists are dramatically improved and can be configured to your liking, with more information than ever available at your fingertips.
• Big 3D in-game upgrades! New in-game camera modes let you ‘follow the ball’ during the action, and multiple camera angles are available for pre-pitch, during the pitch, and after the pitch. Dozens of new 3D animations are in place, and the entire 3D gameplay has been smoothed and polished. Plus, we have completely reworked in-game audio for better crowd and ambient noise during games – including ballpark-specific audio customization!
• Scouting reimagined! We have rebuilt scouting from the ground up this year, with significantly improved AI, new visual indicators of scouting accuracy, a new and fully customizable Player Scouting Page, new Needs-based assignments, organically created scouting reports coming at different intervals, and more. You have never experienced scouting in OOTP like this!
• Drafting reimagined! A huge amount of new information is in your hands for the draft, including Mock Drafts, Future Draft Classes, sortable Draft History, and more. Realistic high school, college, and junior college player progressions make draft classes more interesting – and authentic – than ever. You will be positioned to dominate!
• New statistics! Strikeout percentages, walk percentages, strikeout minus walk percentages and more are tracked and displayed to ensure you are fully aware of how successful (or not) your players are.
• New league customization options! Build your baseball universe YOUR way with improved League Expansion that has been made even more configurable, including long-desired improvement of Minor League team arrangements.
• The All-Star Weekend goes BIG! For the first time ever, experience and play the Prospects Game and admire majestic blasts in the Home Run Challenge.
• Upgraded technical design under the hood! Reduced save game space requirements use less of your hard drive and optimize the game’s installation and simulation speed
• The most active development team in the business roars back this season! Each week we produce dozens of videos and podcasts, including the popular weekly video shows This Week In Perfect Team and Perfect Team Playoff Push every Thursday, multiple Franchise series, and two audio podcasts – OOTP Now and The Kevin Kennedy Show! You are in direct touch with the developers and the community every day.
• Many more improvements, all built upon the incredibly deep award-winning Out of the Park Baseball engine that has accurately simulated the World Series winner the past three seasons on MLB Network and produced entertaining simulations for FiveThirtyEight.com!

Perfect Team 21 mode:

Perfect Team is an incredible free online competition mode in Out of the Park Baseball that shook up the industry when it first launched in OOTP 19. Assemble, customize, and manage your team by collecting baseball cards from the past, present and future of Major League Baseball. Set your strategy and tactics, then compete against players from around the world to see who is truly the best!

Do you have what it takes to build the Perfect Team?

New features include:

• New player card selection – collect over 4000 cards!
• Beautiful new player card artwork
• A brand new league structure with 2 new league levels and a single Perfect League. Can you become the ultimate Perfect Team champion?
• New promotion/relegation systems for a more dynamic league evolution
• Improved ratings calculations for every type of player card
• Hundreds of new Collection Missions with great rewards
• New in-season Special Tournaments – including qualifiers – and competitions with unique rewards, enhancing the wildly popular Perfect Team Tournament feature
• New content delivered each and every week all Perfect Team season long
• Dozens of surprises big and small all year!

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