Well...it is tough. I am an old pro at 2002 and while the basic style of hitting remains the same (same cursor and everything) it seems like I am having a much harder time hitting. What I am doing is pitching with "all star" mode and then when I come up tp bad switching over to "veteran" mode. I am playiing with my team, the Pirates, which may have something to do with the lack of hitting. Still after about a dozen games averages seen to be pretty normal, the only abnormality being Abrahan Nunez who has like 4 triples (which are MUCH easier to come by in this game; I think I had 4 triple TOTAL in about 500+ games in 2002. yes I am a baseball junkie. I eat, drink, and sleep baseball
)
Anyway, there ARE some annoyances. Believe it or not, I complied a list of some of the things I would like to see changed for next seaosn and my reasons why. Instead of paraphrasing, I will just cut-and-paste it here (I put an *asterics next to the ones I really want to see changes the most):
-------------------------
Sortable statistics. I would like to go to league pitching and league hitting
and sort by statistic, so that it would be easier to see what team is leading the league in whichever category.
*Get rid of bug where players crouch after an error for 2-3 seconds instead of immediately chasing after the ball. I was VERY disapointed that this was not fixed from the 2002 version.
*Let me be able to see the franchise value of other teams.
*Let me be able to see the years left and points paid to each player from other teams in order to make smarter trade decisions.
If possible, let me have a complete minor league roster, at least a FULL AAA roster instead of just the 40 man.
Let me sign players directly into the minors instead of having to shuffle players around to get a free agent into the farm team.
*Let me make trades of uneven number of players! so I can trade a superstar from a rebuilding team to a contender in exchange for several prospects.
*Let ME draft the minor leaguers I want--dont just give me some.
Let me trade minor-leaguers for minor leaguers. As it stands, I cannot even see the farm system players from other teams, let alone try and trade for one.
Also, if your franchise does well, its value should go up and you should have more money to spend on players.
More in-depth analysis of minor leaguers and drafted players. Are they lefty or righty, where did they go to school, what were their numbers in school, etc? Also what would be cool would be, say, the Acclaim Sports magazine prospect handbook that lists the pros and cons of each player, a grade for each, and, say, a mock draft where they predict the order of the draft based on what each team needs, but when the real draft comes, make sure the CPU does not follow this guide to a T! Let there be some surprises (but again, let ME draft who I want).
This is one think I would LOVE to see. Instead of giving a minor leaguer a major league grade, give him a prosepct grade. For example, Nick Johnson of the Yankees is rated as a B- Major leaguer. Why not also rank him as say an A prospect and then see him develop from there? for example again, if Johnson was an A prospect and you promoted him to the majors, then give him the B- grade. If you left him in the minors longer to develop, maybe his Major league rating would be higher, or if you rushed a player to the major leaguer level, his major league grade would be lower.
Let me trade players in the offseason! I should not have to wait until free agents are signed and the next seaosn has started to make a trade! This way If I had a player I wanted to sign but could not afford, I could make a tade to have enough money to sign him.
------------------------------------
Well as you can see that is quite a list considering I have only played like 15 games. I really like it, and I think it is definitly worth the upgrade, especially if somehow you could get like $30 for the old one. Does EB still have the trade in 2 used and get a new game free deal going? Maybe if you have another game you don't want you could do that.
The updated rosters are what makes the game great. Like 1/5 (or so it seems) of the players are on the wrong team in 2002 by now, and there are new players in this one like Bud Smith, Ichiro, Shinjo, Craig Wilson of my Buccos, etc.
However, like I said, my BIGGEST gripe is not being able to see how many years and points (they use points instead of money) a player on another team has left. That makes it frustrating to trade players. Like if I want to get rid of a guy like Kevin young, I want to rade for a younger, cheaper player, but you cannot see how many years a guy is signed to and how many "points" he will earn over that time unless you go back to the main menu, and start a new franchise with the team the player you are interested is on, and see that way. Then you have to re-load your season and see if the team will accept your deal. Maybe I will take an hour or two and make not of all the players' contract status or something.
Some of the deals I have made:
Derek Bell for Jack Cust
Kevin Young for Richard Hidalgo (don;t know why the commputer made that deal)
Also, teams you are not invoilved with will make trades on their own. Houston got Jose Vidro for Billy Wagner, though I have NO IDEA why they did that with Biggio and Lugo, and Florida traded Matt Clement for Tino martinez, which really didn't make sense to me, either. Still, it is fun.
Another plus is that there are injuries. I have already had Sean Lowe pull a ribcage, Warren Morris break a finger, and and Jack Wilson was day-to-day with something.
Larry Walker, as usual, is out 2-3 months, which probably facilitade them taking Derek Bell for Cust.
Well, sorry for the rambling, I just love to talk baseball
Lemme knwo what you think, applenut.
)
