Can I tell you a secret? Please don’t tell my friends, ok? I was looking forward to OOTP 13 more than Opening Day this year.
Got room for one more secret? Good, because that last statement is false. But that’s only because my Detroit Tigers were due to kick off what should be one heck of an entertaining year. But if my hometown team was, say, the Houston Astros, OOTP 13 would have been the clear winner.
Regardless of what team has you as a fan, you should know that there is one hell of a baseball sim experience to be had here. If you’ve played any version of OOTP, you probably already figured that out. But you also may be wondering whether it’s worth dropping 40 bones again this year?
Yes, it is.
As last year was my introduction to this franchise, my subsequent review was quite detailed. If you are new to OOTP, I’d suggest reading that first if you want to learn what this game has to offer because this review will focus on what’s new.
There are three highly touted new features this year. One works phenomenally. One works ok. And the other works TBD. Let me explain:
REAL-TIME SIMULATION MODE
This is one of those features that, when announced, you wonder how they ever left it out in the first place. This works so naturally that you’d think it had been in since day one.
When you enter real-time mode, you choose a desired speed – everything from real-time to 300x – and progress through the day. Think of it like this – with the old way, you would view stats, edit lineups, and do whatever else before you either simmed or managed your game(s) that day. And you can still progress the same way this year. Or you could turn on the real-time switch and watch as the day’s games progress while you fulfill your role as virtual owner.
Games progress and stats update in real time. Do you spot a no-hitter taking shape in the Bronx? Then jump right into that game and see what happens. You’ll either get sucked in until the pitcher makes history or you’ll jump out after a few minutes because he just gave up a double. Then you can just go about your day. All in real time.
I find myself going back and forth with this mode. Some days I use it, some days I don’t. I don’t view this as a blowaway feature so much as a glue that holds the game together. It’s not fancy or flashy, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s all about enhancing the experience of an already great game.
INTERACTIVE STORYLINES
This would be the one that I’m confident will work later. I say that because I haven’t come across it yet in my franchise, but I’m sure that’s because I’m only a little more than halfway through my first season.
But the OOTP website claims that, with this feature, you’ll have to deal with situations that all real owners deal with: bad players. Not bad as in a hitting slump, but bad as in your star player just trashed your manager to the local newspaper. Do you risk alienating your franchise player and fine him or would you rather chance ticking off the rest of the clubhouse by letting him get a free pass? Decisions, decisions.
This feature is optional, so if you’d rather not deal with these things you can toggle it off. I hope to have my own problem to deal with soon. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Schlereth will get busted for a DUI and I’ll have to bench him.
REDESIGNED INTERFACE
This is a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, the new interface is a very welcome change that cleans things up quite a bit. On the other hand, I don’t think it was enough of a change. If OOTP has one weakness, it’s that the design is a little overwhelming. I don’t want to say it’s clunky because that wouldn’t be fair. Once you learn the system, you’ll fly around the screens no problem. It just always feels like things could be a bit easier and more streamlined.
But to be fair, OOTP is one of the deepest games out there. The sheer number of things you can simply do in this game is mind-blowing. So when you consider that and then look at how much more fluid the screens feel, you can’t help but appreciate it.
One thing I would really like to see next year would be a customizable toolbar a la any modern web browser. OOTP implements bookmarks fairly well, but it would be even better if we could change the icons on the right side, for example, to whatever we wanted.
But overall, the OOTP team did a great job of tightening up the design. Screens are laid out much better and the improvement is absolutely noticeable.
—
What keeps drawing you back to OOTP is how deep it is. It’s a classic example of “just one more turn before I go to bed.” Once it sucks you in, it refuses to let go. That feeling is ever more present this year with the new features, an updated design, bug fixes, and performance improvements.
OOTP 13 is yet another solid edition to this incredible franchise. You have to check it out.
OOTP 13 is available now on the OOTP website for $39.99.
*** OOTP Developments provided a promo code to iSource for the review of OOTP 13. For more information regarding our site‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page. ***
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