Thank you SDS -- with an asterisk
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This game is finally starting to look and feel like the life-altering, planet-shifting, mega experience that Tatis Jr. and Coach advertised. Not quite, but it's rounding into form nicely. I appreciate the team at SDS owning the early hiccups and working to polish the game.
It's far from perfect, but this is still the most visually stunning sports game on the market. I would prefer more substance than style. Since there are people on the development team who actually played baseball at a competitive level, it baffles me there are still some basic mechanics that have gone unaddressed. For instance:
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First baseman fielding a ground ball down the line is hit or miss. I run through the runner without tagging him half the time. Occasionally, I have stepped over the bag without tagging it.
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The strike zone is ridiculous. I like the challenge of playing with varying umpire zones, but an unreal amount of pitches where the ball is fully inside the zone have been called balls. Also, there should be way more strike calls on pitches that graze the edge of the plate. The probability of getting those calls either way often depends on situations and who is pitching/hitting, and it seems SDS did a better job of accounting for that in previous games.
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Switch hitters walk up to the plate from the wrong dugout. This is kinda ticky-tack, but since we're here ...
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- Pitchers don't duck when the catcher tries to throw out a runner attempting to steal second base. The ol' "Baseball Through the Torso" trick died when catchers started wearing equipment.
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