So I've been playing offline since release, grinding all the programs and what not. So during that time I always keep my opinion to myself, because we all know offline usually plays fine and you don't really run into the issues that could spoil your experience.
Today I've been playing the event all day long. And it started out okay I guess, some slugfests here and there and just getting my feet wet. Nothing out of the ordinary. But the more I played, the more recurring themes I encountered.
First and foremost, the amount of bloopies/flukies or whatever you wanna call them are simply ridiculous. I understand that it is a part of baseball and it is totally fine if they happen occasionally. But the volume of bad swings that get rewarded are just out of hand at this point. We all like hit variety and we all want contact hitters to be usable, but not if this is the trade off. And that's what I feel is happening here, these hits are a thing because of the complaints regarding lack of hit variety in the past in my opinion.
What I also noticed is that the game, once again, forces my perfectly executed pitches into the strike zone. This was a thing in 18 and it feels the exact same to me in that sense. I have given up staggering amounts of homeruns on offspeed pitches that I spotted almost in the dirt and executed perfectly, yet somehow ended up in the bottom of the strike zone. Why are perfectly executed pitches being punished? What's the point of mastering PPP, which was introduced to widen the skill gap mind you, if you're gonna reduce that skill gap once more by adding randomness to the pitching outcome?
Then I've noticed that contact hitting is broken. Again. Try it for yourself to have a laugh. I played 5 games in a row swinging with the contact button exclusively and I hit 430ft homeruns and got 110+ mph exit velocities all the same. We can no longer see our opponent's feedback, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the players in this community do the exact same thing. Since it widens the timing windows, allows for more solid contact and still gives you the same exit velocities.. why would you ever normal swing or even power swing?
Then there is the overall performance of the game in terms of fluidity and choppiness. I play on PS5 on performance mode and I played in a handful of created stadiums and major league parks that once again induce frame drops and choppiness all around. As if I'm playing on my vanilla PS4 all over again. Try playing an online game at Target Field and you'll see what I mean.
Another thing that seriously irritated me is the amount of weak flyballs and even pop ups on swings where the ball is entirely in my buckshot, albeit in the top part of it. But that's what the game wants us to do, no? Lift the ball with power hitters? So that's what I'm aiming for and I get okay hits for weak pop ups. Again, this reminded me of MLBTS 18.
Last but not least (for now) is the amount of freeze offs STILL HAPPENING. Like how on earth can you not find the issues to this problem for all these years? I can't help but think that these people just don't care or have given up on this problem like "it's part of the game, get used to it". That's unacceptable and laughable in a sense.
I have tried my hardest to find some good things to say as well. I guess I do like the sound off the bat, especially during a perfect/perfect. I also like the fact that fielders have more urgency and you're able to gun a lot more people now with good throwing input. But that's about it.
I'm sorry, but the game is just not very good. Again. I hate that it gives me MLBTS 18 vibes, but that's really what it does. Hopefully the upcoming gameplay patch that has been confirmed will fix many of these issues. If not, I probably won't play very long.
Edit:
One thing I forgot to mention, the PCI anchor. This feature was brought because people wanted to be able to have a sensitivity slider for the PCI. This is not that! The feature is terrible because it is basically guess pitch lite. People can just sit in a certain part of the zone and take away a whole part of the plate. I noticed that some people do this and don't swing until the ball comes into that part of the zone. I don't see how this has anything to do with skill and I think it's a terrible feature that should be removed asap or should be barred from online play.
I honestly can't see how anyone can be enjoying online play in this game. It rewards bad players( and I'm not great, but I'm routinely a cs player) the foul ball bail outs, followed by the perfect pitch that just gravitates to the middle of the plate. Its ridiculous