Out of the Park Baseball 23

my phillies franchise missed the playoffs two years in a row so its realistic!

Endless hours ruined by them literally editing our save files, corrupting them, leaving us with a broken game. No warnings, nothing (legal) we can do about it, and no way of any kind of refund because we technically still have the game they sold us. Games change all the time... updates, DLC, etc, but what they've done here is a whole other deal. Actively tampering with and ruining things we've spent the best part of a year creating is simply unacceptable. No recourse, all that time ruined, leaving us to "deal with it". Never again.

Right now its a thumbs down, its OOTP and its a fantastic in depth simulator BUT FAR too many bugs right now don't don't allow for a long term save to be started (mostly regarding player development) Give it a few weeks of patches and this game will then be a thumbs up. For now stick to OOTP 22 for a few more weeks

Some fairly substantial upgrades from 22. Highly recommend it for players of the franchise. The new tutorial system makes it a great place to jump in for new players as well.

While I completely support games like this I don't understand why they make the same greedy choices EA does, trying to sell some virtual currency for a dumb ultimate team, err Perfect Team, concept. I wish they had an original idea instead. Even if you don't buy the points/packs it seems more dev time gets put into this crap than the actual game. Still no borderless window mode, still no way to turn off autosave on exit, so many little things ignored.

I’m not best at writing reviews but here goes. First bit of back knowledge I have not played OOTP since OOTP 20. Between OOTP 17 to OOTP 20 I had 1400 hours played. I also played Football Manager 2021/2022 combined I have 2,500 hours. Main thing going to try to do is point out this game to those don’t know baseball at all. I got into “Soccer”/Football later in life and didn’t know difference between Center back and Wing Back. Knew nothing. Baseball however I knew pretty much inside and out. Learning a complete new game that was loved was challenge for me and you can find that challenge in OOTP just like I did with FM. Which obviously by hours played was great! Those who never played OOTP need to know there has been VAST improvements with tutorials with OOTP 23 compared to 20. If you know absolutely nothing about baseball that is perfectly fine. Not only do they have nice tutorial but just like Football Manager you can delegate duties to your staff on all fronts. It’s exactly like how they do with Football Manager and I would say it is on par with it now something couldn’t say in OOTP 20. It has made it very easy to delegate say your starting lineup to bench coach. Then when you learn why a person bats 1st (Generally get on base often and are very fast) and why person bats 4th. The ability to slowly progress and add more to your duties can’t be overstated. This was genius from Football Manager and great they put in OOTP the way they have. Even if you haven’t played either approach it like I approached Football Manager. It’s highly loved franchise and I treated it like I would any strategy game. Learn the mechanics, learn the systems work, etc etc. After you do your like “Forget it is a sports game this is a great game period” There is great feeling with OOTP like you would have from Civilization/Crusader Kings. You take over team and start building it up (like you would your nation in these games). Assuming things go your way, make right moves, etc you see your team go from 50 wins in a season to 63 to 73 to 85 and then you made it to the play offs. If your really good and lucky maybe go from 50 wins in a season to 85! Always chance though going from 50 wins to 40. It can be soul crushing to lose in play offs/world series but it is absolutely rewarding as hell when you DO win the World Series. There is no guarantee even with team won let’s say 100 games will be the Champions. Even making the play offs is a rewarding accomplishment. It’s like taking Hull City and after few years they play in their first Euro Championship game. Exactly the same The end result is so rewarding without even being World Series Champions. Watching players you drafted, traded for, become all stars or bottom minor league system player forever because they couldn’t break though is rewarding and it is heart breaking. Also for those play FM the FM Editor you have to pay for OOTP has also it just comes with the base game. Which is the brightest spot with this game. You can make a complete baseball universe to your liking. You can make league name it what you want, put player made teams with cities/names to your liking, you can make players, you can do anything possible in the baseball world. I’m a Cubs fan so when Addison Russell was found out to be wife beater. Well I ruptured his spine in several places, broke his nose, gave him gout, but what finally ended him was I gave him career ending bruised thumb (Found that funny that was what ended his career. I just made injury last for 20 years). One thing advise to first turn off is turn off draft 5 rule. This is confusing but do turn it on later as you get a better handle on game. I only bring that up as it shows just how much you can do. Change the leagues, change the teams, make a stadium, make a uniform, everything one can possibly think off. Build everything from the ground up. Anything you can imagine and it is so much easier than FM editor. It even comes with quick start game where they use Regulation system like you find in Euro Football which find amazing. You don’t have to be into sports to like this game. It is like me and Football Manager. Sure, it is a sport but at the end of the day is a masterpiece of strategy game with very high pay off or very big broken heart. Take out it is a “sports” game and think of it as strategy game. OOTP winning world series is like finally taking over the entire world in CK3 (Though learning curve is absurdly easier on OOTP than CK3 for newcomer) There is one negative I will say about this game coming in as new player. Even with tutorial it does take a bit to figure out where everything is at. You will get it with time but so many different menus it can be taxing. Finding out where upcoming free agents, your line up, upcoming managers need to be resigned (or not), etc etc. Once you figure out where it is all at though it’s cake from their. Graphics wise it isn’t The Show. That doesn’t matter at all though. Stardew/Minecraft/Etc have all shown it’s gameplay > graphics. This game is exactly the same. If you on fence wait for sale. It’s already been marked down to 50% and I am sure it will be again.

They reworked trades!!!!!!!!!!!!! one of my biggest beefs for years has been the inability to make large multiplayer deals with other clubs. You can now shop a player and ask for a "player package" or "prospect package." You even have the option to allow the other club to add other players from your organization to make deals work. For long time OTPB players like myself this was enough for me to be happy with this years edition. I have had the game for less than an hour and felt compelled to stop playing and write the review. If you loved it before, you will love it even more this year. Kudos to the Dev team!

I've watched MoneyBall, then I've read MoneyBall. Now I am playing MoneyBall. On a serious note, To enjoy OOTP, you have to have 1. an interest in numbers and stats 2. you have to have an interest in either learning Baseball, or already know the game. And the more of either one - the better For people coming from FootBall Manager, OOTP is as good in quality as FM, but it is different, there's less RolePlaying - interaction with players, holding conferences. There's no training schedules to set. But there's more numbers to understand and strategy and tactics to change during and in between the matches. I have not played previous OOTPs So I have no reference about changes from previous releases. As such, 23 is my first game in the series. So far I am very pleased with what it has to offer.