Wow...so it took me all of two days to get frustrated with this game again. I started back with my Yankee franchise trying to get myself back into the game. I wanted a challenge and had been playing on All-Star, using the "perfect" sliders from the vault (when I stopped playing 2 months ago, my record was 3-11).
For the most part, the sliders provide a realistic game, but I just can't help but feel that certain aspects coded into the game end up ruining it. They are small things, but they generally give the CPU extra at bats, or end up altering the game's outcome completely.
For one, the fielder diving in this game is flat out broken. I know their goal was to eliminate the vacuum catches, but this is so much worse. When a ball is hit two feet from you, but at a decent (not blistering, but decent) speed, you HAVE to dive to get to it. And most big league fielders should be able to pull this off. But I've got guys like A-Rod and Teixeira just flopping, diving over the ball. This is infuriating.
Another thing related to fielding is I HATE how they'll have one infielder lunge at the ball like he is going to go after it. I might just be an idiot but this fools me almost EVERY single time into thinking that I'm controlling that fielder. By the time I realize I'm the other fielder, the ball has rolled into the outfield and all the runners are safe. Switching to the fielding cam can be disorienting enough without having players moving who have no shot at the play.
Another thing I hate is the umpire "personalities". Again, I know the intent behind this was to make the game more "realistic", but what they've ended up with is so far from that it makes me sick. Yes, there are bad calls in every game in real life, but not to the extent and severity that they are in this game. I've had several at bats where I was pitching and threw 5 clean strikes (ball completely inside the strikezone) and ended up walking the guy.
And with the way this game naturally plays (hard to get hits, generally low scoring games), you just can't afford to be walking people. And usually after getting severely squeezed, my pitcher won't be able to find the strikezone to save his life. I know you can turn variable strikezones off, but not once you've started a franchise...and I started my franchise using Ridin's rosters that weren't screwed up by SCEA's crappy patch, and the historical stat glitch, and all that other crap they botched in this game this year.
This leads me to my final rant, which caused me to replay the same game over and over at least 3 times today. The last game I played before I put the game down for two months was against the A's, where Rivera blew the save and I lost. My first game back (last night against the A's again), same situation, Rivera again blows the save, and I lose. Odd, but I let it go thinking I'm just rusty. I play the final game of the series today...same situation again. AGAIN, Rivera just blows the freaking save.
Yeah, it would be easy to assume that my pitching just sucks, but all of these games were like 2-1, 3-2 scores, where I was only allowing 4-5 hits for the entire game. Then, in the 9th inning, Mo starts getting rocked, and the CPU is getting 3-4 hits in the inning to win the damn game. I haven't looked into it too much, but is there some kind of CPU rally slider in the game? It just seems ridiculous for me to not be able to close out a win.
I guess I could always turn the difficulty down to Veteran, but I know I'm not horrible at this game...and it wouldn't be much fun to dominate every game either. It's just these little things piss me off to no end. Needless to say, I don't think it's anywhere near as good as last year's game (which was my favorite baseball game ever). Sorry to rant about all this. I'm just disappointed that for whatever reason, I just can't seem to enjoy this game this year.