Some brief impressions from playing it at a friends shop this afternoon...
Nice front end to the game with a lot of options. You can really slider things up, create a lot of content and change the rules around. Enough to make a full MLB mod without programming tools? I don't know. It would take a shitload of work.
Graphics are a slight upgrade, mostly in the form of some better animations, better pitching screens and better hit detection. The fields are terribly bland, but some of the smal stuff like stances and such is nice. I also like how the catcher actually throws the ball back, etc. Still some weird framerate drops at times, occasionally in the pitching meter which is unacceptable.
The Dynasty mode looks neat with a really cool recruiting feature. Is it enough to interest someone who is a huge MLB fan but doesn't follow college? I had the feeling the novelty wouldn't really last and it made it feel somewhat sterile. They really don't do enough to make it seem highly exciting even in rivals games. Still, the different concerns of college ball were sort of cool.
The hitting and throwing analog controls are very functional if hard to get used to. This isn't like Sega's half assed attempts at first person view or the like. Still, throwing is such a sensitive mechanic I got too many errors using it. I could see it being nice to use in both situations, but like most new controller ideas *cough* it's not really that needed to someone who actually plays games.
All in all, I'm not sure I really want it anymore. It plays fine, but without the license I'm not sure the upgrades feel very relevant. Mostly we kept wondering how much we would enjoy it with the teams and players we really follow. It's a cool oddity on a pretty solid engine (not sure about some of the framerate hit on meters though). Damn this whole franchise war.
I'd like to hear from someone if they improved the netcode this year.
