BREAKING... (The official RBI '14 Thread)

[RBI Empire]

Is anyone here close to target Field? I am going to be on a training next week Sunday through Thursday and I plan on hitting a game up some evening maybe Tuesday or Wednesday.

I live in North Dakota but sadly I only get over there about once a year. Target Field is pretty nice though. The jalapeños are spicy!

[BeefMaster]

I'll be at Target Field with my brothers next month, but too far for an impulse midweek trip, as fun as that would be.  With the Twins sucking, attendance is down, so check the secondary market for cheaper tickets.

Empire, where are you at in ND? I grew up in northwestern SD and have a brother in Bismarck.

[RBI Empire]

Dickinson. I moved here back in 2002. It's a great place to raise kids but too far to make impromptu trips to Minneapolis. It's about a 7 hour drive. 6 1/2 if I don't make many stops.

[BeefMaster]

ONE feature that I noticed does not exist in RBI 2014 is cpu vs cpu mode.  No prime up mode, hopefully there will be a future update for this one.  I was thinking about how much more development may be required for this update and began thinking what type of AI design would have to be incorporated to do the cpu vs cpu. Any one know about the complexity of designing the CPU vs CPU mode and the level of complexity that would be required?  Just wondering if they did not include this feature out of the gate for sake of keeping it simple or not.

It already includes AI for both offense and defense, so I'd assume you could just run them at the same time.

Most likely, it was left out because they didn't realize that there were crazy people like us who would find it interesting.  Yet another way that they would've been better off doing a straight port rather than a full remake.

[Turd]

Well mine will be done soon. Hopefully with cover art, and some other surprise I'm efforting that once again I can't promise will but not for lack of effort.

[BeefMaster]

Dickinson. I moved here back in 2002. It's a great place to raise kids but too far to make impromptu trips to Minneapolis. It's about a 7 hour drive. 6 1/2 if I don't make many stops.

I've spent lots of time in Dickinson, although I haven't been there in the last decade or so, so I haven't seen it since the oil boom.  Dickinson was the default "we want to go somewhere with fast food and a mall" Saturday destination, if we didn't feel like putting in the extra hour-ish to get to Bismarck.

[BeefMaster]

ONE has found running the IOS version and using the mac app Reflector allows the game to be displayed on the mac display. Not sure if I am liking the controls on the xbox or the iPhone at this point TBD.

Still growing on me on the Xbox.  It seems like they always pick the wrong guy for a ball in the 1B/2B and SS/3B holes - I want the middle infielder, and they always pick the corner guy, so I start in the wrong direction and miss it.  I'm also not a fan of the switch to actively controlling the guy with the ball, rather than the direction+B running to a base.  It feels really unnatural when, for example, throwing in to second from the outfield, as you have to make your guy turn away from where he's throwing before he makes the throw.  It doesn't affect the quality of the throw, but it feels weird, and honestly if they were going to switch that so dramatically, they may as well have gone to the newer-school pattern where you throw to a base by picking the appropriate face button on the controller.

[Turd]

I'll be at Target Field with my brothers next month, but too far for an impulse midweek trip, as fun as that would be.  With the Twins sucking, attendance is down, so check the secondary market for cheaper tickets.

Empire, where are you at in ND? I grew up in northwestern SD and have a brother in Bismarck.

I was able to score a ticket 8 rows behind home plate for tomorrow's game for $20. Thanks for the suggestion to go through secondary ticketing...StubHub FTW!

[BDawk]

I got it on my phone/ ipad.  I like it.  Not quite as perfect as the old game but a terrific phone game. 

[Turd]

I agree mostly, Dirt, but for me, I don't view it as a replacement from the original...I'll likely play that more, I think.  14 is a great game though, and perhaps i'll even play it more when it comes out for the console...

[BeefMaster]

One big positive about the new game - my son is on much more equal footing with me than with the original, so he's been much more excited about playing the new one with me.  I will be getting in much more video game baseball thanks to RBI 14.

[RBI Empire]

Dickinson. I moved here back in 2002. It's a great place to raise kids but too far to make impromptu trips to Minneapolis. It's about a 7 hour drive. 6 1/2 if I don't make many stops.

I've spent lots of time in Dickinson, although I haven't been there in the last decade or so, so I haven't seen it since the oil boom.  Dickinson was the default "we want to go somewhere with fast food and a mall" Saturday destination, if we didn't feel like putting in the extra hour-ish to get to Bismarck.

Yes, it is definitely the fast food and mall town here in the western half on North Dakota. But you wouldn't recognize this place anymore. It's crazy how the oil boom has really made this city explode. There are so many new buildings and businesses up here along with 8 or so new hotels. It's now second in the nation as far as rent and cost of living go, only behind Williston, ND, which as you probably know is north from Dickinson 2 hours. Luckily we bought our house 9 years ago and it didn't effect us outside of food costs. But with 4 kids, it does add up. Not a bank breaker though.

[RBI Empire]

I have a new blog entry up. It covers the aesthetics of RBI 14.

http://rbiempire.tumblr.com/post/82699867003/rbi-baseball-14-the-good-the-bad-the-how-can-we-fix

[BeefMaster]

Your blog touched on two things that also bugged me.  The tag animation is a disaster - your throw has to beat the runner to the base by a LONG time to actually get an out, and it's disappointing every time you think you have the out and fail to get it.

Regarding the rosters, you mentioned the fact that (most teams') Opening Day was the 31st, so they had 10 days, but the rosters they used were even older - I checked the Twins' transaction logs, and the three non-roster players they included were let go on the 24th and 25th of March.  Aaron Hicks (who's not in the game) was confirmed by Gardy as the starting center fielder a few days before that.  About the only thing I can see that makes sense is that they figured that they should have rosters finalized at the time of the first official regular-season game, the Australian series between the Dodgers and D-Backs.

[RBI Empire]

Your blog touched on two things that also bugged me.  The tag animation is a disaster - your throw has to beat the runner to the base by a LONG time to actually get an out, and it's disappointing every time you think you have the out and fail to get it.

Regarding the rosters, you mentioned the fact that (most teams') Opening Day was the 31st, so they had 10 days, but the rosters they used were even older - I checked the Twins' transaction logs, and the three non-roster players they included were let go on the 24th and 25th of March.  Aaron Hicks (who's not in the game) was confirmed by Gardy as the starting center fielder a few days before that.  About the only thing I can see that makes sense is that they figured that they should have rosters finalized at the time of the first official regular-season game, the Australian series between the Dodgers and D-Backs.

I think disaster is the exact word for it. I've even had plays where my runner goes in standing up while the ball barely beats him there and yet he's called safe. Now that I expect it it's not a big deal, I basically just have a split second long heart attack whenever I try to steal a base and wait for the call.

I'm not sure what the deal was with the rosters. Maybe you're right and they had them finalized for that very first set of games and left them that way. Grady Sizemore is another guy missing from the Red Sox who won their opening day spot in center field. He's not on the game either. The Braves still have Medlen and Minor on the roster. Medlen won't pitch this season and Minor won't be back for a while. I guess you have to declare the deadline sometime, so whatever I guess. It should be fixed with the update.

[BeefMaster]

Yeah - if they're adding online play at some point, then that'll almost certainly have a roster update to go along with it.

It'll be interesting to see what they do for next year (assuming this game is successful).  NBA Jam On Fire Edition came out at the beginning of the 2011-2012 season, but it has had regular roster updates since then, as recently as the beginning of this season.  I thought that was a nice touch, rather than EA's usual "bleed you for a new release every year" strategy.

Then again, that was also the second version of the NBA Jam remake, and it was an improvement over the original pretty much across the board, so maybe we should hope for at least one fresh release of RBI to get in some of the features we've been looking for (more authentic RBI gameplay, or at least an option for it; classic rosters; more gameplay tuning).

[RBI Empire]

I bought the disc version of NBA Jam on 360 when it came out. I never did pick up the On FIre edition. I might trade my disc in and get that download. I liked the disc version but it still lacked that replayabilty of the original. If the On Fire edition at least has roster updates that might be the way to go.

[BeefMaster]

I had the disc version on the Wii, so I also had a basis for comparison.  On Fire Edition added a bunch more extra teams, a bunch more historical players, a better system for unlocks (you get "Jam Bucks" for winning games and performing various "challenges", and you buy stuff using those), tag mode (so you can switch players, on both offense and defense), and they brought back Team Fire.  About the only additional thing I could've asked for was the create-a-player mode from NBA Hang Time.

[RBI Empire]

I think you have me sold Beef. I'll have to pick it up now.

[RBI Empire]

Hey guys, I just posted Part 2 of my thoughts on RBI 14.

http://rbiempire.tumblr.com/post/82827423714/rbi-baseball-14-the-good-the-bad-the-how-can-we-make