OS Weekly Wrap Up, Getting You Caught Up on Sports Gaming News (Feb. 2 - Feb. 8, 2020)

In a nutshell, it’s easy enough to quickly master the basics, yet deep enough to appeal to your tactical taste buds. FT&G is a turn-based game with each side fielding a full team. Matches progress with each team having three moves. As you get better players or learn special skills, you will sometimes gain extra moves. However, at the start you’ll be limited to the standard move allocation of three.

Each turn (a completion of three moves) takes roughly 5-6 minutes off the match clock, which means you can fly through games and will probably experience a few 0-0 or 1-0 matches until you get the hang of it. Once you become familiar with your squad and the commands, you’ll start to score more frequently.

Now, of course, the changing of a player’s overall rating does not mean a whole lot on its own. What does actually matter is which specific ratings were changed. Now, when it comes to this series, I also have to point out the elephant in the room — hey, this is Operation Sports, it’s what we do — and mention the lack of player separation. It’s fun to talk about ratings, but until franchise players play differently than star players, and star players play differently than depth players, overalls will remain merely just a random number in some respects. But that is another discussion for another day.

The game flows very well, and its back-and-forth action kept me engaged throughout games. You really can’t take your eyes off the screen because you will miss the action. The gameplay is intense and will give your thumbs a workout. This works for me because the games are relatively short and normally last around 5-7 minutes. Basically, it’s just enough time to sneak in a quick game, or get in multiple games if you are on your mobile device for a longer period of time. I am normally not a fan of fast-paced mobile games because I lose interest with the touch controls, but that has not been an issue here.

On Thursday February 6, San Diego Studio will host its first and second Twitch streams highlighting some of the new features coming to MLB The Show this season. The team decided to treat the public to a sneak peak today, giving a quick glimpse into what to expect on Thursday’s shows. This week’s streams will highlight on-field defensive fundamentals, including new animations. The second stream will highlight some new introductions to the hitting engine, including a new “Perfect PCI-Perfect Timing” reward system at the plate.

Here’s what we learned today…

If what we watched today on the Sony San Diego stream holds up, it seems the feel on defense is going to be much different this year. Defensively, developers felt the game was “getting too predictable in certain situations” and wanted to bring a “new level of risk and reward” to players in different circumstances. Baserunning had also gotten stale, something developers also recognized. So MLB The Show 20 is going to try to highlight the extraordinary plays and ensure players weigh the pros and cons of employing different players and their actions across the diamond.

After watching the second stream of the day, this one dedicated to hitting, one thing became very clear: the developers want to make sure appropriate outcomes take place at the plate. The hitting engine in MLB The Show 20 will try to mimic that of true Major League Baseball. Developers have built a new outcome mechanism that should allow the game to play more like real life.

After spending multiple hours testing and racing each new track, I can say the wait was well worth it. Each new track feels different and offers extremely different experiences. Obviously, certain in-game cars performed better than others at each new track, but overall the new additions to the game take Assetto Corsa Competizione to that next level of authenticity.

I already felt this was one of the three best racing games to hit the market in 2019, so this hefty DLC only adds to my enjoyment of the game. The team at Kunos Simulazioni continues to put together a great racing package here.So MLB The Show 20 is going to try to highlight the extraordinary plays and ensure players weigh the pros and cons of employing different players and their actions across the diamond.