Out of the Park Baseball 25
- March 15, 2024
- Out of the Park Developments
- 55h median play time
Get on Steam"Out of the Park Baseball 25" is an anniversary edition of the award-winning baseball strategy series, offering a complete baseball simulation experience. Manage your team's lineups, pitching staffs, and in-game strategies, or play out each game in the 3D game mode. The new Player Development Lab allows you to shape the future of your upcoming stars, adding a new layer to the player development system. This immersive game offers a vast array of features for both casual and hardcore baseball fans.
Mac OS
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Reviews
- OOTP 25 is the best baseball sim available, offering incredible depth and customization for baseball fans.
- The new Player Development Lab feature allows for more control over player growth and adds significant depth to the gameplay.
- The game is highly addictive and provides a realistic simulation experience, making it a must-buy for anyone interested in baseball management.
- The game suffers from frequent crashes and corrupted save files, leading to frustration for players.
- Trade logic and AI decision-making are often unrealistic, making it difficult to execute fair trades.
- The focus on the Perfect Team mode has led to concerns about the game's balance and the monetization aspects, making it feel pay-to-win for some players.
- gameplay40 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay in the latest iteration of the game features numerous small improvements and a deep, customizable experience that appeals to both new and veteran players. However, it presents a steep learning curve, with some users noting a lack of clear tooltips and reliance on community input for understanding mechanics. Overall, while the gameplay is engaging and addictive, there are calls for more detailed explanations of game mechanics and additional features to enhance the experience further.
“Very addicting gameplay.”
“The detail and data as well as gameplay and depth are just amazing.”
“The amount of settings available to customize the gameplay to every player's liking is staggering, something I've never seen before with hundreds of options.”
“I spent over 200 hours staring at statistics on a screen with no actual gameplay.”
“I shouldn't have to play in commissioner mode to force proper game mechanics.”
“On the negative end, I'd say that there's a general lack of tooltips, and so you're very reliant on hypotheses from other players on forums for what certain mechanics even do.”
- graphics38 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many users describing them as crude or in need of improvement, likening them to outdated visuals. However, some players appreciate the ongoing enhancements, particularly in 3D graphics and stadium portrayals, noting that they surpass those of other similar games. Overall, while the graphics may not be the main focus for many players, there are significant improvements that enhance the gameplay experience.
“There have been major graphical improvements with each year's OOTP for those players who want visuals during gameplay that far outshine any other realistic GM-sim on the market (not counting The Show, of course, but that's not for PC, anyway).”
“The day-to-night sky backgrounds as games progress, and especially the modern stadium portrayals that come with the game, make for some gorgeous graphics for what ostensibly is a GM sim.”
“Also want to mention that the 3D graphics are improving each year and this year is no exception.”
“Hideous with graphics made on crack and animations made on PCP, but great game; kind of like an ugly woman who is nice and cooks really well.”
“The graphics suck.”
“3D graphics still need work.”
- story20 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The storylines in the game are highlighted as one of its best features, providing engaging narratives that enhance the overall experience. However, there are criticisms regarding various gameplay elements, such as AI lineups and contract issues, which detract from the storytelling aspect. Overall, while the storylines are well-received, they exist within a framework of gameplay challenges that some players find frustrating.
“Storylines are actually one of the best features in the game.”
“It's so easy to create an engaging storyline in your head for all your players.”
“They have almost perfected the perfect points with a lot of missions that adds some fun for an old card collector.”
“I got this year's the day it released and have spent countless hours every day on Twitch getting drops and spending every piece of in-game cash on finishing missions to get the cards just to be grossly outpaced by a lot of the pack.”
“But that’s another story from thousands of hours across a dozen versions that could equivocate to anyone’s particular gaming oeuvre.”
“To be fair, story, Casas, and Devers usually make at least one error a game, so that is realistic.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been criticized for being highly buggy, with users reporting significant issues such as problematic geometry in 3D views and a general feeling that the game is released in a beta state. While there are no crashes or major graphical glitches, the persistent bugs detract from the overall experience.
“I haven't owned a game in decades that was this buggy.”
“Every year, the game ships as a buggy beta.”
“I thought the new features would not be so buggy as to be unusable.”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as situational, with players finding amusement in the initial challenges of gameplay and the absurdity of the bridge-building concept. However, the humor is somewhat undermined by the frustratingly small and overly complex navigation icons, which detract from the overall experience. Additionally, the inability to create funny team names limits the comedic potential.
“Can be a little funny to work out the kinks at first, but after you do, the game flows very well.”
“Which is hilarious as a bridge building concept.”
“The navigation icons on the left are all for menus/functions that are a bit too wordy for an icon to represent them; it does not help that they are hilariously small, which means you might as well just use the terrible UI elements that they duplicate but in a pictographic way.”
- monetization6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The monetization practices in the game have drawn mixed reactions, with some players criticizing it as a cash grab reminiscent of predatory models, while others note improvements that make it more accessible and potentially viable for free-to-play users. Comparisons to the heavily criticized monetization in Lost Ark highlight concerns about pay-to-win elements, particularly regarding combinators. Overall, the sentiment suggests a cautious optimism about the game's monetization approach, though skepticism remains.
“If I were in the stands at a real baseball game, and this game's devs were pitching this, I would be booing this cash grab nonsense!”
“Combinators are akin to the monetization practices in the game Lost Ark, which is infamous for being one of the most pay-to-win games in existence.”
“Perfect Team seems much more accessible and less predatory monetization-wise than the last time I played, making free-to-play possible (although no idea if it will be able to compete at the top leagues).”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and time-consuming, particularly with the player development lab feature, which offers minimal gains for the effort invested. However, some users noted that this issue was less pronounced in version 25 compared to earlier versions.
“The player development lab feature sounded awesome on paper, but I found it to be really tedious and time-consuming in reality for little development gain.”
“In previous versions, this can sometimes get tedious; in v25, that wasn't the case at all.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The optimization of the game has been praised for its smooth release, with users reporting no bugs or performance issues since launch. Extensive beta testing has contributed to a well-functioning historical simulation and a new rating system that effectively addresses statistical outliers. Overall, players are highly satisfied with the game's performance.
“This has been a really smooth release - as I've seen no bugs or performance impacts since release day.”
“As someone that put in months of testing, running, rerunning, then running again, the historical simulations in beta testing to ensure that the new rating system was able to better address statistical outlier seasons and align each player to their historic performance, I could not be happier with how the historic part of the game turned out.”
- music2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music and sound effects in the game, including crowd sounds and ballpark music, generally enhance the experience, though players have reported occasional sound bugs during gameplay.
“There are some sound bugs during play by play (crowd sounds, ballpark music, etc), but not a lot.”
