The beta is still rough in a couple of places, and a few small bugs are still scurrying around, but it is coming along great overall, and is already quite an impressive creation to my eyes. This mode, while not for everyone (those most vehemently anti-pay-to-win will find the monetization less than ideal, but also recognize it as better than most), seems like it will appeal broadly to OOTP players of all sorts, both new and longtime - collectors, competitors, casual fans of the game, min-max gamers, etc.
It's hard to overstate the fun of figuring out who needs to learn new positions and who is the all-purpose backup between Francisco Lindor, Ozzie Smith, Omar Visqual, Mark Belanger, and Andrelton Simmons, then putting together a rotation and bullpen of extreme groundball pitchers.
Or, putting a rookie Ichiro, prime-age Andruw Jones, and a 'Live' Billy Hamilton in the same OF and activating your flyball pitchers. Death to flying things indeed... Oh, did I mention how far you have to hit it to get over the fence in my huge, custom ballpark, or how many doubles and triples Hamilton, Ichiro, Sisler, and other similar players can hit in that type of park if the opposing OF defense is anything short of elite?
Edwin Diaz closing out a game started by Bob Feller and carried through the middle innings by Goose and Rollie Fingers.
Diaz getting shelled, badly. By nobody in particular - some random 40's-grade Live players I honestly had never heard of before the incident. Baseball.
Discovering that knuckleballers (particularly lefties) seem to be quite effective against most lineups in the beta so far, which makes for some very interesting pitching staff decisions... [As a result, Willbur Wood is easily my MVP so far. For context, this was on a team where I demoted Don Mattingly because he was too redundant with Sisler and DiMaggio, so there were more than a few players in the running with Wood.]
Randy Johnson is just downright terrifying in this game mode. I have nothing more to say on the matter, except I hope I open one of his cards on the very first pack. Oh, and ditto Mariano Rivera. It's fun to see the true all-time greats put up impressive numbers amongst even an all-star cast from throughout the game's history.
'Muahahaha my entire lineup is switch-hitting, good luck managing your pitchers you silly AI managers....'
The list goes on. Endless fun.
I expect the auction house will help keep the metagame perpetually fresh, especially during the MLB season when the market for live cards will fluctuate with players' hot and cold streaks. This will be valuable for those with front-office savvy, not just baseball know-how. Stock up on a 79 player if you think he'll cross over into 80 next week, sell/auction off all but one copy once they're gold and people take note, and revamp your bullpen with that vintage Eck you've been saving up for.
Can't wait for the last few things to get fixed up, and for the public beta to go live!! Big thanks to all the devs, who it's obvious have been giving this their all for quite some time now. Keep it up, you're almost there!
Edit: Aaaand, after deciding to open a few packs, out of one pops none other than Mr. Phil Niekro! One step closer to my all-knuckleballer rotation
