Out of the Park Baseball 17 Released

Today marks the yearly release of Out of the Park Baseball. Similar to Football Manager, OOTP creates the entire world of baseball and puts managing your favorite team at your fingertips.


There are many new exciting features in Out of the Park Baseball 17. First is the addition of the MLBPA license. While OOTP has always included player names, it now includes thousands of generated likenesses that change based on player age and current team. This license is in addition to the MLB and MiLB licenses so all teams from the major leagues to rookie league have their correct logos.

Graphically, OOTP 17 sports a new redesigned user interface, with more information readily available at your fingertips. This also includes a new “classic” theme, with wood trimmed menus to give it an “old time” look and feel. New advancements in the 3D engine include moving player markers on the field, as well as every MLB stadium remodeled from last year.

From a player development standpoint, OOTP 17 has moved from PETCOA to ZiPS for player rating and potential. ZiPS is a more current and accurate metric to predict future performance of players and will result in more true to life player progression and careers for both current players and generated draftees.

General managers are also more fleshed out in this version. While in previous years things like trading frequency and difficulty were set league-wide, there are now ratings for each general manager. This will liven up trades, as some general managers will make lots of trades, while others will be difficult to deal with and prefer to build their team through the draft. New options for player general managers include player opt-out clauses, and being able to set team lineups and pitching rotations in “GM Only” mode.

For players that like to manage every individual game, you will be presented with many more defensive options such as extreme shifts. Also improved is AI management with regard to pinch hitting and pitcher replacements.

On a more technical note, OOTP now boasts a simulation engine that will use multiple cores on your CPU. This will improve simulating games up to 60% faster than all previous versions. And continuing with the Steam support over the last couple versions, OOTP 17 includes trading cards and achievements.

As a player of OOTP for many years in Linux, I am excited about this new release. Out of the Park has been making huge strides in their yearly releases, from licensing, user interface, and improved AI to make their award-winning sports simulation even better. I look forward to playing OOTP 17 and posting my thoughts.

Grab it from the developer or through Steam. Either option requires Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.