Sega isn't just using the names and facial textures of the players, though. A player's ability will be based on real-life data associated with him, but that's to be expected nowadays anyway. Eve more exciting would have to be the inclusion of signature batting and pitching styles for all the hottest players, so the big name boys will look the part just right. The game's sim aspects look to be just as bold. Hot and cold zones will illustrate a batter's streaks and slumps as you play through season mode.
Weather is accounted for in the game, and is based on seasonal atmospheric patterns.
Sega's promising that weather will affect gameplay, although no word yet on whether we'll see the occasional rained out game. Also on call is injury tracking, where the severity of a player's injuries will influence the number of missed games. We expect the control scheme to contribute to this feeling as close to the real game as possible, despite our having never played the game - WSB99 and Sega's Saturn baseball games would certainly suggest as much. Pitching in Sega's old games is handled through a cursor system where you can aim the general direction of the pitch once you've started your windup. For batting, the designers of the Dreamcast game don't have access to the swivel controller of the arcade unit, so when rigging WSB99 to run through the standard DC control pad at Sega's Pac Bell Park attraction, they made the right trigger function in similar fashion - pushing down on the trigger all the way results in a full swing and pushing down partially results in a small swing.