Format: PC | Genre: Sim

Baseball Mogul's 2009 edition typifies the good and bad about the simulation genre for sports games. It is a very complete simulation of baseball, with full stats for all players since 1901, and game simulations that go down to every individual pitch. However, the game doesn't really deliver at all on the graphics and sound fronts, with one image for batters and pitchers, and some unfortunately irritating sound effects.

However, the baseball sim player is likely more interested in the choices to be made as a manager in a statistical sport like this one. The game has a full database of every player and every statistic for more than a hundred years of baseball, and you can start your managing career with any team at any year in that range. For instance, my project was to make the Seattle Pilots, who in the real world only lasted a year before being moved to Milwaukee as the Brewers, a serious contender by 2008. As of 1978, I still haven't gotten there, but I've really felt an emotional attachment to my draft picks that made it to the big time, and will enter the game's simulated hall of fame. Baseball Mogul uses its historical player and stat database to re-generate all of those players when they would have come up for the draft, meaning a lucky player can catch on to Mickey Mantle or Chipper Jones or anyone else while they're young, and see if their franchise can turn them into the greats they really became. On the flipside, a good manager can turn real life failures into hall of famers, just by using the farm system wisely, and knowing when to bring them into the spotlight. This makes for a very interesting game, particularly when moving players around in your lineups and trades.

The player is allowed several options for how to actually play the game. You may simply simulate seasons, and watch the game unfold, or choose how the batter reacts to every pitch, or any step in-between. I have one game going in which I watch the game go by in the manager's role. In the aforementioned Pilots game, I tend to simulate weeks at a time, checking back in every now and then to switch the lineup around for injuries and the like. Both modes are satisfying, and it's nice to have more of a choice than other games like FIFA Manager give you.

As for the graphics, some gamers will surely be disappointed that there really isn't much there. Your experience, if you tend to simulate, is relegated to charts and calendars. If you watch games play-by-play, then you get the same batter up against the same pitcher all the time graphic-wise. The game is very text-heavy, but simulations sort of should be. Even then, the game supports pictures of players in small boxes alongside their stats, but there are almost none of these for historical players. The pictures aren't there for all of the modern players, either. Computer-generated players are given a nondescript, fuzzy picture of someone in that baseball player's role. Any screenshot can show you what you'll get with the game, and it's not graphically pleasing.

Sound is in an even worse situation. There is no music, at all. You can play your own quite easily in another window, but the game doesn't feature any. The only sound you get is during play-by-play mode, which gives you some basic bat-meets-ball, ball-meets-mitt sound effects and fan noises. The game sounds are fairly good, with even some different sounds for what kind of hit the player made, but the fan noises can get really irritating. The fans always, after every single play, either boo or cheer, some times more loudly than others. This is inaccurate, and annoying. The fans wouldn't, realistically, boo a batter if he hit a fly ball all the way to the fence, only for it to be an out. There also aren't any specific fan chants, or songs, or anything, but that's okay. The main challenge for sound effects in a sim game is to at least not be annoying, and these fail in that respect.

Despite the negatives about the graphics and sound effects, those things aren't that important in a simulation. This game is fun for the stats and interesting choices. Any real baseball or simulation fan can have a lot of fun seeing players develop and age, prompting new choices about their lineup for the next game. Keeping the economics of a baseball team together for the next season is very rewarding. Players set their own goal and trade and rearrange and even make managerial calls to reach it, which is what a baseball sim should be.

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The Good: Very complete simulation, lots of choices for how to experience the game

The Bad: Fairly bare graphical interface, not many player pictures, fans either cheer or boo loudly after EVERY play

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Gameplay 9 Graphics 4 Sound 3 Overall 8 / 10

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