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Addicting yet frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This review is based off the demo version of Baseball Mogul 2009. This allows you to play the complete, real game through one season.

This is my first interaction with a baseball sim. I have played a lot of weak franchise modes throughout the years on consoles and the PC. I thought it would be interesting to try a franchise game with lots of depth and realism.

Baseball Mogul 2009 is actually almost too realistic, and in trying to fill all the holes it seems to forget the basics of the game.

I was astounded at the amount of options in this game. Players are rated on everything, you control prices for everything, and it even goes into detail to show you what teammates your players are friends with! You'll spend a lot of time just seeing what's available about your team.

I do appreciate that the minor league systems are accurately stocked. In previous video games, upcoming stars might be nonexistent by the release of the game. This has the important players from the rookie leagues through AAA. I also like that I don't have to manage the minor leagues to make sure they have full pitching staffs, lineups, etc. as was necessary in MVP Baseball 2004. The game allows you to auto-sort your minors to put players on the DL or on the right levels of the minors.

While the depth is incredible, the game has problems on what seems like the simplest of levels. This starts at the play by play game. It allows you to manage a game from three perspectives - player, manager, and GM. Player allows you to go through pitch by pitch. I couldn't see anyone doing this when trying to sim full seasons. Manager mode allows you to "Bat" or "Pitch" and pick options regarding the defensive alignment or stealing bases. GM just lets you watch the manager mode.

My biggest issue with these modes is that you have to watch the pitcher go through EVERY windup motion on the mound. Why can't I just click "Pitch" and see the result? Why do I have to see the guy go through his windup and the batter hit the ball in the field? Not to mention the fact that the animations in the field are pretty weak. You end up looking to the text anyway because a fly ball and a double look almost exactly the same.

The game also allows you to stretch hits into doubles or triples, or go for a Sac. Fly. Unfortunately it does this by showing you the fielder's arm and the batter's speed. Sounds simple, right? Well, when the outfielder is 270 feet from home plate with an arm of 73 and my runner is 67 feet from home with a speed of 70...uhh...uhh...you end up resorting to trial and error to see what ratings combos work.

Most people in the Moneyball era know that the goal of each game is to work the pitcher to high pitchcounts to get into middle relief - the weakest piece of most major league teams. However, I found that middle relief often SHUTS DOWN your team, while starters and setup guys are the easiest to score runs off of. Why is this the case? Starting pitchers are also most vulnerable in the first inning, and this is portrayed in the game. Usually bringing in a pitcher with guys on base gives you a bad result. Unfortunately your starting pitcher will give up first inning runs and your relief pitcher clutch base hits way too often. I know, it's realistic to have the starter weak in the first, but this doesn't have to happen every game!

I also found that injuries are too common. Maybe there is an option to turn this off, but I haven't found it. Pitchers will also get injuries on off days - this happens occasionally but again is too often in this game.

Finally, there is no easy way to view playoff statistics. In my game, Wilson Betemit of the Yankees sat on the bench most of the year and had about a .204 average. However, when getting to the playoffs, he had a hot game or two and instead of showing how well he was doing in the playoffs, I saw stuff like ".210" next to his average. I had no idea who was hot and who was not at this most important time. The only way to view playoff stats was to click on each player and scroll down to see his stats on his player card.

Another huge pain is that viewing box scores results in the game opening up windows internet explorer! What a waste of time!

I could go on, but most of the issues you'll find with this game are the same. Tons of depth, tons of options, but it leaves some simple concepts out. Even simming games can be difficult - you can't just "sim to date", you have to "sim to date then play this game"...sure, you can go to the windows toolbar and make it happen, but why so many clicks to do something so easy?

I think I'll still end up buying Baseball Mogul because it is addicting, it is mostly realistic, but you're going to wish these problems were solved - especially flaws that should've been erased years ago.

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