OOTP11 review, Out of the Park Baseball 11 Review

Out of the Park Baseball 11 Review

Out of the Park Baseball is now better. Cadillac of text-based sports sims entered its 11th season this spring, highlighting other lengthy list of slight developments to its unique take on big-league baseball. Apparently, this doesn't look like must have consequence, as owners of last year's game possibly live without minor improvements here like MLB rosters out of box, an overhauled interface, and upgraded simming. But many of these additions and tweaks grow on you, improving game play in so many modest ways that you soon won't be able to get along without them.

At heart of OOTP11 is major league baseball model that has been out on more or less yearly basis as late '90s. You sign up with ballclub of your selection at start of supervisory career, then guide it through nooks and crannies of as many seasons as you like, either solo or online as part of multiplayer league. All important decisions are yours to make setting daily lineups, selecting starting pitching rotation, figuring out structure of bullpen, making trades, renewing contracts, issuing offers to star-free agents, choosing young talent in draft, and so on.

This is full baseball world, where you can do anything that Buzzie Bavasi wannabes do in real life around majors. The only catch is that all of this exceptional depth is relayed through text-based HTML interface that navigate in similar way you would utilize web browser. Notice that bit jarring for those coming over from glitzy console baseball games such as MLB: The Show and MLB 2K series. There is no visual chrome here. The closest you even come to "graphics" is in manual simulation screens, where you see games played over rudimentary diamond and follow action by reading textual play-by-play.

Latest modifications to interface make it simple to find way around. This is friendliest OOTP yet. Although you spend much time learning dense lists of player ratings and stats, game takes you by hand on opening day by placing it all out for you. It's impossible to get lost as hints are doled out. The manager screen totally reworked with icons for important functions and even a calendar that shows big team events in some days. Drop-down menus allow access any task with single or double click. Screens can be bookmarked, permitting to make way back to menus that using on regular basis. Immersion has been ramped up with changeable news feeds as addition of league news and standings updates to simulation screen keeps you in touch with what's happening in league when simming games.

To conduit some tasks, always hand over decisions to bench bosses in both majors and minors. Sim times are zippiest yet, permitting to plow through week of action in no more than some seconds and call through season in mere minutes. This is far cry from somewhat slow OOTPs of past. You can obtain bewildered by stat acronyms alone as game now delves into esoteric territory, like ERA+, OPS+, and FIP. But you don't have to be walking, talking Hall of Fame fanatic to settle in and begin building a pennant winner. You just want interest in national activity and enthusiasm to study.

Latest aspects are shinier than interface twists and new stats being tracked. The headline addition is addition of real major league baseball players and team names. Now, rather than having to change fictional franchises and scrubs with big-league team names and rosters given by molders online, you can get right into close approximation of real 2010 MLB season without any excitement. Historical play support that allows you step into baseball history at any point in 1871 and 2009 has been beefed up, because of new historical replay mode that optimizes player ratings based on whether you are playing single season. Money is also adjusted over time, so economics move forward just as they did in real majors.

You can modify how players are rated at end of seasons; you have option of using core OOTP engine for development, basing development on how players carry out in real life. So if you are worried that your take on 1927 result in hurt Babe Ruth hitting .250 with 20 home runs and screw up his career arc, you can choose latter option to wipe this out to go back to ratings based on what Bambino did in real life during that eventful season. This is sort of magic reset button to balance for potential problems with simulation, but it does keep evolving careers on track for those who want to run correct replays of consecutive seasons. Few fantasy is dead on arrival, as illusion of going back in time is somewhat shattered by Baseball News Network handling league info in 19th century, players being given uniform numbers decades before that custom started and modern ballpark in background with Ozzy Osbourne clips on PA when simming games.

If you own previous year's game, OOTP11 is not fundamental buy. This year's game does more than tread water with its incremental steps forward. Interface is user friendly, MLB players out of box is addition, and historical developments make for correct season replays than ever offered before by OOTP game. So though you don't need this sequel, you want it and for most diehard baseball simmers.