Gameplay Sound    Graphics Value Genre: Sports Min OS X: 10.5

Out Of The Park Baseball 12 September 19, 2011 | Steven Marx

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Click to enlarge I'm So Excited!

As you may have gathered from the description so far, graphics are not a huge part of this game. However, if we focus on the graphics and user interface of the game, it can be said that the developers have done their best to make sure the graphics are functional and add to the game rather than creating eye candy that hinders rather than helps. Buttons are large and easy to read, the purpose of icons is generally clear, and information is presented in a logical and easy to read fashion.

This last is important because playing this game involves your ability to access the information you want or need as easily as possible with a minimum of frustration. Many of the screens you look at will involve player or team statistics and/or rosters, and you’ll want to manipulate these in various ways. In this sense, the graphics or UI works for the game as, as mentioned above, things work the way you would expect them to. You can often sort by columns by clicking on them (although I did have some issues here when clicking on a column sorted, but not apparently by the column), clicking on individual lines will usually move to a new screen with even more details, and right clicking often brings up contextual menus with all expected and available options.

If you decide to play out individual games, you’ll be presented with a screen showing a baseball diamond with a background based on the actual stadium in which your team is playing. Much like using the Gameday feature on espn.com or mlb.com, although less so, as play progresses you get animations of a baseball moving for hits and of course updates by pitch or batter.

While not graphically intensive, the game designers have taken care to make sure that the user interface and graphics make the game easy to use and play. Buttons are large and clear, information is displayed in easy to interpret form, and navigation is available in many forms depending on your preference.

Unless you decide to take control and manage an actual game, OOTP has no sound, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It means you can play whatever you want in the background and not worry about it interfering or being interfered with by the game sounds. If you do manage a game, you’re greeted with realistic crowd sounds and sounds of the game such as hits, the pitch hitting the catcher’s glove and such. I will say that sometimes the crowd sounds didn’t seem to know if I was at home or away. I mean, I know the Cardinals have fans everywhere, but when the home team makes an error, there are usually boos, not cheers. That said, I found the minimalist approach to sound appealing. In-game sounds are limited to background sounds which keeps them from getting too annoyingly repetitive which seems to happen in many games.

If you’re looking for a baseball management game that gives you complete control over your team as a general manager and/or manager, the ability to play current, historical, fictional, international and major and minor league teams, and mix and match them into whatever type of league you want, you should look no further than OOTP. Oh, yes, and online play is available as well so you can test yourself against other would-be GMs. The degree of control is sometimes overwhelming, but the options should appeal to fans of sports management games.

In addition to being able to play in all these different ways, you can keep starting new leagues so you could play the same season over to see how things changed. This is just to give a sense of the extent of replay or continuing play value the game offers. While my season running the Cardinals didn't work out so well, I'm kind of enjoying being the manager of an AA team, although it's not doing too well either (no hitting, good pitch). And I look forward to playing some historical leagues from the early 20th century to see how I can do there. I'm even looking at online play, something I've never done with any game, but matching wits in baseball is something I think I might be ready for. As you can see, for baseball fanatics who want to do more than just watch the actual games, OOTP offers more than could ever have wished.

OOTP is the most complete baseball management simulation around. You can try and create a multi-year career as a manager/GM or just jump right in and control your favorite team. Using up-to-date statistics from the start of the 2011 season, match wits with the computer or other online players to see if you have what it takes to make it in the show. You might not like the results of your meddling, but you certainly can’t argue with the statistical validity of them, even if things don’t play out the way the do in real life.

Yeah, just because my starting pitchers kept going down with injuries even though they’ve been healthy this year doesn’t mean it wasn’t very possible, as the three most disabled pitchers in my season are traditionally the most disabled. Besides, the game has Pujols having another monster year, which he isn’t, so I can’t complain there. But still, it wasn’t supposed to be this way! I had everything planned out perfectly! We should have been in the World Series! Oh well, there’s always next year.

	Out Of The Park Baseball 12
	Developer: OOTP Developments
	Download Out Of The Park Baseball 12 Demo
	Download Out Of The Park Baseball 12 Updates
	Buy Out Of The Park Baseball 12 now at MacGameStore.com

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