Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Out of the Park Baseball 2006 Released

For those who care:

Out of the Park Baseball 2006, a massive update in the OOTP game series, has just been released. This game is different from a lot of baseball video games, in that the focus is on player management, development, and strategy, rather than on hitting a virtual baseball. You take on the role of a manager/general manager, setting lineups, making trades, signing free agents, and developing players you draft as amateurs in your minor league system. This new version features a new interface, faster simulation, and the ability to simulate not just the major and minor leagues, but also the Korean, Japanese, Cuban, and Mexican leagues at the same time.

Check it out by following this link. Beware, this game can suck away hours and hours of time--but you'll be having a blast!

5 comments:

  1. This game sounds cool, but do they have real MLB teams and players?

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  2. I've been a big fan of the OOTP franchise. In your experience (and maybe you haven't had enough time to play it to make this judgment), is it a significant upgrade over the last edition.

    I still have the last edition on my computer, and I still play every now and then.

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  3. @anon: OOTP lets you upload data from the Lahman database, so not only does it have real player's stats, but you can update those stats after every season for free.

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  4. I've been playing the new version a bit. And I'm torn. It clearly has great potential--it's a complete rewrite, and it has a great deal more depth to it. The interface is very different...it might be better, but I'm not sure. I feel like I'm clicking a lot to get anywhere. But there are some bookmark-type things that I've started to use, and those save a lot of time.

    But it also clearly needs a lot more work. It runs a bit choppy on my dinky little laptop, and some very basic things -- like seeing stats from the prior year in the lineup/pitching pages -- are not yet supported. But Markus has been very good about updating and supporting his software, so I have little doubt those things will be fixed soon. -j

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  5. @anonymous, in addition to the lahman database, there are community members who are always updating roster sets to keep them current, so that's never a problem. You can also find photopack and such via the community. Though to be honest, I prefer to play with fictional players, because I get irritated with the virtual players (especially the Reds) don't play up to their real life counterparts! :) -j

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