Keeps me coming back to manage another game

This is my first version of OOTP, and I wasn’t sure how much I’d like a game where I can’t actually see the players pitching/hitting/running/throwing, but it is surprisingly compelling. The realism is there, and the stats are jaw-dropping in their detail. I’m learning more about the various teams, players, and the rules of the management game each and every day by virtue of this program. I find myself compelled to come back to it each day for another quick game.

The only reasons I have to give it one point off are:

1) The mouse click regions are a bit too small and sensitive to movement before the up-click, especially with a trackpad, so that there are far too many times that I click on a button and it does nothing because the cursor moved a little bit before the up-click. In such cases I have to repeat the action while actually concentrating on not moving the cursor during a click if I want it to be recognized. Clicking on a button shouldn’t be as unforgiving to small movements as it currently is.

2) I have yet to see a single play where a strong throw from the outfield actually beats a guy trying to stretch a hit for an extra base … that should happen at least once in a while (although maybe I’ve just been unlucky thus far).

3) There are a few combinations of options that should be available to the team in the field that aren’t - like an instruction to “pitch around” a batter for the complete duration of an at bat, rather than doing so one pitch at a time, or the ability to signal the first basemen to hold a runner while simultaneously giving a signal to the pitcher for a specific type of pitch approach (right now it is either one or the other).

4) The text printout of the play-by-play can be a bit of a struggle for old eyes like mine after a while, and the games themselves could become SO much more compelling if they could convert that text into audio … then it would be just like listening to a radio broadcast. It wouldn’t even slow the game down, since the pacing of the play-by-play printout is similar to that of speech. In my opinion, such an added feature would push this game right into the stratosphere and beyond. Maybe in next year’s version?

Windcrier about OOTP Baseball 16