Baseball Mogul 2009 review

Over 11 years, Baseball Mogul has evolved from daunting spreadsheet to a user-friendly General Manager sim. But in its effort to further improve, several important enhancements to the 2009 edition are tempered by obvious glitches under the hood. That’s a shame, since the stats engine powering the number crunching is what delivers the meat of this baseball game, season, and career sim.

You can commence a franchise from almost any point in baseball history - the instinctual reaction is to select your favorite team and dive into fixing perceived problems. The new play-by-play screen uses mutable sound effects over a two-window representation of the on-field action to facilitate the optional micro experience, which involves picking every pitch type and location. That requires an incredible time and intensity commitment, so you’re more likely to opt for the macro mode.

General Manager duties (running the amateur draft, shifting personnel between the majors and minor league system, and negotiating contracts) are fascinating as well, thanks to use of pretty accurate data for current MLB teams and stars. The blend is pure gold for baseball fans, though rough data like newly signed major stars being assigned to an AAA team, or players suggesting a “hometown discount” in their contract negotiations and then suddenly hating where they’re playing, undermine the credibility of this clearly powerful engine.

For $25, the value proposition of this time-sink is impressive if you consider yourself more managerial material than on-field talent. Just remember to keep your eyes out for a patch, and check the official site to keep up to date with the latest tweaks.

PC Gamer scores games on a percentage scale, which is rounded to the closest whole number to determine the GamesRadar score.

PCG Final Verdict: 71% (good)

Jul 1, 2008