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Intro
Despite the prominence of the Baseball Mogul titles in the mainstream gaming media, the struggle for supremacy in the realm of text-based baseball simulators has been anything but a cakewalk; in fact, the crown arguably went to the stellar sim Out of the Park Baseball 3 just last year. With its meticulous attention to statistical detail and its ability to accommodate a wide variety of playing styles, it stood as one of the best games of the year, despite its relatively quiet and highly acclaimed release. A year later, its Out of the Park Baseball 4 has emerged onto the market, bearing a great deal of polish and shine in the hopes of tiding over fans for yet another season.


Gameplay: 9.5/10
If you haven’t already checked out our review of Out of the Park Baseball 3, it’s advised that you do so; after all, this year’s edition of the game plays out much the same as last year’s. You’re still set in the shoes of a team owner, and you’re still very much capable of running the show as you see fit. Make trades, sign free agents, adjust lineups and pitching rotations, bust poor performers down to the minors or bring on an up-and-comer, sit in on the games and call the shots or let your coaches handle the details…it’s all still here and still every bit as exciting as it has been in the past. However, don’t think for a second that the game is just a rehash of last year’s brilliant title; Out of the Park Baseball 4 features so many additions, improvements and tweaks that it easily stands head and shoulders above its predecessors and is definitely something that no true stat-frenzied baseball fan should do without.

For starters, you’ve the players themselves, who are laden with so many added stats and attributes that they take on a personality all their own. From details as trivial as the player’s place of origin to crucial elements such as clutch performance ratings, the added stats help to paint a considerably more fleshed-out and charged portrait of your ballclub. Don’t be surprised when your favorite slugger in Out of the Park Baseball 3 turns out to be a surly cash-grabber who makes no bones about willing to jump ship for the highest bidder. This addition also gives pitchers a bit more of a true-to-life feel, as each one now has a velocity rating and a particular set of pitches that they’re capable of throwing. Since you’re not able to select which pitch to use – partially due to the fact that the games are still not on a pitch-by-pitch level quite yet – this change is more cosmetic than anything else, though any change that injects more realism into the title is a welcome one. In fact, it’s much more satisfying to note within the play-by-play that a scorching 95-mph fastball nailed the final strike of the game, or that a badly thrown curveball enabled your slugger to belt one over the fence.

As players are no longer personality-free blank slates, it’s rather fitting that you now have a much more effective way of dealing with them as well as your staff and even other clubs. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the new in-game email system, which enables you to communicate with various personalities in the Out of the Park Baseball universe with ease and simplicity. Instead of having to plod through menus and contracts and whatnot, most people will simply email you whenever something important comes up. This prevents a great deal of headache, as players will now use this system to let you know if they’re retiring at the end of the season, if their contract is coming up, or if they want to be traded to a better team; meanwhile, your coaches will clue you in to the occasional development while other clubs will notify you with trade offers, all through email. It’s not all-encompassing, but it’s certainly solid enough to provide you with the absolute necessities, and helps to make matters feel more realistic. Also greatly appreciated is the introduction of a long-desired trading block. While Out of the Park Baseball 3 would see you go entire seasons without fielding any trade offers, this new feature allows you to garner a great deal more offers than you would ordinarily.

Other items, though less obvious as those mentioned above, are just as far-reaching and important. Take the optional revenue sharing and salary cap, for instance; they’re the perfect items to help rectify the gross imbalances that can occur in an unchecked baseball market, and can turn your basement-dwelling club into a genuine contender. For similar reasons, the longer and drastically improved free agency period is now worth talking about. Free agency now stretches to 30 days, in which time you can make offers to anyone without a contract, and much like the system used to woo coaches and scouts, players will generally go to the team with the highest and best offer. However, thanks to the new player stats, an individual’s sense of loyalty to their current team or desire to win may override financial considerations. Once everyone’s on board, purists can finally get their hands dirty in the minor leagues, as minor pitching rotations and lineups are now open for you to manage. If you’ve been dying to put that promising catcher or fiery young pitcher through the paces, now’s your chance to make sure that they get the on-the-field experience they’ll need to cut it in the majors.

Fan presence is a great deal more important this time around, as they’re now something other than just a statistic on your team info page. Fans now react much more dynamically to your team’s successes and failures, as reflected by the new Current Fan Interest rating, which fluctuates depending on a number of factors. If you continually win games – especially at home – then it’s not unusual to see the fan interest rise, thus prompting greater ticket sales; do badly or work yourself out of post-season contention, then don’t be surprised when sales slump. To give you a hand in bringing people to your park, you’re given free reign to schedule a limited number of special promotional days, which range from Bat Day to Noddin Head Doll Day. Each comes with a cost attached, though you’ll likely find the increase in fan attendance to be worth the initial fee – especially since a home-team win on such a day is almost guaranteed to kick fan interest up a notch or two.

Complementing the new sense of reality that pervades the rest of the game is the welcome set of adjustments made to the game of baseball itself. Once you’ve settled contract problems, worked through the lineups, and dug in your heels for an actual ballgame, you can expect to deal with a range of new factors that will affect the outcome. Foul balls have been brought into the mix, and while it might not sound particularly earth-shattering, it helps to make things more tense while serving realism a little more justly. As in real life, a batter can nail ball after ball past the foul poles; as a result, pitchers are worn down much faster, causing those with poor endurance to struggle to reach past a handful of innings. To make things worse – or better, depending on your perspective – for ailing pitchers, the local weather can have some adverse affects upon scoring and endurance. On a windy day, you might find that a ball that ordinarily would have sailed foul has instead been pushed into the stands for a home run; it’s a painful way to go. Similarly, rain and snow delays, however interesting, batter your pitchers’ endurance, which can be a tough situation to deal with if you had your ace pitcher on the mound in a clutch situation. It’s in cases like this that you might find the “argue call” option to be of use. That’s right, you may now storm onto the field and holler at the ump if you feel that a call was questionable. As in real life, this very rarely changes his mind, and in some cases will even result in your being ejected from the game! While you’re sitting out the game, letting your coaches run the show, you might want to take advantage of the newly renovated out-of-town scoreboards, which are vastly improved upon from last year as they now show you the location of various runners as well as the names of key batters and pitchers. Since it’s all run on a “real time” system, you might find that some games are halfway through or even complete before you even throw the first pitch, while others might only start as you kick into your seventh-inning stretch.

For the die-hard fan, Out of the Park Baseball 4 stands as a near-perfect example of what a stat-based baseball game can and should be. However, there are a handful of flaws that mar what is otherwise a highly enjoyable experience. For starters, a very small percentage of Out of the Park Baseball 3 users will be unable to transfer their leagues over to this year’s edition; I myself was victim to the problem, and although the problem is an isolated one, it is still a shame to find yourself forced to abandon a team you’ve led through years and years of play. Additionally, the manual, although sleeker, more user-friendly, and considerably easier to absorb than last year’s, is decidedly less informative. A disheartening amount of basic facts are left out, especially those surrounding the newer features; while it’s possible to discover answers to potential questions simply through experimentation or visiting the surprisingly vibrant official message boards, it’s still somewhat surprising to find certain tidbits of information missing. To its credit, it makes the game easier for newcomers to handle by featuring a comprehensive and very well-explained tutorial, which certainly serves to make the game more accessible to those who might not necessarily be computer-aware. Finally, a number of crashes and gameplay bugs are littered throughout, though it should be noted that it’s an incredibly small number as compared to your average modern-day release, and it’s a number that’s steadily shrinking thanks to the diligence of the developer.

Minor problems aside, the sheer realism and fun offered by the wealth of new options definitely marks Out of the Park Baseball 4 as a title worth buying, even for those who found themselves floored by the previous installment in the series. The gameplay shines brighter than before, and the addictive quality has somehow been ratcheted up a notch or five. If you’re the slightest bit of a baseball fan and don’t mind the absence of arcade action offered in traditional genre titles, you have no excuse to not pick up this game.

Graphics: 8.5/10
Just as last year’s installment was graphically a quantum leap beyond the year before, Out of the Park Baseball 4 is drastically sleeker and sharper than last year’s. While Out of the Park Baseball 3 brought the series out of the DOS-style look and gave it a Windows sheen, this title goes one better, spit-shining the entire product. The game now bears a decidedly professional look throughout, complete with Windows XP-style buttons, plenty of rounded corners and high-quality background designs. Even the ballgame view has been improved and polished, although the fields themselves still leave a little to be desired. Still, it’s a rather minor complaint considering that a wide variety of “park packs” are available across the many fan sites dedicated to the game. Apart from that small visual quibble, there’s not much to complain about and a lot to admire in the graphical department.

Sound: N/A/10
There’s still no sound, which is just fine. This is a text-based game, after all.

Control: 9.5/10
Thankfully, nothing has changed in this department, apart from a handful of improvements that render your life as an owner that much easier. The email system alone will save you a great deal of headache, and the various tweaks and alterations sprinkled throughout will leave you wondering how the simple click-driven interface could get any better.

Overall: 9.5/10
When all is said and done, the wide number of new features and changes to the series’ core gameplay lifts Out of the Park Baseball 4 above the glory achieved by its predecessor and places it solidly as THE title to beat in the world of stat-based baseball. It feels more realistic, more accessible and more empowering for the player-owner as the scope of the game has increased to such a degree that one can’t help but marvel at the sheer baseball-flavored perfection to be found within. Between the high-quality nature of the title, the developer’s relentless drive to improve the game and the unrivaled vibrancy and helpfulness of the fan base, there’s precious little to fault in Out of the Park Baseball 4. It’s a modern classic, and one that’s not likely to be toppled by anything short of Out of the Park Baseball 5.

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