Historical leagues are now considerably easier to run as the game is much better at managing the baseball’s evolution, both in terms of teams changing locations and stadiums, but also how the games finances and statistical patterns have changed over time. In-game sound effects, which were MIA in the past few editions, have been restored. If you’re a fan of the OOTP mod community, the game now includes the ability to download and install mods in-game, and Out of the Park Developments claims a host of other tweaks and improvements that affect game balance; things like improved player rating calculations, improved contract AI, etc. Unfortunately, it’s exceedingly difficult to tell how significantly these improvements affect gameplay.

In a test simulation using the default MLB 2008 rosters, after a mere five seasons the Tigers’ roster had been almost completely overhauled, with just two of their current players staying in place. As a result, the team had returned to its traditional home of AL Central doormat. What’s crazy about it, though, isn’t that the game wheeled and dealed too much or that it mishandled its players. It’s that player ratings just didn’t affect reality. Too many strong, young players in the player database have such mediocre ratings, that it actually made sense that a Justin Verlander (admittedly after an injury) would find himself a AAA bottom feeder after just a couple of seasons.

These results, though, are interesting in that they confirm that the AI does do a reasonable job of managing its roster as my simulation didn’t reveal an overabundance of unquestionably bad moves. And it’s not a player development issue, as historical rosters and fictional rosters suffer from no such anomalies. (This is not to say there were no bad contracts or moves to be found. But the number of them wasn’t beyond the pale.) Bottom line, the included MLB 2008 rosters are just weak. The good news is that, over time, the mod community is sure to address this shortcoming by coming up with better, more accurate MLB rosters than those that ship with the game. That said, players will still get a better experience using fictional players or running a historical league that doesn’t utilize the 2008 MLB database.

If there’s anything else to complain about with this game, and there isn’t much, it’s the UI. Oh, it works. There’s no doubt about that. But you get the feeling when playing it –ever so brief pauses between a mouse click and an on-screen action, for example- that it just does too much re-inventing of the wheel. There’s already a strong UI for running an application in a windowed spreadsheet-like environment: It’s called Windows (or Mac OS). And it does a pretty good job. It’s not a deal breaker by any stretch, but, ultimately it just feels like the game would present better if it used customized, but conventional operating system structures (dialogs, menus, buttons, etc.) for its user interface instead of using its own engine.

In terms of statistics, the game is a marvel. Issues with the MLB database aside, player development is extremely believable with annual crops of new players producing talent you could see coming from miles away, but also the occasional highly-rated bust or player with questionable early talent that suddenly blossom into a future all-star. Likewise, season to season stats produce believable results, with a player or team occasionally doing something that would be regarded as historic. In a ten season test simulation, the Twins once put up 120 wins in a season, but it was not a feat that they or any other team repeated. It’s this kind of reality mixed with the unprecedented that really helps make OOTP9 an engaging experience.