Possibly the best baseball game I have ever played.
Graphics - The stadiums are very detailed and look just like the real ones. Even the old-school stadiums you un-lock look just like they did back in the day. The players themselves have smooth flowing motion and it really looks like a real Baseball game. Excellently programmed.
There are a couple of different game modes you can play. There are the Mini-games where you can practice hitting in certain directions or hitting colored targets with specific pitches. Each mode enables you to learn each pitch or to hit in certain directions which ultimately help you while playing out a season.
Then of course there is the Owners mode and Dynasty mode. I decided to play out the Dynasty mode so I dont know too much about the owners mode except you start out with very little money and you have to build a championship team and you can control ticket prices, food prices and even build up the stadium and billboards. The dynasty mode has you play out 120 years worth of seasons which inculde pre-season and off-season decision making. With the salary cap in place you have a limit as to what you can pay your players and they also have a say as they can deny your offers for money amounts and years of contract. There are so many options available that any senerio is possible. Once you have your team in place you can trade with other teams based on their salary caps as well. This helps so that not one team has every star player.
Pitching - This is not hard, but not easy either. You can select where you want the pitch to go but that doesnt mean it will go there automatically. You have to click and hold down the button and release it in a certain spot to get the best accuracy. If not, your pitch could be smacked over the fence or thrown in the dirt or just off its mark. Control is the key to winning.
Batting - You can direct the bat and try to hit the ball in certain directions but its not that easy. Depending on the pitch and whether or not your swing was early, late or perfect. Running the bases is simple as simply holding down a button will make you advance or retreat.
One of my favorite options is the create a player mode. Of course I created myself as an All-Star but you can make any type of player you want from weak to strong, side armed to overhand and any color/race. You can then sign yourself as a free agent to play for whatever team you want.
There are many options to choose from hroughout the game, such as warming up pitchers in the bullpen so they are at full strength when you bring them in the game, double switches, replays and so on. Too many to describe them all in this review.
Overall I have to say that this is one of the best baseball games I have played in years and it never loses it's replay value. Only negative is the repeated comments from the commentators gets annoying after a while.But the soundtract from some of todays rock groups makes up for them.