Chicago APBA fan Rob Spatz had a chance to beta test the new APBA Online Baseball game. The new game has new features which many fans have been clamoring for.
Here is Rob’s quick review of the game…
I have the pleasure of being one of the beta testers for the online APBA game which allows the ability to play with anyone face-to-face while being across the street or across the world.
I will try not to get to technical but give a quick review. Ad someone on a computer league, the ability to play with my people who have relocated intrigued me. Overall, the game play is solid, but with some tweaks could be great.
The biggest issue I have with the current computer game option is that you see the action, but no card and dice is really part of the play. Also, being the master game, with all of the options, it can overwhelm a master game novice.
What I love about this new option is it is a basic game. Each batter shows their card, and you see the dice result on screen. It feels like you are actually rolling a game. It also gives you the option to play it safe with runners, sacrifice, hit and run, and play in with the runner on third.
Now the negatives… It takes a few seconds (5-10) after hitting the button for the results. Also, some of the pitching ratings are off. Finally, when you go to the second column, the pitching result plays (have had an inordinate number of 65-8’s that have been outs.
Other than that I like the game, and look forward to having a draft option and playing many a game, rolling dice with my computer.
thanks for the review, Rob!
I agree with Rob’s analysis. They need to make it faster after hitting the pitch or hit icon. One issue I found is that
in one game a player was injured but I could not replace the player (and could not figure it out), and the game remained “stuck” at that point.
“Finally, when you go to the second column, the pitching result plays (have had an inordinate number of 65-8’s that have been outs.”
I always thought second column numbers were treated as if they were against a grade “D” pitcher. I seem to recall that from my board game days. Am I mistaken?
Hey Rob,
Have you done any “sim play” I ask because the biggest flaw in the “sim” for BBW is that the computer NEVER tries to steal.
They will steal if you play the computer heads up, but even in deadball era if you sim the games you end up with maybe 10 steals for the league leader.
The micromanager is awful. Lineups chosen are a joke, and you can’t adjust them or set a starting pitcher. The starter will always be pulled after 6/7 innings, although that’s not always a bad thing. The micromanager is programmed to play, not playtest. The only good thing about those games is you can set up situations via manipulating your own roster or even the dice rolls to create situations that need to be tested. However, r\a recent newsletter discourages players from using the micro manager in favor of playing live opponents, where you can’t always manipulate the situation as easily. Most playtesters are playing tournament-style APBA, so it’s hard to try to test elements unless you’re willing to have long losing streaks.
Hello Steve,
Thanks for the information. I guess they are focusing more on the “live play” for now as I imagine that is their target users anyway.
Still somewhat discouraging to hear about the micromanagers, because that’s the one reason I don’t play more on BBW.
I just purchased the computer game, before I purchased played the simulated game and it showed the image of the cards. So I’m playing the game but the card images are not displaying and I can’t figure out how to display the card images, please help.
Thanks, Dennis