My first look at APBA Go Baseball

I got a chance to try out APBA Go Online Baseball game yesterday.  I thought I would give you my initial thoughts on the game.  This is just a quick review since I only played against the computer and haven’t taken on a live opponent yet.

I really had a positive experience with the game and think APBA is heading in the right direction.  There are some things to work on.  I believe APBA is pretty upfront that this release will have issues and hopes fans will help them work them out.  Overall though, it was fun to play and was a quite different experience from the APBA Baseball aka “BBW” game.

I played a game between the two teams that were made available for free, the 2016 New York Mets and the 2016 Kansas City Royals.  I decided to take the Mets.  The Royals were skippered by the Micromanager which I could “buy” for free.  I am assuming APBA wants us to go through the checkout procedure so that we comfortable with the process of shopping in their environment.

What you are getting with the game is the APBA Basic Baseball Game played on the computer.  What is displayed in the game screen are:

• A virtual representation of the APBA card
• A scoreboard front and center surrounded by the two lineups
• A backdrop image of a baseball field
• the roll of the dice
• the same result as the APBA Basic Baseball Game (more on this later)

The game interface is bright, colorful and for the most part visually pleasing.  I am pleased to see that APBA is making changes in how navigation is done in the game.  One of my pet peeves of BBW is moving from one Window to another is accomplished by closing it and opening another.  If my short experience is any indication, it looks like APBA is learning to hyperlink related windows.  If this game is to be used for replays or leagues, I encourage the Company to use “Previous” and “Next” links when dealing with boxscores, teams etc.

A few shortfalls which I’m sure are already being worked on:

• As mentioned by others, there does seem to be a 5-10 second lag after “rolling the dice” each time.
• For the most part, the result description after the dice roll result seems to be short and to the point.  Mostly similar to what might read on the boards.  For example, “Lorenzo Cain strikes out”.  On occasion though, I got a result that was written in very descriptive, “friendly” language.  That is ok except I saw that result again the next inning.  I’m sure that just due to this product being so new.  The text still needs to be populated. 
• A few of the boolean formulas still need to worked on.  (See right)
• If you haven’t played BBW, making roster moves isn’t intuitive and it wouldn’t hurt for APBA to include an in-game help tutorial (because no one reads the help file).

I’m not picking on the game.  It’s a new product and bound to have issues right off the bat.  The web interface of APBA Go allows you to “challenge” other APBA fans.  It also keeps track of your overall won-loss record and of course, you can purchase other seasons that are compatible for APBA Go.  The cost to try it is free.  Here is the link for APBA Go.

Again, I see good things coming from this.  Am I throwing away my dice?  No way!  However, I do see a market for those who have been looking for a computer game that is based on the actual APBA Basic Baseball Game.  With a few tweaks and improvements, this could be it.

Oh, by the way, I beat the Royals.