Out of the Park Baseball 9 (2008) - PC
Review
Figured that this one was probably under no threat whatsoever, but its still time to nab it. I think quite possibly the best sports management sim in the gaming world for at least the last 5 years, and every year they tweak it a little more. Add a new feature, a little better A.I. They are independents, but have formed up a large and dedicated fanbase. Its not about directly controlling the players (which of course distorts realism horribly). Its about controlling a franchise through the years. You can manage lineups, rotations, and even pitch by pitch. Or just sim things out for a week, a month, or a whole season. Pull guys up from the minors, pick guys up off of waivers, bench guys when they are cold, start them when they are hot, manage endurance levels, all the normal lefty/righty/home/away/night/day/month by month/clutch and forever modifiers. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING is in here. Drafts, trades, contract negotiations with free agents (and all of your players have personalities that determine how they react to you + your team), financials, a complete minor league system, you hire every coach, every scout, every minor league manager (and if they suck, they will mess you up, especially your scout). You take them from spring training through the World Series. Draft the next generation of generated players, compete for current free agents in open bidding wars. Guys develop, or not (they all have different potentials), guys get old, get hurt (with all sorts of injuries, some of which linger and limit them). Guys even get drug suspensions, and if they do, they lose popularity, and you suffer at the box office. Fatigue matters. Leadership matters. Work ethic matters. Ego matters. And if you are Kansas City, every single hot dog sold matters if you are going to be able to afford to field a competitive team every year. Sim it out long enough, and maybe one of your guys will even eventually make it into the HOF. Every one of these since OOTP 5 has been a masterpiece, and its just too bad that these guys are baseball fanatics rather than basketball fanatics -- would kill to see the same treatment for an NBA game.