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To start with, the game offers a wide variety of modes. The best in my opinion were the options to play franchise mode and the coveted home run derby mode. The franchise mode lets you control everything from personnel moves down to how many souvenir stands that you want at your stadium. You have the option to handle all the expenses of your ball club and stadium like paying for scouts and field upgrades as well as generate income from things like television contracts, bank loans, and vendor sales. The cool part is that you can pick and choose what areas you want to manage and what areas you want the computer to manage for you. I would strongly recommend this if you are not strong in math because the fiscal management of the team becomes a full time job. The best option here is the personnel moves. You control not only moves on the big league level but you also can moves players up and down on the club’s Triple A and Double A affiliates which is pretty cool. So when it is late September and you are out of the playoffs, you can bring up that hot prospect to see how they do in the bigs. This mode lets you play a full and grueling season and offers all the stats and awards you could ever want. The HR Derby mode is also very cool. You select 10 players of your choice and at your choice of stadium. This is great when you have your friends over and just want to mess around with the game.

The game play is outstanding. It gives you really as much control as you want. You can play basic or get very technical with controlling angles for hitting and fielding. Until you get the game mastered, I would say keep it simple. The controller set up offers easy use and keeps the game moving along just fine.

The really notable feature is the graphics and sound. The camera angles really are quite different as you get a lot of good visuals of the play on the field. Some of the angles seemed unusual at first but were really cool. The player detail is outstanding as the players look as they are in real life and even had the same mannerisms and batting stances. I really loved the stadiums as they were very detailed and left nothing out. The game offers a wide variety of cut scenes that tie the games together well. The sound is also exceptional as you get a genuine ballpark feel. If you have surround sound, use it because you will hear the sounds of Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field as you play.

Overall, I was very impressed with 989’s effort on this game and would strongly recommend it to any baseball fan for certain. This is a definite buy for the gamers that enjoy the sports genre.