![]() ![]() With Tony B throwing the final out, naturally. So while the new games are almost certainly an ardent fans' wildest fantasy, I still prefer to dream of finally achieving the highest accolade in a game released more than four years ago. Four years on, I still haven't won that World Series I spent an entire summer striving for. But in my head, Bay and Hermida are as vital a part of playing it as that archaic interface and no-frills colour scheme. I know OotP is going to continue to evolve and improve. And I've become attached to new, fictional stars from the draft classes the game self-generates every year, like the incredibly monickered Tony Bustamente: a name like a GTA villain, and fastball that's just as deadly. My star players in the virtual world, names like Jason Bay and Jeremy Hermida, have long since had their best days in the real sport. Yet I still wheel him out day after day, because I can't bring myself to release one of the real team's heroes. The Sox's best player in real life, second baseman Dustin Pedroia, is a fumbling, powerless clown in my OotP 8 game. The real madness is that any suggestion of my team mirroring reality on the virtual turf – which is why people play games like Football Manager and OotP in the first place – disappeared long ago. I've made eyes at the newer editions every year since, but despite their suggestive winks back in my direction, I've managed to avoid being tempted away by their wares. OOTP has it all covered Play Your Way Franchise Mode: A single-player oriented mode where you can run your favorite MLB, international or fictional baseball organization. And so, writing off almost £30 two days after I'd bought the game, I ditched all hopes of forming a successful marriage with OotP 9 and instead returned to my old flame. Sure, they looked Spartan, but those were the colours I associated with baseball, and I wanted them back, dammit. The clean, crisp blue-and-white interface seemed almost too slick – I'd gradually learned to love clunking my way around OotP's ugly, awkward menus, and missed their unsightly green backgrounds, brown menu bars and basic white fonts. The follow-up duly purchased, I immediately tried to apply everything I'd learned the previous year to a new team, the Oakland Raiders. I prepared to start afresh with a new team in OotP 9. After all that effort, I was crestfallen, and my interest in the game waned as the rest of the year went by. My Sox made the World Series, but lost pathetically to the New York Mets. But all those hours ended in crushing disappointment. It was one my finest summers: making excuses to escape the pub so I could sit in my flat with the windows open and set my boys on the road to sporting greatness.īear in mind a baseball season lasts 162 games, so even in this virtual world, it took me months to plough through that first campaign. I filled an entire notepad drawing up strategies for youth players to target, and plotting out my minor league organisations, spending nearly as much time on my virtual team as real-life coach Terry Francona did on his. ![]()
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