🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993May20....@cabell.vcu.edu> csc...@cabell.vcu.edu (Ian M. Derby) writes:
>
>I need opinions on which you think is the better baseball game and
>why.  
[snip, snip]
>How do both games stack up in league play, etc??  

I haven't played Tony Larussa (actually, there's a Tony Larussa II now), 
but I own Hardball III so I'll give you my likes and gripes:

Gripes:
- I only got the game about 2 weeks ago, so I've only played one short
  (13 games) season.  At the end of the season, the players' career stats
  were not changed to include this new season.  Now, after reading the 
  manual (who reads the manual _before_ playing???), it says that the
  stats shown are last years stats.  Perhaps if you play a full 162 game
  season, they will be updated at the end of the season -- I don't know.
  It just seemed like a lot of work that didn't count for anything.

- The pitcher seems to catch anything that comes within 20 feet of the
  mound.

- There seem to be far to many "leaping catches" -- a ball that seems
  destined to get to the outfield is snatched out of the air by an
  infielder, who I figure must be about 12-15 feet tall ;-)

- The computer only changes pitchers when they are getting tired -- a
  pitcher being shelled for 5 or 6 runs in an inning is not taken out.

- Homerun totals are unrealistically low.

- Foul territory is not shown entirely.  This means that your player may
  have to run off the screen to catch the ball.  This is bad enough, but
  twice I've had a guy bobble it while off the screen, so I had to roam 
  around blindly looking for the ball while the opposition was merrily
  padding its way around the bases.

- You have to buy a separate disk to get all the stadiums.  I believe
  TLII also has this 'feature' though.

- Schedules are not dynamically created, ie. every new season you start
  will have the same schedule.  I haven't played enough baseball sims to
  know if this is standard or not.  Perhaps a schedule generator is too
  complicated for them to incorporate.

- No drafts or trading.  You can export/import players to simulate a 
  trade, but that's about it.

 
Likes:
- I really like the interface.  Its very easy and straightforward to use.
  I've seen many messages on the net asking how to advance more than one
  base, but this is right on the reference card, so I don't know what the
  problem is.

- Al Michaels does the commentary.  Its kind of choppy, but I like having
  a play-by-play. Also, if it starts to get on your nerves, you can turn 
  it off.  TLII also has play-by-play commentary now, but I haven't heard
  it so I can't compare them.

- Batting averages are too high.  Most baseball purists would put this
  under gripes (maybe you would too), but I like getting hits and seeing
  some action on field.  Constantly striking/grounding/flying out is not
  what I call fun.  I'm sure I'll get flamed by the above-mentioned purists,
  but hey, that's my opinion :-)

     I know it looks like my gripes outweigh my likes, but the truth is, I 
think this game is *fun*.  Most of its failings come from lack of realism, 
but if you're looking for a baseball action game, I think this is the one 
for you.  If you're looking for realism and lots of stats, look for 
something else.

     I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say about TLII since 
I was thinking of buying it too (Maybe get the best of both worlds: action 
in HBIII and realism in TLII).  I haven't seen much about it other than a 
couple of bug reports.

BKS

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