Baseball Mogul 2003

"Not too complex, but lacks something"

I originally started playing text sims with the two pack that included Baseball Mogul 99 and Football Mogul. I then continued playing up to Baseball Mogul 2003.However, the Out of the Park/Season Ticket Baseball series beat this game by a mile.But, I you dont like complex sims, this is for you...it is more simple and fast than the competition.

Graphics:9/10

They seem a little bit better than most of the other text sims with their newspaper look.The game watch screen also moves on a bit and looks professionally done.However, most of the ''fake'' pictures(the ones for fake players) look too weird for this kind of game.

Sound: 8/10

At least this game has sound, cause you can hear the crack of the bat on the game watch screen and also a newspaper type sound whenever news pop up.The sound is fairly limited, but at least it does have sound.

Control: 10/10

Just point and click....nothing too fancy or complicated.

Gameplay: 7/10

The game is simple. You have control of the starting lineups and minor league prospects. However, you dont hire any staff, just assigning money to the scouting,medical and farm system staffs.This is simpler, but their is no real mark to tell you if your staff is really good...it only gives you a position comparing it aganist the rest of the teams(for example 1st means the best of the league).Also, you dont negotiate with money, instead, you use a point system that is a really weak alternative.You can also adjust ticket prices and concession prices for beer, hot dogs and ice cream.They are no promotion days or stuff like that.Their is no rookie draft, instead, prospects appear at random at the beggining of the next season and their stats and development depend of the quality of your scouts and minor league system.

You have no direct control of the game...but you can opt to watch it. This screen is really well designed and makes me hope that you could control the action a la Season Ticket.Specially when you realize the stupid mistakes your coach makes.Players deteriorate too fast, cause you can actually see a player win 20 games one season and then turn into the worst pitcher in the league, even when his ability stats are high.

Editor: 8/10

The editor is really good, but it is not as complex or well done when compared to season ticket.Instead of giving you a graphical representation of the stuff you edit, it is numerically based making it more a guessing game than anythig else.

Overall: 7/10

It doesnt have support for Lahman Database, meaning that you are stuck with the default rosters, hurting the replayability. The editor is not that well done and the point system sucks....but at least you can simulate a whole season in under an hour, making it more of a cofee break type of game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/03, Updated 04/27/03