Hardball 5

GROUND RULE DOUBLE

A Review of Hardball 5

by Robert Coffey

Way back when they still made Amiga computers, my friends and I were totally

possessed by Earl Weaver Baseball. We had a league of 6 teams formed through

a nail-biting annual draft and played a 40 game season capped by playoffs

and a World Series. Somewhere in our baseball-obsessed minds the program

ceased existing as a mere game and became an anthropomorphized digital being

of godlike proportions. Our awed references to "Earl" were reverential

allusions not to a pastime but to our guru, our master. Not a day passed



where we didn’t play, or discuss past games, or burn up the phone lines

proposing trades in an effort to turn our teams into ball-bashing

juggernauts. We were stat-quoting, spouse-alienating maniacs who lived and

died with the Bugs, the Rattlers, and the Petros and indeed, years later, my

failure to win a single World Series despite appearing in every one still

sticks in my craw (and if Dave Parker, that miserable loser, had just

performed as well for me as he had in the real world I’d have that

championship ring).

Hardball 5 comes close to inspiring this level of passion. Recognizing that

a great deal of that passion comes with the intimate knowledge of players

that baseball’s copious statistics affords, the folks at Accolade have

significantly beefed up the stats in this latest version while tweaking and

improving the action that has always been Hardball’s hallmark. Hardball 5



is a real slugger as far as baseball sims go, providing great action, a

nifty interface, and a wealth of stats that even Buck Showalter would find

daunting. Even so, there are a number of bugs and missed opportunities that

will keep Hardball 5 out of Cooperstown and a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Those who have played previous versions of Hardball will find little new in

the game controls while newcomers will find the interface pretty

straightforward and easy to learn on both keypad and joystick. When on the

mound the player selects one of up to four possible pitches then decides

location by maneuvering crosshairs in and out of the strike zone. When

batting, simply decide what kind of swing you wish to take and where in the

strike zone you wish to take it – after that it’s largely a matter of

timing, like real baseball. Fielding can be trickier, especially when

trying to steer outfielders toward fly balls, but the auto-fielding option



will relieve you of this duty and get the fielders to the ball while you

still have to decide where to throw it. There are pop-up strategy menus to

let you steal a base or put on the hit and run. It’s a simple and effective

way to play the game.

But longtime fans of the Hardball series will notice some new things, not

the least of which is the new "closest-to-the-plate" perspective when

batting. Instead of the traditional batting perspective encompassing the

entire infield as well as the catcher and plate umpire, Hardball 5 has

brought the game player right up into the batter’s box and brought the duel

between pitcher and batter to life like no other baseball sim. This batting

option is virtually full-screen, giving the batter a better sense of the

strike zone as well as a humbling appreciation of a well thrown curveball.

It really draws you into the action.

The smooth animation and sharp graphics of Hardball 4 have been improved

upon, resulting in a truly striking look and feel to the game. Games can now

be played in all 28 major league stadiums in addition to 12 historic parks,

and all are offered in crisp SVGA graphics. The action is capably called by

the very professional, if not terribly exciting, Al Michaels.

But the knock against the Hardball games has always been the stats and

managerial depth and it is in this area that Hardball 5 really steps up to

the plate. In addition to the traditional ability ratings for every player,

there are stats for everything imaginable. Players stat screens display each

player’s accumulated stats for the season, their stats for the past week,

their real-life stats, and their home/away stats. Not enough? Fine, you can

customize the stats displays to show you any stats you want including

situational stats to evaluate how a player hits against lefties or how many



homers he pounds in August or you can look up his accumulated stats from all

the seasons he’s played since you installed the game. Just to make sure

there are plenty of stats to enjoy, Hardball 5 now offers you the chance to

manage 40 man rosters, complete with disabled lists and a minor league

system. Everything is there, and, boy, is it fun. Stat analysis can tag an

extra half hour onto a game easily.

Such a detailed compiling of statistics is a great addition to the Hardball

line, but unfortunately the statistic model is suspect and that’s a big

detraction, especially if you’re going to rely on the computer to simulate

some games during the course of your season. The inadequacy of the stat

model became evident after I ran a few simulated seasons, using Greg Maddux

and Tony Gwynn as benchmarks for pitching and hitting respectively. Maddux

didn’t once finish in even the top 20 for ERA, posting a 3.90 ERA and going

12-11, well behind the ERA leader Hideo Nomo’s 1.89. Another season Maddux

compiled a 3.18 ERA, almost a full run behind Doug Drabek’s league-leading

2.18. This is a pretty sorry representation of a 16-6 pitcher who had an



ERA of 1.96 in 1994 (the year the stats are based on). Add in the fact that

Maddux’s ERA last year was again under 2.00 and that his combined ERA for

the last four years is barely over 2.00, and you can tell that the man who’s

won four consecutive Cy Young awards is not the one on the mound in Hardball

5. Tony Gwynn, a six-time batting champion who has the highest lifetime

batting average among active players in the majors, didn’t fare much better.

He never finished in the top 10 and seemed to struggle just to reach .300.

Gwynn’s top simulated average was a respectable .306 in a season that saw

Deion Sanders of all people lead the league with a .318 average. The nadir

for Gwynn was a .274 average, far behind Mickey Morandini’s league leading

.331. Gwynn’s average was lower than that of teammate Eddie Williams’ who,

though offensively impotent in real life, managed to hit .285. Add in the

fact that the Yankees, Cleveland, and Atlanta had trouble making the

playoffs consistently and the flaws in the stat base become even more

glaring.

Hardball 5 also has a problem with bugs. Computer controlled players rarely

if ever swing at pitches out of the strike zone, even such whiffmeisters as

Cecil Fielder (that darn stat model again). When players do swing they

rarely miss – I have never seen so many foul balls in any game, be it on a

computer or in a stadium. With all the fouls, you’d expect a few pop-ups in

the infield or in foul ground to be caught for outs, but I still haven’t

seen a pop-up. While the auto-field option is supposed to take the

aggravation out of getting fly balls, often times the outfielder will get to

the ball then let it drop right behind him so it can roll to the wall – just

try protecting a late-inning one run lead with this charming feature. There

are design flaws as well that take away from the enjoyment of the game, such

as the lack of a pitchout option in order to defense the hit and run or

prevent a stolen base (there is a pickoff move and an intentional walk

option, but the pickoff never gets the runner and the intentional walk never

throws an intentional ball but just waves the batter to first). There is no

drafting ability so if you want to build a dream team of all-stars or create

a customized league you are forced to go through a laborious and cumbersome

process ill-suited to the task.

To be fair, Accolade is aware of these problems and is working on a patch to

fix many of them. When the patch is completed, Kansas City will have grass

in the stadium, the baserunner’s name and speed rating will appear in the

baserunner windows, the 20+ hits per team should diminish, and "Dont’t

Steal" will finally, thankfully read "Don’t Steal". Hardball 5 is strong on

action, deep in stats, and lots of fun – a very good game. With the arrival

of the 5.1 patch, it could be an outstanding game.

Gamer’s Zone Scorecard

Product:	Hardball 5
Company:	Accolade 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd. Suite #500 San Jose, CA 95129 Phone: (408) 296-8400 Fax: (408) 246-0231 e-mail: 76004.2132@compuserve.com, accolade@aol.com http://www.MindSpan.com/MindSpan/hb5.html”
Cost:	$49.95

System Requirements:

PC compatible 486/33Mhz or better, DOS 5.0 or higher,

8 MB RAM, 2X CD-ROM drive, 18 MB free hard disk space (46 recommended),

supports VESA SVGA graphics, supports most soundcards, one or two joysticks

recommended, supports modem play and XBAND PC

Breakdown:

Fun Factor 4
Graphics 5
Sound 4
Interface 5

Replayability 5

Overall Score: