Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

[Dirtdog1]

Avid gamer here and longtime Operation Sports member. Then life happened, wife, kids and all that good stuff. Things have finally slowed down and gotten a little more normal now that its 2013, so I am looking to get back into a little bit of baseball gaming. I was a huge High Heat fan, moder, and one of those who were addicted to 3DO and their top notch game. I didn't care so much for the graphics, but what excited me most were the statistical realness and the box scores and everything that went along with baseball and that game. I could care less about the bells and whistles and eye candy.
So I heard and started looking into these two games above (OOTP & Strat-o-Matic) computer games. I played the board game from Strat-o-matic as a kid, and really loved it. I decided to give a statistical based computer gaming a try.
My questions here are:
How similar are the two games?
Which one is a better brand of baseball?
What are the differences of the two?
Which one do you prefer and Why?
And is there another game that you would recommend?


Thanks,

[snepp]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

The full version of OOTP 8 is available for free from the developer, it's similar enough to the current version to give you a pretty good idea if it will do what you want.

A demo of the current version (13) is also available if you want to see the changes that have been since then.

[tvman]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

Avid gamer here and longtime Operation Sports member. Then life happened, wife, kids and all that good stuff. Things have finally slowed down and gotten a little more normal now that its 2013, so I am looking to get back into a little bit of baseball gaming. I was a huge High Heat fan, moder, and one of those who were addicted to 3DO and their top notch game. I didn't care so much for the graphics, but what excited me most were the statistical realness and the box scores and everything that went along with baseball and that game. I could care less about the bells and whistles and eye candy.
So I heard and started looking into these two games above (OOTP & Strat-o-Matic) computer games. I played the board game from Strat-o-matic as a kid, and really loved it. I decided to give a statistical based computer gaming a try.
My questions here are:
How similar are the two games?
Which one is a better brand of baseball?
What are the differences of the two?
Which one do you prefer and Why?
And is there another game that you would recommend?


Thanks,

OOTP you can play a franchise with multiple seasons where as Strat is a single season game, no GM stuff just game playing. Google strat-o-matic there are some good forums out there.

[Knight165]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

For strategy...definitely OOTP.

M.K.
Knight165

[statnut]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

They are two completely different kind of games. OOTP is more of a GM sim (and very good at what it does). Strat replicates players and places more emphasis on managing in game. I play strat FTF with some friends and it's a lot of fun.

[TLasorda]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

Dirtdog, may I suggest you look into Action PC baseball. It's made by Dave Koch Sports. It's more like Strat o Matic as a replay simulation, but you get more for your money (i.e. Free color stadiums). I'm married with 2 kids and I know like you, money is tight.

[Mt Oread]

Re: Which is better OOTP or Strat-o-Matic or other?

Back in the day, Diamond Mind Baseball was my season reply of choice. I grew up on Strat, and played in a board game league in college.

OOTP has gotten much better, but it's emphasis on career play also exposes some pretty weak GM AI. It can make you feel smart when you develop a good team over time, but you are beating up on really weak AI.

If you play in a league of human players, OOTP really starts to shine, though.