Puresim Baseball vs. Action PC Baseball

[Longstreet_slith]

Hi Folks,

I know this has been asked before....but I am trying to decide which of these games to purchase. I cannot afford both, so that is not an option. I have read great things here about PureSim. Here is the link to the other game I am looking closely at -- Action PC Baseball:

http://www.dksports.com/baseball.htm

If someone really can give me a comprehensive analysis -- hopefully from playing both -- which one should I go with? I am very concerned about having a good manager AI to play against -- that is my primary concern, although not the only issue of course.

So....can someone give me some advice? [:)]

Thanks,
Longstreet

[Frozen Stiffer]

Longstreet,

I haven't played this other game, but from some casual observations on their site, two things immediately stand out as NO DEAL from my perspective.

First, the price- ouch.

Second, it appears to me, and I might be misunderstanding this, that you don't get EVERY season; only those specified (i.e. 2008, 2007, 1970 and 1890). With Puresim you get those and everything in between. Plus, patches, upgrades and the like are offered free. Sure, you had to pay to buy PureSim 2007 when you already owned PureSim 2005, but you didn't have to pay a dime after that! No matter how many patches, upgrades, fixes, enhancements, new-roster year availability, or any of that.

It looks to me like Action! nickel and dimes you. It may be a great game, but from the two above-mentioned points, I wouldn't give it my time or my money.

That's just my opinion, I welcome yours.

[Bustoff]

My fiftieth of a dollar's worth...

I have not played Action PC either. That said...Action PC looks extremely deep, statistically speaking. For a serious stat-geek, it must be a slice of heaven. For fair-to-middlin' stat-geek like myself, it's a bit over the top. (I mean, I love cheesecake, but I don't want to eat 6 of them in one sitting.) Mostly, I just wanna play baseball, not study the numbers for hours.

I like Action PC including things like double-steals, rainouts etc, and I'd like to see these someday in PS. Action may have a slight--slight, mind you--edge here. Frozen notes that the marketing of this game is the century-old "Gillette Method," which is "Give 'em the razor, then sell 'em the blades." PS does indeed come with ALL seasons at no extra charge, as well as the ability to set up a whole fictional league (so you can have players like Augustus Rainbolt and Mohammed Culpepper! [;)]) in less time than it will take me to type this reply.

Honestly, I don't think I would invest 30 or 40 bucks in Action PC to try it at this stage of the game, so to speak. When I find something I like, I stick with it...which I guess is why my 33rd wedding anniversary is coming up next month, and also why I have stayed with PS for...maybe 5+ years now.

Another poster described PS as "digital heroin" and that ain't far off the mark. Once you start playing, it's hard to stop. PS is deep, it's easy, it's exciting as hell (You will find yourself screaming things like "What is WRONG with you???" at your players, and your Significant Other will think you are crazy. But you're not.), and the man at the helm, Shaun, loves baseball like no one else I know of. Plus, the forum is peopled with intelligent and helpful lovers of baseball who wiill bend over backwards to help you get the most out of PS.

As Winston O'Boogie once said "I hope someday you'll join us." You'll love it.

[dneely]

These games are two animals of a different stripe. Action is a season replay game, you can replay just about any season you want but you pay for them one season at a time. PureSim is a "career" sim that allows you to build either a fictional or real player based league and can go on for years and years. Action is much deeper in terms of actual baseball play and managing options, rare and unusual play and descriptions. Some of these PS is missing.

Really two different types of games. I play Action in an online league which allows you to draft your team, make trades with other owners and play your games live online. Lots of fun IF you have the time to play a series online each week. Many others use Action to replay seasons they remember or always wanted to re-enact so to speak. Manage your favorite team and see if you can do better than the real life manager, that kind of thing

Hope this helps.

[Wrathchild]

I actually have a copyright on my 'digital heroin' slogan. My attorneys will be in contact.

[Bustoff]

ORIGINAL: Wrathchild

I actually have a copyright on my 'digital heroin' slogan. My attorneys will be in contact.

The law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, no doubt. Well, try and collect...you can't get blood out of a turnip. [:D]

[dzanr]

ORIGINAL: dneely

These games are two animals of a different stripe. ...

Really two different types of games. .

I will echo this. I have both games and play them both regularly.

Action is heavily statistically based. Its strength is the play of the game between the white lines with lots of nice visual graphics and tons of stats reports. I use it for full-season as-played replays with actual lineups and real life player transactions. It has a lot of in-game features that are deliberately based, I believe, on the best from Strat-O-Matic and Diamond Mind Baseball. It's a good game with tons of bells and whistles. But it has a reputation for having lot of bugs, although the company has made strides to fix most of them. The support is OK. The game itself is modestly priced. But individual season databases cost about $20 each, which can get quite pricey if you want to play lot of different seasons.

PureSim is more of a career sim. Its strength is not micromanaging the batter-by-batter interaction, although you can do it if you want. It also doesn't concern itself with strictly adhering to real life rosters and transactions. PureSims strength is its equal emphasis to the General Manager role as to field Manager. It takes more of a macro view of a season.

With PureSim you define how you want the leagues to be structured, how many and where the franchises are, sign players with different contract terms, manage a minor league system, control roster moves between teams within your entire organization, deal with player fatigue, injuries, and retirements over the course of a season, make and accept/reject trade offers with the other teams. The game uses the Lahman database to provide complete access to every MLB player in history, and for whatever MLB season you'd like. You can also generate fictional players with fictional abilites, which makes for a nice challenge as you work to assess player abilites for the short and long term.

In Action, a player's performance is driven towards his actual statistics for a given season. And the game does a good job in reproducing real life stats when doing real season replays. In PureSim, players are assigned a numerical rating across a spectrum on 8-10 skill areas based on their performance and age at a given point in time. These ratings reflect how a player will perfom, although somewhat loosely. But the cool thing about PureSim is its aging mode where a player's ratings change from season to season depending on age and his real life career. Its a great feature that provides real significance to the difference between signing a 24 year old to a 5-year contract and signing a 34 year old to a 5 year contract.

PureSim is much more reasonably priced, and the support is very good.

So, they really are two different games approaching baseball simulation from two different angles. I think both games are worth owning. But if you can only pick one, the best for you would depend on what kind of baseball sim experience you're after.

DZ

[cdvalenta]

Having played both games I have to agree with dneely and dzanr. They pretty much summed it up.

If I was looking just to replay a season game-by-game with lots of in game options I might lean towards Action. I was dying for PureSim to get more in game managing options... if it did it would have been the perfect mix.

Value wise though nothing comes close to PureSim. The amount of customization to suit your own needs and the ability to use the Lahman database really pushes it over the top.

I also must add that even though I own both I ALWAYS  come back to PureSim. There is just something about it. Go to the locker room and see some of KG's posts to see what I mean. You really can create your own little baseball universe.

[dzanr]

ORIGINAL: cdvalenta

I was dying for PureSim to get more in game managing options... if it did it would have been the perfect mix.

100% agree. I'm hoping that whatever Shaun comes up with next will be exactly this.

DZ

[therhino]

PS is a way better game. You get so much more for much less cost. Longstreet, I think you should also try the Pure Sim demo. It may help you decide. I think PS is also on sale right now.
therhino

[Frozen Stiffer]

ORIGINAL: Bustoff

...so you can have players like Augustus Rainbolt and Mohammed Culpepper! [;)]...

LOL!

All I can say is: [&o]