Aaron vs. Ruth review (PC)

The batting interface is one thing Aaron vs. Ruth does right: You choose an area of the plate where you'll be swinging, but if you're fast enough you can adjust and get some wood on a pitch that was headed out of your target area. It's a bit too easy on the amateur setting, but on the professional setting it makes getting a hit about as tough as in real life. The superstar setting is a bit much, though - you'll be lucky to bat .200 with Stan Musial.

But things get weird again when you move to the dugout as general manager. The player ratings are, well, screwy: Willie McCovey gets a 91 percent in pitching, while Walter Johnson is rated 31 percent! You won't notice that during play, though, because once a game has been started you can't access player ratings. Trading is incredibly cumbersome because you can't search by position; you have to look at each team and scroll through its lineup until you find the player you want.

Stats are handled in an equally clumsy fashion - you can view stats only for individual players, not for a team or the league, and then only by entering the trading menu. Sim a bunch of games in a row and there's no way to find out when the last time a pitcher was on the mound or how many innings he pitched during that outing. That makes it sort of tough to know who to bring in as a reliever, but one thing you don't have to worry about is injuries - these guys'll get exhausted, but they won't get hurt. Finally, there aren't any box scores, an omission that's almost mind-boggling considering all the other oversights.

All of which adds up to a simple decision: If you want to see baseball players from different eras compete together, your best bet is to pick up a copy of Old Time Baseball, even though it's nearly two years old. As far as Aaron vs. Ruth goes, it's pretty much a case of wait till next year.