OOTP12 and a chance to win an I-pod Touch

When I first discovered Out Of the Park it ruined an entire week of plans. You know why? Because it is an awesome game. If you like baseball and playing GM, and as a fantasy owner, I know you do. This game gives you some of what you can't get from more basic versions of fantasy baseball.

You get entire organizations to control. Not just 25-man rosters but an entire minor league system. You have scouts who report back to you. You hire the manager and his staff. You sign free agents, you control the draft. Other GM's (automated if you play alone, your friends if you form a league) will e-mail you with trade offers and comments. Seriously, I spent nearly every free minute of a week after getting this game messing with the many options of this game. You will too.

I'm getting nothing for sharing this news, I just like the game a lot.

Here is more from the creators:

Pre-Order from January 25th through January 31st:

Only $29.99 - save $10!
Get OOTP 12 two days before public release
The opportunity to win an iPod Touch + iOOTP *

Lineup Improvements in OOTP 12

PC Gamer called OOTP 11 "a no-doubt, walk-off home run no-brainer to become a part of your game collection," and OOTP 12 is no different. Our All-Star lineup of features gets better every year, and we've again improved many of them during this off-season. We're not done yet, so stay tuned to future newsletters.

2011 Major League Rosters

Here's a treat: the best roster set we've ever produced, from the big leagues' top stars to the guys making their debuts in rookie leagues. All players are individually rated with updated statistics and realistic contract data. Last year's top draft picks are included too. Could Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, with the veteran leadership of newly-acquired All-Star Jayson Werth, help propel the Washington Nationals to the top of the National League East in coming seasons?

Revamped Financial System

The Philadelphia Phillies shook the baseball world this winter when they signed top-flight free agent pitcher Cliff Lee, despite expectations that he would opt for the highest bidder. Now you can do the same with OOTP's improved player contract negotiations, which are more realistic and fun. You can even try to talk your owner into expanding the available budget, letting you squeeze in another All-Star contract. Don't forget to stay on top of the latest free agent signings and other news in the new off-season center, and keep your finger on the pulse of your team's finances with an improved view.

Contract possibilities are now more realistic, including vesting options, buyouts, minor league split contracts, signing bonuses and more performance bonus options. You can even now include remaining contract payments as an option in trades with AI-controlled GMs.

Online Leagues

We're proud to support Official OOTP Online Leagues with a full-featured interface inside OOTP 12. With just one click, you can join a team, and creating a league is just as easy. Commissioners can make their leagues public and advertise open teams, with the ability to accept or deny requests from would-be GMs.

Official OOTP Online Leagues offer several key advantages:

• League files are patches rather than full-size files, saving plenty of up- and download time.
• Reports can be saved in MySQL databases, increasing their upload speed.
• Forget about FTP: team data exports and imports work through the database. That results in improved compatibility and security for the league web site server.
• An export tracker.
• The promise of more great features to come, including online drafts and trades.

Greater Immersion and Realism

Historical leagues benefit from improved AI and real life transactions and as-played lineups as optional features. Thanks to OOTP's sophisticated game engine, you'll be able to enjoy the most realistic historical simulation results possible. How would the 1927 Yankees fare against their 1961 counterparts?

In addition, storylines have been expanded, and there are new ways to interact with your players. News presentations have also been revamped, making you feel like you're part of the hectic 24-hour "better stay on top of this" news cycle that dominates today's sports reporting.

In-Game and Core Engine Changes

Like a manager constantly seeking ways to get the most out of his lineup, we're always tinkering under OOTP's hood. Here's what you can look forward to this year:

• Recoded parts of the in-game AI, making it the most challenging ever in an OOTP game.
• Improved in-game sound, adding better quality sound files and more variation.
• Improved player evaluation AI, resulting in more realistic AI roster moves.
• Recoded parts of the trading AI.
• Recoded parts of the scouting engine.
• Improved injury and recovery system.
• Added WAR (Wins Above Replacement) as a statistic.
• Added a playoff roster for more realistic team transactions.
• Greatly enhanced the world database structure, resulting in more realistic fictional league and player creation.
• Added a simulation module, allowing you to match up two teams from the same league for a set number of games and see the simulation results. This is great for research purposes or just for toying around. For example, how would the 1927 Yankees fare against the 2004 Red Sox?

But that's not all - the feature list is not final yet and will include even more great additions before the game is released. Stay tuned.

The home team has taken their positions in the field and the first batter is approaching home plate. What will happen next? Find out in OOTP 12. Pre-order your copy today!

The OOTP Developments Team

FanDuel - Fast Head-to-Head Fantasy Sports

Anyone who enjoys fantasy baseball or football should be interested in FanDuel.com, a relatively new site offering short-term fantasy games for cash prizes. I was allowed to try out the system before the official launch last week. I loved it. If you think you're good at fantasy baseball and you'd like to go up against me just sign up and challenge me. This should be a lot of fun.

1. What separates FanDuel from other online fantasy sports games?

FanDuel lets us play and win in a day instead of waiting the whole season. Players can draft a new team at any time, and pitch it head-to-head against an opponent – a friend, or another FanDuel player – for real money. The player whose team has the most fantasy points at the end of the day’s games wins the cash prize.

2. Do you believe that this is the direction the fantasy sports industry is going (short-term games) or is this meant to be different from traditional Fantasy Baseball the way Texas Hang 'Em is different than Five Card Stud?

I don’t really think short term and long term fantasy games compete with each other however I do think there is a huge unmet demand for short term fantasy games. I expect that most people who start playing short term games will continue to play their existing season long game. Most fantasy players we speak to like to play in several leagues and the opportunity to pick up and play something without the season long commitment is very appealing to them.

3. Right now you offer a free game as well as $5, $10, and $25 games. Do you plan to offer higher stakes games in the future?

Yes, definitely. We are slowly introducing higher entry fee games as users demand them.

4. The TechCrunch.com article emphasizes the social media aspects of the game. Is FanDuel meant to be a social media experience with gamers communicating with each other being almost as important as the game itself?

We think player to player communication will be very important. In our previous product, Hubdub (which is a news prediction game), the community and inter-player communication was very important so we introduced commenting, forums, shouts, challenges and other ways of communicating. However we are cautious about introducing too much functionality too quickly so we are going to work with the users to see what communication tools they think will be most fun before introducing them.

5. You offer Fantasy Baseball, and Fantasy Football is lauching soon. Do you see FanDuel breaking into other Fantasy Sports such as Basketball, Golf, and Nascar?

Absolutely. After fantasy baseball and fantasy football we think that basketball and hockey will be our priorities. After that we are going to really go with where we feel there is user demand.

6. Is there a mobile phone version of the game available?

FanDuel can already be played on the iPhone however it is still a bit fiddly on the small screen. We are planning to release a mobile optimized version of the site later this year.

7. I love that you can connect to Facebook and Twitter to send out challenges. Are there plans to add Facebook-like friend lists to the site?

We definitely want our users to be able to connect with their friends more easily which is why we are planning a much deeper integration with Facebook and Twitter. We also want people to be able to connect up and challenge other players on site more easily as well and are working on some features to allow that. What we are being careful to avoid is to ask users to build a whole new friends list on FanDuel.

8. Why should anyone reading this sign up at FanDuel?

FanDuel offers a great way to show your friends and others who knows they most about fantasy baseball and football. Plus you can put your knowledge to good use by winning cash on our daily games. Remember there is no season long commitment and we even throw in a free $10 sign-up bonus when you make your first deposit.

Check out our fantasy baseball here: www.fanduel.com/fantasybaseball

I want to thank Nigel from FanDuel.com for consenting to this interview.