Sooner or later we were going to see a multiplayer sports title that didn't cast you as the coach of an entire team, but as an individual player on a team made up entirely of real people. Ultimate Baseball Online aims to do exactly that. Instead of micromanaging a whole brigade of self-important athletic types, you instead have the ability to custom build your own baseball player, beef them up with whatever attributes you want, and send them out onto the field to compete with other players around the world.

Ultimate Baseball Online doesn't use the MLB license (though it is officially partnered with ESPN), so all of its elements are completely fictitious. There are no real players or real stadiums (though some try to imitate or copy familiar elements of some of the more famous ones). It goes to some reasonable lengths to detach itself from "real world" baseball, mostly because being a virtual game its focus is to put more emphasis on your players and their own unique elements. This may be disappointing to some baseball fans, as they'd probably love to see how they'd stack up to some of the greats, but players will have to use their imaginations and construct their own realities of baseball fame and glory.

You start UBO by creating a player. You can have a maximum of three players linked to your account at a time, each of which can be customized to varying degrees. Since UBO is at heart an MMO, players are all built upon their own unique set of traits and abilities. The actual character traits are pretty familiar and logical to anyone with a general understanding of baseball; things like position (pitcher, short stop, etc.), as well as pitching arm, pitching style, and batting stance. Additionally, characters are fleshed out by allotting points to traditional "role-playing" elements, such as Stamina, Arm Strength, Body Strength, and Throwing Accuracy, all of which can be upgraded as you level up.

There are three main gameplay modes in Ultimate Baseball Online: batting, pitching and fielding. Each of them is predominantly mouse-driven, but fielding gives the ability to move your player freely across the field at any time so you'll be using the keyboard for those portions of the game. The batting mechanic is simply a matter of putting the cursor in the right place at the right time to hit the ball as it crosses the plate, so it's a reasonably short learning curve. Pitching is controlled by a design similar to the way most golf games handle swinging: a timing-based meter is used to determine the power and accuracy/effectiveness of your pitch.

The fielding mode is a bit interesting, as you're not on rails as you are in most baseball games. Though you're of course responsible for your position, you can freely wander and move around regardless of what's happening during the game. It's a cool element that puts a bit more of an immersive experience into the game than you may get from the standard fare with baseball titles, simply because you rarely have this sort of perspective when playing a baseball game.

Ultimate Baseball Online feels like it will really only cater to serious fans of the sport. It's not really built in a way that's going to reel in any casual gamers very easily, or people moderately interested in baseball. It really has a hardcore sports fan feel, as all of the stats and number crunching are present, but the accessibility factors for a casual player are lacking. Though still in beta testing right now, the pricing structure of UBO seems reasonably accommodating. Players can sign up for a monthly subscription-based plan or a pay to play system that features tournaments and events, as well as a free but limited entry/first time player system that's a functions as a try before you buy plan.