When faced with a choice of either playing a sport or playing a sports video game, many make the decision to go outside. This choice is not due to a lack of quality in recent sports video games, but rather boredom with the plateau of their development.

Once a sports game series comes out, the only thing that seems to change with new versions is the year on the title. Video games will many times continue year after year without making any significant upgrades to new titles.

Microsoft Baseball 2001 for Windows has attempted to change that pattern, with good results.

Unlike previous editions, this game adds some new simulation options to an already successful series.

For those not familiar with the Microsoft baseball series, it allows you to pick from a number of game types.

There is the simple exhibition mode that allows players to pit any team against another in a nine-inning game.

The league feature enables gamers to control one team throughout the season and guide it to the World Series.

Playoff mode puts a player-controlled team with seven others in a quest for the championship, while the home run derby option simply challenges players to knock as many baseballs out of the park as possible. All of these choices should come as no surprise to a frequent baseball gamer, but the addition of Baseball Mogul technology is what sets this baseball title apart from the others.

Baseball Mogul began as the product of Infinite Monkey Systems, an independent software company that is based in Connecticut.

Developers created a game that allowed players to guide a baseball franchise as its general manager. The game became a relatively unknown success and spawned several sequels.

The mogul technology allows gamers to guide teams for many years. Players can adjust the team's finances, cultivate minor leaguers and watch as careers begin and end over the years.

As we have seen with its other business practices, Microsoft loves incorporating successful small companies into its products. Infinite Monkey Systems proved to be no exception and its technology is featured in Baseball 2001.

When you combine the already powerful baseball simulation with an equally impressive managerial simulation, it makes for a game that is entertaining and has enormous replay value.

The ability to play with a team for an indefinite amount of time, as old athletes retire and young ones mature, offers something game veterans have never seen before.

The actual gameplay remains mostly the same.

A few bugs in the programming slow the game down some, but patches will most likely be released to correct them.

The graphics are very nicely produced, with each player accurately representing their major league counterpart.

New stadiums have been added to the game, including Enron Field and Pacific Bell Park, and they are represented beautifully in the game.

Starting the game should be easy for experienced veterans, and the controls are simple enough for beginners to pick up. Standard options such as automatic fielding only help new players adjust to the game, and the controls aren't complicated enough to require a joystick or control pad.

But the main difference that separates this title from other games is the mogul features.

It offers players on all levels the challenge to remain consistently dominant as a franchise, while being financially successful.

If you are tired of ending the game after only one season, or are looking for some new interesting challenges, then this game would be right for you.

Microsoft Baseball 2001 proves that more than just the title has been changed in this game series, and the changes are for the better.