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What's the next best thing to actually being at a Baseball game? You've guessed it - playing Accolade's Hardball!

This is a truly exciting sports simulation, even if you don't know the first thing about Baseball: America's national game. If you watched the highlights of the World Series on TV at New Year you'll know just how exciting the real game can be. And Hardball manages to capture all the thrills of the game.

Fortunately, C&VG's reviewer was lucky enough to have had the rules explained to him by an American friend - and watched a game between the Oakland As and Chicago a year or so ago. So he slapped on his As hat and prepared for battle. But the game is simple enough to get into even if you don't know what's really going on. You can learn all the subtleties as you play - so don't be put off.

The game is not unlike cricket - except faster! The basic idea is for one team to score more than their opponents. Each team takes turn batting and fielding. Simple, ain't it?

Once the game is loaded you can select a variety of game option combinations such as which team you want to play - home or visitor, one or two players, etc.

The four screens displayed during the game are: the Manager's Decision screen, the pitcher/batter screen, Left Field view, and Right Field view.

The game begins with the Manager's Decision screen. It will also appear if a player presses the space bar on the keyboard anytime during the pitcher screen. In this Manager's Screen, pressing the space bar will "Play Ball". This screen will display a selected line-up for both teams.

The team in the field (defence) has five choices: Player Substitution, Exchange Positions, Outfield, Infield (Normal or Double Play), Intentional Walk.

The team at bat can choose between Player Substitution or Exchange Positions.

Play begins with the pitcher's screen depicting the pitcher, batter, umpire and crowd in the background. Using the joystick, the player representing the pitcher (field team) may select a type of pitch as displayed on the bottom of the screen.

The other player, representing the team at bat, may select his offensive strategy by holding the fire button down while moving the joystick to select one or more options.

When the ball is hit, the receiving fielder will be identified by flashing. The player may use the joystick to position the fielder (back, left, forward, right) to catch the ball. Once the ball is caught, he is presented choices as to where to throw the ball (2nd, 3rd, home or 1st).

These throw-ins are really the only naff thing about this game - on a long throw from the outfield and the ball tends to go into slow motion, wobbling about like a balloon until it finally reaches its target. This is a minor gripe however.

The attention to detail is what really makes this game. The way the runners and fielders slide in at the bases - just like the real thing. The big, colourful graphics and great animation. The roar of the crowd when you hit a home run. Terrific stuff, even for the uninitiated.

Multi-load games like these - which are essentially disk-based - is usually a problem for tape owners. But Hardball is an exception. When you need to reload a section you get a prompt to start the tape and the loading takes no time at all. So don't be put off if you don't have a disk drive.

Hardball has strategy, action and extra added addictiveness. So grab your glove, Charlie Brown and head for the pitcher's mound this instant!