Baseball game to buy

[Guest jimmy no nose]

***=Should be noted that this doesn't have an MLB liscense and is not covered in my preview.

 

For some reason this year some games are 2003, some are 2004, that annoys me. I think this may be a year to buy 2 baseball titles, which hasn't happened to me in the past. I'll give a brief rundown of the features.

 

Franchise

-Microsoft's first baseball game Inside Pitch will not have a franchise mode this year.

-MLB 2004 only offers 1 year franchise play, All-Star offers 20, and all of the others with the mode can go on forever.

-MVP Baseball does not have a fantasy draft franchise mode and also will not track stats over a career.

-High Heat looks to be where it is for stat tracking this year, with over 200 stats tracked, MLB tracks exactly 200 and no one else is even close. High Heat also owns the league leader board offering 30 batting, 25 pitching, and 12 fielding stats to view, no other game offers over 41(WSB).

-For player attributes it's all about World Series Baseball, with 106 attributes. High Heat is second with only 52.

-All of the games except MVP have added the Hall of Fame feature to the franchise mode, so you can see your old players make the hall.

 

Graphics

-MLB 2004 has player specific animations for every single player. World Series Basball has them for 400 "star" players, and all of the other games have around 100.

-Inside Pitch has the highest Polygons per player(8000) due to it being only for Xbox. The other games are 5000-6000. Strangely All Star Baseball has put a great deal of attention into the stadiums with 40000 polygons per stadium, all of the other games are between 10000 and 13000.

-High Heat Baseball has way more available camera angles than any other game with 7 batting and 7 fielding cameras.

 

Special Features

-All Star and World Series have decided to get in on the retro jersey craze, making them available in the games. All Star is supposed to have 200+ jerseys, while World Series will have one for every team.

-All Star Baseball will include 100+ retired players/legends. World Seried will have 25, and the other games left them out.

-For online play All Star Baseball will bring it to PS2, Xbox, and PC. MVP will only have it on PC, and Xbox's Inside Pitch will also have it. All Star and MVP(PC) will offer roster updates.

-All games will have create-a-player, with World Series having by far the most options.

-Only All Star Baseball will have create-a-team, with 35 cities and 35 mascots to choose from.

 

In Game Features

-High Hear, All Star, World Series, and Inside Pitch will have the ability to steal first base on dropped thrird strikes for the first time this year. These games will also have broken bats and wild pitches.

-High Heat has the most pitch variety with 27 pitches and 70 trajectories, far more than any other game.

-MVP, World Series, and Inside Pitch will all have onfield coaches and managers.

-MLB and Inside Pitch will give the ability to argue with umpires, it is unclear is ejections will come about for it.

-World Series Basball got the exclusive rights to the Big League Challenge home run derby mode, but the other games will offer regular home run derbies.

 

Here are the commentary teams if you want to know:

High Heat-Dave O'Brien/Chuck Valenches

MVP-Duane Cuiper/Mike Krukow

All-Star-Thom Brennaman/Steve Lyons

World Series-Ted Robinson/Rex Hudler

MLB-Vin Scully/Dave Campbell

[Guest Lightning Flik]

The best one I found I liked from last year, was All-Star. Especially the create-the-team mode. I always created a team and went with it...

 

It's really fun building up a team for scratch. And I never really liked Triple Play, so I doubt that MVP is going to impress me at all.

[Guest Kingpk]

Yeah, I got All-Star last year too, but the batting cursor was too slow to be able to get to the ball in time. And when you turned it off, it became too arcade-like. Plus, I didn't like the commentary. I think I'll go with High Heat this time since it got a pretty good review in EGM (9.0) and a lot of people here had some good things to say about HH '03.

 

EDIT: Here are the release dates for the games, if you were wondering:

 

3/5: All Star Baseball 2004

3/12: MLB 2004, World Series Baseball

3/18: MLB Slugfest 2004

3/19: MVP Baseball 2004

[Guest jimmy no nose]

Yeah, High Heat is looking real good, I heard really good things about All-Star last year, and World Series impressed me a lot. I'll probably get All-Star for online play and either High Heat or World Series, maybe both if they get really good reviews.

[Guest tpww7]

Has anyone played All Star Baseball? I know it's out, I just saw it in the stores.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

After a couple years of playing it I gave up on All Star because the batting sucks. I bought High Heat last year and LOVE it. I'll be picking up the new High Heat for XBox when it comes out later this week. The PS2 version is out now.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Hmm. I think All Star Baseball has online play for the Gamecube, but Im not sure. The first 2 installments on the Gamecube sucked ass though (most notably memory problems..)

 

EBgames had it for $39.99. I was gonna buy it, but I figured Id wait on a review of it and the other games. Sucks hard that my 2 sim-esque style baseball game options on the Cube are All Star and High Heat, and yet theres Slugfest, Crushed Baseball. No Homerun King since Sega has stopped sports games on the Gamecube.

I absolutely hate the arcade style sports games.

 

BTW, I think Crushed Baseball is not MLB liscensed. Its just generic players playing on generic teams. They just ported a japanese baseball game.

 

BTW, this scenerio for sports games on the Cube looks even bleaker for Football season..all you have then is Madden 2004 and Blitz. Same goes for Hockey and Basketball..its pretty much just EA Sports putting out sports games on the cube except for Midway's Arcade games. BLAH.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Yeah Crushed Baseball has no MLB liscence.

 

All Star Baseball was SUPPOSED to be the first baseball game to support online play. Then that got scrapped and now there are only roster downloads...and I don't even think every system gets those.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Yeah Crushed Baseball has no MLB liscence.

 

All Star Baseball was SUPPOSED to be the first baseball game to support online play. Then that got scrapped and now there are only roster downloads...and I don't even think every system gets those.

Well..crap then. If HH is any good on the Cube I'll probably get that then.

 

Nintendo needs to start making first party sports games.

 

Remembers Ken Griffey Jr. Slugfest (MLBPA liscensed but not MLB liscensed) which was awesome on the SNES and of course Courtside for the 64.

 

Since Nintendo owns the Mariners, they could call it Ichiro's Baseball or something..heck, it would probably sell in Japan too.

[Guest jimmy no nose]

The online play was removed from All-Star? Maybe I should find a more up to date source. I think that just pretty much eliminated my plans to buy it and I will probably go with both High Heat and World Series for Xbox. I guess MVP will still have online on PC and Inside Drive will on Xbox. Maybe I'll rent Inside Drive.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

The online play was removed from All-Star? Maybe I should find a more up to date source. I think that just pretty much eliminated my plans to buy it and I will probably go with both High Heat and World Series for Xbox. I guess MVP will still have online on PC and Inside Drive will on Xbox. Maybe I'll rent Inside Drive.

I think the online play was only removed from the Gamecube version is what he meant. This was gonna be a big deal since it would have been the 2nd game to support online play for the Cube.

I think the other versions all support the online play still.

[Guest DrTom]

Having bought the 2002 and 2003 versions of All-Star Baseball, I can tell you that the game SUCKS. I had it for the PS2 both years. The graphics are nice, but the gameplay is pretty bad, and franchise mode is absolutely shitty. I have no intentions of every buying another piece of shit game in that line again.

 

High Heat has been excellent since it first came out for the PC in 1997 or so. I had the last two years' versions (PS2), and I'm sure I'll buy this year's model, also (X-Box). High Heat was easily the best baseball game I played last year...

 

Until World Series Baseball (X-Box) came out. Gameplay was amazingly realistic, the sim value was incredibly high, and I absolutely loved the franchise mode. I scored WSB a 9/10, and High Heat an 8.5, so it's a close race, but WSB is definitely the title I'm looking forward to the most this year. Sega redeemed themselves very nicely, because the WSB titles for the Dreamcast sucked a savage sausage.

 

I'll buy High Heat and WSB, both for X-Box, this year.

[Guest jonstreich]

High Heat for the PC, mainly so I can continue my dominant career, and World Series for the XBox.

[Guest Sturgis]

High Heat has *really* good pitching which I normally don't see in most games.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Check the back of the game for the XBox version of All Star.

 

All it lists is roster downloads. No online play.

 

Only the microsoft inside pitch coming in May will be playable online this year.

[Guest tpww7]

So..the only game with online play has no franchise..god damnit.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

All Star Baseball (at least for the Cube) supposedly has an awesome minor league management system. The poster on the PGC forums also noted that it has really great commentary and awesome graphics.

 

I'll wait for an official review though, but it sounds promising.

[Guest Kingpk]

I picked up High Heat today. Awesome game. Look for a full review at TSM next Friday (a change of pace and it gives me time to really get into it). I will never play a game with a batting cursor again.

[Guest DrTom]

High Heat has been excellent since it came out for the PC, with its 2D graphics. The Hardball series owned it in graphics back then, but High Heat still had the best gameplay and highest sim value.

 

I'll be picking both up for the X-Box before long, and I'll review World Series Baseball for the site, since some uppity pric ... er, I mean, another staffer called dibs on HH.

[Guest alkeiper]

For those of you who enjoy the management aspect of baseball, check out Baseball Mogul 2004. You can actually start out as any team in any year, so you can play as the Big Red Machine or the Murderer's Row Yankees.