All Star Baseball

When I first purchased my PS2 (on opening day) I said my life would be forfeit to it as soon as 2 things happened.

#1 A Good Baseball game comes out.

#2 A Good college football game comes out.

Now without getting into the downfall of "Game Breaker" and what I dislike about High Heat and Triple play...I can say that neither of these 2 things have happened yet. Sadly, I know there will be no more baseball games until next season.

I'm kind of a big fan of the "create-a-player" option that was present in this game. I've always loved putting myself as the catcher of the team and adding one star pitcher to the staff. It adds some value to the game in my eyes anyhow. After becoming sick with Triple Play's gameplay...I quickly dumped it for AS Baseball. Hoping to get comparible graphics and 10x the gameplay.

What I got was a dissapointing younger brother of TP 2002. Everyone I talk to says its not as "homer-heavy" as TP is... But I think they're wrong. After playing 5 games of a season with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays...I had given up about 15 homeruns. This is not at all accurate. One player hit 5 digers in 2 games.

Now, please understand I dont just toss a fastball down the middle every time. I am a huge baseball fan...I actually sit down and watch games. I know how pitches pitch... And emulating that yielded me the same disgust as throwing down the pipe would have. Players often hit back to back home-runs. One team hit back to back to back dingers on me. Now, perhaps Acclaim was trying to keep up with the times of modern-day baseball. The game has obviously become more "homer-heavy" but... You do not see a team hitting 3-4 homeruns a game...3 games in a row. Players don't hit 6 homeruns in a 3 game series. These things just dont happen.

Ok, so you're saying to youself "I can live with that." If you can there may not be much else about AS Baseball that disapoints you. However, there are 2 major things (in my opinion) that make this game suffer even more.

First off, CPU hitters NEVER EVER take a strike. They will swing and miss... But they'll never watch one go by. However, they do swing at pitches outside the strike zone. Some games...this has not been the case.

Secondly, the AI is poor overall. Namely the baserunning. A long drive into the gap is rarely ever stretched into a double. CPU runners will run right through first base often. The CPU makes ridiculous pitching changes. Once, in the 6th inning of a game the opponent was winning 5-0 they took out their starting pitcher. Made no sense to me.

Visually the game isnt too bad. However, its not not near as pretty as Triple Play is. If the rest of the game was packaged nicely... The graphics would be very lovable. However, the gameplay is ugly... and so is the game.

The play-by-play doesnt get too annoying... and I think its superior to that of Triple play. I've not played HH2002 enough yet to judge that game's play-by-play.

My opinion on this game is not a popular one. Everywhere I look 'sports game of the year,' 'best baseball game in a long time' and other comments that I just dont see to be valid. As I stated...I'm a huge baseball fan... And this game just does NOT do justice to the real thing. Hopefully we'll see this in AS Baseball 2003... with everything else patched up.

On the bright side, I did like how well you can manage your pitcher. Control is very nice and easy.

The Good!		The Last Word(s): This is by no means a true baseball simulation. If you want a arcade style game... you're better off with Triple Play honestly. I'm told by other members on the Gyeah Staff (Namely Vigilante) that HH2002 is the way to go. So perhaps you should try that route. Don't buy this game and let Acclaim pretend their garbage is on par. Or we'll see the same crap next year... and I'll be here to review it. Final Rating: 61% Average As Your Girlfriend
Awesome Pitching Interface/control Create-A-Player Options are nice
The Bad...
Homeruns are a little easy to come by. "Easy batting" is not so... You have no control and will strike out more often than when using the "advanced" cursor
The UGLY.
AI is horrible...just horrible A Few glitchy animations... not great stuff visually.