All-Star Baseball 2003

"Big improvement over last year, but still a ways to go"

The game has the best features ever in a console baseball game

The running and fielding are still a bit quirky, and cursor batting is either love it or hate it. It is certainly challenging and keeps scores realistic.

Baserunners are a chore to control but it can be done. Fielding is sketchy at best, catching pop flies is easy, but throwing to the right base can get squirly, the idea of ''future throw'' is great in theory, but annoying in practice.

In essence there are 5 buttons to throw the ball, 1 for each base and one for the cut off man. IMO that is far too many buttons to worry about

There should be 2 throw buttons (normal and power) and use the D-pad to indicate the base

The CPU is a little homer happy, since ''guessing a pitch'' gives you a chance to increase your batting cursor size, the CPU can easily guess any pitch you toss and subsequently jack one out of the yard

You can turn it off in rookie mode if you like, but the non cursor batting isnt as deep as it could have been.

Graphically the game is a big step up from last year, the player faces in particular are as good as NBA live 2002
The player models have a high poly count and the edges are smooth.

Field textures are bland but the player textures are crisp.

The animations are smoother than last year but there are still choppy transitions for fielders. Especially tagging players and catching balls. What you see in the replay often does not match the result. For instance, a player is stealing 2nd base, the throw is made with time to spare, yet the runner is called safe. It seems as though the ump is watching someone elses replay.

The vacuum still exists where the ball gets magically absorbed by a fielder's circle , and there is an instant warp of the ball into a glove.

The batting stances and cutscenes on the other hand are completely smooth.

The game plays at what seems to be a smooth 30 FPS for the most part, although during some replays it can chug a little slower.

The sounds are decent enough, crisp field sound effects, bats breaking, the snap of the ball into the mit.

However if you were a fan of the ambience in the Triple Play series, you will notice the crowd is a little boring. There are some nice filler PA announcements early on, but it ends there.

No 7th inning stretch, no little contests, no one yelling ''peanuts'' etc... a little empty sounding.

The broadcast team does ok, they keep up with the plays, and make relevant comments, but spend most of the time silent, not a lot of color commentary that isnt generic or a single canned reference to each player. Always the same bit about Trot Nixon having a good year, or Carlos Beltran coming on strong in the 2nd half. After 1-2 games you will have heard them all for your entire team of choice

The presentation has improved as well, with tv style cam shots, warm up shots, all add to the realism

The stat tracking is phenomenal, and the franchise mode is very deep, complete with minor league players, DL list, trades, FA, who's hot who's not ... .all the trimmings

You can speed up the game pace , resulting in fast animations for players in between game actions. i.e. walking back from the batters box is at high speed, kind of odd looking but can save ~10 minutes per game

Overall they got it right this year with the feature set and graphics, but the baserunning and fielding still need help.

The batting is much tougher this year, meaning far less scoring, which is more realistic, but can get very frustrating (just like real baseball I guess)

It looks like baseball, and it sounds like baseball, and it ALMOST plays like real baseball.

Maybe next year

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/02, Updated 03/01/02