All-Star Baseball 2003

"A frustrating, yet fluid experience...the patient need only apply"

I really really really tried to love this game. I did...

ASB2003 does some things very well and other things well, not so well. Let's get into the breakdown:

Graphics: 8
These graphics are very nice, no slowdown, well textured and the player models are so nicely animated that you'd be able to convince the elderly that it's the real thing! But at the same time it lacks....umm...that extra bit to push it to a 9 or 10, but it's still damn good!

Sound: 9
Okay everything is perfect except for the occasionally repetitive commentary (if you're really paying attention). The sound effects all seem very authentic and the crowd noises are just as good.

Gameplay: AHHHH the killer.

There are really two schools (well three if you count triple play...*sigh*) of baseball games - High Heat and All Star Baseball. I own High Heat, but I saw ASB in an Electronics Boutique and felt obliged to try it out and ''test the competition''. I played a quick inning or two and left feeling like I'd discovered something new. I rented the title and sat down to play the heck out of it for the length of the 5 day rental. After 3 days I quit in disgust, and I was never more disappointed with a game in my life.

Cursor batting sucks...there...I said it! The concept is good, and at first it's even appealing to see your hits fly through the air realistically and bounce of the grass and roll during batting practice. But these are just meat pitches, designed for you to crack into them...it's not anything like the actual pitches that come screaming over the plate during a game. You'll feel gratified when you single, or double, it's great. But it doesn't happen a lot unless you play with the best teams. And after 10 hours with the game and still not much progress in the ''learning to hit the ball'' department, one begins to ask the question: ''How do I line up the cursor with the ball and swing in a mere half second...EVERY TIME! AH!''. Playing against the computer is really bad too, since they seem to know where you throw all the time. It gets less interesting to throw to the CPU after figuring this out. If you're pitching to Ichiro he's gonna hit the damn thing...just accept it. You'll get random home runs against you and you'll wonder how that happened since it was clearly ''in his cold zone'' and blah blah blah...it all comes down to CPU cheating.

Everything else shines about the game though. Collect cards to unlock cheats, create a franchise, expansion team, players, etc. There's a lot of meat on this DVD and for everyone who has somehow mastered the dirty batting cursor you rule (provided you do more than play this game all day, that is). But for the ASB newbie it may be extremely annoying and may ruin your otherwise flawless baseball experience - so get High Heat instead (I know I'm glad I didn't trade it in).

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/02, Updated 03/07/02