All-Star Baseball 2003

"An impressive baseball simulation"

Baseball simulations are often unable to convey an organic, well rounded gaming experience. Most of the time, they are completely unrealistic or too fragmentary to really amuse the player for a long time. There are just two video games that made me say ''hey, this looks like the real thing.'' World Series Baseball '98 for the Sega Saturn and All Star Baseball for my beloved N64. Both games were able to recreate on screen something of the true spirit of baseball, in many different ways.

That's why I was really expecting this new installment in the All Star Baseball series, especially after the dissapointment that was All Star Baseball 2002. Thankfully, this time Acclaim did an excellent job. All Star Baseball 2003 has all the elements that made this series great, plus a wealth of extras that will make all you little baseball fans out there happy. Yes, you heard me right, happy.

Gameplay: 9.5

The game is fully licensed by the MLPBA. This means that you'll play in all major league stadiums, and the rosters have been updated just a few weeks before the release. The first thing you'll notice playing All Star Baseball 2003 is that this game is huge. The game has an amazing selection of game modes and special features.

First of all, you may want to have a Quick Play. In this mode, the computer selects two teams and you play just one game. The MLB play game mode includes four sub modes: Exhibition, All-Star, New Season, New Series. The Exhibition game is probably the best choice to really start enjoying All Star Baseball 2003. You just choose two teams and you play one game. Or you may just want to play a great All Star Game, in which all the best players of the National and American Leagues, selected by the computer, can prove that they got skills.

The New Season mode lets you play a full season with your favorite team. In this mode, not only can you play all the games in a season, but you also have to fully manage your team. You can create your lineup, set your pitching rotation, trade players and manage free agency. All of this is done through a well developed menu system. If you don't want to play all the games in the season, you can let the computer simulate the games you are not interested to play. And if you can't wait for the playoffs, you just have to choose the New Series mode and enjoy the most exciting time period of the season.

All these game modes would be enough to make a rich game, but no. All Star Baseball 2003 has much more to please the player. The Expansion Mode and the Franchise mode are very unique, that no other baseball game on the shelves can offer.

In the Expansion mode, you can create your own club. You select a city, a name, a logo, and you can then play up to 20 seasons with it, managing every single aspect of your team. The Franchise mode works in a similar way, but here you have to choose an existing team. These modes are both incredibly fun, addictive, developed in every single detail. It's great to follow your players and your team game after game, season after season. In this game you can also create a player and include him on your team.

All Star Baseball 2003 is an incredibly deep baseball simulation. The basics of the game are the same as the preceding installment, but Acclaim managed to correct all the bugs. Just like the other games in the series, All Star Baseball 2003 is a difficult game. Controls are great, but difficult to master.

The classic cursor system is used both for pitching and for batting. Pitching is easy. Each player's pitch type appears on the screen and is assigned to a specific button. You select the pitch type, you move the pitch target to the desired location, and then you launch the ball. At this point, you can still modify the ball's trajectory while it's in the air. There are more than 16 different pitches, and each player can can perform only the ones included in his real repitoire. Before each pitch, you can also position the fielders and outfielders by pressing the L1 and R1 buttons. In this way you can cycle through many positioning options, choosing the one that fits the batter's hitting tendencies.

Batting is very difficult, but this makes the game more rewarding. A triangle shaped cursor, which is moved with the Left Analog Stick or the D-pad, indicates the location in which your bat will make contact with the ball. The size of the cursor varies accordingly to the abilities of the pitcher and of the batter. Using a poor batter against a strong pitcher will result in a very small cursor - in this way it's more difficult to hit the ball. You can try guessing the pitch and location before every pitch. If you correctly guess the pitch type, the contact area becomes larger. Once the ball has been released, you can still move the cursor but you also have to press the swing button timely, and that's the hardest part of the game.

Fielding is not as difficult as batting, but you'll need a few games before getting used to it. All Star Baseball 2003 is one of the few games that give you full control in fielding.

Overall, the only issue in the gameplay of All-Star Baseball 2003 is the difficulty of the game. Acclaim has created an amazing gaming experience and a great baseball simulation.

Graphics: 7.5

All Star Baseball 2003 looks much better than the other baseball games recently released on the Playstation 2. On the other hand, the game is not as impressive as many other sports games available on the system.

The player 3D models are the best feature of the graphics of the game. Sometimes, the players look just like their real life counterparts. The faces look really good and this is a rarity in sports games, where most of the time the players look like aliens. The bodies are well built and the finely detailed uniforms look exactly like the real ones. The animations are smooth and realistic.

The stadiums look great, and in ASB you can play in all of the Major League stadiums plus a few ones designed by Acclaim. The real stadiums are recreated with great care and there are some nice details here and there, like mascots on top of the dugouts, players warming up or looking at the game in the dugouts.

Two or three things prevent this game from looking really good. First of all, the crowd. As usual, looping animations are used for the crowd, and as long as the camera frames large portions of the stadiums it looks good. But, whenever you can take a closer look at the crowd, a green pixelated border appears around the 2D figures. It looks really bad, mostly because it strikes with the detailed player models in the field. The 2D images used to show the city environments in the background look way too blurry. Light effects on the stadiums are non-existant and weather effects like rain and snow are unimpressive. If you are used to the splendor of games like Madden 2002, you'll notice the difference.

Sound: 8.0

The sound effects are far away from being impressive but all you could need to recreate the atmosphere of a baseball game is here. Crowd sounds, ball noises and all the rest are pretty convincing. The commentary is good too, and not as repetitive as in many other sports games. The voices of Fox Sports announcers Thom Brennaman, Steve Lyons and World Series manager Bob Brenly provide a solid commentary to a game enriched by historical information and stats. The theme played in the menus is good too, and considering the time you'll spend messing around with all the game options, this is not a trifling matter.

Replay Value: 9.5

I can't think of anything else that Acclaim could have added in ASB2003. This is the richest baseball game I have ever played. A lot of game modes, including an amazing Franchise mode that lets you manage your team for 20 consecutive seasons, and every sort of extras you could ever dream of, like the Player Cards collection and the Trivia game. Excellent.

Overall Score: 9

While lacking the magnificent visuals of other sports games on the PlayStation 2, ASB2003 is one of the most complete baseball simulations to date. Acclaim has created a perfectly balanced gaming experience. Unlike other baseball simulations, ASB2003 gives you full in-depth control of every moment of the game. I strongly suggest that you buy this game if you are looking for a solid, addictive baseball game for their PlayStation 2.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/02, Updated 06/08/02