High Heat Major League Baseball 2002
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: 3DO Developer: 3DO Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Sports
Graphics & Sound: After playing Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001, which was listed as one of top sports games of all time by Computer Gaming World in March of this year, expectations were high when I opened the box of High Heat Baseball Major League Baseball 2002. I really enjoyed the graphics and sound effects of the original game, which you can see by reading the original review here on GameVortex.com. Not only are the graphics just as superb, but they have added a few things to really make High Heat Baseball 2002 shine. 3DO has added 31 new signature animations enhancing batting stances and pitching styles to make the players seem more realistic. They have also added over 300 new animations throughout the game. The players themselves look much more realistic which is achieved by brand new player models with twice as many polygons as last year's model. Players are scaled to match their real life height and weight with new uniform textures. The batting helmets and bats are now more reflective, but there is a bug issue with this according to the 3DO web site. Some video cards (specific cards are not listed) cannot support the reflections, so it turns the helmet and bats white. It is easily fixed by turning off the reflections in your video preferences. Sound wise, the only real difference to High Heat Baseball 2002 is the new 2-man broadcast booth, with Dave O'Brien (radio voice of the Florida Marlins) describing the action, and Ray Fosse (of the Oakland Athletics) doing intelligent color analysis. The crowd will boo you if you're doing terrible, and I won't tell you if I heard any booing, and the broadcast booth used some very colorful remarks to describe bad playing. If they get too annoying, you can turn down the volume of these pesky critics.
Gameplay: I actually found High Heat Baseball 2002 easier to play than its predecessor. This might be because I have played the original and I finally know what I am doing, but the game does feel much easier. There are various modes of play which include Exhibition Games, Season Play, Playoffs, Home-Run Derby, and Pitching and Batting Practice. I highly recommend some time in the cages before you head off to start a season. I prefer to play the Exhibition Games because, not being too big of a baseball fan in real life, I get tired of looking at the same faces. So, I like to play many different teams against each other in the many different venues. Home Run Derby is harder than you might think with some of the large ball parks they build these days. With Exhibition Games, you have many features that you can turn on and off like designated hitters, errors, batter walkup, injuries and even a variable umpire that might call the game differently each time. As in High Heat Baseball 2001, there are various things that the computer will do for you like running the bases, pitching, fielding, throwing, batting, and defensive alignment. My only question is that if you turn on all these automatic settings, what do you do??? Be brave, turn them all off! A new addition to the game is the new cutoff infielder that makes those long throws from the outfield seem not so long. Catchers can also snap throw to a base to catch an unexpecting base-runner who was a long leadoff. I think it only fair to mention that the game has had a few minor issues that 3DO has addressed that you might want to think about before you buy the game. Click here and find out if there is something you need to know. Season Play adds the ability to set up rosters, your season length, your game length by setting the number of innings, and even trades between teams. One great feature is the fantasy draft option where you can, according to league rules, draft your dream team from all available players on the roster. This can be automated if you like as well. After the season, you can proceed to the playoffs, but you do have to perform very well to be eligible. You can also play Exhibition, Season and Playoff games of the Internet or local network.
Difficulty: In High Heat Baseball 2002, the difficulty is relative to your knowledge of the game, but for those of us that might not know everything about the game, there are some settings that can be changed so that you are not laughed off the field. You have Rookie (my favorite), Pro, All-Star, and Hall of Famer. Another way to make the game easier or more difficult is to turn the automatic settings on or off. If you are brave and turn all the automatic settings off, you have a challenge on your hands, even with the Rookie settings.
Game Mechanics: If you read the instruction manual, it does say that the joystick is supported for gameplay along with the keyboard and mouse combo and gamepad. I tried playing the game with a Microsoft Force Feedback Pro joystick and I couldn't get it to work. I even re-installed my joystick, thinking that it was my set-up, but no go. I tried the keyboard/mouse combination, which was fine for batting and pitching, but fielding the ball was difficult with the arrow keys. Like most sports games, the game pad was the way to go. I was even brave and tried it with the Microsoft Dual Strike gamepad, which is quite a bit different. It worked fine for High Heat Baseball 2002. Also, if you are able to connect 2 controllers to your PC, 2 players can play the game. There is so much more to High Heat Baseball 2002 that really can't be gone into in this review, but I truly believe that you will be impressed with this one. If you are fan of baseball simulation, High Heat Baseball 2002 is one of the best! Once again, check the support issues on the above link before you buy and then, play ball!
-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire
Minimum System Requirements: IBM PC and 100% compatible Windows 95/98/Me P200 with MMX required 104 Mb Free Hard Disk Space, 32 Mb RAM DirectX 8.0 compatible; 4 Mb SVGA video card capable of 800x600 16-bit high color display, 8-bit DirectX 8.0 compatible Sound Card, Keyboard, mouse, all Direct Input-compatible game pads   Test System: GX-450xl running Windows 98, 256 RAM, Creative Sound Blaster 64CPCI with Boston Acoustic Digital Media Theatre, STB Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT chip, DirectX 7, 32 Mb RAM, 6X24 DVD-ROM.
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