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High Heat Baseball 2003

High Heat Baseball 2003

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DONT buy this thing
Review: -1 star-Graphics-The graphics are terrible compared to any other game. Even of its not baseball, The graphics are inacceptable. All the people look the same accept for their race, and the outfit they are wearing. Half the players dont even have a picture.

-1 star-gameplay-This game was SOOOOOOOOO poorly made. In the easiest difficulty i lost 8-5. With the same teams in 2 harder difficulties, i won 35-0!!Also, u ALWAYS get away with stealing from first to second, but u NEVER be safe stealing from second to third.

-1 star- This game gets boring sOO eaily becuase it only has 2 good modes. There is practice, and exibition which is the same. Home run derby WHICH IS TERRIBLE BECUASE U CANT FACE THE COMPUTER!, and a season which is terrible because half way through the season u always get a roster problom which is impossible to fix.

-1 star-Crashes easily and takes 25 minutes to instal- this game which is about 300 meg took 25 minutes to install on my SUPER good 1.2 ghz amd athelon pc. Diablo 2 which is 1 gig, 3 TIMES THE AMOUNT!, took 3 minutes to install. Also, when u play this and u forget to close ur instant messeges, and u get an instant messege, the game minimizes. ONCE IT MINIMIZES, SAY GOOD BYE!! cuase once u click on the game to bring it back the screen turns black and it freezes.

Do not buy this game!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Baseball Arcade/Sim game ever made, plain and simple
Review: ...The game plays very solid with great AI on the two highest levels. Great phyiscs, solid AI and very realistic stats make for the best baseball game to date.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great gameplay, disappointing graphics, and N.B. ...
Review: After a few seasons' worth of enjoyment from EA Sports' Triple Play series, the most recent version froze both my computers, so I tried 3DO's High Heat 2003. The most important information about this title that many users will want to know in advance is that contrary to the stated system requirements, the game is nearly unplayable without a gamepad or joystick. If your computer is a notebook, it is utterly unplayable because the game requires fast access to the numeric-pad arrow keys. Notebooks have a special key that accesses these functions, but that obviously cannot accommodate video-game use, and remapping the keyboard is not a viable option because the keys' physical configuration is critical. So the game ended up costing me another twenty bucks and about four hours of headache since High Heat has a recently discovered fatal incompatibility with its recommended gamepad, Gravis's Eliminator, that will require dutiful Internet scavenging for alternative drivers and a dozen installation attempts to remedy. (More on this can be found in the troubleshooting section of the official High Heat home page. Save yourself the aggravation if you can.)

My first impression is that the graphics and sound are substantially inferior to Triple Play's, even when the "Best" graphics toggle is turned on in all categories. The announcer A.I. is buggy -- some phrases lapse into a repeat or two that will comically remind you of Rain Man -- and there are not enough distinct phrases to suspend your disbelief that this is just a computer talking. Also the crowd noise consists partially of individually recorded shouts in very frequent rotation that cannot be turned off without turning off the crowd altogether, so one must play the game with a voice screaming something sounding like "ROCK AND ROLL!" out of your right speaker roughly every 8 seconds. Regarding the graphics: The cartoonishly top-heavy players are awkwardly constructed in a disjointed build that reveals most seams and has trouble replicating the flow of natural movement except in the few cases (swings and pitching windups) that were programmed with particular care. Far fewer players than Triple Play have their real-life faces mapped onto the computer models, and most of the ones that do are barely recognizable anyway. The developers cut many corners implementing the 3D graphics. The stadiums, almost none of which capture the atmosphere of the real-life ballparks, are poorly modeled and consist too much of simple textures mapped onto flat polygonal planes. Some areas the artists simply neglected to fill in altogether, and plain polygons in one color result. The ballfield is similarly primitive, with the gentle arc of the infield dust as it curves between the foul lines replaced by jaded octagonal edges. When a player slides into a base, the cloud of dust kicked up looks like the sprinkling of the "spray-paint can" function in a circa-1989 version of Microsoft Paint.

The gameplay, however, leaves Triple Play in the dust. Far many more variables determine the players' performance and the result is many more players that capture the style of their real-life counterparts. The movement of the ball off the bat and from the pitcher's hand is also more natural, although once it hits the field it seems to behave more like a billiards ball than a baseball. Pitching is incomparably superior in High Heat, which additionally boosts its realism by offering the zoomed-in left-center-field camera angle that TV broadcasts rely upon. Triple Play gives you the option of throwing either in the strike zone or ten feet wide of the plate and includes a few pitches whose physics only make sense in a Salvador Dali universe, but High Heat's pitch repertoire and locator unlocks every aspect of "the head game." It even includes a pitch, the cutter, omitted from Triple Play, although it would have been nice also to include both 2-seamers and 4-seamers rather than a generic fastball. A more significant flaw is its erroneous assumption that every pitch is thrown in every location: splitfingers should break towards the knees or in the dirt, never shoulder-high! Thankfully, there is at least one sense in which the game's departure from reality is not a bug but a feature, as the saying goes: there are few foul balls, a worthwhile trade-off of a little realism to eliminate a lot of boredom. I wish it would regulate pick-off throws similarly. Like Triple Play, unfortunately, it is hard to configure a difficulty level that does not result in either winning or losing every game by a landslide. Triple Play's only real advantage (besides the graphics) is a significantly more user-friendly player editor, a fun feature for those like me who like populating the league with old favorites. I have no doubt that my fictional High Heat roster, including Seaver, Gooden, and Leiter in the same rotation, will be a source of comfort for me through the disappointments that the real-life 2003 season will inevitably offer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High Heat Baseball 2003
Review: Bottom line -- if you have High Heat MLB 2002, you can skip this year's edition, unless you're willing to drop $30+ for some tweaks and a roster update -- and even then, you're getting outdated rosters anyway. But if on the other hand if you're sick of the arcade-style console games masquerading as PC sports games, are looking for a richer, deeper, more satisfying baseball experience, and have yet to give High Heat a try, then 2003 is a good way to go.
I feel a little dirty giving a good score to what is basically last year's game, but the fact is there's little to no competition for High Heat on the PC. It's this, or statistical sim-management games like Season Ticket or Baseball Mogul, which are fine games, but since there's no on-the-field action, that's a different genre entirely.

Everybody else is dead. Stormfront, Accolade, and Sierra Sports have all hung up their cleats. Even EA Sports is sitting out this season, with last year's Triple Play Baseball still sitting in stores with Jason Giambi in his old A's uniform.

Congratulations, High Heat. You're the champion.

By default.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ripped Off and Noone at 3DO Cares
Review: Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. 3DO has chosen not to provide updates to their games but instead re-release nearly the same product. Here's the kicker, they want you to spend another $30.

I have had so many problems with the game and have used technical support to it's fullest capacity. Still yet, 3DO can find a way to make their game work on one of the most powerful computer systems available. I have also used their customer support department and requested assistance. They are useless. They don't care if their customers receive a poor product and obviously think that they are the only product available.

I will be the first to tell you that the season mode and the statistical tracking is phenomenal but if consistently get booted off of a game without saving what is the point.

If you want this product, be prepared to save your game after every 3 innings that you play, or else you'll find yourself playing the game all over again.

Disgruntled Consumer

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is becoming a trend, 3do...
Review: For the past three off-the-shelf versions of High Heat there have been bugs galore.

I will name only the first three that come to mind...

You can't watch your team play in manager only mode... if you try it will kick you to your desktop after the top half of the first inning.

Trying to play Home Run Derby can make your computer hang.

Yet again, snafu with transferring seasons from older versions of the game.

I'm sure the game itself will be great once it is patched. So do yourself a favor and wait until it is. Even at the low shelf price it's not worth the frustration yet.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Baseball Game Ever
Review: High Heat 2003 is the best baseball game ever. Period. You may say that the graphics are not as stunning as the lame Triple Play Baseball from EA Sports. But the gameplay on High Heat is unmatched by any baseball game I have played going back to the original Ken Griffey Jr for the SNES. The stances and pitching styles of the players are very well portrayed on this game and it shows with Randy Johnson's delivery and Gary Sheffield's bat waggle. Rosters are very much up to date and 3DO will offer roster patches veyr soon so the game does not go out of date. This is a very helpful feauture. Gameplay features include injuries, suspensions, ejections, pitcher warmup,and check swings.The announcing isn't bad compared to some other baseball games. The announcing team says just enough to inform you of what is going on and not get annoying. All in all, High Heat 2003 is a must for a big baseball fan and if u like realistic games. High Heat 2003 is simply amazing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST BASEBALL GAME EVER!!!!
Review: High Heat Baseball 2002 was by far the best baseball game ever. This new version of the amazing baseball game can only be better. If you've ever played High Heat '01 or '02 you know what I am talking about. If you have'nt, this game is amazing! You can control your whole franchise from Rookie-A to the majors. Draft or use real rosters. Play as many seasons as you want with players retiring and then call up rookies to take their place. Awards like MVP and Cy Young are awarded after every season. This is a must buy for any video game fan or baseball fan!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Maybe the only choice now...
Review: High Heat Baseball 2003 made absolutely no improvement over 2002. Or 2001. It also came with tons of technical problems. I couldn't play it on my main machine because, I suspect, it conflicts with the Matrox G450 card I have. As of the game itself, I get the feeling they must have something against Ichiro - how else could you explain him getting picked off almost once every 3 games, and a SB% of 40%?

A sad thing though, since HH2K3 is probably the best choice available for PC gamers now. To play a better baseball video game, we'll need a PS2~

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but not good enough
Review: High Heat Baseball 2003 should not have actually came out until 2003. The game graphics are really great, but the sound is terrible. The music cuts up often and drives one crazy. Also, the commentators are annoying, have nothing interesting to say, and say almost the same thing all the time. My biggest problem is that I am a big Reds fan and several pitchers and players have been left off of the roster. The AAA and AA teams are also missing several players that have been there since 2001. I also tried to trade players for players from other teams that are now on the Reds and some of them aren't even on the roster. I think that they just ignored the players on the DL or inactive rosters at that time.
Most people's argument is that the game will not work with USB controllers. That is not true. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder and it works like a charm. Playablity is standard, but if you play against the Giants, no matter what you throw (even balls)-Bonds will knock it out of the park or at least get a base hit. Real realistic, huh.
Anyways, it is an overall fun and interesting game to play. Just needs a longer look taken at it by 3DO


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