Already in the mood for Baseball

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:29 pm

I can´t explain it, other than all the trade and free agent activity has me ready for baseball already.
 
 I broke out WSB 2K3, and I can´t wait to see what 2K4 will be like. They are so close to having THE baseball game. Not sure if High Heat will even have a version this year, since MS bought them so late. The others I´m not holding out hope for.
 
 I´m even a bit geeked for the real sport to start. This is surprising, considering the commish, owners, andplayers union continually seem to be trying everything they can to turn me off to the sport. I do need to adopt a new team, seeing as how the Selig´s are intent on running the Brewers into the ground. I simply can no longer hold any love for a team that made us pay for a stadium under the false pretense that we´ll get a competitive club, only to cut payroll 25% three years after opening said stadium.
 
 -Matt

snate · Post by **snate** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:35 pm

Same here. I have baseball fever. I have been playing WSB2k3 and HH2k4 again. I have high hopes for ASB2005.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:39 pm

I´m with you guys! <IMG SRC="images/forum/icons/icon_biggrin.gif">

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:44 pm

I also have high hopes for ASB 2005. If you haven´t checked out the Q and A session over at OS with ASB_Man, it´s a nice hype for fans of the series.
 
 Also, suprisingly MLB 2005 looks downright impressive. OS posted three video clips early to mid last week and I was just floored at how real it looked.
 
 After last year´s disappointing baseball games, I´ve got high hopes for this year.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:21 pm

I´ve given up hope for ASB. I can´t stand the cursor system, and zone hitting was simply broken. The past two years I gave it an honest try, but both times it really let me down. With WSB already being solid, and seeing what Sega did with football, WSB looks to be my early pick this season. I´ve grown tired of buying 3-4 titles of each major sport each year and then selling all but 1 for a loss. I´ll rent one of the others if it gets raving reviews here, but I won´t be buying them blind.
 
 -Matt

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:25 pm

"I´ve grown tired of buying 3-4 titles of each major sport each year and then selling all but 1 for a loss. I´ll rent one of the others if it gets raving reviews here, but I won´t be buying them blind. "
 
 Easy to say in December, my friend.
 
 <IMG SRC="images/forum/icons/icon_wink.gif">
 
 Trust me. I know how you feel. I owned all of the baseball and all of the hockey titles for the xbox at one time....

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:34 pm

It´s going to take a hell of a lot of discipline for me at least this baseball season now that stores like EB, Gamestop, Babbages, etc have done away with their 7 day return policy. I took full advantage of that this year on at least two of the baseball games.
 
 Unfortunately, whichever game is first released is the one I´ll purchase. That´s pretty sad, but when it comes to baseball games I´m quite impulsive.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:39 pm

I´m looking at either MVP or ASB this year, though I know I´ll probably end up owning both at one point or another. There´s a new interview over at IGN with the MVP 2004 producer... it sounds really excellent.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:44 pm

I checked out that interview. The possible range of hit variety really stood out.
 
 I actually believe ALL of the baseball games will be making an excellent showing this spring...gonna be hard to limit myself to just one.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:46 pm

I haven´t bought a baseball game in years. That will change with the advent of online baseball.
 
 I will probably go with MVP, which will probably have the biggest online following.
 
 But ESPN Baseball, with online league support, could be very good if there are enough people for PS2 online leagues.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:15 pm

I don´t get too excited over interviews. It´sd nice to know what features will be added, but every year we get all excited over what the producers & developers say. Of course, every year we set the imaginary bar up to the sky, only to have it fall on top ofour heads when things like ASBs zone hitting bug is found.
 
 BTW, the bug I refer to is that zone hitting in ASB results in 90% of the hits going in the middle of the field, regardless of how early/late you swing. Never saw that mentioned in an interview. It was rare to even see an ASB fan even admit to it being there.
 
 -Matt

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:41 pm

Matt,
 
 I can count on one hand how many times I hit the ball down the right field line. Inevitabely, that´s what killed the game for me. Too many fly balls and as you said, there didn´t seem to be any way to time your at bat in terms of putting the ball where you wanted it to go.
 
 My other main gripe with the game was the pin point control of the pitchers. I could easily go into the 7th and 8th innings with my starters without a walk. I wish all the developers would just applaud EA with their pitching innovation and incorporate it into all the baseball games...at least as an option.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:08 pm

I found the pitching in ASB to be more realistic if you turned off the aiming cursor.

Cincinnati_Kid · Post by **Cincinnati_Kid** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 3:53 am

yeah only about 6 weeks so till everyone shows up hear for the grapefruit league
 
 looking forward to attending quite a few spring training games again this year
 
 not too mention the video games on the way
 
 the high heat/inside pitch hybyrd has me most curious as i have yet too hear much and i still think high heat plays the best game on the field....IP was first online so they wont have that leg on anyone this year so hopefully if they were pressed for time they took the graphics of IP enhanced them and slapped that on the high heat engine and have it on xbl....this could be enough too hold me until they get a whole year too work on the title for 2005
 
 mvp has my highest expectations as they should make big strides this year with a solid first year model....looks like they may have minor league play from the screen shots.......mvp online could be as big as madden or ncaa online easily
 
 wsb.....online could make this game very fun and worth a purchase but i think offline needs alot of work still personally i simply didnt have much fun with it ..i didnt need sliders too enjoy wsb 98 why do i suddenly need them now also im wondering if this game gets the espn hockey treatment and doesnt see much improvement afterall...on the other hand if it can get the espn football treatment well then it will finally be like a graphically enhanced saturn baseball game and i will finally be happy as can be....i would also like too see the graphics get a bit of the homerun king razz mi tazz excitement for homerun scenes etc.......
 
 mlb 2005....2004 was pretty fun little game..looks like they are going to have it running on a faster clip.....could be a nice game...989 already does a great job with there online stuff mlb should be fine in that area....playing mlb 2005 while getting realtime scores online scrolling underneath ....should be very cool
 
 asb.....i rather be forced too play a fifa game 24/7 all summer long....
 
 [ This message was edited by: Cincinnati_Kid on 24-12-2003 00:07 ] [ This message was edited by: Cincinnati_Kid on 24-12-2003 00:12 ]

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:03 pm

I also got hyped by the MLB 2005 and ASB interviews, but as we said before, these developers get us going every year.
 
 HH is my game of choice, but I´m afraid of what´s in store for the series. No mention if there´ll even be an installment this year.
 
 If there´s no HH, then maybe I´ll go with MLB? What games will be on XBOX Live?

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 2:19 pm

IGN has an interview with the producer of MVP.
 
 One key feature change will be no more auto-diving. You get to use the right analog stick for dives, wall climbs. On offense, the right analog stick controls the kinds of slides you do.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 12:04 pm

I just fired up ASB 2004 again to continue my expansion franchise after a long hiatus. What a great game. Once I found the right settings (which for me are; classic hitting cursor, assisted fielding, no pitching cursor, no strike zone, vibration on, normal pitch speeds, all-star difficulty) this game became such a great simulation for me. MVP might still take the crown as the most fun baseball title of 2003, but ASB was my all-around favorite.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 10:03 pm

I would have had a lot more fun with ASB if games didn´t take an hour to play.
 
 After playing a lot of WE games that take about 30 mins, games that take longer tend to get to me. I can´t remember if ASB had this feature but I don´t think it did. It if had a sim out feature in games where I was dominating I would have been a much happy camper.
 
 It´s almost wrong for me to say, but ASB was a lot of fun for me last year. More so than any other baseball game. However the long game times turned me off. It felt a lot like work in the end. I don´t think baseball games need to take over 30 mins. There´s a lot of stuff the ASB forces you to see that slows down the game.
 
 If they get the gameplay down to 30 minutes I think it will be the only game for me next year.

Galley · Post by **Galley** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 5:25 pm

I am happy with High Heat 2004, but MVP 2004 online sounds tempting.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 12:47 pm

One positive that ASB has finally included is "in-game saves". This is a huge addition which probably should have been implemented a couple years ago. Better late than never.

snate · Post by **snate** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:16 pm

As much as I love many things that ASB gets right, I just found out they have s*** the bed again on a major part of baseball. Again there will be no righty/lefty ratings. One set of ratings for everybody. <IMG SRC="images/forum/icons/icon_mad.gif">