Here are baseball scores from OXM... (1 Viewer)

[Rob Varto]

My HH2004 shipped yesterday for the XBox. I can't wait to give it a test run!

 

[Dave Bennett]

Hmm, I might have to give HH 2004 a rental when I'm home for Spring Break. One of the things that used to bug me in ASB 2003 was that some games I'd be hitting everything and other games I couldn't buy a hit. I realize that sometimes happens in real baseball but it just seemed way to polarized. If HH is more realstic in that regard that's definitely a selling point for me.

 

[Rob Varto]

Dave,

you sound like a true baseball fan - if that's the case and you're not looking for a "hokey" arcade only baseball experience, definitely give HH a try.

 

[Scott_W]

High Heat is definitely the most realistic baseball game... I doubt many people can argue against that. However, its not for everyone. Some people would rather have better graphics, ESPN banners, more streamlined franchise, or other features. I've done that with other games (gone for the flashy graphics). Good that we have choices.

 

[Scott_W]

High Heat... Gamers.com 10 out of 10

http://www.gamers.com/game/93391/

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I Have a Copy of High Heat waiting for me at the local EB only 20 min left till I Leave Work !!!!!!

BTW It's supposedly 16x9 WS and 480p. No 5.1 audio thou only DD Surround

 

[JustinT]

I'm off to pick up a copy of HH at my local EB. I'll post my impressions after I've played a few games.

 

[RudyN]

I've got WSB2K3 on order from my local EB. Hopefully I'll be playing it by noon on Wed.

 

[RudyN]

GDC 2003: Inside Pitch 2003 Hands-On

Doesn't look like this is only for Insiders. If it is, ask and I'll copy some of the text here.

 

[Ryan Peter]

ScottW: The HH review was only done by one man, while WSB was reviewed by 3 people. If HH had been reviewed by 3 people just like WSB I would say it came out on top, otherwise, one guy liked it more than the 3 guys who reviewed WSB. The guy who reviewed HH didn't review WSB at all either. Too many variables.

If you go by the numbers they put at the bottom of the list, WSB actually comes out on top overall. 7, 7, 7, 9 VS 9, 6, 7, 8

 

[Scott_W]

Your assumption that if three people reviewed HH that it'd do worse is pretty flawed. Why?

I think this quote from EGM sums up the WSB reviews: "easy for any casual baseball fan to get into". I never said WSB was a bad game, just not really as complex a baseball sim as HH.

The guy (Dan L) that reviewed HH is the sport reviewer at EGM, or as close as they have.

 

[Ryan Peter]

My point isn't that HH would do worse if three people reviewed it, my point is we don't know how it would have done. Like someone said in another thread, it's the content of the review that matters the most. To me it's disappointing to not get the same guy reviewing both games.

That's what pisses me off about EGM. They need to take some initiative and review similar games side-by-side to compare and contrast. Yeah it's nice they structure the reviews so 3 different people review each game. However it'd be great if 1 person reviewed key games in a genre and compared and contrasted them telling the reader which one he thought was best and why.

A baseball writeup on all the baseball games would be fantastic with side-by-side with pros and cons for each.

 

[Scott_W]

I was only pointing out that WSB didn't do better as you claimed for the main score.

I'd love other magazines to better compare contrast the games. GMR actually did this, and is the only magazine I've seen do it like this. It wasn't as long as I'd like though, but still pretty good. I'm starting to like GMR more then EGM.

GMR's breakdown:

MVP:
Presentation: B-
Gameplay: B
Details: C-
Final Word: 7

ASB:
Presentation: B-
Gameplay: C+
Details: B
Final Word: 7

HH:
Presentation: C+
Gameplay: A-
Details: A
Final Word: 9

WSB:
Presentation: A+
Gameplay: C
Details: A
Final Word: 8

Hopefully a site like Op Sports will break down all the contenders category by category. I'd love to see screenshots of the franchise modes, etc.

 

[Damien]

The GMR reviews are not really informative to me. While some mags will use 2 pages to review one game they have the nerve to review EVERY single game in that amount. If they want to survive long they have to keep there promises and not do the BS other mags do. I also say that the reviewer was openly biased agaisnt cursor based games or even non-high heat games. He bashes WSB and All-star baseball for there batting interfaces and neglects to state the fact that both of them have NON-cursor options. He then says high heat looks good for the series but doesn't fairly compare the graphics to todays standards. Yes high heat will generate the most realistic results and plays argubably the most authentic, but the actual mechanics are and have been done on the PS1. Some people will like the first option of my previous sentence, or some will prefer the other more interactive type of game. You can't give/take points to one game for catering more to one type of audience. I'm not bashing high heat i'm just pointing out how the reviewer had a double standard.

 

[Ryan Peter]

I was only pointing out that WSB didn't do better as you claimed for the main score.

I didn't really claim that, but what I did claim is that the score they put at the bottom of every review, WSB actually did do better.

 

[Scott_W]

Which magazines really use two pages for reviews? They seem to all be on par these days. Maybe the Official XBox magazine, but then there is a lot of text. EGM only takes space for big games like Zelda. The rest don't.

I'm not necessarily defending the magazine, but its pretty similar to the rest.

 

[Mitty]

Have played High Heat and ASB this year.

HH took a big leap forward this year, while ASB took a small step backward. Last year, I'd have given ASB the slight edge, but this year, HH is the clear winner.

HH: gameplay controls more direct, player graphics WAY improved, and much more personalized (check out Mike Mussina for instance)
ASB: menus are slow and cumbersome, gameplay controls feel indirect or "spongy" to me. A couple of nice additions (scenarios, pickup games). Of course, ASB has more features than HH (expansion mode, etc.).

Looking forward to WSB and eyeing EA's MVP with caution. If I recall, Triple Play 2002 got pretty good reviews, but I found it completely unplayable, the worst version of Triple Play yet.

 

[Dave Bennett]

High Heat is really looking like an interesting title to me. I'm curious though as to how bad the graphics actually are. Call me superficial, but there's something about a game that looks like a PSone game that turns me off. I'm willing to sacrifice graphics to an extent but I just really hope they're not as poor as some say they are. At any rate, I'm gonna try to rent it next week during Spring Break so I'll see if it's the baseball game for me.

 

[JoshF]

Dave: It looks far better than a PS1 game.

 

[Scott_W]

High Heat's graphics are definitely passable. They'll probably look very good if you don't play one of the other games. Even then, they are okay.

MVP shouldn't be anything like Triple Play. I wouldn't worry to much. Its probably the only game this year that has any innovative new features. I think it does lack some things though, like warming up your pitchers in the bullpen. HH did that last year, and I believe WSB does it this year (a flaw for WSB last year). I'm looking forward to MVP, and hoping its as good as the others. The pitcher/hitter duel looks to go one step beyond High Heats, and the franchise mode of MVP looks stellar. (You can jump in and out of simming games to play important innings, for instance.)