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

[Michael D. Bunting]

I picked up HIGH HEAT 2004 today for the PC.

So far, I'm unimpressed to be honest. I had last years version (and the year before that, and the year before that...) for the PC also and I never had any issues with "jerky" playback.

I have a pretty good computer (P4 1.8 GHZ, 512 MB RAM) and the gameplay on HH 2004 (PC) is somewhat "jerky" with some skipping frames...maybe it's my computer, but I don't think so....

I then tried it out on my HTPC (so I could play on the big screen) and it had some major issues...I never got it to run correctly at all to be honest. In my HTPC, I'm using an AMD 1.47 GHZ CPU with 256 MB RAM (I probably need to up the RAM, I know...). the problem may be in the Key Digital Key Transcoder I'm using to covert the VGA to Component for my HTPC - I'll do some more testing in the next couple of days to be sure though...

I still may rent the XBOX version to give it a try - and I'm not totally slamming the PC version of HH 2004 right now - I still need a few more days to try everything out.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

I bought the Xbox version of HH today just to see what it was like. I've only played about 3 games and I'm not very impressed. I think I'll be trading it in Wednesday for World Series. I think the graphics are awful. The players faces look absolutely horrid. You really can't tell one player from another. The gameplay is decent, not really any better than any other baseball game I've played.

Maybe I should give it more time, but as of right now I don't see what all the fuss is about. World series here I come...

 

[Jeffrey_Scotts]

I have been playing HH 2004 for the XBox the past 4 days. To answer the question, yes, the XBox version does indeed support connection to XBox-Live for updated rosters and patches (says so on front of box too.) Here's the scoop on it after playing:

1. Still the best game for serious baseball fans. Nothing else comes close to the A.I. and system.

2. The initial rosters are WAY off for some teams and very lacking. Some players are even out of position. Take for instance the Cubs. Most of the AAA players are not the same and the leave off a major league catcher for them Damian Miller. He was announced way back in December for playing with the Cubs, so it's not like it was last minute. This guy isn't even in the farm system and must be created. Next, we have 1B Hee Sop Choi, whom they have as playing LF for the Cubs. He has never been a LF player and always at 1B, therefore a major oversight, but easily corrected by editing the roster. I sight these as examples, but you will find a few others on teams like Cardinals, Diamondbacks, etc. that need updated.

3. So far I don't see any updates on XBox-Live to fix the issues above. A roster update is certainly needed, but about 90% is correct for the major league. The AAA is more like 70% correct at best for some teams, so a lot of editing and creation is needed if they don't fix this soon.

4. The animation seems jerkey when swinging. It doesn't look natural as the batter is slow to swing through. Also, notice how long it takes the bat to go back up to his shoulder after a swing. The motion here is bad and the 2003 version looked better.

5. Players don't look good at all. In fact, some players look blurry in the face. Sammy Sosa doesn't look even close. Animations such as home run actions, such as Sosa's trade mark "pop and hop" is poor. He does the pop and then a short one leg, one step hop. This is not how he does it for anyone that's seen him play. Plus, it looks like they just cut it off and didn't finish it. Other player models for the home run is not very good either, but a little better, such as Bonds.

6. Stadiums look better and crowds look better.

7. The pitchers certainly have better pitch types that mimic real life pitches they actually throw. Such as: Moving Fastball, Hard Sliders, Circle Change, etc.

8. A HUGE amount of control over managing a team. If you have a favorite team, I'm sure the game will make up for the cruddy graphics and rosters. You can control just about everything. New is a franchise mode that let's you manage the ownership of a team. Everything from teams salary caps to buying and trading contracts is offered.

9. A few minor bugs such as: if you select to turn on notices of injuries to stop the game, the menu will come up to substitue player but once you've done so will stay visible unless you hit pause to bring up the game menu and then unpause it.

10. It feels rushed in my opinion. They should've held this until at least June to ship. The game needs better rosters and certainly a patch for the minor bugs.

Bottom line:

Despite the problems listed above, I have seen most of the others, but not all as some are still Betas. High Heat is still what you want if you are a SERIOUS baseball fan and want to stay with one team or maybe just two or three at most. You will not find pretty graphics or even well done animations. You will need to either wait for the updates to come by XBox-Live or edit yourself. For me, it was as simple as going to a web site and editing the rosters one afternoon. If on the other hand you are just a casual baseball fan and would rather hit home runs and just play one on one games and not manage or play a full season then you will most likely want to look elsewhere. Otherwise, it's still the best and we can only hope XBox-Live will come through with patches for the rosters at least.

 

[Joe Reed]

I will be getting WSB2k3 for the throwback(retro) jerseys and the 720p graphics, but that is because I am more of a casual basbeall gamer and will wait for next year when hopefully more games will be on LIVE

 

[Phil L]

Is high heat the only one of these games available for PC? Are there any other options?

 

[RudyN]

I think MVP Baseball is also on the PC.

 

[Wade Paris]

One new thing I have noticed in HH2004 is that the umpire can call Balk on the pitcher for pickoff throws. I never saw that in HH2003 for the PS2 anyway.

Another (bad) thing I have seen is that there is a new overhead camera view for the far edge of the foul lines, but the orientation is reversed! So if the ball goes to the wall of the 1B foul line, moving your fielder to the right on the joystick actually makes them run infield and not to the wall. What the heck is that?

Other than that HH2004 seems like more of the same, and I find myself getting bored already of hearing the exact same announcements I heard all last year. The only new thing I've heard them say is "It's in the gap!" when you hit a ball between outfielders.

Looks like I'll be picking up WSB2K3 after all.

 

[Mike_Stuewe]

WSB2K3 for the XBox got a 9.1 on IGN. Not sure why, cuz I aint an Insider. Compare that to a 8.2 for HH, and 8.0 for ASB. Nothing on MVP yet.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

IGN pretty much loved the game and said it was the best all around baseball game out this year. I'll be picking it up tomorrow!

 

[Phil L]

Slightly off topic...

Could someone please recommend a good game-pad for the PC to use with HH or MVP? I'm sick of using the keyboard.