World Series Baseball 2k3 Review (1 Viewer)

[Jeff_Standley]

Man I cant wait to pick this one up. I loved last years version and wanted a bit more added to this one. Looks like they did it.

 

[gregstaten]

Just played my first game last night. Great game! Of course, this will probably be the last game I play on Rookie. With Pedro on the mound I took on Tampa Bay. Pedro pitched a complete game shutout with 22 Ks with no walks and the Sox essentially took batting practice. The final score was 44-0 including a 19 run fourth inning.

With the snow finally starting to fade away to reveal the grass, I can't think of a better time to start playing baseball!

-greg

 

[GlenHaag]

I've been reading a lot of stuff over at Operationsports.com. They have a great deal of info on the sliders so that you can make it a more realistic baseball game.

I'm going to give that a go this weekend. I'm 3-1 with the Brewers thus far, so I know it's not realistic.

Glen

 

[James T]

I played both WSB 2K3 and MVP baseball and I give the slightest edge to WSB 2K3.

My likes for WSB 2K3

Physics
-One player in the outfield had his glove in the air a little too high for a fly ball. The end result was the ball hitting him in the chest and bouncing all over the place.
-collisions. Nothing better than having a player charge at the plate.

Extra detail
-1st/3rd base coaches that are in play. I would have hit my first base coach in the head if he never jumped out of the way
-although the fans are still 2d, they look a lot better than the painted on fans in MVP, plus they move around a bit.
-warm up in the bullpen
-can get thrown out of games

Fielding
-I love having the ability to control dives and jumps

The things I liked in MVP

Player detail
-facial detail and body structure are identical to the real life players

Fielding
-The power meter for the throws are a great idea

Extra detail
-It's nice to get away from dots as baserunners and have players at base shown on the screen
-Nomar's prep before batting.
-dirt stains that stay with you throughout the whole game.

It kinda annoyed me that every player on the Toronto Blue Jays roster looked exactly the same except for Carlos Delgado. And even Carlos Delgado had a weight problem in WSB. It looked like he lost 50 pounds. The little details in WSB were a nice touch. I hit Nomar and next inning, Pedro retaliated with his first pitch.

 

[Jeff Peake]

I am still struggling to find the proper AI Sliders to make the game challenging.

I am at about 30-5 in my franchise as the Red Sox. Way too many wins. I have been slowly increasing the sliders and think I have a good combo. I am 2-2 my last 4 games.

- Timed Batting
- Fast pitch speed
- No strike zone
- AI sliders are at 50%, except
- "CPU Throw Strikes" is at 25%.

Lowering CPU Throw Strikes slider really improved the gameplay. The CPU throws alot more balls this way. While it did slightly increase my Walks (now I get 1 or 2 a game, was not getting any before), it made batting much more challenging. You cant just swing away at every pitch. My Strikeouts increased sharply as I was swinging at pitches way out of the strike zone. My team batting average was at .375 for the season. It was down to .275 over the last 4 games.

I am getting better at not swinging at balls. Having a fast pitch speed seems just about right, "Very Fast" is still too hard for me.

If you are scoring too many hits, try changing the slider and see if you have similar results.

Jeff

 

[Dave Bennett]

After playing a few games, and doing some extensive tweaking of the sliders I think it's save to say that this is an excellent baseball game. I'm getting pretty realistic numbers in all regards(with the exception of CPU walks) and I had an insanely low number of balls pitching with Pedro but I'm sure some of that stems from the fact that it was Pedro. At any rate, I lost to the Blue Jays as the Red Sox 4-1. I think I had around 11 hits and the Jays had 9 or so. My only run came from a solo HR by Trot Nixon. I should have won the game, but I keep having a problem at bat. I can usually get a few guys on base and in scoring position. However, it seems that everytime someones in scoring position I'll fly or ground out. I'm not sure if I'm getting nervous and just swinging at anything or if there's something else going on. Can anyone provide me with some batting tips? I use timed hitting as I find the cursor adds an extra level of difficulty without adding much in the area of contol. I usually try to watch the pitches and I'll usually try to hit the ones that are mid to high and in the center to slightly to the far end of the strike zone. Am I missing something? If you guys can provide me with any help I'd greatly appreciate it. Perhaps the game is so realistic, it makes the player choke when playing as the Red Sox
Edit-Also, I've only hit two homeruns in about 10 games. Perhaps it's just me but this seems slightly on the low side. Anyone else having a lack of homeruns?

 

[Damien]

at least for getting walks, i'd turn the cpu throw strikes slider to about 4-10. for hitting hr's, remember the B button should help you out as it is the power swing. Then I think the cpu batting eye(balls) slider may lower the amount of times they swing at balls. At least make sure you have pitching on medium variation, or even high, you'll get some walks. turning off the cursor for pitching/vibration will also help, but to me makes the game to hard for my skill level, so i just keep the variation on medium/high to get walks.

 

[Ricky Hustle]

The other bothersome note in the review was that you have to use the power swing to hit homeruns. The normal swing won't doesn't result in any HRs, which is bad.

Not true! I've hit 2 with the standard swing (a button). They both wound up being line drive HRs over the left field wall. One was with Robbie Alomar and the other was Ty Wiggington, both of the NY Mets. I've only played a dozen games or so.

The more I play this game, the more I like it.

 

[James_Kiang]

I picked WSB for the PS2 up about a week ago. I started by playing a few exhibition games to try and tweak the sliders some. I'll have to second the recommendation for operationsports.com - I've read some good stuff over there. Finally, I decided to start a drafted franchise. So far, I am 2-2. They've all been very close games and fairly realistic. Runs haven't been higher than 5 for either team, though hits have run a little high maybe. Also, I'm finding that my pitchers are striking out a ton of batters while walking only a 2 in those 4 games. I don't think I've actually drawn a walk myself, other than one intentional one. I don't remember my slider settings so I'll post those later tonight or tomorrow if anyone wants to check them out.

 

[James T]

If anyone still wants this game on the PS2, you better act fast. Other boards are reporting that this game got discontinued for the PS2.

It could be a hint that Microsoft won the bid war against EA for controll over SegaSports.

 

[GlenHaag]

Well, EBgames.com is still selling it. Who knows?

Glen

 

[James_Kiang]

operationsports.com had a thread about this yesterday. From what I read, one of the mods over there contacted Blue Shift and was told that this is not true. I haven't seen any news on Gamespot or anywhere else, so this is likely just a misunderstanding.

 

[James T]

The people on the other forums called there game store and the stores that had already sold out of WS2K3 now had it listed as discontinued.

If they still have it in stock, then they can sell it until they run out, then that's it.

James,

I thought BlueShift only programmed the game and Sega distributed it. If that were the case, then shouldn't the mods contacted Sega instead of BlueShift?

 

[James_Kiang]

http://forums.operationsports.com//u...b=5&o=&fpart=3

That's the board on OperationSports that I referred to. You'll have to scroll up some to find this post by Peter_OS:

"THIS RUMOUR IS FALSE PEOPLE.

I just finished talking to someone who works for Blue Shift, and they told me this is false. VC and Sega said the same thing. It's false people. Let's move on know."

Also, check out the post by zillionma where he talks about how there were reports that PSO for the Cube and Advance Wars for GBA were supposedly discontinued. Now, I'm not saying with 100% certainty that WSB is not discontinued, but I do seriously doubt that it is.

 

[Dave Bennett]

Can anyone reccomend some settings to remedy the problem I'm having? I was using timed hitting but there were way too many hits/runs per game by me and the computer. So I switched to the cursor and the last game I played I lost 12-8 with each team having 19-20 hits. I can't remember what my slider settings are exactly but I'll post them when I get a chance. Also I'll check out the thread at operation sports but I'm just curious as to what you folks are using as your settings if you're getting realistic games.

 

[RudyN]

Well, I've been using the following settings which were posted by GHillMike over at the BBSC forums with timed hitting and getting good results.

CPU Pitch - 62
CPU Batting - 23
CPU Eye (Balls) - 90
CPU Eye (Strikes) - 55
CPU Throw Strikes - 13
CPU Stealing - 55

Getting good stats by both the CPU and myself, as well as 1-2 steal attempts per game by the CPU.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

My opinion after a week with it is that I still think High Heat plays a better Smarter game of Baseball. WSB is still very conservative running the bases, I don't like the fact that after you field a ball the view immediatly goes to the next batter. Pitching and batter is Fine, Graphics are great, but HH plays small ball better.

 

[James T]

After playing for a couple weeks, I still think this is the best baseball game available. A couple questions for the vets. My team is in debt, but I don't have the high paid players to dump off to other teams. When I go to view my budget, I see a projected income. Is that fixed or does that change as my team gets better?

While making trades, is there a way to view how much a person makes on the opposite team? I can't figure it out and that seems kinda important when a team is in debt and is in need to dump salaray.

[EDIT] Nevermind about the salary for the playors on the other team, I just noticed it

 

[rodger_morales]

like alot of people I am on the fence as to MVP or WS. I have seen the MVP and it looks amazing. The tie breaker for me maybe the pitching on MVP. I read on the gamespot review that the CPU will not swing at pitches outside the zone. Is this true. In all baseball games I like pitching as a junkballer.

 

[Ricky Hustle]

I read on the gamespot review that the CPU will not swing at pitches outside the zone

Don't believe everything you read in reviews. I have struck many a batter out with 2-strike high heat and sinkerballs low. The gamespot also said that homeruns cannot be hit with a normal swing. Also not true.