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Almost a Home Run

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Well they almost did it, a game with franshise, expansion, minor league teams, the ability for players to improve over time, GREAT pitching capabilites, and you can charge the mound.. But WHY WHY WHY did Acclaim decide to make the controls different from every other game. Any one who has every played ANY baseball game can pretty much pick up any other game and the controls are very similiar, BUT NOW accliam, and not for the better either.. they just don't make sense. AND THE BATTING.. now of course you can put on the "easy batting" mode but for those of us who like "simulation" baseball not arcade, we want some control over our hitting, like we have with the pitching, I mean you can even move the batter around in the box.. and the whole "Guess the pitch" controls are stupid.. I can only play on Easy batting for so long till I have to put the game up.. (HINT: acclaim look into EA TP2002 batting, but in converse they should look at you picthing.) ERRORS!!?? they happen way too often in this game and there never seems to be a reason, there is no power meter on throwing, I don't even think the game utilized the analog buttons, so how can they say he through the ball too hard for that toss, to cause an error? Rookies are the worst, they ALWAYS over through the ball.. Ohh and the angle of view, when there is a pop up, you don't really get a over head view, but an extended view... makes it hard to get to the ball, and no "speed boots for players" The controls are had enough, but everyone runs slow.. Well I don't know what else to say, I haven't played High Heat 2003 yet, but what I hear about it it looks like we all just have to wait and see what Midway does with there game in June. And what happen to MLB by 989.. they made great games let's home they read this..

Great Graphics but Needs MORE Options

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

ASB 2003 has really great graphics but it needs more options. When you play exibition you can't choose the stadium or time of day. When you want to change the line up you have to go through several steps to change. I have to admit that the game play is very cool. The graghics are great and the stadiums are very real along with the fans. It also has details with peoples stance and items they use in the feild. This is a gaame that should be played one game at a time after a while it gets boring. But the game is good along with the great graphics. I give it 4 stars and is a really good baseball game this out there!! :)

Solid game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

ASB'03 is a an excellent game that is unfortunately, not without flaws. Mainly, it depends on what type of baseball game you're looking to buy. Triple Play for action, ASB for realism.

The graphics in this are breathtaking. It does a great job of capturing the classic ballparks. Playing in Wrigley, I could almost taste the Old Style. Hitting with the Red Sox, I wanted nothing more than to knock a shot onto the Mass Pike. You really feel like you're there. This all of course, just compliments the beautiful playing field and player animations.

The gameplay is solid, extremely realistic. The controls might take a while to get used to, but that only demonstrates how many options there are at bat, in the field, or while the ball is in play. Most everything holds true to how the actual game might be played out.

But there are a couple of frustrations. The first thing I noticed was a difficulty with fielding - particularly fly balls. The problem is that after a player hits a fly ball to outfield, the closest fielder is automatically selected. But it's often hard to judge which player that is going to be if the ball is hit into a gap. This means that I often end up thinking the center fielder is closer, thereby pressing left (if it's hit into left center). But somehow, it's always selecting the left fielder for me, meaning I'm just pulling him farther away from the ball. I wish they would help you out a bit and make the newly selected play take a couple of automatic steps toward the ball so that I could react/catchup to the gameplay. The same thing happens with bunts.

Also, everyone else is right: hitting is very hard. It's a gues, really. Not much skill is involved at all. In fact, it's so hard, that when playing with friends, we've outlawed throwing blatant balls. There is simply no time to react to the pitch, and it's instinct to just swing at everything. Still I must strikeout about 12-13 times per game - and I'm good!! I used to strikeout about 20 times. I've only walked one time - EVER. Walks will NEVER be a factor in this game.

The other problem is the hitting direction function, which lets you direct where you are trying to hit the ball. (grounder, fly ball, center, left, right, etc) It rarely goes where I want it to. I try to hit a grounder down the 3rd base line, I pop out to right field. I dont get it.

But regardless, I still have an awfully fun time playing, and I recommend it.

Good game, could be better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I only have a few problems with the game, although it's basically the best there is.

#1. Drag bunting. It's impossible. The drag is one of the easiest things to do in real life but you can never do it in this game.

#2. Pitching. Some of the pichers that should be tough are impossible to hit (Clemens, Wells) Other pwer pichers are easy to hit. Less emphasis on the breaking stuff, and more on the heat.

#3. Players throw to slow. You'll never get anyone out in a run down. Fix it. They need quicker reactions.

#4. Ejections. You get tossed for throwing inside twince in one game. Not good.

Good game otherwise. I recomend.

ASB 2003

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

all star baseball 2003 is the best game that i have ever played! I also have high heat baseball 2002 and after playing asb 2003 hhb 2002 was horrible! That's how good the game is! i would recomend this game to anyone!

Best baseball game ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I had to give this game five stars because it's the best game ever. I've never played High Heat or Triple Play but the commercials look like the graphics suck. Also it has realismto baseball, unlike Slugfest 2002. You don't beat up guys or have a baseball knock you over in real baseball, but that is how it is in Slugfest. Everyone says that the hitting is difficultin All-Star, but not me. All you do is when you first get the cursor you lower it down just a little so it is just below where it starts. Then you simply wait for the pitch. You still strike-out, but it is easy to hit. There are some things that they could improve on, and here they are
-There is no umpire, so you don't know if the pitch is a ball or a strike for a couple seconds.
-The camera angles stink, I love when I'm pitching to have the camera like on tv(behind the pitcher)
-It's annoying when you hit a homerun, they immediatly change the camera angle so you know it is a homerun. It would be better if they kept it on the normal camera angle and just show the red circle in the stands.
Over all this is by far the best and most realistic baseball game I've ever played!

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty cool until it won't let you hit ball. The graphics are good but it is not worth your money and time. Don't buy it. I could never figure out how to steal bases. Controls are confusing.

The best PS2 baseball game still needs some tweaking

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

For realism, playability and sheer fun for baseball fans, Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 2003 is tops! As a gamer who always takes the tough road to victory by playing coach, this game offers a coaching mode that rewards good coaching and penalizes dumb coaching decisions. The graphics are excellent. The players look like they are, for the most part, really playing the game and are not awkward or stilted, and the system allows the coach to really coach, not simply watch the game, as in some other baseball game systems. The system also offers great flexibility to reconfigure leagues and teams or add expansion teams to create a real "dream" team or league, as the player chooses.
There are some areas that could still use some work, however. In playing coach, one expects to be able to set lineups, and that feature is available. Problem is that occassionally the game takes over and sets a lineup for a particular game for you, with no way to change it short of dropping one of the players in the lineup the game created.
While the coach mode has almost every coaching decision that one can make, including sacrifice bunts and squeeze plays, it lacks a means of intentionally walking a batter without leaving that mode of play. It also has no coaching decision for a hit-and-run play, and that really needs to be added to the list. Simply directing a batter to hit the ball, whether for power or just to connect with the pitch, does not ensure that the batter will swing at the ball in this game. In a hit-and-run play, the batter always swings at the ball; whether they hit it or not is another matter.
I personally would prefer that the game offer no special advantages, such as inflated player performance, or at least give me an option to remove the advantage. To give an example, I chose to take the Montreal Expos, one of the teams slated for contraction because it is so bad. I made lots of trades, picked up a few free agents and elevated some players from the minors in an effort to turn them around. Two of the players I kept however, Vladimir Guererro and Jose Vidro, have exceeded even Ichiro in performance with each hitting over .410 with 45 homers by the all-star break and both heading for about 200 RBIs by season's end. Now these players, in fact, are really good, but I don't think even one Ted Williams has emerged since he quit baseball, much less two in the same season, so these inflated performances really detract from the realism of the game. If I win, I want to do it, not have the game do it for me.
Those are minor irritants, however, and do not detract from game play significantly. Even the inflated player performance doesn't always translate to automatic wins. The Expos are in first place at the all-star break, but they are only 4.5 games ahead of the Braves, and that pretty much mirrors where the teams actually were in 2002 at about that time.
One factor that does for me, though, is the commentary. The play-by-play is OK, but could use a bit more diversity. The real problem is how the players are addressed individually. In every single game, you have to hear again about what your players did last year. That might be OK for the first three or four weeks of the season, but by June, that track has worn a little thin. Why not keep that feature for the first three weeks and then move to what the players are doing in the current season. This could be accomplished easily by tying back to the stats, standings and special awards the game features including the All-Star voting. Heck, you could even include some commentary about when a particular batter either owns or is owned by a particular pitcher. Not only would that make the game more real, it would provide some potentially valuable info for the coach at the same time.
Overall, All-Star Baseball 2003 has proven to me to be much better than it's competitors in all of the aformentioned areas, even the problem ones. If you like baseball, you'll enjoy this.

Awesome

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the most realistic Baseball game I have ever owned. The Franchise mode is amazing. The players look realistic and it really looks like you are playing baseball. There are a few problems. If you are in the lead the ather team comes back in the next few innings, so it is extremely hard to win. If you want a relistic baseball game then this is the one for you.

Not worth it!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game stinks. When you think you have a double they throw it in to the second base man and usually get you out.A lot of times when the ball is like ten yards down they usually make the catch unbelieveable!! this game is not worth the money.

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