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Sega has lost its credibility.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 30 / 34
Date: August 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Together with NHL 2K, Sega has demonstrated that it's willing to push a product out the door without working through its glaring problems. They bank on the game's superior graphics while its gameplay and managing features are simply abysmal.

You can't play defense. You must wait for the fielder to catch and then you get to control where to throw. Whoopee. I could forgive them for this if the auto-fielding looked realistic. But, inexplicably, it's so lame. You see, pitchers don't field six or seven pop-ups a game by making over-the-shoulder-catches. Every throw to first isn't a leaping toss off the wrong foot. Catchers don't wait three seconds before gently tossing to second to throw out a would-be base stealer. It's like the fielding was programmed by someone who doesn't understand the kinesics of real baseball players.

It makes matters worse because it's not a matter of technology. Sega just doesn't appear to have the baseball smarts to capture the feel of the game. Really. When was the last time a pitcher fielded a grounder in short left? I've never seen that. Oh, and you can't check the other team's line-up during a game. I'd like to know who to expect up at the plate in terms of reliever match-ups. The play-by-play announcing pre-dates the PlayStation's capacity. The pitching is the only redeeming feature of the game. But it's not worth it. Sega has not delivered on the promise of this system. After the PlayStation 2 converts the Dreamcastaways, we may never know what the system was truly capable of.

MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME EVER PLAYED

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: July 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I hate to say it, but dreamcast is losing its flavor. I cannot believe sega put out such a horrible game. I am an avid sports fan and a video game enthusiast and I have every system and every systems sports games and this by far is THE WORST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED! All the hype is fluffed. I raced home to put this game into my dreamcast system only to be left sitting on the edge of my bed with my mouth wide open in disappointment. Where should i begin? First of all, you have NO control over the players in the field. Once the ball is hit, it becomes the computer that takes over. you resume control once the ball is caught or tracked down or whatever it may be. the game play is terribly slow...terribly slow. there is no kind of speed bursts whatsoever. The pitching is the worst because you have to refer to the manual to see what pitches you throw. All they have is a little diagram that doesnt tell you at all what pitch you are choosing. hitting is awful. you have to hold the r-trigger and release it to swing. That stupid everpresent box is always in the middle of the screen with no way to opt to not have it. It seems as if everything is done in slow motion. The home runs(when you are lucky enough to hit one) gives you no excitement when you do. The crowd is not exciting at all. There are no other features to the game ie..home run derby, legends, NOTHING at all. Just season, exhibition, all-stars, that's it. I can go on and on but i only get so many words to describe it. I took my game back the next day and got my money back. If it werent for nba2k, I would have been traded in my whole dreamcast system. Again, i am a sports fan and all i basically play is sports games, so thats the view i am giving you on the dreamcast system. A sports fans view. Oh yeah, they have good graphics though. PLEASE DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY BUYING THIS GAME! If you do, dont say I didnt tell you so....Here I come Triple play 2001.....sorry for leaving you!

Disgusted

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I called Sega they have an attitude of so what. This is not baseball this is a joke. Example a foul pop by dougout 3d baseman drops ball they call it a ground rule double. No errors how could they leave that out. Batter swings after ball in catchers mitt. Sega told me to trade in game on money back its not defective, they are wrong the whole game is defective. Thank you 3do for Sammy Sousa High Heat 20001. Now thats a baseball game.

WSB 2K1 delivers.... something that all gamers will hate

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: August 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

A week ago, I saw a commercial for WSB 2K1. It looked awesome. Since NHL2K, NFL2K, and NBA2K were all pretty good games, I figured that the latest one from Sega would be even better. So last night I rented it. I admit, WSB2K1 does have the best graphics of any game I have ever played. But everything else just plain sucks.

Before I actually played a game, I went into the Customize menu to make my team a little bit better. The set-up to trade players, was not good at all, however. It took me about a half hour just to put together a pretty good team. At least I hoped they were good. After this, I went looking for the options menu in order to configure the controller. But wait... there wasn't any controller configuration option. In fact, there were barely any options to choose from. At this point, I was beginning to feel distraught. Hopefully, I could figure out how everything went together after a few innings of play. So I set the difficulty option to "amateur", and I put my loaded team up against the Marlins. The opening of the actual game was impressive. I hoped that the gameplay would be of its equal. Pedro Martinez was my pitcher, and the first batter up was Luis Castillo. But what.... what do I do to pitch? I noticed a little analog stick picture with lines pointing out it. I pointed the analog in one of their directions, and then hit the red button. Ba-boom, Pedro winds up and the picture disappears, but wait, a new thing appears. It is rectangular power bar. When the power meter got up to the top, I hit the red button again. Luis takes a swing and delivers a hit. I figure that now I have to make my closest fielder run and catch the ball. But I'm wrong. After almost 5 seconds of delay, I guess the defense realized the ball had been hit and reacted. Too late though, the ball had already slowly rolled through the infeld and past the infielders. Three more Florida Marlins come up, each one getting a hit similar to this. I think to myself, "what is wrong with my fielders.... they are moving really, really, slow. Even I could've caughten those balls." Now I was starting to think that something was wrong with my pitching. I might've actually been right.... I was able to get the next two guys to pop out. But the seventh batter of the inning came up, and, well he popped it up, way up, in the infield. It was almost perfect for the first baseman to catch if he had just stood there. But wait, he wasn't moving to catch the ball. And then he took off for first base, leaving the ball dropping onto the infield! I couldn't believe it. I was screaming at him to catch it. And then I realized that the second baseman was slowly running over to catch it. I was now, very, very, upset.

After a few more minutes, I was able to get the third out and now I was up to bat. The score: Marlins 4, Tigers 0. The best players in baseball absolutely sucked in the field. At this point I was still optimistic. Maybe my inexperience was my problem, and that with some patience I might become good at this game. My first guy up to bat was Alex Rodriguez. The pitch came, and I hit the red button. A-Rod didn't do anything. What the heck? The next pitch comes and I tried the same thing. Still nothing. On the next pitch, I tried the other buttons, including the R button. Now I had figured out what button to use to hit. Using my experience from previous baseball games, I swung at the next pitch when you actually are supposed to swing. Swish- a strike. A-Rod had swung about 2 seconds after the catcher caught the ball. My next two batters did the same thing. My next time up at bat, I actually got a hit. However, I am pretty sure that it was pure luck that had gotten the bat to hit ball. But yet, my players still sucked and I failed to even foul off the ball the rest of the time I played. This time, though was only for another five minutes. Because when I was playing defense in the top of the third, I got so fed up with the extremely poor gameplay capabilities that I threw the controller on the floor and it broke. I turned off the Dreamcast in disgust and threatened the game cd's life. I finally coaxed myself into letting it go. It was a rental, you know, and I would've had to shell out a lot of money for it.

Later in the day, I brought myself back up to trying WSB2K1 again. This time though, I decided that I would just simulate a season. Besides the graphics, this was the only other good feature of the game. Each time you simualte a game, it shows you a nice box score that includes the winning pitcher, the losing pitcher, who recorded the save, and who hit home runs, and actually the number of home runs those players had hit so far in the season. But yet, I was still disgusted in the fact that almost every game, the score was 3-0, 1-0, 2-1, 4-3, or something really low. And that winning pitcher almost always pitched a 5-hitter or lower. I ended up winning the world series, but after my previous experiences with playing the game, this accomplishment seemed diminished.

I have now been writing this review for almost one hour. One hour is how long it took me to realize that whoever thought up the gameplay function for World Series Baseball 2K1, didn't like the people who would be playing the game. The graphics are outstanding. The gameplay makes you want to kill yourself. Sometimes in a game, the positives will outweight the negatives. ......And this is not an understatement, this is the plain truth. This is the worst game I have ever played. Please, don't buy it. Don't encourage Sega to make more games like this. This game brings shame onto everyone who made it, and especially to those who promote it. Do not buy it. Do not rent it. Do not believe the hype or the commercials. This game... sucked!

Graphics: A+ Gameplay: F Fun/Excite.: F Overall: D- (The graphics give it a passing grade... barely)

This Game Is So Bad It Hurts

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: July 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

World Series Baseball 2K1 is surprisingly the worst Baseball game to date. You don't play this game, you watch it. When your on the field you don't even have the option to CONTROL your own players. You can't even imagine making a cool dive for the ball or stealing a Home Run from a batter because its all controlled by the Dreamcast. When your base running, you can't control your leed off, when you slide, where you slide, or even if you slide. Some how there is no bull pin in which to warm up your pitchers, there are no fielding errors, the game doesn't know the infield fly rule, its only two players, the announcer for the game makes Ben Stine seem exciting, the players batting stances make them look like hunch-back rejects, and the game is a flat out joke to M.L.B. This game might be fun for a six year old who doesn't know what a Baseball is, but is excited by all the pretty colors on the screen.

I got hosed on this one.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: February 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is the worst baseball sim I've ever played, and I consider myself an expert baseball sim critic - back to Atari days. I'd rather play one of those right now. The AI on this game kills it. I thought maybe that I wouldn't need to have the fielding necessarily - that it would be okay, since no baseball sim has really reliable defense. I was wrong. Players have the blood-boiling habit of hesitating about 3 seconds before breaking for the ball. I have had balls hit directly at fielders who do not move until it is past them. And for some unknown reason, every throw into the infield will result in the infielder tagging the bag with his FOOT! Even in non-force-out situations, or when there is nobody coming toward the base at all. Pitching is extraordinarily difficult - and I think this is why there is no fielding. Who could get a jump on the ball when they are concentrating on holding the analog stick still at a perfect 38 degree angle in a north north easternly direction while trying to stop a power bar at the top?? It's just silly. I prefer the (1)select pitch, (2)select location (from 9 square grid) type of pitching. That gives you control enough and allows you to still field. Batting is also of the worst interface type. I hate games that have you move a cursor to the pitch location. How do you hit a breaking pitch?? You don't. Timing (and sometimes, if you want to get fancy, a simple high-low-out-in bat movement, as in Accolade's "Hardball" series) is again, good enough. But this game felt it necessary to not use the interface found in 90% of baseball sims. And there are no extras - no batting practice (which would be nice, since it's hard), no homerun derby, no nothing. Subbing is lame. Want to pinch-hit for a player with a pinch hitter playing the same position (e.g., a OF for an OF)? You'd better know what position he plays (I personally don't know every player on every team), because it won't tell you. This baseball sim demonstrates what happens when designers go for style instead of substance, form instead of function. And (general) when will anyone design a decent sim with historical teams?? The gashouse gang, the big red machine, the Bronx bombers?? Why not?

Hype does NOT deliver

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The hype, the anticipation, the letdown, and that's the nice version. I reviewed ASB2000 for N64 at 2 stars, but now I've learned to appreciate the quality of that poor game. WSB2K1 is so far below expectations that I'd rate it as the biggest letdown in the history of video games. This is coming from a guy who felt that no baseball games have even compared to the previous WSB games for the Saturn and Genesis. Those games are better games than the latest installment. This game doesn't even deserve a star, and don't make the mistake of ordering it like I did. The game looks very good to the naked eye, the stadiums are all beautifully rendered in 3D and the rosters are current, but that's about it. Let's start with gameplay, and I'll give you the abridged version since I could have written a 100 page book about how poor the game play is after the first time I played this game. The batting mode is peculiar to say the least as it involves holding down a trigger until the ball comes. On defense, the problems really begin to multiply. You do not even have the option to field manually, so you're at the total mercy of the computer, which to me, takes half the fun out of the game. You can, however, throw the ball, but it must be thrown to a base, so there are no cutoffs, which are helpful in other games. The throws also always get to their destinations on the fly, another unrealistic aspect of the game. In terms of the defensive controls, 2K1 reverts back to the Nintendo style of freezing the players in place until a button directs them to run or throw. This can be a headache on close plays and could have been easily remedied with a little more production time. The baserunning style is also similar to that of Nintendo games and it's hard to control multiple runners. While you're getting frustrated with the very poor gameplay, you're forced to listen to the annoying drone of the announcer, whose voice you don't have the option to turn off. This no name announcer is easily the most annoying I've heard on a video game as there are clear gaps in his speech and he's very repeatious; in one game, he'll say the same thing at least 10 times. In terms of in game options, WSB2K1 most closely resembles the early versions of RBI Baseball. You can't warm up pitchers or make any complex switches. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point: WSB2K1 uses the facade of good graphics to disguise shallow programming, limited options and poor gameplay (and the graphics aren't even that good, just look at the crowd). Don't buy it, it would be more fun to put your $40 in a toilet and watch it flush down than it would be to play this game.

No Don't Do It!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Watch out! This game is awful. The graphics and commentary are buggy to all ends. This game was completely rushed out the door, and as a result, suffers immensely. The graphics are 'sometimes' nice, but the crowds look like something off of Genesis. The fielding is atrocious (you can't even control your fielders! the computer does it for you!), there is no home run derby, almost no options, a skeletal season system (that has no career mode, just one season) and the music and sound effects sound like something from the original NES days. What a horrible disappointment. Do not buy this game! Show Sega that they can't just put a sub mediocre product on the market and expect everyone to buy it.

Save Your Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is NO WHERE NEAR the caliber of NFL2K and NBA2K. I have had it for several days and here are just a few of my complaints: CANNOT CONTROL THE DEFENSE!, cheesy fan animations, Runners look like they are on a slip and slide, Annoying commentary, poor sound effects for croud and ball hitting the glove. CANNOT CONTROL THE DEFENSE!, hitting and throwing controls are sluggish, 680 foot homeruns (that is wonderful attempt at realism), among others. Did I mention you CAN'T CONTROL THE DEFENSE? This is the only game I have ever played where you can't control the defense. Great pitcher and hitter graphics, they just left out too many key elements to make fun. Hopefully ESPN Baseball Tonight will finally come out and be done a lot better. Save your money.

World Series Baseball Does Not Meet Expectations

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The last time I checked baseball composed of three major components, hitting, pitching, and fielding. Apparently those at Sega felt that customers would not mind if one of these components was missing from the game. You CAN NOT control defensive players in this game until after they have caught the ball. Not only can you not control your players but the AI does a poor job as well. Outfielders have terrible breaks on fly balls often taking indirect routes. First baseman often cover first base instead of fielding the ball thus allowing easy ground balls and pop ups to become base hits. Another problem with the defense is that once a player gets the ball he comes to a complete stop unless you push the appropriate buttons during the players fielding motion. Other problems with the game that bother me is that there aren't any game stats. If you would like to know how many strikeouts your pitcher has or hits a batter has for a particular game one must remember that for themselves. The season stats in the season mode are great but game stats would be nice as well. The game was advertised as having hot and cold streaks for individual baseball players available and they are not. This missing feature is even printed as being available on the back of the disc cover. These are a few of the major aspects of the game that bother me while their are a few more that I will not mention. I am just disapointed because Sega Sports had put out such great sports games for the Dreamcast thus far and I had high expectations for this game. It seems as if the developers of the game were not baseball fans and failed to get the consultation needed in order not to miss the finer points of the game. Either that or they new it was a RUSH JOB and wanted to cash in before the real baseball season came to an end.

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