High Heat Baseball 2003
	Developer 3DO Publisher 3DO Version Boxed release version, apparently unsupported by 3DO Reviewed by Kevin L. Kitchens [Feedback] [Author Bio] Review Date June 21, 2002

Rating (out of 5.0) 2.0 out of 5.0*

Judge for yourself

Strengths Not much Stats moderately accurate Animations still pretty good Weaknesses Pretty much everything after installation (half joking) NO support from 3DO Lack of options League/drafting interface Computer AI

* Notes Gaming Voice ratings are based on the technical and/or gameplay merits of a given product as well as the developer's choice of features and delivery of same. Our rating is not an endorsement of the thematic content of a given title. Gamers and parents are cautioned to determine if such content conflicts or coincides with their values and beliefs.

The ball ... has totally been dropped with 2003.

No, that’s not entirely accurate, is it? It was just a few years ago and took place here in the good old Milky Way. But yes, little children, there was a time when 3DO was interested in putting out a quality baseball game. Back when Front Page Sports: Baseball ruled the roost and the Triple Play series was the butt of all baseball gaming jokes.

Back then 3DO, a small company founded by -- of all things -- a baseball fan, produced the first version of High Heat Baseball. The gaming community was taken aback. Sure the graphics were rough (2D pictures on 3D stadiums), but the game had what FPSB was losing and Triple Play never had: heart. Out of nowhere 3DO had redefined what a baseball game should be. Gameplay first, beauty second. They promised to deliver a graphic baseball sim that would please the baseball purist as well as the casual fan.

With the release of High Heat Baseball 2003, 3DO has shown that they have totally abandoned the baseball purist and are seeking only the most casual of baseball fan.

3DO has shown that they ... are seeking only the most casual of baseball fan.

Each subsequent release of Heat would build upon the previous successes, correct past mistakes, and add new features – drawing us closer and closer to, dare I say it: A Perfect Game. But the ball began slipping with the last version and has totally been dropped with 2003. Major issues of importance to their core fan base were ignored in favor of updated rosters, somewhat improved graphics, and a new announcing team. League play, roster management, and AI issues fell to the wayside as 3DO sought to make High Heat more console friendly, at the expense of PC gamers. Many broken features were left broken. Bugs in the code, like inmates running the asylum, have taken over the once promising series.

Overall, the fun factor has been lost in High Heat. It may get prettier to look at. But there won’t be the “gees” and “wows” and “that’s the way I’d have done it” that the original versions elicited from gamers. Now the curse-ratio is higher, fueled even greater by the fact the three months out, there is not a patch in sight from 3DO. The last version received a single patch and then the typical: “We have to stop patching to work on the next version” doublespeak that translates to “we break it, you bought it” in the real world. Reports are NO patch is planned for the current version.

Okay. Enough generalities. Here’s a semi-organized laundry list of the many problems (and the few good things) with High Heat 2003.

Let’s start with some good. The graphics in and of themselves aren’t bad. Sadly, however, you are constrained to using only MLB logos. Not a big deal for most, but many gamers like to create their own leagues, teams, etc. This is tied to the MLB licensing that comes with the game. Dump the licensing next year and get back to making a decent game. We can type in the team names ourselves.

The blimp view at 1600x1200 is gorgeous to watch -- feels like you're in the cheap seats. Appealed calls, where the catcher/ump ask the first/third base call to rule on a swing, are a nice touch. The stats generated by the game’s engine are actually within reasonable tolerances, so kudos to 3DO for that.

Well, that about wraps up the good stuff. Seriously.

Creating and drafting leagues presents several problems with the game. For example, there are limited optioned for leagues and you must use all teams – no varying league structures, no smaller leagues, etc.

When drafting, the interface continues to interfere with the ability to make decent selections. For example, you cannot filter players available by position. When you sort them by position, it sorts them alphabetically, not intelligently. So 1B comes before 2B, but SS is way down on the list.

You only draft your major league players. The minors are “drafted” or created for you automatically You can get advice for whom to draft -- but the AI only tells you the name of the player. Ideally it would bring up the player info card so you can see their stats, ratings, and abilities and decide if you want to take the suggested player.

Computer-controlled minor league management is HIGHLY questionable. Computer teams had cut several players ON opening day, which left their rookie teams with under 25 players. However, this most likely meant that Rookie players were advanced to AA or AAA squads and some dead weight was cut to make room. But still, the AI should keep their rosters full.

Other comments

• In game menus are blurry unless you use a FONT CORRECTION, which you must specify each game. In addition, leaving the game to go to an options screen restores the bad font setting. To top it off, the fonts aren't all that great.
• Still cannot keep your pinch-hitter in the game to pitch (unless he's a pitcher).

  Overall, the fun factor has been lost in High Heat.

• Simming a season is pretty fast. About 10 minutes on a P3-1.3GHZ. However, don't expect to run unattended. When rosters expand in September you will be alerted with a sim-pausing popup dialog. Also at the end of the season if there are ties that need resolution, you get an alert window. No bad if you're attending the session, but should be configurable to allow many seasons to run overnight (again OPTIONS).
• If two teams tie in their division and one of those teams is going to be the wildcard no matter what, the tie is broken without a one-game playoff -- not in HH2003. No option to play/watch a non-human owned team. You must take over the team to do this (and let computer handle everything)
• Simming out the post-season has each "series" played to its conclusion before the next one. Not rounds, but actual pairings of teams. No sense of tension. Also, as a purist, the 'random' numbers are used out of whack. All games use randomization to some degree and this causes them to be used out of order. So the second game of the first series is using the numbers that belong to the first game of the second series. While you never see these numbers and how they are used, it still could alter the outcome of the games by veering from a normal playing order. You'd never last long as a card dealer if you dealt five cards to the first player and then five cards to the second.
• Game ships with 2002 MLB Schedule which is used for new leagues as well. However, the schedule maker for 2003 and beyond is HORRIBLE. For example, the Braves season ended on October 4 (with a SOLO GAME against the Padres). Kansas City, on the other hand, played another WEEK, ending on October 11. Arizona ended on October 3, but then had a one-game playoff scheduled for October 12 -- after nine days off! You'd think at the very least, when they realized they'd produced a terrible schedule maker, that they'd have just used the 2002 schedule and swapped teams around. So all Philadelphia games would be played by the Mets, etc. It wouldn't be original, but at least it would be somewhat believeable.
• You can tell that much of the code was borrowed from the previous versions of the game. HH2003 starts with the 2002 season, yet the news and records drop boxes are pre-filled with 2000 and 2001 as options. Clearly this is an indicator of how much care 3DO took with detail.
• Teams have manager tendency options, but still nothing to set these randomly. The obvious step is to tie these tendencies to a "manager" character who is then hired by a team. Unless you manually go in and set the options for each team, all opponents play the same way -- just with different tools (players).
• Double Switch option not always available.
• AI Pinch Hitter for Pitcher in 3rd inning only down 3-0???
• Pitcher fails to cover first. He may move in that general direction, but stops. 1B fields ball between 1st and 2nd, pitcher is standing on mound, forcing 1B to run back to back instead of shovelling to P.
• Hissing on play-by-play voices...like a background noise from the recording session.
• Dave O'Brien started out here in the Atlanta area, and I loved him calling a game. A real one. In HH2003, with the hissing and repetitive comments, he gets old fast. And the game plays better without him because it's more like being at a game vs. watching on TV.