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High Heat Baseball 2002 (PS2) ReviewBackground Info
High Heat was the last of the trio of baseball games to come out for the PS2,
and while you could argue about saving the best for last, there is no doubt
that the game is a solid product. The game promises the most lifelike
pitching, batting, baserunning, fielding, and managing. It also features, and
I'm reading right off the back of the box here, stunningly accurate stadiums
from thousands of scouting photos. It also says there are incredibly lifelike
star players with facial details. That's a whole lot of promises.
Graphics : 60
Stadiums fare no better. Grass fields are exceedingly bland, and they look
ripped out of a PSX game. When playing outdoors, the detail outside the
stadium is very coarse. Flags on poles are stiff and never wave in the wind.
To me, the stadiums look no better than an N64 title. But what really
irritates me about the stadiums is the lack of decent collision detection in
some. Living in Houston, I naturally follow the Astros. Choosing them as my
team in High Heat, I was first struck by how poorly the stadium was modeled -
I didn't see the centerfield poles nor the train in the outfield. That's just
small stuff. Imagine my surprise as Lance Berkman stepped up to the plate and
launched a ball to left center only to have the ball bounce back in the field.
Every time you hit the ball to this part of the park and clear the fence, the
ball bounces off the brick wall or balconies (both should be ruled as homers).
Instead of a home run, I get a single or double. And this happens several
times a game.
Equally bad are the animations. While the pitchers have nice motion, every
other animation is bush league. Batters twitch with the touch of the swing
button. If you tap the hit button rapidly you can make your batter spazz out.
The problem appears to lie with an inadequate number of frames of animation
for each sequence.
But not all is bad in the game. High Heat is the only PS2 baseball game that
lets you customize the cameras. The lousy camera in All-Star makes the game
virtually unplayable, so the ability to change camera in High Heat was a big
plus. Even more, the camera switches quickly to the field making grabs easy.
My fielding errors dropped substantially in this game compared to the other
titles simply due to the camera. In addition, it's the only game that lets
you adjust the camera angle on replays.
Audio : 92
Interface/Options : 70
Noticing my pitcher was tiring, I looked up how to a relief pitcher in. In
the menu before the game I specified I wanted pitcher warmup so I could get
more realism. I go to page 10 and follow the instructions. My relief pitcher
instantly enters the game without any time in the bullpen. The manual leaves
out two crucial steps. To send a pitcher to the bullpen, instead of changing
the pitcher, you have to select "view pitcher" and then select the player from
the list of pitchers.
At the game, you are given a full report of the action similar to a newspaper
box score and game summary. The summaries are second to none and mark on of
the highlights of the game. But then when you want to cycle through the league
stats, the manual again comes up short and you are left figuring out the menu
system on your own. The manual makes no mention of using the L1 and R1 buttons
to switch categories. Once you figure this tidbit out you'll find a stats
engine that is realistic in every category. The unrealistic behavior was saved
for the team management section. You can't pull of multiple player deals and
the CPU appears to blindly approve every trade you propose.
Perhaps the weakest aspect of the interface is the lack of analog support.
Control of batters, fielders, baserunners, and pitchers is all done with the
digital pad. With the invention of the analog stick I figured my thumb was
safe from soreness. Thanks, 3D0, for bring back the pain.
Gameplay : 85
An area that appears to need some improvement is pitcher fatigue. In one game
Jose Lima was on the mound. After two breakout years, Lima followed up with
egg on his face last year. The jury is still out this year. So far it's not
looking too good. But as bad as Lima has been pitching, he's not as bad as
what I saw in High Heat. Going into the seventh inning of a game, Lima's
pitch count was a measly 50, yet he was completely fatigued. Completely
unrealistic unless he was coming off a previous start the night before. I can
understand lousy control, but fatigue?
On the batting side, you can't move your batter in the box. With this
limitation the only way to hit to different areas of the park is with timing
and pressing the digital pad. The pad lets you aim the bat. In addition, if
you press up while swinging the bat will swing near the shoulders. Pressing
down causes you to swing closer to the knees. Again, the interface grew on
me, but ultimately my favorite this year would have to be Triple Play with its
ability to move the batter in the box.
What is nice is actually being walked in a console baseball game. In High Heat
pitchers pitch realistically. A nice mixture of balls and strikes are thrown,
and if you wait for the right pitch good things happen. In fact, sitting back
and waiting for a pitch makes this game shear brilliance at times. High Heat
is the first game that has really fooled me as a batter. The CPU pitcher will
throw straight heat for a few pitches followed by a changeup. I look like a
big league idiot whenever I swing well ahead of the pitch on changeups.
Likewise curve balls have exceptional break. The end result is a game which
requires more thought.
Once you start making contact, you'll find the game gives up too many homers
and doubles. Playing on several difficulty levels, I found the long ball was
invariant with the toughness. The number of doubles was way more than I was
expecting and served to cheapen the game somewhat. Once on the basepaths, the
response seemed to be off just a tad. I still have difficulty getting certain
runners to run while holding others. More times than not I end up having a
runner called out because of inadvertent advances.
The AI in High Heat is decent. On offense, the CPU makes excellent baserunning
decisions to avoid being thrown out, though I have only seen one steal by the
CPU. Yet at the plate I question some decisions. Imagine the following
scenario: The game is tied 2-2 in the top of the ninth. The CPU has a player
on first with no outs. As a manager, what would you do? If you answered bunt
you would get a thumbs up from a majority of managers. Unfortunately the CPU
swung away.
Replay Value : 90
Overall : 83
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