All Star Baseball 2003 Review

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(More customer reviews)After being severely disappointed in World Series Baseball on the Dreamcast, I was pretty reluctant to shell out fifty bucks for the first generation of baseball games on the Xbox. If this describes how any of you are feeling, disregard it and buy this game ASAP.
All I can say is that ASB 2003 is the most realistic baseball game I have ever played on any system. Having played baseball all the way up to the Division I college level, I was always upset with the realism in most games. Games with 4 or 5 home runs every inning just don't happen!
First off, the batting interface is going to frustrate a lot of people, and you should be prepared for a lot of early strikeouts. If you want the arcade-style game where every hit is a monster home run, don't bother picking this one up. But, simply put, you're not supposed to know what pitch the pitcher is throwing, it kind of takes all the sport out of it. The addition of the easy batting feature is a nice way to get the timing down, but the game really rewards you when you turn it off. Trying to guess the pitches and their locations is exactly what you would do in a real game and it's about time it became such an integral part of a video game.
On the defensive side, the pitcher really has to move pitches around the strike zone to do well. You can't just blow everyone away with the fastball. Plus, I noticed that the strike zone isn't always the same....some umps call the outside corner a lot more, just like they do for Tom Glavine in the real world.
Fielding is excellent this time out, and it's a quantum leap ahead of the World Series Baseball franchise, though you can choose auto-fielding if you want. The assisted fielding option is another good starter method until you get used to the control scheme.
All in all, I see no reason not to give this game 5 stars. Granted, there are some AI issues (The computer has baserunning problems from time to time, and there are NO pickoff attempts by the computer on the easy difficulty levels), but they really don't affect the gameplay all that much. And, the gameplay is, in my mind, the true mark of whether or not a sports game is "good". Add that to the sheer beauty and realism of the player and stadium models, and you get one heck of a baseball game....at least until World Series Baseball comes out in May.

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This game features all-new player models created with 3-D CyberScan technology for one of the most realistic representations of player faces ever seen. There are 10 game modes for great depth of replay. Modes include Exhibition, Season, Career, Franchise, Expansion, All-Star Game, Series, Manager, Home Run Derby, and Batting Practice. Franchise mode allows users to play and build their favorite team for up to 20 consecutive seasons. All-new Expansion Play lets you choose a city, stadium, and team logo and add that team into the major leagues. And the Expansion Draft lets you draft from a pool of unprotected players, and build a team from free agents and minor-leaguers.
There is a three-man broadcast booth with Bob Brenly, Thom Brennaman, and Steve Lyons, for in-depth commentary. The Cooperstown Hall of Fame team features sluggers from the past like Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, and Yogi Berra. All 30 major-league teams and over 900 players are represented, all with official stadiums, logos, and uniforms. There are over 50 stadiums to choose from, including eight classic stadiums and 10 expansion stadiums.

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