Aaarrrrghh!  It's the greatest baseball game I've ever played, that's
all!  The longer I play this the more impressed I become.
But lemme warn you, don't go into HR Derby *first* because you may be
deceived into thinking the cursor option was removed, which it wasn't:
you see, if you go into options, like the screen in the manual, you'll
see that there's no way to switch to batting cursor option (contrary
to what the manual's picture indicates).  So they must've taken the
cursor option out of the HR Derby to make it more arcade-like and
casual, which is cool -- it's essentially indentical to WSB HR Derby,
but with better ballparks.
GRAPHICS:  high resolution and high FPS.
Crowds are texture-mapped but more diverse -- much better than any
other t-mapped crowd in the other 32-bit offerings.
The ballparks are the closest to actual ballparks, in my estimation,
of *any* other baseball game by a very long shot.  I've been in the
Metrodome on about 200 different ocassions and, from someone with a
trained eye, it's a very very close match!!  They even got the banners
right, and that's a first for any ball game that I've come across.
The "look," or style, of the sprites is semi-cartoonish, although this
is not a put down, because it truly comes off as a stylistic issue,
and not a Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble thang.  Players animate
well and are bitmaps, as opposed to polygonal, as in BOT9.  It's a
tradeoff, I guess -- the player detail is really nice.  Player hair
and skin look very much like in the photos of the players in the game.
The on-screen menus are helpful and polished-looking.
There are multiple settings for views...you can independently set
field views from batting/pitching views.  Really, it's all very much
like the way it's done in Triple Play '97 for the PS (which mean it's
done excellently -- only difference is that you cannot switch from
view to view on the fly, and the loading of view changes is longer
between innings than in TP'97).
SOUNDS:
No short-looping background crowd noise, ala WSB'97 for the Saturn,
you'll be exceedingly pleased to know...it's much better than vacuum
cleaner noice, too.
The crowd seems to have many different reactions depending on what
in-game music is played, or when a play is made, that sort of thing --
it's very well done.
The commentator is unique but conservative.  He's not
cliched-sounding, yet he's not boring or strange.  He talks quite a
lot, though perhaps not as much as TP'97's commentator.  In all
honesty, I believe TP'97's commentator is the best I've ever heard in
a video game or even WILL hear in another one for quite some time to
come.  But's it's very well done here, also.
Every player, including Strawberry, as best I can tell, is announced
by name in crisp, clear, PROPERLY pronounced voice when they come up
to bat.
OPTIONS:
Everything and the kitchen sink, trust me.  There're very few of you
who will be immediately (if at all) disappointed by the oodles of
options, including the *very* intelligent roster change save window
which comes up whenever you make a change in your lineup BEFORE a game
begins (this means you don't have to worry about changes not being
made because you abort a game).
Here are a *few* of the options in this, the greatest baseball game of
all time (IMO, natch.):
--create player option
--trade and release players (FA pool)
--every stadium and can switch from stadium to stadium in HR Derby,
which is pretty neat, given that it takes about 1/12 the time to slip
into a new stadium as it does in WSB for the Saturn.
--stadiums have a lot of advertising in them, including SMEDLEY
products (oh, gosh!), as well as real-time big screen monitors which
capture the batter swinging, et cetera.
--difficulty level which interacts with how much pitchers tire, et
cetera
--in-game changing of field positioning (with shoulder buttons, the
geniuses).
--radar gun on or off
--distance meter on or off
--ball marker on or off
--auto fielding on or off
--wind on or off
--"call" text on or off
--sim. or arcade style of play (that is, cursor or swing-timing only)
--crowd sound on or off
--*very* very cool controller moves summary
--head first diving/foot slide/jumping catches/diving catches
--the multiple views *really* are impressive, and I especially love
the close in and low views for the batter and pitcher -- every bit
like WSB on the G*E*N*E*S*I*S* which means that I'm in gaming heaven.
STATS and ATTRIBUTES:
Attributes are separated into how well players hit to
left/center/right of field, how well they run, jump, catch, throw, and
how well the are as A) contact batters, B)normal, C)power batters.
The stats are broken down into about 20 categories but I haven't
looked at them much yet, sorry.
The menus are all very sharp and well-arranged, IMO.
PLAY MECHANICS, the best part, for both 1 and 2-player gaming:
Guess what, people?!  2-player gaming at it's best!!  You can deke out
the other player when you're pitching by pressing the PITCH placement
button WHILE continuing to HOLD IT DOWN -- just continue dancing
around the pitching area with the ball-cursor and let go when you
want:  the ball will go to the place AT WHICH you INITIALLY pressed
the button.  This is such a simple innovation, yet it makes this a
baseball game which effectively throws out the other player who is at
bat merely WATCHING where you place the ball-cursor.  Problem solved!
While batting in SIMULATION mode, you content with a circular batting
cursor which changes size depending on how good your player is IN
COMBINATION with his skills at either CONTACT, NORMAL, or POWER.
Each pitcher has 3 pitches (yeah, they didn't make TP'97's mistake)
which vary according to the actual players' pitches, from what I've
been able to determine.
There're 3 phases to selecting a pitch (but yet INFINITELY less
complicated than, say, Frank Thomas b-ball's pitching scheme:  the
first selection is the type of pitch, then it's speed (slow, medium,
and fast).  Then you get to move around the little ball-cursor and
find a place to put the pitch.
One thing for you to know -- the ball does NOT end up where you place
the pitch, except for a change or fastball (accounting for movement).
Further, when you're pitching from one of the 3 or 4 pitcher's views,
you press 'triangle' button to release the pitch...every other button
throws to a base (just like a diamond, making use of the PS's button
layout).
Well, that's enough for now (maybe you wish FOREVER), so I'll get back
to playing Pennant Race now.
Hey, I'll sum it up like this:
This is analogous in quality to WorldSeriesBaseball on the Genesis,
but with a 32-bit workover, and with the options which come with all
the data which can be fit onto a CD (a lot).
However, if you choose to play it on ARCADE mode, then you get a game
which may be likened to WSB'97 on the Saturn -- but this is a *far*
more complete and baseball-spirited game than that title is.
Thanks, John Smedley, it's the killer app. on the PS for baseball
fans.
I'll let others nit-pick about little things, but this is leaps and
bounds beyond what's come before it.
Rick Brown
brow0130@gold.tc.umn.edu