Triple Play 2002
- March 13, 2002 00:00 AM PST
If you like your baseball light on realism and heavy on action, Triple Play 2002 is stepping up to a PS2 and Xbox plate near you.
Once the only game in town, Triple Play was smoked last year by the surprising rookie High Heat, but EA Sports� long-running baseball series retains a loyal following that enjoys its action-packed gameplay. In the PS2 and Xbox preview versions, it still skimped on realism but overflowed with glamorous graphics and a steady succession of home runs and other big plays. Beyond some minor graphical improvements on the Xbox, both versions will be identical this season, providing Exhibition, Season, and Playoffs modes and a retooled Home Run Derby that will offer an eight-player elimination tournament.The main improvements on last year�s game center around graphics and sound, and the biggest is certainly the impressive, star-studded commentary by Bob Costas and ESPN�s Harold Reynolds. Visually, you�ll find a slew of impressive new camerawork that ratchets up the excitement on big plays, along with solid but minor touches like more effective player-highlight icons.
On the control side, batting will still use an odd cursor interface where you�re always told where the pitch will go before it�s thrown, which spoils a key part of the pitcher/batter confrontation. At higher difficulty levels, however, more random breaks will introduce some element of surprise. The fielding, baserunning, and pitching controls performed smoothly in the early builds, though. If you�re too impatient for realistic baseball and like the notion of a highlight-reel ballgame, you�ll probably want to step up to Triple Play�s plate when its season opens this March.
