Triple Play 2001
- June 19, 2000 00:00 AM PST
PC baseball games are typically all about the game, the stats, or the incredible moments, and they gloss over the tiniest details. EA Sports' Triple Play 2001 goes the other way, making a handful of gameplay sacrifices in order to hit the grand slam of detail.
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Most computer-game ballparks are 3D on the field and then progressively flatten the farther you get into the stands. The logic, I guess, is that anything not intimately related to the action on the field isn't relevant and, if it isn't relevant, why take an extra hit on the polygon count?
Triple Play 2001 seems to throw relevance to the wind with stadiums rendered in full, wonderful 3D that you can feel--right down to the grandstand pillars, catwalks, and even individual doors. I never had a doubt that I was in a ballpark, which counts for a lot in the game's favor. The stadiums are simply the most obvious of many strong elements in TP2001. It's fluid, fun, and feature rich. The menu interface is the clearest and cleanest I've seen in a baseball game. It can be played flawlessly over the Internet once you apply a patch, and the company on EA's intuitive matchmaking service is mature and pleasant. You can set up a league in a flash and it has an excellent draft mechanism. It does a good--though, not great--job handling statistics (Notably, it keeps records for performance with runners in scoring position.).
Triple Play 2001 also offers a wealth of small, novel touches. For instance, when a batter hits the ball and drops his bat, you can see the bat on the ground where it landed. Most of the crowd is the usual smeary, flat confetti, but the first row stands up like a cardboard cutout. It's at least an indication that developer TreyArch is interested in doing something with this important and oft neglected element of the game.
On the other hand, certain details just seem overlooked. The pitching seems unnecessarily heavy with mechanism. You can't fine-tune the way teams are managed in simulated games, and the game doesn't provide box scores for these contests. Some of these guys run like linebackers headed downfield. The onscreen text uses a primitive-looking font at odds with the game's otherwise stylish veneer. The intro, a series of disembodied baseball images kicked along by Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride," is just annoying.
And certain elements are oddly over-the-top. If a game taps into baseball's natural tensions and beauties-and Triple Play 2001 does-it shouldn't have to sell itself to a younger audience. But that's what it seems to be trying to do. The comet tail on the homerun ball, the overblown sounds, the console-like unlockable bonuses, though sometimes genuinely funny, belong more to a baseball version of NBA Jam.
TP2001 is already a solid contender. Take the extraneous stuff out, build up a few features and you could have a classic. As it is, you have a memorable experience, with a sleek interface, fun extras, and impressive attention to miscellaneous detail. A little more work, and Triple Play 2001 could have scored the pennant.
