THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED MEMBER

DoctorIrish

DoctorIrish

The Doctor is in.

QUICK POLL

Grand Theft Auto IV: does it live up to the hype?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



Xbox | Sports | All-Star Baseball 2005

Boxart for All-Star Baseball 2005
All-Star Baseball 2005 24 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.7
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.8

Review: All-Star Baseball 2005

Review by Bro Buzz | 03/30/2004 | 17:13:40 PM PST

All-Star Baseball makes all the right moves to remain an all-star for 2005.

The battle of the baseball games is heating up with High Heat taking a hiatus and all contenders making significant improvements in the off-season. All-Star Baseball has built an enthusiastic following over the years, and the 2005 edition shows enough new stuff to keep it in the running.

Making Plays
ASB has made some nice improvements on the field. At the plate, you can tune the game to fit your batting preferences with some able options. If you're a fan of cursor batting, you get 2D and 3D batting mode. With 3D, you can angle the cursor to control your stroke, and a power mode enables you to swing for the fences. Timing and Zone modes are there for batting purists, and hitting by toggling the analog stick is a nifty extra, too. Between the lines, ASB really makes an all-star play. The fantastic FielderCam option shifts the gameplay view behind the fielders when a ball?fs been hit. This provides a much more realistic ballplayer's view of the action than other games. From the outfield, for example, you have to pick up a fly ball off the bat just like you would in real life. The camera's tight and on the money. A new future-throw feature enables you to preselect where you want to throw a ball as you?fre fielding it.

Baseball Made Better
The graphics show is pretty standard stuff at this point. The player models are solid, but they'd benefit from more detailing and smoother skin textures. A few odd visual glitches pop up, too, like baserunners intersecting catchers and fielders whenever there are plays at the plate or on-base. Moreover, a home run into the bleachers revealed a side view of the fans that made them look like cardboard cutouts. The sounds also enjoy good upgrades. The ambient crowd noise in stadiums remains topnotch, and this year, the announcing team of Steve Lyons and Tom Brennaman makes calls that are spot on with the actual onfield action. Plus, Lyons takes some great shots at you if you go too long without pressing any buttons.

A Field of Dreams
All-Star Baseball has made good off-the-field additions, too. Franchise mode spans 20 seasons, and you can choose to start each one from spring training where you can earn points towards player development. The franchise interface is straightforward and easy to manage whether you're managing your roster, making trades, or trying to lock up players with long-term contracts.

Additionally, the This Week in Baseball Challenge feature is very cool. It's sort of a "do-over" mode where you take your shot at making controversial plays, standing in on critical at-bats or pitching key innings that turned the 2003 season for selected major league teams (hello, Red Sox and Cubs fans).

All-Star Baseball 2005 will feed the faithful. It's a solid game without a lot of drama, but the slick new gameplay view might even draw a few new fans. This team knows how to play the game.