Customer Reviews

All Star Baseball 2004 for Xbox

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Would have gotten 5 stars if it were Xbox live compatible... At least you can get the rosters downloaded.

Graphics are pretty decent, it's much better than previous seasons.

Sound is a little weak, announcing is pretty good, but the crowd noises sound like they are coming through a tunnel. Bat cracking, pitching, sound of the ball hitting glove are nice, very realistic.

Gameplay... Oh man. It could have been so much better than it is, but it's still pretty good. Infield control is incredibly tight, but when it comes to fielding the outfield, oh jeez, forget it. Unless you get under that ball, it's going to take a bounce to the wall, and you will be running in circles trying to pick the ball up! What happened here? Good question.

Franchise mode is deep, stats are tight, home run derby is fun, the batting practice is very good (you'll need it at first).

Overall, it's a good game, not the best, I think High Heat 2k4 is going to be tops this year as far as a simulation of Baseball, but I am enjoying my season so far, I'd wait and see if you can get this on sale if you MUST have a baseball game NOW. Otherwise, I can recommend it, but I can't stand behind the recomendation. I enjoy the game, but others with a taste for arcade ball won't really be very happy, and there could be quite a few stat/sim heads that won't like this either. It's a middle of the road baseball game.

Except for the ball popping into the fielders glove from about 4 feet away. This game almost got five stars except for that annoying glich. When a ball is hit to a fielder the ball will be about 4 or 5 feet away and all of a sudden it is in the glove.
The Good:
This game is really fun to play with a tremendous amount of features that should make any baseball gamer happy. The graphics are awesome, from the players faces, fans in the stands, the intros, and all the animation. The play by play is the best it feels like you are listening to a game on TV. A couple of new features, one is the ability to go to the mound for a visit, when you do this a box opens and it shows you his pitch count, who is up next, and a message from the pitching coach telling you if he should be left in or pulled and if your player in the pen is ready. A cool little feature is when you ask you bullpen to warm up a player you hear a phone ring, the added realisms like this is what makes a game good or great. I also enjoy the realism of the umps, the ump behind home plate yells out strike or ball, the field umps pull their hand up hard and yells "Out" or swing the arms and yells "Safe". The next great feature is the franchise mode, you have low and high minors, contracts, injuries, trades, and much much more, let me just say it is very deep. Finally game play is simply amazing.
The Bad:
The only thing that I would say is bad, is the interface when you are in the gm screens, I think it is supposed to look like it did a few years ago when everything was done in handwriting. All of the stats and info looks like it was written by hand, and even though I give the game designers a low five for creativity it does make it hard to read.
The Ugly:
I told you already at the top of this review, this quirk needs to be fixed.
Finally:
This game is much improved over last years installment and will give all baseball fans an enjoyable season.

I just purchased the game today, and much to my surprise you will start your franchise off with..spring training?! This year you have an umpire calling strikes and balls (!), the short music openings when the home team goes up to bat, the plays look much more real life too...andI've just started playing the game. pLUS, you have the bonus modes, like how would you have managed game 6 of the World Series last year? And there's the content download on Xbox Live (if Acclaim could have made it Live playable...), so you'll get the stats and rosters for March 1st now.

my only complaint so hard--where's Hideki Matsui? But no biggie, I'm sure e'll be added soon enough.

This game just FEELS alot better. So Acclaim has done a great job. Can MVP. WS2k3, HH, and Inside Pitch measure up?

it wasnt bad and then again it wasnt perfect either.it was hard but as u play through it it gets easier.so 4 stars

I got this for Xmas and I can't get into. It's extremely hard to hit and extremely easy to field. All the bells and whistles for extras are nice but I found the game play difficult on the offensive end and too easy defensively. Perhaps I should spend more time w/it but I think I'll wait for a newer improved baseball game...

This is one of the best games as far as simulation goes. It also has a lot of extra things like All Time and Negro League greats. The place that it kind of falls off is in commentation and the batting controls.

Maybe spending only a week is too short to adjust to the way you need to control the tilt and position of the batting cursor at the same time, but it just seemed too much to me. You should be able to handle where the ball goes by timing your swing, but that's just me.

The only other area that I had a complaint with was the announcers. It really started to get repetitive about every 5th inning.

The high points are graphics and simulation. Unless you understand the concept of the Rule 5 draft, don't even try and turn it on. It's a little difficult for the common fan to understand, and the way that it's encorporated is a little difficult as well.

So I was very excited for ASB2004. I played ASB2003 until the disc no longer worked. I created my own franchise, own players, and carried it through for years. While 2003 had some drawbacks, the gameplay and the franchise mode were unbeatable.

However, 2004 looks like it was released a little ahead of schedule. It's just sloppy.

My biggest problem with baseball games in general is that they are unrealistic. Being a big baseball fan, I know all the details of gameplay, scoring, and stats. In ASB2004, when a runner is on first, the batter hits a base hit to right field, and the runner gets thrown out at 2nd base, I'm miffed.

There are numerous problems with scoring errors. I hit a triple to right field, but a throwing error got me home. I was miscredited with a homerun, but no RBI, while the fielder was credited with a throwing error, but the pitcher got an earned run. Big problems.

The announcers will mis-announce plays all the time. Line drive to center is a pop fly, pop fly could be ruled a "drive in the gap," double play is announced as a fielder's choice. C'mon people, this was right before!

I've also had a couple of crashes, not during the gameplay, but when working rosters and saving options. Annoying.

There are a lot of new cool things with ASB2004, for sure. The scenario mode is awesome, the new look and display is cool. But the new stuff is far outweighed by how much Acclaim blew it with all the stuff they got right in 2003. ASB used to be the best baseball game, now it's just for rookies.

Oh, and ps... I just pitched a perfect game. Ain't I cool.

2004 is a huge upgrade on previus editions. this game is much improved and all the functions it lacked last year it has now. the presentation is the best ive seen. it is actually about baseball. last years was just a waterfall? definetly recommend this game. only small flaw is the actuall fielding still good, could of been better although.
havent played the rest of this years games but i would highly recomend this game. 5/5 stars easily great game

This game has received solid reviews from Amazon.com customers as well as web sites dedicated to gaming and I just don't get it. Sure, it has some nice features (franchise, downloads, historical players & teams), but the graphics and gameplay are quite weak so why bother with all of those bells and whistles? Do yourself a favor and check out HH 2004 or MVP 2003.

this game is prolly the best game that has been made. it has everything, everything is better, the theme of the throw back era is great. only one thing i really don't like is that it is hard to score runs, and easy to shut your oppent down, but all in all this is a purchase you will not regret.