High Heat Baseball 2002

by 3DO

Product Features

• High impact TV-like game presentation and rockin' audio
• Stunningly accurate stadiums result from thousands of scouting photos
• Incredibly lifelike star players with signature moves and facial details
• Inteligent Crowd Excitement (I.C.E.) - animated crowds get louder during exciting moments and even leave the park if a game is a blowout
• The most accurate rosters with real MLBTM teams and MLBPATM players

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000059Z7U
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 27, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,782 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #18 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Sports > Baseball

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The critics' favorite PC baseball game, High Heat Baseball, has come to bat on the PS2. This graphically rich simulator with down-to-the-pinstripes detail is also among the system's most configurable titles. A tuning feature will allow you to adjust the variable elements of the game, such as error frequency, and the not so variable, like physics. High Heat Baseball 2002 includes updated 2001 rosters, and with the game's player editor, you can add to (or subtract from) a laundry list of abilities. Beyond that, the game's create-a-player feature lets you build your ballplayer from the mound up.

Product Description

The first PlayStation 2 version of the award-winning baseball series is here. High Heat Major League Baseball 2002 offers all 30 major league ballparks for the 2001 season (including PNC Park and Miller Park) in addition to multiple roster sets from the current and previous seasons, 10000-polygon stadium models, and interactive crowds that react to the action on the diamond. Other features include 6000-polygon player models, 120 real life star faces, more than 1300 hand-drawn animations, and 300 special signature stances for batters and pitchers alike. Players will even be able to argue with umpires (and get ejected) after controversial plays and listen to on-field coaches and managers that help guide them through more difficult situations. Also available for the Sony PlayStation One and Windows PC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball game for true baseball fans, April 28, 2001

By 

Genghis Khan (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Heat Baseball 2002 (Video Game)

If you are looking for a PS2 baseball game to buy, then ask yourself this question. Do you enjoy a low scoring, well-pitched games? Do you like situational hitting and working the count? Do you like bring in a lefty to get out the opponent's lefty slugger? if you answered yes to these questions, then high heat is the only way to go. Let me point out some things that make this game the most realistic baseball game EVER!!!

1. Depending on your pitcher's control, throwing strikes especially the tough corner ones is not automatic. You can choose to throw down the middle but opponents will tee off on you or you can work the corners but if your pitcher is not a control pitcher like Greg maddux, then you will walk batters. Thus, the gameplay revolves strongly around throwing strikes to get ahead in the count as a pitcher or letting certain strikes go and waiting for the mistake pitch out over the plate to drive as a hitter. This is an awesome aspect of the game which baseball players can appreciate.

2. The computer's AI is incredible. Let's say you are messing around and throw to the wrong base, the computer runner will often take advantage of that and take an extra base.

3. Never have I seen a game where the computer puts the runners in motion with a full count with two outs. What does that mean? Well let's say a runner is on first with two outs and full count and the computer hits a gapper. When you pitch, the runner immediately runs because this is what will happen in a real baseball game. So the runner will score. If the count wasn't full, the runner most likely will not score. such a situation is indicative of the importance of the whole ball count thing I was talking about. Other realistic situations include infield fly rule (which prevents your stupid human opponent from dropping a fly ball on purpose to to get cheap double plays when you have runners on 1-2 or bases loaded), passed balls, dropped third strike and throws that are not always right on the money. So if your outfielder throws home, depending on their attributes, some balls might be frozen ropes to the catcher but more often than not, it will take a hop in front of the plate, leading to the catcher receiving the ball high and allowing the runner to slide underneath a catcher's tag

4. You can double-switch just like they do in the NL.

5. Defense is realistic and there are no cheap hits due to poor fielder AI. For instance, let's say there is a fly ball right between the shortstop, left field and center field. All three fielders WILL run towards the ball regardless of who you are controlling. So let's say the computer set the initial defender that you are controlling to CF, but because you thought you were controlling the SS, your initial control was "UP", causing your CF to move away from the ball. In other games, the ball will then drop and the batter might even get a double. Not in this game! Because your SS and LF were automatically moving towards the ball, you can switch off and still make the play.

6. I recently rented triple play and found that the variety of batted ball trajectory was laughable. If I swung on time, the ball was hit out for a HR or if I was late, the ball would just be slice into the opposite outfield crowd. I think I kept swinging late on a fastball and literally hit the ball to the same section in foul territory about fifty times in a full game. Too bad I wasn't sitting at that spot. THAT IS NOT REAL BASEBALL. HH2002 features a plethora of different batted ball trajectory such as dribblers, line drives to infieders, sharply batted balls that can be turned into double-plays, gappers, routine pop-ups, slices that land on the foul line and head into the corners for exciting triples. I could literally go on for another 10 pages about the realistic nature of this game.

7. The boxscore is incredible, presented exactly in a format like the newspaper's. There are stolen bases, Caught Stolen Bases, errors, number of strikes/balls thrown per pitcher. Strangely, you can't sort the stats by category leaders so it's hard to tell who is leading the league in HRs or strikeouts. One glaring stat glitch is the game's inability to record saves properly.

NOW the warning. If you thought my above descriptions made you say "I could care less", then don't get this game, because you will be hugely disappointed by the rudimentary (for PS2) graphics and lack of additional features such as create-a-player, home run derby, etc. (As described in other reviews, there is a bull-pen glitch, which I chose to take out of the equation by turning the pitcher warmup feature OFF). This game is for real baseball fans only.

(I'm in a middle of a season and my record is 32-15 with the Dodgers. Kevin Brown is 5-2 with an ERA of 2.33 and Gary Sheffile is batting .380 with 13 HRs. In any other game, I'll bet my record will be 45-2 because it's so easy for you to take advantage of computer and Gary Sheffield (or your team's slugger) will have like 40 HRs because you can pretty much hit one per game. the realism is thoroughly enjoyable and I am looking forward to a close pennant-race with the Giants or the Rockies. In other words, I won't win my division finishing 30 games ahead of the 2nd place team as I have done many times playing ASB or Triple play on N64 or PS.)

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A buyer's guide, April 9, 2001

By 

DANIEL J MCMANUS (CHICAGO, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Heat Baseball 2002 (Video Game)

Agenda: 1) False statements in ... editorial review 2) Bugs in the game 3) Catchup Logic? 4) Conclusion

1) Beware of false statements in the editorial review! Know what you will/will not be getting. For example:

...This graphically rich simulator with down-to-the-pinstripes detail is also among the system's most configurable titles. --> False! The PSX version is very configurable, not the PS2 version!

...A tuning feature will allow you to adjust the variable elements of the game, such as error frequency, and the not so variable, like physics --> False! There is no tuning in the PS2 version!

...with the game's player editor, you can add to (or subtract from) a laundry list of abilities. Beyond that, the game's create-a-player feature lets you build your ballplayer from the mound up --> False! There is no player editor and no create-a-player in the PS2 version.

2) Bullpen Bug/others. If you decide to use pitcher warmup mode, you will run into an interesting bug. After your warmed up pitcher (say Todd Van Poppel) has been brought into the game and faced some batters, you will invariably get a message that "Todd Van Poppel is getting tired and sits down." But he is in the game! Even worse, if you warm up two pitchers, bring in pitcher (a) to face a batter and then take him out for pitcher (b), while pitcher (b) is pitching you will get "Pitcher (a) is getting tired and sits down" message. Unfortunately pitcher (a) is now out of the game-- or at least he SHOULD be, because when this happens lo and behold you can actually go to the roster and re-insert pitcher (a) into the game, with his pitchcount picking up right where it left off! Thankfully, the computer does not exploit this and you, the user, can ignore the ability you have to do it. Best practice is to forget warmup mode so you don't get these messages, but then you lose the 'realism' of warming up. The other bug is that in season mode you cannot get saves with your pitchers. Bring in Tom Gordon for the 9th of a 1-0 game, strike out the side and you will get 1 IP but no save. Also, tracking of IP and batters faced is just plain wrong now and then.

3) Catchup logic (?): Apparently the programmers wanted you not to have to play out the string of blowouts all that often, so you will notice that the CPU 'gets more aggressive' when trailing and similarly you will find offense when you make contact trailing late in the game. It goes both ways which is good, but it can be a little annoying. No one can prove/disprove whether this actually exists, but be advised: Pitch carefully in the late innings when ahead and don't give up when trailing!

4) I reviewed this game last week and commented that it is bad graphics, bad feature set and great gameplay. I maintain all of those claims. However, I felt like potential buyers would be better served by a more specific account of issues with the game, which still has great gameplay/realism overall. The bullpen thing is unbelievable but on the PS2 no patching! Wait til next year, I guess...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally a baseball game about baseball, April 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: High Heat Baseball 2002 (Video Game)

This is the first baseball game I've played in a long time that is actually a baseball game. Some people may gripe that it is missing alot of extra features like a Home Run Derby or Create a Player options, but those have only served as bells and whistles by weaker games to camoflauge the fact that the actually game play sucks, so they must distract you with other options to keep you satisfied. High Heat doesn't need them. The graphics are barely average, but are smooth and move precisely. You won't think you are in position to grab a ground ball and miss it. And the highy touted batter-pitcher interface that games go on about these days is right on. No pitcher has an icon he can move to an exact location. Like real baseball, you select a pitch, it's location, and whether you want it in the strike zone or not, and after it leaves your glove it's out of your hand. No adding a little extra to it. A good pitcher will hit his spots, and a bad one, well, he is going to have a bad day unless you keep your opponent off balance with a variety of pitches and locations. Oh, and beware of wild pitches(if you don't believe me, try and go nine innings with Rich Ankiel and see what I'm talking about). As for batting, it is on the money. Pitches are easy to identify and locate off the back, but don't think that makes them easy to mash. But if you think you are good enough, you have the option on every pitch to look for a certain pitch. If you get it right, your chances of putting it in play improve drastically. But get it wrong and, well, we've all seen sluggers take a fastball swing at a slow moving change up. It ain't pretty. And that's what this game is about. Those tiny nuances that make baseball great. Double plays, putting runners in motion, actually controling whether you want to hit your cut off man, striking out the computer, winning the game with a single to right and bringing the man home from second, home runs only every so often(swing for the fences all the time and you will hit them a bit, but you will strike out the rest of the time), doubles to the gap, triples without commiting an error, and the list can just go on and on. As used to be touted by another game company that has never been able to get this sport right, if it's in the game, it's in this game.