Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 - Playstation

by Playstation

Product Features

• Great Baseball Game

Product Details

• ASIN: B00004RC1V
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,633 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Product Description

3DO's critically acclaimed High Heat Baseball franchise has a new star. The Roberto Clemente Man of the Year award winner for 1999, Sammy Sosa, lends his name to the newest installment of the popular baseball series. This edition boasts an advanced 3-D game engine and several new features. Sosa is among the 750 Major League Baseball players (from the 1999 and 2000 rosters) appearing in this game, which lets you create your own baseball league. This customization feature allows you to define the number of teams, length of schedule, playoff length, and other factors. In the career/season mode, you can make multiplayer trades based on numerous variables.

Each baseball player is animated using TruPlay artificial intelligence technology, which captures realistic base running, fielding, and hitting. The game also features a new "smart" camera that captures the onscreen action as if it were being broadcast on your TV set. Remote control, couch, and pizza not included.

GameSpot Review

Last year's release of High Heat 2000 exists as an example of one of the worst PlayStation sports titles ever released. Unlike its PC cousin, the PS version was visually offensive, sounded abhorrent, and lacked any semblance of decent stat keeping. Undaunted, 3DO is back with this year's update, Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001. With a year's worth of mistakes to learn from and the addition of Sammy Sosa's namesake, the 2001 release aims to offer baseball fans some modicum of redemption. As is true with every other console baseball title, you can choose from exhibition, season, home-run-derby, play-off, and player-editing modes. Do you want to create a seven-foot-tall power hitter and unleash him on the opposition? High Heat 2001 gives you the tools to do so, provided you don't mind replacing an existing major leaguer. Infamous to the High Heat series, family mode lets you play a quick game with the most forgiving of settings, making itself useful for those times when you have nonfanatic friends as your competition. Getting started is easy, the menus are concise, and the control interface is excellent. Depending on the simulation level you choose, batting, pitching, and fielding are tailored for various skill levels. On the lowest setting, a single swing sends the ball flying, and pitches require minimal effort in the presence of computer-assisted fielding. At the highest setting, pitching becomes a nightmare of angles and speed, batting requires painstaking precision, and fielding is nearly as difficult as the real thing. Though there are four levels of simulation, only the lowest and highest differ noticeably from one another. Regardless, High Heat 2001 offers precise control, responds quickly, and executes about ten times faster than last year's release. If there's any drawback to gameplay, it's not the controls or game mechanics but the lack of decent artificial intelligence. Without tricks, the game's four difficulty settings let you square off against a balanced computer opponent at your own skill level. Unfortunately, Team .366 left the game vulnerable to two of the oldest tricks in electronic baseball history, the low curve and the double-steal attempt. Regardless of difficulty level, the CPU will strike out time after time to curveballs low and away. Furthermore, if you get a man on first and a man on third, you can usually send them running and manipulate the CPU into giving you an extra base or an added run. Unless you're the type of person who can avoid such shortcuts, you'll be destroying the AI by 30 runs in no time. Visually, High Heat 2001 improves upon the previous release in hundreds of minor, albeit necessary, ways. Characters resemble human beings this year, and though they lack in polygons, they even animate with some level of realism. Stadium visuals, while remaining blocky, are also improved. Whether you play in Safeco Field, the Sky Dome, or the Ebbots Field of yore, at least the environs resemble their real-world counterparts. The polygon count is still a bit low, and the action does get blocky at times, but compared with last year's release, High Heat 2001 is beautiful. One has to wonder, though, why are the bases recessed into the field? It's silly to note that the developers couldn't spare an additional 20 or so polygons for realistically detailed bases, especially considering how wonderful the PC version looks. While Team .366 spent some time fixing the game's visual problems, the audio is still as sparse and uneventful as ever. Ted Robinson's play-by-play is repetitive and sleep inducing, sound effects lack enthusiasm, and the spectators drone on with a crescendo reminiscent of bad opera. Electronic Arts and 989 Studios can make baseball games that sound exciting, so there's no excuse for the bland audio that Sammy Sosa High Heat 2001 delivers. Although this game is not for everyone, it's safe to say that this year's High Heat will be a welcome addition to the game libraries of those who enjoyed last year's game. The gameplay is decent, many of last year's aggravating flaws are nowhere to be found, and the general feel of a baseball game is present. Unfortunately, the game's visual and audio quality remains far below what the competition offers, failing to bring about the same kudos that its PC counterpart is known for. --Frank Provo
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as bad as the reviews would indicate, May 27, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 - Playstation (Video Game)

This game has a tough road to climb. After a dismal previous effort (High Heat 2000), and good efforts from both MLB 2001, and Triple Play 2001 this year, this one just might get buried. But don't let the press fool you on this one, it's got substance.

First off, the graphics ARE subpar. That much is true. Either of the other two baseball offerings for 2001 will give you better visuals. BUT, if there's one genre of game where graphics are negotiable, it's a sports game, and especially a baseball game.

And while we're at it, no, this game bears VERY little resemblance to its PC cousin. No amazing roster management, no fully customizable renaming feature, though this is to be expected. Rarely do console games match their PC brethren in statistical/roster depth.

Now for the good stuff: the actual gameplay here is stellar. No more do you have to watch a batted ball take a familiar routine path to a certain spot on the field. In HH, the ball gets sprayed everywhere to all fields, simulating the real game better than any of its competitors. And fielding is accurate enough that balls hit to the wall result in the extra base hits that rarely happen in other titles. Pitch selection is diverse, with each pitcher having his particular arsenal of pitches. Batting is solid, along with baserunning.

Games flow at a nice pace, with just enough stats shown for flavor. Additionally, a few rare glimpses into the sport occur every once in a while. Case in point: I was playing as the Mets at Tropicana Field against the D-Rays, I smacked a homerun to right off of Chad Ogea, then I see the ball apparently come back out of the stands onto the field. I immediately thought, "must be a game glitch," then the announcer says "The ball has been thrown back onto the field!" It was great! The fans were jacked! I couldn't believe it, 3DO had enough insight to replicate the likes of the Bleacher Bums at Wrigley by having angry fans throw my homerun ball back on the field!

It's little things like that that will make this game a winner, even if it only manages to gain a smaller cult following. High Heat 2001 won't blow you out of your seat, but the fun-factor and level of realism are more than enough to warrant a purchase.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Game!, August 22, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 - Playstation (Video Game)

Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 is a very good game. It is very fun and enjoyable. The graphics are not the greatest but who cares? When you are having fun playing it you kinda forget about the graphics. The gameplay is awesome and I also like how it has a boxscore after every single game in the season for every team! If you like baseball I would fully recommend this game. High Heat hits a grand slam!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GAMEPLAY NOT GRAPHICS, April 30, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 - Playstation (Video Game)

I hear a lot of people most of them reviwers talk about this game very harsh I think this does a great job of captureing the feel of MLB baseball the graphics arent great but the gameplay is dead on its better than TP2001 its better than MLB2001 if you like simulation and tight gameplay this game is for you ps ITS SO REEEALLLL