Customer Reviews

Triple Play Baseball

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Triple Play Baseball has been my favorite since the first one. I've always thought that it was the closest thing to playing baseball inside. In this version for the PS2 I've noticed a few changes

1. Graphics. Pro: Unbeleivable detail with stadiums, you can almost see individual blades of grass. The crowds actually move in this version.The facial features of the players are much improved. And the Gameplay is extremely smooth. Con: Other than the faces, I cannot tell the difference between players like I could in previous versions. You cannot change the batting camera angle, there is just one camera for instant replays, and one camera angle for feilding.

2: Big League Challenge. It's about the same as in TP2001, with the exception of that they took away the Derby with the crazy stadiums and targets. You can no longer hit homeruns in your bedroom. That was a feature I really enjoyed.

3: Rewards and points. I'm actually happy that they removed the points and rewards, I thought they took away from the game. On the PS2, there is nothing to be unlocked anywhere.

4: Injuries and Fatigue. Once again there are no injuries, and now there is kind of no fatigue. What that means is, your starting pitcher will lose speed and accuracy when he tires, but there is no way to warm up another pitcher, all the bullpen pitchers are already warmed up.

5: Batting and Pitching. It's almost a completely new system, but once you get used to it, it's pretty cool. Although I miss having a normal button and a power button for batting and throwing, everything is now done by the pressure sensative X button (pitching power, batting, and throwing power). I still find myself trying to hit the square button to hit a homerun and watching the pitch sail past me.

6: Baserunning. Baserunning is automatic, there is no option to change that. Let's say I hit a line drive to LF and I feel I can pull a double out of it, I can press the up direction and my players will head to second, if I let up on the controller, the computer takes over again and sends my player back to first, kind of annoying.

7. Fielding If you want any control at all over your fielders, you must not be in rookie mode.

These things definately make me think that this game was a tad bit rushed. It seems they spent a lot of time with the batting, pitching, and graphics that they didn't have time to fix the little things, so they left them out. It is an awesome game, but for the first time in a long time, I'll be looking forward to next year's offering and maybe even pick up a different baseball game until then.

Triple Play is a horrible game in almost every sence.The batting is way to easy, you'll find that even with the worst hitter on your team you can easily hit above .400. I like simulation type sports games that actually have reasonable stats and games that are realistic. The games are high scoring events were you might score 13 and the cpu will score 10. Homeruns come way to easy in this game and a guy like Pokey Reese can hit just as many homeruns as Griffey. The feilding is maybe the worst i have seen in any baseball game and balls that are hit in to the out feild that are not around the player are pretty much un-catchable. The types of hits that come off the bat are very limited with mostly line drives or just plain ground balls, no grounders that take big hops or even change speed and the animation of the ball in motion is bad. The animation outside of pitching and the batter swinging are pretty ...bad. The graphics when you are batting are pretty nice looking but once that ball is hit watch oooooout, the feilding grafics are horrible and look like they were meant for regular old playstation and the feilders are so little compared to the feild. I do have to give ea props on the feilds tho. Then when feilding you get a huuumoungous target thing and it actually can make you lose the ball because it gets in the way. The sound is good and the only thing that is not really flawed in the game. This game is for those that are not real baseball fans and just want to hit homeruns and have an arcade type game. If you are a sport gamer who likes realistic gameplay then you would definetly not want to get this game... HORRIBLE GAME FOR A SIM FAN WHO LIKES REALISTIC BASEBALL PLAY AND YOU WILL COME TO HATE THE GAME. Good thing i only rented this peice of ... but it was still a waste of 5 dollars because after playing maybe 5 games i was bored to death with it. In the end the only reason i gave this a 2 stars is because the the batters are nicely detailed and the feild out of play looks nice and the sound is the only part i some what enjoyed.

I rented the newest baseball and was slightly let down compare to other EA sports titles such as Madden 2001 and Nhl 2001. Those are definite 5 stars, even 6 stars. This game, like NBA 2001, was rushed to the shelves.

This review is written after approx 15 hours of game time.

I'm basing alot of my arguement of what I've seen EA Sports has produced in the past year for PS2 or what Sega Dreamcast did right with World Series 2K1.

Cons: There lack of attention to detail, overall. All the players look the same except for skin tones and a few different facial hair set-ups, there body proportions are also lacking, Mo Vaughn is the same size as Johnny Damon. Randy Johnson with short hair??? Camera view should have had a few more options. No 360 degree rotating camera view like all other EA sports games. for replays. When they do zoom in for a cut away, the players mouths look crazy glued shut, no arguing like in FIFA soccer or NHL 2001, that missing. Distinctive Batting styles like Griffey, Bonds, Bagwell, Sheffield, Batista not included, only McGwire's looks anything like his own. It takes away from the realism 128 bit technology should be able to have captured. What they should have done was do more cutaways of ball going to certain players like outfielders, more of a "telecast kind of feel" that's what was successful with World Series 2k1. I'm not being picky, just honest, this could have been an awesome game if the details were captured.

Pro: Overall the game plays very well, responsive button controls , from pressure sentitive throwing to using the directional circle "Sweet Spot" to hit the ball either on the ground, in the air, or line drives. One of the biggest plus is how easy they have made it to follow the ball in the strike zone, other games in the pass had you "chasing the ball" in the strike zone, This one gives you a general idea where the ball will be pitched, you need to determine the velocity and if it's going to be straight or a "bender". Helps when you are pitching and hitting as well. The lighting effects are very good as well, from night to dusk to day games. The water falls in KC trickle in the background, the fountain in Edison Field shoots off after a homerun. the flags even wave sligthly. The stadium details are 100% accurate, everything from what 's outside a park like Wrigley to the color of the dirt in certain parks like the "white" sand warning track in Atlanta. Running the bases are well designed and easy to control also where you can send a guy from third home, but keep a guy at second on second, it's not the "revolving door" effect. Mutli-team control allowing you to control as many teams you like to play a season mode is a great plus as well. playing one teamin season mode ,at times get boring, you need variety for replay value, Also if you like stats, and I do, this game keeps track of everything from offensive stats to defensive stats.

Maybe we can't have everything, if they just captured some of the the details that makes Madden and NHL 2001 in a class by themselves, and I know they could have, this game would have been be a "5", however when you play it and find out how well the game plays it will have people coming back for more, If the game play of Triple Play Baseball and the graphics of World Series 2K1 were merged we would have the best game ever created, in my opinion.

This is as accurate portrayal of a game you can get if you can get pass the "cons" I mentioned above, it a overall good game.

This game is better than everone says it is. Although it isn't perfect, its still a great overall baseball game. The graphics are great, and the player models look very realistic (minus the fact that all the bodies are pretty much the same size). The AI is very good, and the computer doesn't cheat at all like it usually does in other sports games. The Big League Challenge feature puts a new spin on the home run derby, and tournaments in this mode keep me and my friends busy for hours.

However, like I said, this game is not perfect. I have found four main cons to this game. 1) All the player models are the same size 2) The fielding indicator which tells you where to go to catch the ball is unnessecarilly big, and can sometimes distract you 3) I am a Red Sox fan, and two key players on the team, Brian Daubach and Lou Merloni were excluded from the game, and 4) Some minor slowdown in between cut scenes, but this does not affect gameplay at all.

Overall, I would say that this is a very good baseball game, and is well worth the money.

Overall, I think TPB is a good game to own. The graphics are certainly better than the other two baseball games out this year. But that's about the only good thing about this game. The stats are unrealistic after even playing a single game. All you can ever hit is a homerun or a single. I ripped one to the gap in left-center, and before I could even round first the outfielder was already throwing the ball back to second. I can't imagine playing a full season. There would be a record for singles. In all the baseball games I've watched in person I've never heard the sound of a rocket launcher when a homerun took place. After nine innings in pro mode, my team had about 20 hits and only 7 runs to show for it. The game needs better defense and less single base hits. And if you play in all-star mode you can't ever score. I played a game at Coors Field and the final score was only 3-2. We all know that never happens. I was also disappointed in some of the features this game lacked. First of all, you can't play night games. That was always an option is previous versions of TP. Day games are ok but I think it's more fun to play under the lights. Same thing with the seventh inning stretch. The game needs a lot more features in order for EA Sports to exceed from the rest. Like the National Anthem, ball girls to throw T-shirts into the crowd in between innings, the option to charge the mound and start a fight after being hit by a pitch, taunting fans for the road team, more arguing with umpires, dirty uniforms like Madden, and more lines from the announcers. I get pretty tired of hearing "I don't know, you just can't hit a ball any better than that" The game is worth playing for now, but I will expect a much better game next year.

If you like homeruns and want a game with good graphics and really corny gameplay, get Triple Play. If you want a realistic baseball game, get All Star Baseball or High Heat Baseball. Triple Play has better graphics, but there's too many homeruns and it makes the game boring. When you hit the ball, it sounds like a rocket taking off. But if you just like homeruns and you don't care if the game feels real, get Triple Play. It all depends on what you want....

Pro: great graphics and play by play comments (and that's it)

Here come the cons.

It's much easier to get a hit than a walk.....I can live w/ that. Using Padres to play season mode of all star level (hardest level), I've gone 23 wins and 0 loses.....I can live w/ that. CPU teams call off their starting pitchers very early in games (like 5 behind in the 3rd inning, or 3 behind in the 5th inning)......I can live w/ that. A 1-0 game result in colorado....I can live w/ that.

I can't live w/ HUGE BUGS of the game. For several times, my pitcher finished an inning by just getting 2 outs. For several times, I had 3 RBI by hitting a homerun and it only showed 2 runs on the scoreboard. What r those bugs? Isn't EA the most profitable 3rd party game developer company? I'm so disappointed. I don't know how good r the other 2 ps2 baseball games, but PLEASE...PLEASE....don't even think about getting this game.

I have never been a fan of this series but not because I have some bias towards EA. (I like Madden and other cool EA games).

Wanting a good baseball game for my overrated PS2 system, I gave this game a shot. First of all, the one good thing: the graphics. I think it has the best graphics out of the three PS2 baseball games.

Now the bad: If you want a 1-P game, this game may suit your need if you just want to smash home-runs after another. But for a 2-P experience, DON'T EVER BUY THIS THING. The batter-pitcher interface has a major flaw which essentially tips the hitter of the pitch location. The end result: games in the 20 runs are not uncommon. This is not baseball.

Personally I am one of the biggest baseball fans there is, and nothing satisfies my need to constantly study the game or watch more than a good baseball video game. I had a playstation 2 originally and loved the Triple Play series, but this game is just not the same. First of all, I would like to say the graphics truly are excellent, and the player models are extremely real, the biggest problems I have with it are the AI and the game play. It is very difficult to get used to the controls and you have to use virtually every button on the game pad to pitch and field. Without fielding help on, it is impossible to tell where the ball will come down on pop flys and where ground balls are heading. Those added to the disappointment I felt when I played the game, but by far the AI is the worst I have ever encountered in a video game, the fantasy draft is very unrealistic, the computer teams choose players from the team which they are choosing for rather than the best player available.(I.E. when the PC chooses for the cubs he will take Sosa in the first and then take Rondell White in the second and so on....) During games you see some extremely unlikely things, first of all no matter what AI setting u r on the opposing batter always seems to make contact(rarely will you even get one strikeout), but probably the worst part is how unrealistic it is, I have seen players like Rafael Furcal or Luis Castillo hit homeruns off of great pitcher like Pedro Martinez(and that's not an exaggeration, I have seen it happen). So in closing, the games graphics are excellent, but that doesn't make the game for me, the AI is terrible in this game and it just gives the appearance that EA Sports just threw the game out so they could release the first baseball game for the system, I would not recommend this game to anyone reading this review.

I have been consistently visiting ... to get a feel for games and what people think. I never thought about writing but I just had to speak up on this one. In fact, I even did some research online to check up on what professional critiques felt about this game.

First of all, to all the people dumpin' on this game for one reason or another; try playing more than a dozen games while renting it before you get online and start throwing digs.

This game has it's flaws, LIKE ALL, but out of all three baseball options, this is the most realistic of them all. Let me explain:

1) Graphics are 5 star - definitely utilize potential of PS2

2) Player models are 4 star - batting stances and pitching techniques reflect real players; all players look the same (squatty and short) which needs to be corrected. Also, celebrations of home runs - definite low point of game. Look like ... girls trying out for cheerleading!!

3) Gameplay is 4 star; a little fatigued. But when you stop to think about it, isn't the pace of baseball games in real life a little slow? Especially the majors?

4) AI is 4 star; first two levels are a bit easy but all-star (3rd level) is challenging. Trust me, I've played at least 100 games so far.

5) Need to correct balls that hit the walls and in gaps that are singles and not doubles or triples. Definitely needs work in this department. However, All-Star and High Heat are same way.

I've rented the other two. All-star Baseball has good graphics and you can warm up pitchers in the bullpen but downhill from there. You cannot control the pitch speeds which is a HUGE asset of Triple Play. High Heat Baseball is SO terrible in the graphics department that I can't even begin to think about it having any realism. I mean, isn't that what the PS2 is all about? Graphics and polygons? If I want stat realism and gameplay I'll get out my Nintendo and play that with the same kind of graphics as High Heat.

Bottomline, Triple Play gives the most realistic and enjoyable baseball game of the three. However, while needing to improve on some things, I do have the confidence that EA sports will refine these areas with next year's release. Also, here are two links that dig deeper on how Triple Play smokes the competition. ... ...