Let's play ball!

Here we are again, one year later with the latest installment to the Sega Sports games, World Series Baseball2k2. After the lack-lusting disappointing version of last years game, Sega had felt that it would only be right that this years version be handed over to a entirely new development team, which for those who don’t already know, is Visual Concepts, the same team responsible for the blockbuster sports games NBA2K(1) and NFL2K(1). And since Visual Concepts is no stranger for creating jaw dropping sports games, it was a sure bet that World Series Baseball2k2 would be a sure hit. And while hopes were high and promises were being made, the game has been finally released. So being that this will most likely be the last baseball game to ever embrace the Sega Dreamcast, is it one worth owning?

Appearance:
-Exhibition, Season, Playoffs, Home Run Durby, Franchise, and Online modes
-Hot and cold zones for batters
-Multiple fantasy drafts for season and franchise modes
-Fully licensed
-Made by Visual Concepts

Plot:
Pick one out of the selected MLB teams through out a season of baseball as you try to come out on top by becoming the World Series Champions.

Graphics:(6.5/10)
Visual Concept had made a positive decision when they had decided to can the World Series Baseball2k1 visuals and start over from scratch, because while there are some things that I would of wished that Visual Concepts had still kept, I do give them credit towards their new ideas, that is for some of them. For one, the uniforms look more detailed, unlike last years by now adding more wrinkles and creases, plus there are the minor details as how the gloves on the hands to the knee high socks, the details this time around stand out much more. Plus the animations got quite a boost as to how the players react. Take for instance when the next batter comes up, he’ll probably take his time getting to the mound while twirling his bat in a circular motion while getting ready in his unique batting stance, then as the pitcher nods his head yes or no to deliver the ball which he will do by placing a tight grip on to it as he lifts his knee up, turns his arm to deliver a 102mph fastball as his fingers hang out fully extended, and then you’ll see that after the batter places each of his 10 fingers around the bat, he’ll grip on to it harder as he places all his energy into a single swing while glancing up to see the ball rip into the air as he tosses his bat behind him and darts as fast as possible to first base, when finally reaching it, he will then applaud himself to a job well done while watching the next batter step up. Or when the outfielders dart towards a mid ground pop up as they toss their bodies with their arm extended out in order to fit the ball securely into their baseball glove as they stand back up to toss the ball to second base. And then there is my personal favorite of the catcher holding on to the ball as the person on third base darts toward him and literally leaps at him, knocking each other down, hoping that the person on 3rd adds another point to the game. My only concern with the animations is the time it takes for a player to actually toss the baseball to another, and while it’s not a serious flaw, it will become one when the score is tied and the opposing team makes the winning run due to your outfielder taking a second to long in order to toss the baseball to home.


But with all those positive comments being said, it’s now time to go on to the bad part of the game when it comes to the game’s visuals, and this wont be pretty. Remember how earlier I commented on how the player’s uniforms looked more detailed then last years? Well while that being said is true, the rest of the player’s appearance is a total disappointment. The bodies all seem to look the same as where size and proportion goes, the only difference between them are the skin color, team uniform, and distorted heads. And while speaking of the heads, let me say that this years “realistic” player model faces are a joke. Basically, the player’s faces are what seem to be composed out of clay. The face models used in last years game was way better then this years, and while this is not a major flaw, it is one that does stand out, making that “realism” stated on the back of the World Series Baseball2k2 cd case seem a bit more fictional. Plus the hit detection to where the players meet is horrible. When I had viewed some certain plays in the instant replay mode, I could clearly see how my batter when running to first would actually run right through the first baseman, as if he was not even there, or how when my player slides to second, his knee will intersect with the second baseman’s knee. But what’s even more unbelievable is how the players react to the baseball. When pitching the ball to the catcher, you’ll see how in the replay mode that the ball does not even go to the catcher’s mitt directly, but rather to his thigh, which then goes to his mitt, what’s up with that?! Or how when my outfielders run back to catch the pop up, as it comes down it will magically go through their glove into their palm without them having to turn around, or my favorite of them all is how the baseball went right through my pitcher’s head, yeah as if that would really exist in a REAL baseball game.

Now on to the stadiums, and were unlike the players visuals, the stadiums themselves come out quite nice when playing a game. The texture looks very realistic with patterns separated by the shades on the field. The dirt around the diamond looks…well, like dirt but what makes it stand out are the clouds of dirt that shoot up from the ground as players slide on to base or by having the catcher break it in a bit while waiting for the next batter to show up. Around the stadium you’ll surely see sponsors and advertisement bill boards around the stadium as well as a electronic score board that stays accurate to the game’s score, even a picture of the batter that it at the mount, however I would had wished that some animations be shown on them such as the pitcher delivering a “K”, hitting a home run, or even winning the game. The crowd themselves appear to fill the entire ball park, and unlike last year are no longer given a drowned out, fuzzy, cardboard appearance, but rather a clean cardboard appearance that is best similar to the crowd in the NFL2K series, so while it may not be a graphical leap to how the audience looks, it couldn’t be anymore worse then last years version. Other things to mention are the daytime, nighttime appearance of the ballparks. While in daytime you’ll be treated to seeing the capability of the stadiums visuals, the nighttime games are something to avoid, since it looks as if half of the stadiums lights are working, and while I played a rather good majority of games, I have yet to see such weather effects, such as rain, wind, or even snow.

Sound:(8/10)
Last year’s play-by-play commentary was at the best to be described in one word as, robotic. Thankfully Visual Concepts had gotten brand new commentary to suit the game much more with a clear and flowing tone, making the realism sink in just a tad bit more. The announcer stays true to what is happening on the screen for the majority of the time by stating out their performance for the game and what goes on when a play takes place, but sometimes out of the blue the announcer may say something’s that are not even true or are not even closely related to what had just happened on the screen, or by hearing the same comment over and over, such as with every game you play, you’ll always hear on the 7th inning, “Everybody on your feet, it’s time for the seventh inning stretch!” As if I were not already aware, since I am the one playing the game, luckily the announcer can be turned off, but so far it has not gotten to the point where I had the urge to place him on mute.

However, when ignoring the announcer and tuning in more to the game’s sound effects, you’ll be blown away on how accurate the sound effects go when playing the game. The crowd seems to be completely accurate with the baseball game, because lets say the home team and your controlling your pitcher, well before making your pitch, the crowd will give you total silence, (excluding the random yells of their favorite players) so that you can concentrate on where the ball goes, and depending on how good of a pitch you had performed, you may be applauded, or given a silent treatment, but when it’s the opponents turn to pitch, the crowd will probably make more noise then before, making your team have the home field advantage, and if your batter delivers a spectacular hit, expect a never ending cheer of excitement and joy to flood the stadium as you go on to play the game. But just as the crowd gets all pretty and happy, they can turn ugly too, depending on your performance, if the home team is doing very poorly, be prepared to hear some boo’s as the crowd carries high expectations while “watching” you play. However the crowd really begins to stand out near the end of the game as the stadium starts rocking with never ending cheers on the home team wrapping the game up as they rack up another win. Other things to mention are of the melodies and jingles that will randomly occur, or the crack of the bat as it makes contact with ball stand out just as well.

Control:(7/10)
Personally, I found no problem with the control layout and game play of World Series Baseball2k1. I mean sure there was no way to field, and that was a major problem, which I will admit because it made the game a bit boring some, but when it came to the batting and pitching, I had no problem with it. However, more people have had a problem with it, causing the whole game play to be changed, and for the majority of it, it is for the better. Batting is now done more like last years version, but instead with a couple of new twists. Now the hot and cold zones are included by being shown in a 3x3 grid, the boxes filled in red represent the hot zones where the batter has a better chance of hitting one out of the park, where the cold zones represent their weak spots that may cause them to swing at pop up’s, or ground balls, and the squares that are clear are the neutral zones where anything can happen. And then there is the strike zone, which is basically where all the action goes when it comes to hitting, inside this box you’ll be given a circular cursor, which you can enlarge by pressing and holding down the R shoulder, causing your swings to become more powerful. The way you hit the baseball is by aligning the cursor along with the baseball, moving the analog joystick does this, and when the two meet, you’ll either have the choice to swing or bunt the ball. And batting is not the only thing that has been revamped in World Series Baseball2k2; the pitching system has also been altered just as well. For each pitcher in the game has a different variety of pitches that will appear in a miniature box at the bottom of the screen. By moving the analog joystick to the desired pitch, being it is highlighted for your selection, you’ll then push A to select it. Then you’ll be shown a white dot in the strike zone, this dot symbolizes where the ball will end up at, and when the desired position of the white dot is chosen, you’ll then push the A button to have the pitcher pitch the ball. Now while the new lay out control for pitching is better tuned then last years version, I can’t help but feel that some of the pitches are a bit off to where you place the white dot at, making what you would believe to be a strike, turn into a ball, plus the lack of that sense of speed when delivering a pitch may cause some to beg for more, I know I do, and the only way in which you can increase the amount of speed you get is by holding down the A button, but by doing this you also wear out your pitcher more then you would be pitching at normally set speeds.

A new feature to the World Series Baseball2k2 game play is of controlling your fielders, and yes I do mean by having total control, unlike last years where the only control given to the fielders was of picking which base to throw the baseball at. And while many people are looking forward into having complete control of their fielders, it doesn’t come out the way in which they had thought it would be, at least for me it was like that for me. Because each fielder performs just the same as with everyone else, that goes for speed, performance, jump distance, etc. There is no variety as to where the players go when on the field. But what’s especially frustrating is the lack of time to react on where the baseball is heading, so don’t be fooled on how slow the baseball looks when leaving the pitchers hand, because right after it hits the bat, it will sore twice the speed, giving you little time to react, plus when I do react, I have two other teammates chasing the ball as well, rather then holding their positions, as if they want to lose the game, making you work as a one man baseball team at certain times. The new diving feature is a new and what appears to be a fun feature to add in, but in reality it’s mostly never used or used at the wrong moments, being that the fielders take quite a while when leaping into the air, and if they happen to miss the ball, well then you automatically helped the opposing team add another point to their score. However, while this next feature is not what everyone wants to hear, I am happy to see it be in the game, being that it adds in more realism, and that’s of the errors. If a fielder is holding his hand in the air, he might not always make the catch that will cause that batter an out, it might dribble out of the glove, resulting in some quick decision making, or if it’s a grounder, the ball may hit the player’s toe, causing him to look franticly until finding the ball, however that is all in which I have seen when it comes to errors, meaning that they don’t happen to often, so don’t break a sweat on thinking it happens on every inning or so.

Replay Value:(6.8/10)

Those who are baseball junkies should have a smile over their face with all the modes available within the game, but it’s just a shame that some of them are not put to the best use. Exhibition is simply when you choose any two teams in the league and take it out on the field until the game ends. Then there is the quick start mode, which I find mostly useless being it has always, and will always pick the two teams that faced each other off (New York Mets and New York Yankee’s) at the World Series. Making this feature pretty much useless since you can simply go to the Exhibition mode and randomly select two teams from there, so I don’t know what Visual Concepts was thinking behind that idea, but it was obviously not a good one. Then there is the Season Mode for those die hard baseball fans, here you and up to 29 other users can build your own season. You’re given the option to select the game’s difficulty and amount of games you wish to play, and then start your very own season. But for those wanting to get straight to the playoffs can do that as well, by having you select number of teams and playoff format. A new feature to World Series Baseball2k2 is the Home Run Derby, which may sound great, but it really gets boring very easily, sure your able to select the number of players, pitches, and which stadium you’ll be at while going at it with up to 7 other friends, but the mode offers very little replay, unless you’re the kind of person who wants to tune up their batting skills, other then that it has no true purpose to be in the game. Plus there is the Franchise Mode, where you’ll take place of a GM, and build up your skills to build baseball’s next dynasty, and while I was hoping so bad that the franchise mode would go on without a hitch, when I actually go to play around with it, it was a joke. For starters, you can’t trade more then 1 player for when trading, making the computer deny almost every trading request you bring up, and the fact that you can’t resign players after a full year of playing baseball will cause a riot for most players who depend heavily on the franchise mode for their source of fun, so basically the franchise mode has been rushed so that the game could be released, which is a sight fore sore eyes especially for those who had high expectations.

But what will make most head turns when owning World Series Baseball2k2 is the option to go online. Right of the bat, you’ll notice that after placing in your username and password, that you’ll be given your stats on how many games you’ve won, loss, and left. Making some people know who they should play that wont ditch in the middle of a game, and for those wanting a easy win, can know who more losses then wins, making this a great feature. Plus there is also an option to view the top 50 best players in World Series Baseball2k2, so for those wanting a worthy challenger, can know where to go for that. But once in a lobby, you’ll notice that there is no way to chat in the lobby, which is a HUGE disadvantage for those wanting to pre-plan games and such, plus a majority of the time when asking for challengers, your request will be ignored, leaving you back in the lobby, I don’t understand why the people who own this game go on the net with it, and then decide to reject every request that they get, but thankfully there are a small group of people who will take a challenge, but it’s all a matter of time in which it takes to find them. However when you finally get in the middle of the game, you’ll notice that the cursors used in batting pitching is gone, which can still be worked around though, so while it’s no big disadvantage, it may bother some, but hey…would your opponent want you to know where their next pitch was going? The game does suffer from some lag, but it’s not that bad when comparing to the other online games out there, still what does bother me the most when playing are the sore losers who will pause the game when in the middle of giving you a pitch, and then unpausing, causing you to most likely strike out, or what’s worse is having them pause the game and then leaving it paused until you decide to quit, making you choose your opponents wisely, thankfully there are just a small handful of these players who get kicks out of ruining the games for others.

Overall:(7.08)
Ok, so while the game is not a major breakthrough from last year’s game (which I found to be not so bad,) it’s better then not getting a sequel that contains online play. Still while I appreciate how Visual Concepts worked from the ground up to create World Series Baseball2k2, I don’t understand why the visuals are not that much of an improvement and why the hit detection is so horrible? Plus while the new addition of modes is more then welcomed on my Dreamcast, why are some of them useless? Still, the game gives player’s things they did not have from last year’s version such as fielding, a home run derby, better animations, smoother commentary, and most importantly the ability to go online. So while the game is not perfect, I will still keep my copy, simply because that there wont be another sequel to the World Series Baseball series on the Sega Dreamcast no more, simple as that.