Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

[ViperVisor]

It should of sold well enough after most people took back the horible Triple Play. All it needs is graphics and a season/franchise with trade logic.

[inkcil]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

Has it been announced for XBox yet?

[BaseballGuru]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

I don't think it will be competetive as far as graphics go... that includes everything from crowd textures to stadiums to animation and player models. They are so far behind the other games that it'll be a while before they catch up.

[siam007]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

I think the topic should be reversed, can wsb make improvements to compete with HH.

HH is absolutely the best sports sim for next gen. consoles, plus it plays like a old time baseball game. Hopefully HH is online this year.

As for xbox, not sure, 3do is finally developing games for xbox, but last I heard army men was the only one being developed for xbox. HH is gonna be gc this year along with ps2.

Grahpics, who cares. In baseball games, graphics is one of teh lowest factors because control, hitting interface, and fluidity/gameflow make a big differnce in a good and bad baseball game. Baseball games are based on gameplay, not graphics.

[BaseballGuru]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

If that was the case, then everyone would still be playing Earl Weaver baseball instead of forking out $50 for a baseball game on a next gen system.

I'm guessing that people have been telling you your entire life that looks aren't important... I'm gonna fill you in on something siam... that's what they tell ugly people. Looks do matter, and when those looks start to affect gameplay (ie, 1 frame tag animations) then they detract from the overall game.

[fatheadX]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

I get the feeling that 3D0 shot their wad with last year's game. Porting HH over to other systems will probably take most of their resources this year and the overall game might get minor tweaks at best. People have been bitching about the PC version only getting a fresh coat of paint for the past couple of years, it might be time for the console version to coast for a year or two.

I hope I'm wrong, by the way. I love playing HH2003, but the graphics (esp. the animations that Guru mentioned) do distract.

[siam007]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

fatheadx : ya i am concerned about that as well. I wonder if the same people will still be around to do hh2004 at 3do. I remember reading where they needed to take a loan just to stay afloat. Fingers crossed.

[floydsox]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

"If that was the case, then everyone would still be playing Earl Weaver baseball instead of forking out $50 for a baseball game on a next gen system. "

God, I heard this poor cop out excuse so many times, its not even funny. High and Earl weaver are not the same game.

Any TRUE baseball sim fan would see right through WSB. The baseball game genre is my personal fav, and I've played all the BB games this year. WSB is quite good AT FIRST, but then after 10 or so games, the pitching is extremly easy! Yes, Yes, I even did the change the CPU batter curser thing, but that didnt do [censored]. And the Baserunner was serioulsy unexcusable. I think the baserunning alone killed the game for me.

I just got to the point where I let the computer pitch for me!! Even then, the pitching was still unrealistic.

Anyways-I admit, the graphics did turn me down on HH at first, but then after you see through it, you would know that the batting, pitching, baserunner, AI in general is Excellent!! You will rarely see a bug in HH.

The way I see it. For baseball, graphics dont matter at all. Baketball has more style and is more flashy so it is understandable that a basketball game should have decent graphics, same with football. Baseball is all about mechanics. Everything about the sport is about timing, so gameplay is very important for baseball.

HH's gameplay is the closet to matching it, because it keeps it simple. I think ID 2003 is the best basketball game because they keep it simple. IMO

[BaseballGuru]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

Simple being the key word... and I disagree with you about graphics not mattering. Why should basketball have good graphics and not baseball? I'm just not seeing your point... the hardware capabilities are there, the software is there... so why shouldn't a baseball game look good? And like I pointed out earlier (I lump animation into the graphics category), HH's graphics do detract from the gameplay. When I've got a runner going to second base, and he is halfway across the bag in his little karate-kick slide, he should not be called out when the man covering the bag catches the ball, turns, and puts the tag down in one frame of animation. That's not realistic, yet it happens alot.

[siam007]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

'When I've got a runner going to second base, and he is halfway across the bag in his little karate-kick slide, he should not be called out when the man covering the bag catches the ball, turns, and puts the tag down in one frame of animation'

So because it is missing a frame of animation it ruins the gameplay??? That is ridiculous! Everygame has some kind of issue when it comes to animations and graphics, but basing a game with superb gameplay based on nitpicks is ridicoulous. If that were the case, then every game would be considered 'ruined'.

I would rather have one bad animation frame in a game than other games where their whole AI Engine is fualty : ie base running , fielders throwing to the wrong bases, etc...

If one is into graphics its one thing, but like the previous poster said, in the game of baseball, graphics should be one of the lower things on the totem pole since mechanics and timing are harder to represent in a videogame. I think most gamers who play baseball videogames don't play them for graphics, they play them for gameplay.

[BaseballGuru]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

Read what I wrote again... it's not missing one frame of animation... it IS one frame of animation. Translated, that means that he catches, turns, and puts the tag down in 1/30th of a second. Talk about your cat-like reflexes. It wouldn't be a problem if this single frame tag animation didn't result in guys getting called out..... but it does, and all the time. Those out calls resulting from the poor animation hurt... we won't even get into the robbed homeruns that happen at the wall every other game.... how can it be the best sim around when the stats are skewed by phantom tags at the bases (it's not just 2nd base this occurs at) or multiple robbed homeruns in every game? I'm just not seeing it.

High Heat is a fun game... I own, I play it, but I don't think it is the mother of all sims. Will it be competetive this next year? I dunno... depends on how much they fix and if they hire an entirely new art staff.

Amazing all those dumb posts about "ASB Police", yet the same people who say stuff like that are the ones that stalk from thread to thread looking for anything negative and the initials HH together. Pot, Kettle, Black.

PS- You're wrong about why most people buy baseball games... most are bought by people who go to the store, grab a game off the shelf, look at the pretty pictures on the back, read the feature list, and compare it to similar games that are out at the time. Pretty graphics might not mean much to you, but that doesn't mean you represent the whole of the baseball video game purchasing demographic. Picture a kid standing in the game aisle at best buy, shopping for his first baseball game... in his right hand he has WSB, in his left, High Heat. Which will he buy? WSB.... it has more features, it has better graphics, and it just looks like more fun. It may not be more fun, but it looks like it on the box.

[snaz16]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

And an overthrown ball past the catcher gets stuck on the backstop while the catcher and pitcher go into thier squat and don't move while my runners all come around and score. I'd say that is a hellava lot more crucial than anything I've seen in High Heat. I've said it a 100 times before,you put pretty face on HH and give it a franchise mode,and we are not even having this conversation. Guru, your more of graphics slut then you let on. Hell you even admitted on a post a couple of weeks back you were playing HH. Both games are good games,have thier flaws. But gameplay wise, High Heat still beats out ASB. Ther is no doubt that 3do has to up the ante graphics wise,and add a franchise mode if they want to stay in the chase.

[BaseballGuru]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

I don't deny playing High Heat... like I said above, I own it, and I play it... doesn't mean I like it that much.

I disagree about the gameplay, mainly because I think HH is just baseball-lite... a simplified version of the game, made to appeal to the lowest common denominator. ASB has its problems, WSB has its problems, and so does HH.... you like it, and I'm happy for you. I don't, and I'm not afraid to tell everyone why.

This thread is about HH competing, and if you look at sales numbers, it really hasn't. There's a reason for this, and it's something that I don't think they can completely fix in the year since they last released. Remember, the developers were all over this board talking about what a graphical improvement we'd all see.... you can put a party hat on a pile of dog sh*t, but it's still just a pile of dog sh*t.

[snaz16]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.

Well you must be a glutton for punishment if you still play it but don't like it much. If I don't like a game that bitch goes back and I get something I do like. My time to game is limited. And if HH is simplified because it gets the basics right,well then ASB and WSB better go back to the drawing board. And if we were talking about competing then Triple Play would be king. HH doesn't compete because it doesn't have EA,Sega,or Acclaim making it.

[AncientMariner]

Re: Will High Heat 2004 get the improvements it needs to compete with WSB.



I have played High Heat 2002 on the playstation 1 and it was one of the best sports games I have ever played. I have an X-box and I pray High Heat comes to the X-box with a franchise mode. It would be the ultimate baseball game. Ncaa 2003 is the ultimate football game and it looks like ID 2003 is going to be the ultimate basketball game. I agree with whoever said "Keep it simple." There is nothing more frustrating than buying a game that is full of glitz and glamour only to find it is littered with game killing bugs especially in sports games.