High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 for the Playstation 2 is, of course, a Major League baseball game. It has all the things you'd expect in a baseball game; you can manage the rosters, play the games, etc. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary.
Seeing a game with 2004 in the title when we are barely two months into 2003 is a bit disturbing, but with nothing else to do and all the other games rented it out a friend and I decided it seemed more interesting than staring at the wall all weekend. Oh how wrong one can be.
Controls: 3 / 10
To be fair, we didn't have an instruction manual so we had to figure out the controls as we went along. Usually this shouldn't take very long but by the end of the first game we still were having troubles getting used to the games controls.
The rotten camera angles make controlling the game difficult and occasionally the game just doesn't seem to do what you want it to.
Unlike most baseball games, when pitching you don't select where you want the ball thrown. Instead you simply select the type of pitch and if you want it to be a ball or a strike. Some make like this design but I think it ruins a lot of the fun of the game. I should mention that just because you select ball or strike, doesn't mean thats what it will really be. Often times your ''ball'' will end up a strike or vise versa.
Gameplay: 2 / 10
The computer cheats. Or at least that's my best explination for it. Even on rookie the game seems to give the cpu an unfair advantage. Seeing as how it was the first time playing the game and we didn't know the controls the difficulty was put on rookie. Around the 8th inning we had the controls figured out and should have been royaling wamping on the cpu. This didn't happen. Instead the cpu hit a grand slam, a triple, then four more home runs all in a row. Maybe I don't watch enough baseball but I don't think this shouldn't be able to happen in the most difficult settings, let alone in rookie!
As mentioned before, you don't aim your pitches, and you don't aim your batting either, which makes for a very substandard pitching/batting system.
Back to the note of the unfair cpu... Often hits may look like they should be a home run, but mysteriously not make it, or you can dive for a pop fly, watch your player catch it and then have the game not give you the out as though the ball had bounced first.
Graphics: 1 / 10
The HUD was simplistic, and similar to the display for a baseball game on tv. This was nice.
Unfortunatly thats about the only nice thing I have to say about the graphics.
The 3d models were terrible. The players arms looked like those dolls that they stick the fabric together to make the elbows for.. One look at the players arms as they step up to bat and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
The animations are horribly ridged. The transition between animations jumps. Always. It doesn't matter if it's from running to catching, catching to throwing, or standing still to swinging the bat, the player is just suddenly in a different position. C'mon! This is the PS2, not the NES, we should be able to have a lot smoother motion than that.
This game also suffers (badly) from what I like to call ''arcade catches.'' Do you remember how back on the SNEW the player would put his hand above his head and the ball would hit is feet, but he still caught it? That's how just about all catches in this game are.
Now about the camera angles.... Even if all the graphics complaints I've had so far were fixed, I would still give the graphics 1 out of 10 because of the camera. The views are terrible when trying to play the field. When ever you throw the ball the view instantly focuses on the player you are throwing it to close up. And it stays there. This makes it near impossible to see what is going on anywhere except right on the base where you threw the ball to.
When batting or on the field the framerate seems okay, but when ever the game goes to an animation of a player walking to the mound, or a player just coming in to home after a home run, the frame rate crawls and studders. This is unexcusable. All these shots are completly predetermined when the game was developed and there is no excuse for that much framerate problems.
Sound: 2 / 10
At first the announcer's voice overs seem okay, until something big happens and then it becomes a very unenthusiastic holler. By the end of the first game you will already start to get tired of the announcers and will probably think of turning them off after the first dozen games (if you get that far)
There isn't much for sound effects, and what sound effects are there, aren't very good. The timing of sound for the ball hitting the glove and when you see the ball hit the glove are way off. When the player hits the mound with the baseball bat it sounds like a baseball bat hitting a cement floor in a big empty room. Not good.
Sound: 2 / 10
I hate to say all bad things, as there were a few good things, but the good things were small, few, and far between. I'd guess most people would give this game less than a week before it's put on the shelf to never be played again.
This game isn't worth buying. It isn't worth renting. If you get it as a gift I highly recommend you return it. Even PS2 baseball games from two years outshine this game in every way I can think of.
Seeing a game with 2004 in the title when we are barely two months into 2003 is a bit disturbing, but with nothing else to do and all the other games rented it out a friend and I decided it seemed more interesting than staring at the wall all weekend. Oh how wrong one can be.
Controls: 3 / 10
To be fair, we didn't have an instruction manual so we had to figure out the controls as we went along. Usually this shouldn't take very long but by the end of the first game we still were having troubles getting used to the games controls.
The rotten camera angles make controlling the game difficult and occasionally the game just doesn't seem to do what you want it to.
Unlike most baseball games, when pitching you don't select where you want the ball thrown. Instead you simply select the type of pitch and if you want it to be a ball or a strike. Some make like this design but I think it ruins a lot of the fun of the game. I should mention that just because you select ball or strike, doesn't mean thats what it will really be. Often times your ''ball'' will end up a strike or vise versa.
Gameplay: 2 / 10
The computer cheats. Or at least that's my best explination for it. Even on rookie the game seems to give the cpu an unfair advantage. Seeing as how it was the first time playing the game and we didn't know the controls the difficulty was put on rookie. Around the 8th inning we had the controls figured out and should have been royaling wamping on the cpu. This didn't happen. Instead the cpu hit a grand slam, a triple, then four more home runs all in a row. Maybe I don't watch enough baseball but I don't think this shouldn't be able to happen in the most difficult settings, let alone in rookie!
As mentioned before, you don't aim your pitches, and you don't aim your batting either, which makes for a very substandard pitching/batting system.
Back to the note of the unfair cpu... Often hits may look like they should be a home run, but mysteriously not make it, or you can dive for a pop fly, watch your player catch it and then have the game not give you the out as though the ball had bounced first.
Graphics: 1 / 10
The HUD was simplistic, and similar to the display for a baseball game on tv. This was nice.
Unfortunatly thats about the only nice thing I have to say about the graphics.
The 3d models were terrible. The players arms looked like those dolls that they stick the fabric together to make the elbows for.. One look at the players arms as they step up to bat and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
The animations are horribly ridged. The transition between animations jumps. Always. It doesn't matter if it's from running to catching, catching to throwing, or standing still to swinging the bat, the player is just suddenly in a different position. C'mon! This is the PS2, not the NES, we should be able to have a lot smoother motion than that.
This game also suffers (badly) from what I like to call ''arcade catches.'' Do you remember how back on the SNEW the player would put his hand above his head and the ball would hit is feet, but he still caught it? That's how just about all catches in this game are.
Now about the camera angles.... Even if all the graphics complaints I've had so far were fixed, I would still give the graphics 1 out of 10 because of the camera. The views are terrible when trying to play the field. When ever you throw the ball the view instantly focuses on the player you are throwing it to close up. And it stays there. This makes it near impossible to see what is going on anywhere except right on the base where you threw the ball to.
When batting or on the field the framerate seems okay, but when ever the game goes to an animation of a player walking to the mound, or a player just coming in to home after a home run, the frame rate crawls and studders. This is unexcusable. All these shots are completly predetermined when the game was developed and there is no excuse for that much framerate problems.
Sound: 2 / 10
At first the announcer's voice overs seem okay, until something big happens and then it becomes a very unenthusiastic holler. By the end of the first game you will already start to get tired of the announcers and will probably think of turning them off after the first dozen games (if you get that far)
There isn't much for sound effects, and what sound effects are there, aren't very good. The timing of sound for the ball hitting the glove and when you see the ball hit the glove are way off. When the player hits the mound with the baseball bat it sounds like a baseball bat hitting a cement floor in a big empty room. Not good.
Sound: 2 / 10
I hate to say all bad things, as there were a few good things, but the good things were small, few, and far between. I'd guess most people would give this game less than a week before it's put on the shelf to never be played again.
This game isn't worth buying. It isn't worth renting. If you get it as a gift I highly recommend you return it. Even PS2 baseball games from two years outshine this game in every way I can think of.
j/k....
High Heat 2004 is one of the better sports games to come out this year. I'm hooked so far. Loving the gameplay, and finally a career mode for the console version. 
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