Baseball is quite possibly the most cherished pastime in the USA, for generations families have been spending time with each other, friends have shared quality experiences together, and professional baseball players have reaped the benefits through hefty salaries and bonuses. None of this will change in the near future, but now you can experience the closest thing to a real baseball game while grasping your Xbox controller with All Star Baseball 2004. One more thing that has remained consistent over recent years is Acclaim’s steady progress with the All Star Baseball Series, they just seem to get better and better. While ASB 2004 only allows for roster updates through Xbox Live, not actual gameplay through the service as many had hoped early on, the additional features and enhancements to the series make All Star Baseball 2004 a gaming requirement for baseball enthusiasts. Let’s play ball …

Gameplay

In All Star Baseball 2004 there is over 50 playable teams, improved fielding, running, and base-throwing, the most realistic player animations, 75 stadiums, 9 new game modes, and 20 unlockable teams. More than 80 new features and improvements. Over 110 retired legends of Major League Baseball and Negro Leagues such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Cal Ripken, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O’Neil. All of the improvements, options, and varying game modes are incredible, you really need to inspect the options carefully before you begin.

All Star Baseball 2004 ScreenshotThe game modes in ASB 2004 are what you might expect from a top notch baseball game and include Quick Play, MLB Play (which hosts Franchise, Series, and Expansion Mode), Bonus Play Modes (Pick Up Game, Scenario Mode, Trivia, Batting Practice, and Home Run Derby). Quick play mode lets you jump right into the action in an exhibition game between two teams and the results do not count in the standings. It’s the quickest way to play ball without going through many different menus setting up your teams, yet it still has many options. You can pick teams from any division or league, play as rookies, veterans, all star, or decide to just do the managing and let the AI do the playing. Additional settings refer to the stadiums and the environment where you choose the stadium itself, the weather, start time, innings, whether injuries will occur and any cheats that you may have stumbled across. We could continue to list all the options you can decide upon, but we’d then only have a feature list left…. so we’ll head right over to the blood and guts of the gameplay.

All Star Baseball 2004 ScreenshotSince you’ll more than likely spend the most time in Franchise mode, let’s talk about that a bit, keeping in mind that many of the options within franchise mode are similar in play to the other modes of gaming. Franchise mode lets you build the baseball dynasty that you’ve always wanted, taking them through up to 30 years of baseball. During that time you’ll manage your team, trade and draft players, lose players to retirement, see some of them enter the Hall of Fame and just about everything else that happens in real life baseball. Navigating through the setup screens (which are a nostalgic event in their own way taking you through the options of the game as if in a locker room setting) you choose several options for your franchise. Choose your team, trade deadline, simple or complete franchise mode, allow CPU trades, player drafts and more.

All Star Baseball 2004 ScreenshotExpansion mode is the same thing as Franchise Mode with one exception, you create the franchise dynasty from scratch, choosing city, mascot, team logo, league and more. You have to draft players in expansion mode. In addition to Franchise and Expansion there is also Series Mode, and you guessed it, it’s all about World Series gameplay. Bonus Play mode gives you a few other ways to get in the game. In Pick Up game the computer randomly selects two players from each position from the American League and the National League, then you choose two players under the same criteria… then you select a stadium and play ball. Scenario mode puts you in some of the toughest situations from the 2002 season, more scenarios will be available as you progress. Trivia is self explanatory, but it’s interesting since they have it set up where two teams try to score runs by answering the questions correctly. Batting Practice is, well, batting practice and last but not least Home Run Derby, anything other than a homer and you blew it.

All Star Baseball 2004 ScreenshotWhen you finally do get up at the plate, you’ll notice that ASB 2004 has kept true to the series with it’s batting layout. The batter uses a triangular pointer to try and hit the ball by placing the triangle over the incoming ball (the better the hitter at bat, the larger the area of contact) …. easier said than done. You can set the option to exaggerate pitches from the settings menu, making it a bit easier to contact the ball in an effective manner, but really what you will need to do is spend some time in the Batting Practice area to brush up on your swinging technique. Guessing what pitch will be heading your way will also make your contact area and probability a little better. After you have mastered the art of swinging the bat you will agree that the batting setup is definitely adequate, however lends itself to frustration quite easily.

The same can be said for pitching and fielding. Pitching is as simple as choosing the type of pitch, selecting an area over the plate to toss it, and delivering the pitch. Generally a pitcher will have about 3 to 6 pitches in their arsenal and they’re taken right from the real world counter-parts menu of pitches. In some cases you will notice that not every pitch a player normally uses is available, you just can’t have everything! One drawback to the title is the AI batters, who will rarely take a swing at a ball (meaning not a strike!) so you’ll need to really mix it up and try and get that ball right over the area of the plate that the batter has difficulty with, lucky for us they show us those areas.

All Star Baseball 2004 ScreenshotFielding a play is simple as can be, in fact you can have the computer handle just about all of it for you, although I like to think many of us will want to have a major input on this aspect of the game too. Once you catch or pick up the ball it’s simple to throw to the corresponding base using the D-Pad, you can also indicate where you’re going to throw the ball before you catch it, and the only frustration here is the transition time for certain maneuvers. Sometimes it seems like a really long time for the third baseman to throw the ball to first, with that said however, the gameplay of ASB 2004 for the most part is very solid.

Xbox Live

While All Star Baseball does not support gameplay through the Xbox Live service, it does support downloading roster updates, to keep you in tune with the players on the field.

All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot

All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot

All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot  All Star Baseball 2004 Screenshot

Graphics / Presentation

ASB 2004 graphically is a great looking game, especially when you’re looking at the stadiums, all of which have been recreated down to the finest detail. (Take a look at some of the stadiums in the interactive tours and you’ll see what I mean) The players themselves are drawn very well also, you can definitely see who some of the all star players are just by looking at their faces and their batting stances. Animations are right on, with motion captured animation sequences throughout the title. There does seem to be a problem with some of the transitions however that hampers the game a bit. We didn’t notice a drop in framerate and the load times between innings was extremely fast, but we did notice some clipping issues scattered throughout and a few struggles with collision detection. The camera is effective to the point of making the game an easy play, but replays aren’t as impressive and the camera should really steer clear of the two dimensional audience. Overall the plus side outweighs the areas of improvement and you’ll have no problem recognizing ASB 2004 as one of the most accurate baseball titles yet.

Audio

The commentary and dialogue from Steve Lyons and Thom Brennamen are accurate to what’s happening in the game, and have a surprising amount a variety and value. You’ll not only hear them call the game as it is but you’ll also learn little factoids about baseball history and the like. The sounds of the crowd are perfect, becoming more intense as the mood of the game goes into it’s high, and the calls from the umpires are done well also. Basic sounds such as hitting the ball, sliding into a base, and bunting are all unique and effective (meaning you can usually tell what kind of hit you’ll have from the crack of the bat). Nice touches include the pre game and warm up sounds of The Star Spangled Banner, and more importantly the intro music for a certain batter. This is where the use of the hard drive would have been a home run for Acclaim, since you can set the intro music for every player in the options menu, unfortunately custom soundtracks aren’t supported.

Replay Value

If you’re a true fan of the sport then you’ll be hard pressed to find a title with more replay value than All Star Baseball 2004. With a staggering number of options and game modes you’ll be playing well into next year’s first pitch. Roster updates through Xbox Live are a great addition, and from what we can tell will be a monthly download from the service, stretching out that replayability a bit more with every download. No Xbox Live play for the moment, but that seriously won’t affect my replay score at this point since chances are you would wind up playing a Series game with some whiner from Kansas City that decides to pause the game at the top of the ninth (I’m not bitter, really). Baseball fans be sure to take a look at ASB 2004.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 8.7/10 [Not an Average]

Additional Comments

I’ve always been a huge baseball fan, living right across the river from my hometown team the Philadelphia Phillies I can still remember the days of listening to the game when my favorite player Ricky Jordan smacked the winning hit! Those days are gone but baseball lives on, and All Star Baseball 2004 is truly a game to remember in and of itself. I especially like the team management aspect of it, taking a team through 30 years of baseball, it’s just sickening fun!!! I recommend taking a closer look at this title for all Xbox owners, and for true fans of baseball just go pick it up. Just take this word of advice … BATTING PRACTICE, don’t rush into a game, practice first, you’ll thank me later.

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