Brief All-Star Baseball 2004 thoughts

[Mr. Showtime]

Finally, after all my talking about it, I own the game.

 

I'll be updating this thread as I play the game further.

 

Let me just state that I haven't played ASB since Larry Walker was on the cover like 25 years ago.

 

Let me also add, I've played just one game. Maybe, an hour's worth of the game. So this isn't very in depth.

 

On to the fun:

 

First thing that sort of struck me as bad was that Smash Mouth has that ghey ass song "All-Star" in the v-roll (video package). I hate that song with a passion, cool package besides that.

 

Next thing that I find odd was the way you control the main menu. In a vast majority of the games that I've played, you use triangle to go back to the previous screen, well, here you use circle. That took awhile to get used to.

 

I just selected a regular game, no franchise or anything like that yet. I went with the Sox ofcourse, playing the Twins in Minnesota.

 

Once you get past all the stadium and jersey options, they play the anthem as you get a look at the stadium. The game has a real FOX feel to it. Psycho and Tom Brenehmen (I know its' spelled wrong), are the broadcast team. They show the lineup and highlight a player, in this case it was Magglio and they brag about his stats. Then you see the two pitchers in the pen warming up, and the announcers talk about their stats, quite cool in my mind. Next is how the defense shapes up for the Twins (in this case), and then it's onto the game.

 

Not sure if he said it here or to me on aim, but Spiff has said hitting is a pain, and boy is he right. After awhile you get used to it, but first time in, its' K city. They have 4 different hitting options, in terms of an icon, or there not being an icon. You really have to be a selective hitter or you're in trouble. Takes some time, but after a game or two, you get the hang of it. In my case, MVP Baseball will be here tomorrow, so you can bet you're ass I'll get the controls of that game and ASB all screwed up in my head.

 

Anyway back to the game.

 

Pitching is pretty easy, pick the pitch, aim where you want it to go, nothing to it. You can throw at hitters, after you select your pitch you can choose to throw it or, throw it at the guy, sweet.

 

Fielding is simple, bases are the triangle, circle, square, and X. Triangle being 2nd, circle being first, x being home, and square being third. Most of the baseball games have that, so that's nothing big.

 

The managers options kick ass. You can relive the glory of the Nardi era, and send the pitching coach to the mound, a screen will pop up with the pitch count, and status of the pitcher. In my case, Colon was "rattled", coach suggested to warm someone up. Funny thing was Manuel goes to the mound for this, or atleast it was a black guy, Cooper as we know, not black. No biggie.

 

Best/Worst part of the game at the same time was Thomas charging the mound. I'm down 4-0 to the Twins, and that biotch Brad Radke hits Thomas in the knee. He gets out of the box jumping around, and the ump yells "Your out of here", then Thomas charges towards the mound sadly the camera pans away. So Thomas got ejected, which was ghey.

 

That's all I have for now, I'll have more later if anyone cares.

[Mr. Showtime]

OK, maybe it wasn't so brief.

[Cali]

Yeah, so I SUCK at video games in general, all my friends were always better, and are still better, and I haven't played a baseball game in a looong time, so I bought ASB, and for me it's damn near impossible to guess the pitch and location, and I'm K'ing like 20+plus times a f***ing game! I really SUCK at the htting thing, maybe if I play it more, I'll get used to it....

[Mr. Showtime]

Yeah, so I SUCK at video games in general, all my friends were always better, and are still better, and I haven't played a baseball game in a looong time, so I bought ASB, and for me it's damn near impossible to guess the pitch and location, and I'm K'ing like 20+plus times a f***ing game! I really SUCK at the htting thing, maybe if I play it more, I'll get used to it....

I went through all the hitting options, and that just makes things worse. You really have to be quick on the draw. When the pitcher throws, a white circle will show where the ball is headed, if its' not in the strike zone, don't swing. I went down 7 times in a row because I was swinging at everything in sight.

[Spiff]

The mound visits are so bizarre, it'll say something like

 

Status: Fatigued

 

He's not hitting his spots. Let him work out of this jam. They're ready in the pen.

[Mr. Showtime]

The mound visits are so bizarre, it'll say something like

 

Status: Fatigued

 

He's not hitting his spots. Let him work out of this jam. They're ready in the pen.

Right, I just got a weird message like that while I had to pull White. It told me to let him finish this inning off, but it said he was out of gas. There was nobody out in the inning either.

[Mr. Showtime]

Few more notes:

 

Trivia game is pretty fun to do. If you're having trouble hitting, hit some Batting Practice, I put the batting interface on easy. Which means you see the strike zone and that's it. That way all you have to do is see the ball and hit it, as opposed to trying and use the cursor.

[Guest hotsoxchick1]

Few more notes:

 

Trivia game is pretty fun to do. If you're having trouble hitting, hit some Batting Practice, I put the batting interface on easy. Which means you see the strike zone and that's it. That way all you have to do is see the ball and hit it, as opposed to trying and use the cursor.

geez us maybe you should send your self back down to double a huh..............find that swing of yours..........

[CubKilla]

Check your options board guys. I own ASB 2003 and there is a "easy hit" option which makes the game a little more enjoyable for first-timers. However, ASB 2004 may not have it.

 

Does ASB 2004 have "Old Comiskey" as a batting practice ball park?

[Mr. Showtime]

Check your options board guys. I own ASB 2003 and there is a "easy hit" option which makes the game a little more enjoyable for first-timers. However, ASB 2004 may not have it.

 

Does ASB 2004 have "Old Comiskey" as a batting practice ball park? 

I've got it on the easy option now. I'm making contact every time now, however, it's realistic as hell. You have to swing at the mistakes or you pop it up.

 

I did launch my first homer yesterday though, hit it with Borchard.

 

Not sure on the Old Comiskey option, would have to look.

[Mr. Showtime]

Ghey.

 

As far as the Cell goes, they have the new stuff in center, but they have the old bullpens still. Unf***ing real.

[Mr. Showtime]

Tons of cool stadiums.

 

No Old Comiskey. But they have "Classic Wrigley, and Future Wrigley."

 

Future Wrigley looks exactly the same, but has double deck bleachers.

[1549]

I have a few questions,

 

Are the White Sox retro jerseys available to use?

 

Does the game allow you to use the retro jerseys during a season?

 

How updated are the rosters?

 

Last but not least, on a scale of 1-10 what would you give ASB 2004?

[Cali]

Hmmmm, something interesting I noticed, during BP, on the Sox black jerseys the numbers and names are black with a white outline, kinda like the Giants black with orange outline jerseys, and those Sox ones look good, I wonder if the actual Sox will have those this year...

[Mr. Showtime]

I have a few questions,

 

Are the White Sox retro jerseys available to use? 

 

Does the game allow you to use the retro jerseys during a season?

 

How updated are the rosters?

 

Last but not least, on a scale of 1-10 what would you give ASB 2004?

I don't think you can choose your jersey during the season/franchise. However, when you're playing a regular exhibition game, you can wear the 1917 uni's.

 

Sox have Colon, Rios, Olivo, Borchard and Rauch. No Daubach though, since he isn't allowed to be in the game. So it's pretty current, haven't really looked at the other rosters. The minor league players are sorta right, but not at the same time. Ginter, Barcelo, Porzio, are the names I recognized, the rest are total no-names in my world.

 

I'd give the game an 8 out of 10 right now. I've adjusted to the hitting, and gotten a feel for the controls. Once I've played some more, I might bump that up when I see how things progress during this franchise.

 

One cool thing is that you can beam players in the head, and even hurt the, by doing this. I know that is a sick thing to do, but what are you gonna do?

[whitesox247]

One cool thing is that you can beam players in the head, and even hurt the, by doing this. I know that is a sick thing to do, but what are you gonna do?

Lol thats probably my favorite part about WS2K2..u can bean them anywhere:D

[Mr. Showtime]

Lol thats probably my favorite part about WS2K2..u can bean them anywhere:D

This is sweet because you don't even have to aim at them. You just hit L1 and they throw it right at the guys head. I was laughing my ass off.

[Spiff]

I don't think you can choose your jersey during the season/franchise. However, when you're playing a regular exhibition game, you can wear the 1917 uni's.

 

Sox have Colon, Rios, Olivo, Borchard and Rauch. No Daubach though, since he isn't allowed to be in the game. So it's pretty current, haven't really looked at the other rosters. The minor league players are sorta right, but not at the same time. Ginter, Barcelo, Porzio, are the names I recognized, the rest are total no-names in my world.

 

I'd give the game an 8 out of 10 right now. I've adjusted to the hitting, and gotten a feel for the controls. Once I've played some more, I might bump that up when I see how things progress during this franchise.

 

One cool thing is that you can beam players in the head, and even hurt the, by doing this. I know that is a sick thing to do, but what are you gonna do?

You can pick the jerseys in a franchise but it's kinda a pain in the ass. Go to Quickplay, pick two random teams. Then at the controller selection screen, pick a team but don't hit X. Instead hit square to do options. Go down to Change Uniform and highlight it. Then hit circle a couple times and load your franchise from Saved Games. After you have gone to Play Next Game, move over to your franchise team, and hit square for options. Then hit X and it will go into the uniform selection screen. Once you go to another option (change lineup, starting pitcher, etc) you can't go back to the uniform option though.

[GASHWOUND]

Finally, after all my talking about it, I own the game.

 

I'll be updating this thread as I play the game further.

 

Let me just state that I haven't played ASB since Larry Walker was on the cover like 25 years ago. 

 

Let me also add, I've played just one game. Maybe, an hour's worth of the game. So this isn't very in depth.

 

On to the fun:

 

First thing that sort of struck me as bad was that Smash Mouth has that ghey ass song "All-Star" in the v-roll (video package). I hate that song with a passion, cool package besides that.

 

Next thing that I find odd was the way you control the main menu. In a vast majority of the games that I've played, you use triangle to go back to the previous screen, well, here you use circle. That took awhile to get used to.

 

I just selected a regular game, no franchise or anything like that yet. I went with the Sox ofcourse, playing the Twins in Minnesota.

 

Once you get past all the stadium and jersey options, they play the anthem as you get a look at the stadium. The game has a real FOX feel to it. Psycho and Tom Brenehmen (I know its' spelled wrong), are the broadcast team. They show the lineup and highlight a player, in this case it was Magglio and they brag about his stats. Then you see the two pitchers in the pen warming up, and the announcers talk about their stats, quite cool in my mind. Next is how the defense shapes up for the Twins (in this case), and then it's onto the game.

 

Not sure if he said it here or to me on aim, but Spiff has said hitting is a pain, and boy is he right. After awhile you get used to it, but first time in, its' K city. They have 4 different hitting options, in terms of an icon, or there not being an icon. You really have to be a selective hitter or you're in trouble. Takes some time, but after a game or two, you get the hang of it. In my case, MVP Baseball will be here tomorrow, so you can bet you're ass I'll get the controls of that game and ASB all screwed up in my head.

 

Anyway back to the game.

 

Pitching is pretty easy, pick the pitch, aim where you want it to go, nothing to it. You can throw at hitters, after you select your pitch you can choose to throw it or, throw it at the guy, sweet. 

 

Fielding is simple, bases are the triangle, circle, square, and X. Triangle being 2nd, circle being first, x being home, and square being third. Most of the baseball games have that, so that's nothing big.

 

The managers options kick ass. You can relive the glory of the Nardi era, and send the pitching coach to the mound, a screen will pop up with the pitch count, and status of the pitcher. In my case, Colon was "rattled", coach suggested to warm someone up. Funny thing was Manuel goes to the mound for this, or atleast it was a black guy, Cooper as we know, not black. No biggie. 

 

Best/Worst part of the game at the same time was Thomas charging the mound. I'm down 4-0 to the Twins, and that biotch Brad Radke hits Thomas in the knee. He gets out of the box jumping around, and the ump yells "Your out of here", then Thomas charges towards the mound sadly the camera pans away. So Thomas got ejected, which was ghey.

 

That's all I have for now, I'll have more later if anyone cares.

I'll expand your review Show, got the game yesterday afternoon and played it last night for an hour..sooo

 

Like you said, that SmashMouth songs sucks, but the MLB video thingy is pretty cool, and the Natural song that plays in the background in the options menu is cool..The old llocker room setup with the clipboard is also pretty cool.

I started with an exhibition Sox vs Royals

 

The graphics are a bit beter than last years game, as for the hitting part I didn't see much difference from this game and last years game, maybe alittle tougher..What I do is what I did last year, I PAUSE the game right before the pitch hits the catcher to get an idea where the pitch is goona be and aim my cursor there. It works for me, maybe a little akward for others.

I ended up winning 8-5. I hit 3 HRs in the game

 

The only question is do they have just a regular season mode where you can play. I went in the MLB Play and all they have is the Franchise Mode where you start your own franchise, the World Series one and Expansion. What, you can't play just a regulat 162 game seaosn with a regular team?

[GASHWOUND]

Check your options board guys. I own ASB 2003 and there is a "easy hit" option which makes the game a little more enjoyable for first-timers. However, ASB 2004 may not have it.

 

Does ASB 2004 have "Old Comiskey" as a batting practice ball park?  

I've got it on the easy option now. I'm making contact every time now, however, it's realistic as hell. You have to swing at the mistakes or you pop it up.

 

I did launch my first homer yesterday though, hit it with Borchard.

 

Not sure on the Old Comiskey option, would have to look.

Actually find the cursor "mode" easier for me, so I aim where I want to hit the ball.

Well, different strokes..

[GASHWOUND]

Tons of cool stadiums.

 

No Old Comiskey. But they have "Classic Wrigley, and Future Wrigley."

 

Future Wrigley looks exactly the same, but has double deck bleachers.

The stadium tours are pretty cool, but the comiskey tour was really lame.. All they talked about was old Comiskey

[GASHWOUND]

I have a few questions,

 

Are the White Sox retro jerseys available to use? 

 

Does the game allow you to use the retro jerseys during a season?

 

How updated are the rosters?

 

Last but not least, on a scale of 1-10 what would you give ASB 2004?

Actually, you can download updated rosters from the net. But you have to have that network adapter for the PS2

[whitesox247]

What I do is what I did last year, I PAUSE the game right before the pitch hits the catcher to get an idea where the pitch is goona be and aim my cursor there. It works for me, maybe a little akward for others.

I ended up winning 8-5. I hit 3 HRs in the game

You cheapshot

[Guest wsc425]

Mr Showtime, Sir.

I want to know:

A.) How many CAP (Create A Player) spots you can use

B.) Is there a minor league system? How many players?

C.) Who are the minor leaguers?

D.) Who are the free agents in the game?

E.) Who are the White Sox minor leaguers?

[Mr. Showtime]

You can pick the jerseys in a franchise but it's kinda a pain in the ass. Go to Quickplay, pick two random teams. Then at the controller selection screen, pick a team but don't hit X. Instead hit square to do options. Go down to Change Uniform and highlight it. Then hit circle a couple times and load your franchise from Saved Games. After you have gone to Play Next Game, move over to your franchise team, and hit square for options. Then hit X and it will go into the uniform selection screen. Once you go to another option (change lineup, starting pitcher, etc) you can't go back to the uniform option though.

Jesus.

 

I don't care that much about the jersey's.