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Platform: Xbox Genre: Sports Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Microsoft ESRB: E (Everyone) Released: Q2 2003 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Inside Pitch 2003
Score: 7.0 / 10 |
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Pros: -
Xbox Live support and good online gameplay -
Amazing animated stadium and surrounding environment visuals -
Good play-by-play and color commentary usage -
Championship Challenge is a lot of fun, but could have used a few more
additions
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Cons: -
Uneven A.I. and lack of baseball “smarts” -
Awful after-play cut-scenes -
What? No franchise mode?
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Related Links: Review: MVP Baseball 2003 (XB) Review: All-Star Baseball 2004 (XB)
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"But as impressive as the stadiums and surrounding aura visuals are, the player and on-field graphical presentation is a huge disappointment."
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Microsoft
has been hard at work trying to create a first-party sports gaming
dynasty for its Xbox. Its first two franchise efforts, NFL Fever and NBA
Inside Drive, have improved in quality from their first to second year
but haven’t been any better than average especially against the
strong, and much more polished, competition from Electronic Arts Sports
and Sega Sports titles. Trying to buck the trend of a sub par debut is
Microsoft’s first baseball effort, Inside Pitch 2003. Unfortunately,
even with strong online capabilities, Inside Pitch 2003 can’t overcome
the lack of a franchise mode, sometimes uneven artificial intelligence
and baseball smarts, and gameplay that’s a little too close to the
arcade side of the fence for true baseball video game aficionados to
avoid an underachieving rookie campaign.
Inside Pitch 2003 has a few redeeming qualities in its repertoire. The strongest is its Xbox Live support, which by default makes it the best online Xbox baseball title, strictly on the merits of being the only online Xbox baseball title. Still, although it’s in an online league of its own, Inside Pitch 2003 performs above expectations on Xbox Live. Although the gameplay tends to lean away from a true simulation and features arcade-style results, a lot of good baseball is packed into Inside Pitch 2003 online, where some of the game’s flaws are more forgivable.
The
lone bright star of single-player gaming is Inside Pitch 2003’s
Championship Challenge, which follows the biggest trend in sports gaming
by letting you re-live some of 2002’s most memorable performances and
trying to duplicate feats such as hitting Barry Bonds’ 600th career
home run, breaking the infamous tie at last year’s All-Star game, or
the most difficult of all, duplicating Craig Biggio’s cycle (hitting
triples isn’t easy, even in a video game). This mode is a great extra
feature for real baseball fans, but unfortunately, there are only a
handful of actual challenges and you’ll definitely be wanting for
more. In most other areas, Inside Pitch 2003 drops the ball to some degree. While overall it’s by no means an awful or unplayable game, it suffers from too many uneven facets. Case in point is the visual delivery.
Inside
Pitch 2003 sports magnificent graphics when it comes to the many
ballparks you’ll visit. These are some of the most beautiful
renderings of baseball stadiums seen, and on top of that are the
animated scoreboards and surrounding stadium features that are the envy
of many a sports game. The ultra-realistic scoreboards actually are
completely animated with goodies such as score updates and the usual
presentations you would see if you were at the game in person. Flags
wave in the breeze, after-homer or after-game fireworks are dazzling and
lighting during night action is super-realistic. But
as impressive as the stadiums and surrounding visuals are, the player
and on-field graphical presentation is a huge disappointment. Once a
ball is hit into play, the Inside Pitch 20003 players don’t look or
move close to lifelike at all. The only area that they aren’t too bad
is in the pitcher/batter interface, where both the hitter and hurler at
least retain some semblance of realistic appearance. One other complaint
is with the after-out animations, where every player waves and showboats
to the crowd, even if he just caught a routine fly ball. Real baseball
players may be the most obnoxious of all professional sports performers
(at least in their off-field activities), but even they know that they
don’t show up other teams or players on the field without expecting
major payback. At
first, Inside Pitch 2003’s defensive controls seem to be some of the
best mapped out and well designed of any I’ve seen in a while in a
sports game. Using the right thumbstick instead of the buttons to throw
to each base was a good idea. It’s easier to hit the thumbstick right
for a throw to first than trying to hit the “B” button and instead
hitting the “A” instead, as happens in Sega Sports’ World Series
Baseball 2K3. But Inside Pitch 2003 is perplexing because even with what
seems to be a great control setup doesn’t always perform well in
actual execution. One big problem is when trying to turn a double play.
Most times, there is a hiccup or delay in hitting up on the right
thumbstick to throw to second and the actual throwing of the ball by
your player. So what should be easy tailor-made twin killings instead
results in a lot of runners safely reaching one or both of the bases
thrown to. Pitching
and batting aren’t hard to do with the game’s controls, although
there’s a slight issue with the pitching controls. The game forces you
to decide before you pitch if you want to throw a ball or a strike no
mater what specific pitch is selected. You can still move the pitch
around, but if you selected a strike, it will stay in the strike zone,
giving an opponent a better chance of hitting it. Also, a pitcher’s
fatigue doesn’t seem to have an effect on where it will place either
in or out of the strike zone, even though there is a noticeable lack of
velocity on a tired hurler’s deliveries.
Audio
features fare better in Inside Pitch 2003, starting with the good
announcing tandem of real baseball announcers Tim McCarver and Joe Buck.
I’m still waiting for the day when Hall of Fame announcer Harry
“That ball’s outta here!” Kalas, who I’ve grown up listening to
as the venerable voice of the Philadelphia Phillies announcing team, is
used in a video game, but until then a good pair like McCarver and Buck
will suffice. It’s not the all-time greatest play-by-play and color
commentary in a sports video game ever, but they do a good job with
providing commentary when appropriate. (There’s also the ability to
use the Xbox customizable soundtrack feature to play whatever music you
want to play ball with. Hurting
Inside Pitch 2003 more than a home plate collision is its uneven A.I.,
which performs extremely strange from time to time and also isn’t the
most baseball smart especially when you are hitting and have runners on
base. There are times when you get a routine grounder to third or short
and throw the ball to first, just as big leaguers would do. But instead
of getting an out, the runner somehow beats the throw, which never
should happen on routine grounders. An unhelpful A.I. makes trying to
navigate the base paths a real adventure. You could have a runner on
third base and hit a single. But instead of the runner being sent home
by the A.I., it’s left up to you to control the runner and send him
home. He’s the runner you shouldn’t have to worry about. It’s the
player going to first and deciding if there’s any opportunity to go to
second that you should be only worried about. The
most egregious error Inside Pitch 2003 commits is by not including a
Franchise mode. You can play a sort-of franchise mode, a three-year
Season mode where you can pull off trades, but nothing such as the
excellently addicting Franchise mode seen in World Series Baseball 2K3
is remotely possible in Inside Pitch 2003. Players you traded for
won’t carry over from one season to the next, which doesn’t make
sense at all. What was Microsoft thinking by not including a franchise
mode? Were they concentrating more on Inside Pitch 2003’s online
gameplay? That’s the only conclusion I can come up with, because every
other serious baseball game on the market today has an involved
franchise mode that real hardcore baseball fans demand having in their
baseball video games. Online
gameplay barely gives Inside Pitch 2003 a passing grade. Similar to the
initial versions of Microsoft’s NFL Fever and Inside Drive series,
Inside Pitch 2003 shows potential but contains flaws that must be taken
care of for it to move into serious contention against the likes of the
All-Star Baseball and World Series Baseball franchises. Inside Pitch
2003 needs at least another year down on the developmental farm learning
how to be a successful big leaguer in the highly competitive baseball
gaming field. If you can deal with Inside Pitch 2003’s disappointing
single-player experience and focus solely on its relatively solid Xbox
Live gameplay, then you may want to give Inside Pitch 2003 a chance. But
there are much better and more complete packaged baseball games
available if you’re only into offline baseball gaming. -
Lee Cieniawa (July 13, 2003)
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