Triple Play Baseball 2002

From batting stances and twitches to the small dust clouds that rise up in a feet-first slide – it’s the little things that make this game great. All of the action is narrated by the play-by-play and color commentary team of Buck Martinez (the new Blue Jays manager) and Sean McDonough, which is a nice addition for newbies as they have a tendency to remind you of the preferred actions for the situation. (Think of it as a built-in help screen.) The commentary for the most part is good, but sometimes dips into the most idiotic or irrelevant banter. (Kinda like Dirk Irvin and Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada commenting that, "The first goal in this overtime is going to be a crucial one.") There are a variety of modes of play ranging from single games to seasons (or playoffs) to the Big League Challenge (another name for Home-Run derby).

fielding. If you so desire, you can turn these settings off and take control of the action personally, but after some experimentation, I decided to leave them on but keep an eye on their movements. (Very rarely does the AI make any really stupid moves, you're more likely to make them yourself.) The difficulty of the action is variable, so after you get the hang of the action on Rookie setting you can set it to the highest level and get the feel of a real baseball game (or the closest approximation available in these football-score majors). The action is frighteningly accurate as well – pitch low balls and you are more likely to get ground outs but suffer from control problems in later innings. Conversely, at the plate, if you swing for the fences more often you will pop out more frequently (don't even get me started about the whole dynamics of the swing issue). Strategy is now a very important factor in the game – if you try to blow away every batter with the hard stuff, you're going to have trouble in finding the strike zone in later innings.

There are some minor problems but to find anything wrong you have to really dig. There are some superficial things, like how the players go to the wrong benches in some stadiums, relievers come from the dugouts and not the outfield like almost every stadium in baseball, the umpires act like they aren't even there (it would have been nice if the umps would get out of the way on a line drive or move for a throw from the outfield). The last minor annoyance is with the rosters. The stats used for the game are from the 15^th of January (2001) and since then there have been some additions or subtractions to every team. If you’re a purist you’re going to spend some time using the trade function. I'm sure when the PS2 becomes internet capable (and gets a harddrive peripheral – Omni) there will be roster updates available on EA’s website just like there are currently for their PC titles.

All in all, Triple Play Baseball is a highly addictive game that really goes out of its way to create a superior gaming atmosphere and is highly recommended to people who love sports games.

- Tazman

(April 28, 2001)

"Holy logjams Batman!" - Narrator in Space Quest II