Since its PS2 debut, the High Heat series has captured the essence and excitement of baseball in its stellar gameplay. That excellence continues in this season, but now it’s beefed up by a sturdy, engrossing lineup of features. The vast Franchise mode lets you play an infinite number of seasons, managing your pro team and your AAA, AA, and minor leagues. Along with standard dealings like trades, free agents, and player creation, you manage player contracts, team budgets, and drafts. If your attention span is already yawning, faster action can be had in Exhibition, Home-Run Derby, and Playoffs modes, as well as the cool mini-game of 2-on-2 Showdown. Separating itself from the pack, High Heat now offers a crazy 27 pitch types ranging from the circle changeup to the rising fastball to the slurve. Of course, individual pitchers don’t pack 27 pitches, but their arsenal of three to six pitches, modeled after the real players, is drawn from this hefty pool. The tremendous variety that gamers now encounter at the plate injects another compelling layer of depth and challenge to the pitcher/batter confrontation. On the field, High Heat delivers the perfect blend of fast-paced action and authentic baseball realism. More than in any other game, you feel the payoff or the pain of getting ahead or behind in the count, and the whip-smart A.I. gives you a rousing game every time. If you don’t like how the game’s playing, an extensive tuning menu lets you fiddle with all the details. Tight controls are a big part of High Heat’s appeal. There are no cursors, meters, or other contrivances: You aim your pitch or your swing with the analog joystick and take your best shot. Fielding and baserunning are uncomplicated and responsive. Although High Heat will be available on all systems this year, only the PS2 and Xbox versions were available for review at press time as the GameCube edition is trailing about a month behind. Unsurprisingly, the Xbox version is the better of the two, offering more detailed graphics and lighting, a cleaner frame rate, and crisper audio. As a package, the visuals received a facelift that puts High Heat on a level playing field with the other baseball games, though it’s still not a looker the way MVP Baseball is. The players’ body shapes and animations are smooth, detailed, and natural, but their faces aren’t too recognizable. The ballparks gleam with reasonably rich textures and lighting, but again, MVP holds the uncontested title there. The audio will feel quite familiar to anyone who played last year’s PS2 game—beyond some additional lines for the announcers, it hasn’t changed much. The sound effects are good but not great, and the two-man commentary booth does a solid job of calling the game, though repetition becomes significant after a while. Other baseball games might have a more unique feature or two, and several absolutely have better graphics, but only High Heat delivers such consistently riveting gameplay. For the third season in a row, it’s the top ballgame on the market.
