Sports

Spring training is over, and baseball has begun another epic 162 game season. For every sport there are thousands of couch jockeys who feel that they could play the game better than the professionals and run the team better than the managers. For these people, there is video baseball, where anyone with some skill can be an All-Star. To fill the baseball void on the PlayStation, Konami is releasing another game in their sports line-up called Bottom of the Ninth (BOTN).

BOTN features all rendered players and stadiums. They have acquired the MLBPA license, so you’ll have over 700 genuine baseball professionals with which to play. They even have pictures of the players which appear when you are batting or pitching. In addition, some of the top players have signature moves such as Nomo’s high reaching wind-up and Edgar Martinez’s bat waving stance. Unfortunately, the MLB license was not secured so you’ll be playing in imaginary stadiums with the Minnesota Buildings and the New York Statue of Liberties.

Play mechanics are rather innovative. The top and bottom split-screen pitching mode keeps the batter from knowing what the pitcher is doing and vice-versa. Once a pitch is released, the batter will see a cursor which gives a general location of where the pitch will cross the strike zone – curves, sliders, and other breaking pitches will cause the cross hairs to move, so be careful. At this point, the batter moves a target and times his swing in an effort to hit the ball. You can also practice everything from pitching and batting to running and fielding in the Training Camp Mode.

Bottom of the Ninth seems to be one of the most interesting baseball titles to come down the pipe in quite some time. Fans of the great American pastime or ordinary schmoes looking for a good time will want to check out this game.

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the dawn of the Madden video game era, EA Sports is here with Madden 2000. Enjoying the fruits of being the most popular sports title on the PlayStation, EA Sports might be expected to be happy with the status quo. Truth is, EA pretty much is. There haven’t been drastic changes in the game since it came to the PlayStation in 1997. Sure, there was the obligatory move to polygons and some little tweaks to playcontrol, both of which were likely fueled by additions to Madden’s main competitor, GameDay.

In the last couple of years, Madden’s features have expanded off the field with the refinement of the Season mode and the addition of the extremely popular Franchise mode. These two features, in themselves, are ahead of the competition and are some of the reasons that this game is on top. A new feature that is sure to please some Madden fanatics is called the Madden Challenge. This mode works in conjunction with the user record, keeping track of personal records and awarding points after milestones are met. One task may require playing a complete game with six minute quarters. Another may ask a player to score 21 points in a quarter. No problem with the Vikes. Completed tasks will be rewarded with secret codes for extra teams and stadiums (among other things).

Graphically, Madden doesn’t have the polished and buffed player models of GameDay, but the addition of the lineman gut and other proportional attributes are welcome. Equally welcome are some small animations, such as place-kickers readying for a PAT or the QBs throwing off balance.

Madden 2000 does offer a few new controls on the field. Ball carriers can now juke to both the right and the left. There is also a new Passing mode which lets the user audible routes at the line of scrimmage. Leading the receiver before he cuts is also new to the 2000 version of Madden.

Like its counterpart from 989 Sports, Madden 2000 isn’t filled with huge changes from last year. However, the game does give fans just enough to warrant a new look.

This is the inaugural season for 3DO’s baseball game on PlayStation and it is easy to tell. This game doesn’t have what it takes to compete with the seasoned veterans on the system.

First of all, this game is missing a player create mode, which is definitely a prerequisite in our book. Even if you could make your own player, he would look identical to all the other players.

High Heat’s player design is really generic, and there is no distinction between a big bruiser like McGwire and a pipsqueak like Jeff Blauser.

When it comes to playcontrol, High Heat is standard fare, but is hampered by horrible batting and extremely slow gameplay. If there is one redeeming quality about High Heat, it’s the commentary from former Twins broadcaster Ted Robinson. As you know, that is not saying a whole lot; but then, High Heat Baseball is not worth a whole lot.