Baseball Video Games

[StillFunkyB]

I had to rant somewhere. I know there are a few of you zoners that play.

I remember the first day I played a baseball video game. Hardball on my buddies Leading Edge 486 PC. Man, talk about fun. Stayed up all night. I think I hit three homeruns with Charles freakin Nagy. Then we got the Tony Larussa game. WOW. Hit a 900 foot bunt HR with Jeff Treadway. We played that game out. I couldn't wait for Friday to come so I could spend all weekend at my friends house playing that game.

Then along came High Heat. I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked it up at Babbages. It was like being back at my friends house on Friday night. I couldn't stop playing that game. Stumbled upon baseballsimcentral.com after getting that game. That was the end of my social life for the most part, because I was either downloading some new mod or playing the game.

Well so we are now into what's called next-gen with the PS3 and the Xbox 360. High Heat is long gone, and so is baseball on the PC (not counting OOTP etc..). While some of the eye candy out there seems to be pretty appealing, the games overall have taken a HUGE step backwards. It really pisses me off that you could have a pretty close to perfect game with High Heat, and then now, 8 years later we have garbage wrapped in pretty paper to make it look nice. I want to buy a PS3, but baseball games are what I really play the most and shelling out $600 for something that plays like crap is not something that sounds that great to me. Sure it looks pretty, but then again so does that last girl in the bar at 3am after 15 beers.

I just wanted to rant, because I hope that someday this will get fixed. What happened to the guys that made High Heat? Why hasn't someone hired that team to make their game?

[NorrisHopper30]

MLB 2k7 is pretty realistic in my opinion, I've got 1 hitted before, and thrown a 3 hitter online.

It's a lot tougher to hit in this baseball game than i've ever encountered before.

[Tommyjohn25]

I'm a big fan of "MLB '07 The Show" for the ps2, I think it's pretty darn realistic myself. But before that franchise was started I agree with you, it was pretty much a barren wasteland of baseball video games since the days of the original "Nintendo".

[sonny]

They're holding back MLB 07 for PS3 till May to "perfect" it. should be a good one. too bad I don't have a Ps3

[Degenerate39]

MLB 07 The show is the best baseball game I've ever played. The career mode entertains me for hours.

[Yachtzee]

Isn't there supposed to be a game called MLB "The Bigs" coming out this summer? Whereas MLB 2K7 is supposed to be more realistic, I hear "The Bigs" is supposed to be more of and "arcade" experience.

I cut my teeth on Major League Baseball for Intellivision and pretty much feel that the best of the early games was Baseball Stars on Nintendo. However, I am getting a kick out of MLB 2k7 on the 360.

[Doro]

MVP '05 and download the MVP '07 mod to go with it for the PC. I'll take that any day over the 2k games even on the next gen consoles.

[Johnny Footstool]

Dude, real baseball games began with "Baseball Simulator 1.000" and ended with "Baseball Stars". NES - two buttons was all we needed.

[HotCorner]

Dude, real baseball games began with "Baseball Simulator 1.000" and ended with "Baseball Stars". NES - two buttons was all we needed.

See my sig.

[Yachtzee]

We had a Baseball Stars league at the old fraternity house. One of my "brothers" had a team where all the names were European philosophers (Hegel, Kant, Kierkegaard, Sartre), another team had players with pledge names of the brothers of Delta House (D-Day, Bluto, Pinto, Otter, Flounder) and my team consisted of authors from my German Lit class (Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Brecht, Boll, Kafka). Many hours wasted between Baseball Stars, Tecmo, and Sidepocket (a billiards game).

[Reds Freak]

I can't say I've ever played a baseball video game as good as Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball for Super Nintendo. I have no desire to play the new stuff. Too much stuff and too confusing.

[jmcclain19]

Dude, real baseball games began with "Baseball Simulator 1.000" and ended with "Baseball Stars". NES - two buttons was all we needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hd8QTmAo88

I just bought an NES at a Pawn Shop a few months ago - and ordered Baseball Simulator off Ebay. That's hours of good fun there.

[reds1869]

Once I statrted playing OOTP I found it hard to go back. I recently startd playing MVP again after giving up on 2K for the time being; there are just too many unrealistic elements that suck the fun out for me.

I too loved High Heat. I certainly spent more of my college years at baseballsimcentral than I should have! I miss computer baseball and the ability to mod, which is one of the main reasons I'm addicted to OOTP. Right now I have a Japanese league going using real players, teams, logos, stadium data and complete historical stats. You just can't beat that!

[pahster]

I still play High Heat 2004 (wish I still had a copy of 2002). I really miss that series. I haven't been able to get into any of the newer games since then. They're just not realistic enough. It seems nearly impossible to to walk as a batter or throw a ball as a pitcher (unless its on purpose). Mario Baseball is pretty fun, but its clearly a different kind of game.

[hebroncougar]

OOTP is it for me. I just can't get into games that depend on my button mashing. Now if anyone every decided to update graphics/rosters for Earl Weaver Baseball...............I might have to quit my job. Earl was king.