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Baseball 2001

Baseball 2001

List Price: $29.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Thumbs Down form 2001 MSB
Review: ........... The game has horrible baserunning, graphicsare sub-par compared to other baseball games, constantly freezes(quite Ironic that it can't operate properly with the operating system that they wrote), and worse of all there is no draft. END

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great game
Review: BB 2001 is the best game I have seen.The graphics are excellent,the faces of the players are realistic and that you can creat players is a big plus,because you can update the rosters of your team.And it has all the new ballparks Enron,etc. A great game for the realism buff

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Baseball Mogul Technology
Review: I am writing a review on the general managing aspect of this game. When I bought this game, the main reason I did was because of the new Baseball Mogul Technology. It was advertised that you could develop a farm system over years, sign free agents according to your teams cash supply, and make trades. I will explain each aspect of the mogul technology.

Your farm system is created by every year the computer will generate players whose names are derived from current players names. Some players will have great potential because of age, and some will just be very talented. Every year you can look at the players and see what they did at AAA. You can then promote them. You can set your lineup with a dh, or without, against a righty, or against a lefty.

The expenses of the game are as follows: If your team does well, your attendance is raised. You can see what your attendance is at any point in the year. The higer your attendance, the higher the revenue. At the end of the year, you can resign your free agents or let them go. You can then sign and free agent throughout baseball. During the season, teams offer you trades. If you are doing good, experienced players are offered to you. If you are struggling, your best players are desired for prospects in return. You can accept or decline any trade.

I hope I have described the general managing as best as i can. ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How to Beat Bill Gates and Win the World Series!!!
Review: I beat the Cleveland Indians four straight last year in the World Series (yes, I played 162 games). I was a Rookie. This year it was time to step up. The pitching is veteran but the batting is still rookie. The Dodgers, once again, are the best team in the major leagues.

Throw every pitch with a "power pitch". When your pitcher is down to 0% in health, immediately get him out of there and put in a relief pitcher who has the highest health rating. If they are all the same, put in the relief pitcher with the best ERA for last season (real life). You will have to check these. Pitch the ball down the middle each time. Learn to pitch a new kind of pitch everytime. 1,2,3,4,1,2, and so forth. Remove your relief pitcher immediately when he gets down to 0%. In batting, the power hit everytime. One exception. If the player is doing really badly, go to the normal swing. Never swing on a 3-0 pitch. Always swing on "line" pitches (those pitches on the white line) because of the "pull". Also swing on balls inside the rectangle.

Don't bother with "Triple Play". Fun and cute. But really for 10-year olds. I found "High Heat Baseball" to be crummy. But it might require a play station to be really good.

Buy the game if you love baseball. I pitched a no-hitter in little league and went 3 for 4. The newspaper reported it but referred to me as "Billy Butterfly". Ouch!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How to Beat Bill Gates and Win the World Series!!!
Review: I beat the Cleveland Indians four straight last year in the World Series (yes, I played 162 games). I was a Rookie. This year it was time to step up. The pitching is veteran but the batting is still rookie. The Dodgers, once again, are the best team in the major leagues.

Throw every pitch with a "power pitch". When your pitcher is down to 0% in health, immediately get him out of there and put in a relief pitcher who has the highest health rating. If they are all the same, put in the relief pitcher with the best ERA for last season (real life). You will have to check these. Pitch the ball down the middle each time. Learn to pitch a new kind of pitch everytime. 1,2,3,4,1,2, and so forth. Remove your relief pitcher immediately when he gets down to 0%. In batting, the power hit everytime. One exception. If the player is doing really badly, go to the normal swing. Never swing on a 3-0 pitch. Always swing on "line" pitches (those pitches on the white line) because of the "pull". Also swing on balls inside the rectangle.

Don't bother with "Triple Play". Fun and cute. But really for 10-year olds. I found "High Heat Baseball" to be crummy. But it might require a play station to be really good.

Buy the game if you love baseball. I pitched a no-hitter in little league and went 3 for 4. The newspaper reported it but referred to me as "Billy Butterfly". Ouch!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Technology, slightly boring play.
Review: I found the Mogel Technology to be absolutely superb with AAA and franchise mode. The part of the game that made it lose its star is the fun factor. Sure, the first 162 games you play is fun, but after that, well, it gets boring. Therest of the game is great: graphics, sound effects, music, etc.

The mogel technology is great, featuring the farm team players that are generated each year. They generate their own stats in the minors, then they get different statistics each year. You can call them up at any time, and trade them to other teams. Other teams also offer trades to you, which can boost your teams statistics. The better your teams record, the higher your attendance is, and the higher your attendance is, the more revenue you get, getting more money to spend on players contracts or farm system improvements.

The franchise mode is also very cool, as each player improves or worsen over the years depending on how they did in the previous season and their age. They also retire after about 20 years of play or about 40 years old. This can last for 10 years, creating a completely new game.

The gameplay is very good, with graphics letting you identify every player. The sound effects are great, with crowd cheers and other things. I found that the commentary got a little repetative, but of course i played 173 games before i quit. I also tried simulating several franchises, which got very interesting. The music can get a little grating after a while too.

The thing that makes Baseball 2001 get a 4 star rating is the fun factor. It becomes very boring to play 173 games in a row, as it is not very fun. The players dont make fun taunts, no charging the mound, nothing that adds fun to this game. It is just plain baseball, without anything like fan interference or controversial plays. Microsoft should consider adding these things. There are also no injuries, so each player plays the whole season. The only thing close is that sometimes (not very often) players get fatigued from playing to many games.

Overall, this game deserves about a 4.5, but not a 5 and i can only give it a 4.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The perfect game for the true baseball fan
Review: If you're anything like me, which means you follow baseball obsessively, charting stats, second guessing the general manager, etc., then you want this game on your PC. The graphics are sub-par, but the game far exceeds the competition in the team-building function. You can build your team with free agent signings, trades and minor league call-ups, possibly landing in the World Series. You can also simulate games and entire seasons, testing your roster against the rest of the league.

Bottom line: If you're looking for the best graphics and the smoothest gameplay, check out another option. But, if you are more interested in the game behind the game, give Microsoft Baseball a spin.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Game
Review: In Baseball 2001 you can enjoy straight out baseball unlike the triple play series. TP2001 and Triple Play are much more advanced in features such as unique batting stances and player faces but it lacks realistic gameplay. Baseball 2001 doesn't include loud explotion when a homerun is hit and the commentary is much less repetitive. Microsoft Baseball is one of the few pc baseball games where you control where you swing. This makes the game more challenging and keeps you interested in the game. Although if you do not like this setting you can turn it off. The stadiums are amazing in this game but the players don't compare to TPB or High Heat 2002. When managing a season player trades and free agents are much more realistic because you have certain money that you make. If you want true gameplay and don't mind giving up a little for graphics by this, but if you want unrealistic arcade games go with the triple play series.

P.S.-The rosters aren't nearly as updated as High Heat 2002 or even Triple Play, but in the 2000 game you can update your rosters at Microsoft.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 1 of best baseball simulators
Review: In Baseball 2001 you can enjoy straight out baseball unlike the triple play series. TP2001 and Triple Play are much more advanced in features such as unique batting stances and player faces but it lacks realistic gameplay. Baseball 2001 doesn't include loud explotion when a homerun is hit and the commentary is much less repetitive. Microsoft Baseball is one of the few pc baseball games where you control where you swing. This makes the game more challenging and keeps you interested in the game. Although if you do not like this setting you can turn it off. The stadiums are amazing in this game but the players don't compare to TPB or High Heat 2002. When managing a season player trades and free agents are much more realistic because you have certain money that you make. If you want true gameplay and don't mind giving up a little for graphics by this, but if you want unrealistic arcade games go with the triple play series.

P.S.-The rosters aren't nearly as updated as High Heat 2002 or even Triple Play, but in the 2000 game you can update your rosters at Microsoft.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not a major upgrade from the previous version.
Review: It would seem as though the folks at Wizbang (the developers of the title in question) were quite busy basking in the success of Baseball 2000, because they didn't spend much time improving it for the new year.

The first thing I do with any baseball game is create a player with my own name, crank up all of the stats to their maximum levels, and then go have a 4 home run game against Pedro Martinez. Typically this is accomplished via a ratings system. Baseball 2001's greatest new feature in my opinion is the ability to define and edit players based on actual statistics, rather than ratings. Instead of saying player x has a power rating of 99, you can say player x hit 74 home runs last year. This allows much more control for the statistics engine of the game to work with.

The feature, which is reminiscent of the Tony LaRussa baseball series of the early 90s (which was the best graphical baseball simulation ever in my humble opinion) is about all that is new in the game.

I honestly cannot see any difference in the graphics engine. The players (some of which have actual rendered faces) look very much the same; aside from some improvements in the stadium details, the game is graphically identical to BB2000.

More frustrating is the fact that the game is very buggy, and the same bugs that annoyed me in BB2000 have reappeared in the new version. For example, a common problem is a batter which steps up to the plate standing on the plate and gets hit every time! The game freezes at least once for every 3-4 games that I play. The extra task of having to save the game every 1/2 innning is very frustrating, and the crashes require a full reboot of the sytem.

I would not recommend this game to anybody that already owns the 2000 version, as it is much the same.


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