Triple Play 2000
Reviewed by Brook Rolka
From a playability stand point, I expected so much more from an
EA Sports game. They're football games rock, and they seem to put
out great games for the Playstation. This was they're first attempt
at Triple Play for the Nintendo 64. They pretty much succeeded at
most aspects EXCEPT for playability, which in my mind is the most
important.
Graphics: 10 out of 10
This is where EA Sports can do no wrong. This was hyped specifically
for its graphics and it plain succeeded. The best graphic are saved for
the home run where the game switches views and gives you a great
frontal shot of the player slamming the ball out of the park. The facial
features are clear and the stances are very accurate. On the regular
playing mode, everything is distinct and clear.
Music and Sound: 9 out of 10
The crowd cheers and background noise are standard like any baseball
game, but the added bonuses are the announcer and the music. In between
innings and pitches for the AWAY team only, the PA system plays music,
just like in real baseball parks in order to distract the pitcher (like you
could distract a computerized pitcher), but it adds to the reality of the
overall game. In addition, a real human voice, not some computer, announces
the beginning of the game, pitches, hits and so forth. The voice also has
inflections of excitement or dismay, just as real baseball announcers do.
Game Challenge: 7.5 out of 10
It's baseball. As challenging as baseball is, you really can't get more
challenging no matter what baseball game you are playing. It does get
harder to pitch around the computer and get him to strikeout or get an
out in the field if you get a big lead. And shutouts are virtually impossible.
But if you have a habit of mastering most baseball games, then I guess you
will do it here again. I've never found that one pitch that always strikes
out the computer like I do on other games, which adds to the challenge.
Game Play-Fun: 2.5 out of 10
This is what frustrated me most about the game. I have three major
gripes to go with any minor gripes I may have. Fielding grounders is
very hard, the runners are impossible to control, and your pitchers tire
too easily. The computer gives you an arrow to show where to move your
fielder to get to the ball if the fielder is off screen, but as you get closer
to the ball, it gets tougher and tougher to lock on. I can't tell you the number
of times I went to field a ball with my shortstop and then just as I got close
I realized that I missed by a few inches and the ball rolled right past me. But
you cannot tell that you are off line until the last second, and the fielder
doesn't pick up balls that he isn't right on top of. In addition, your pitcher
always tires after only 50 or so pitches. It is almost impossible to get
him out of the fifth inning, and forget complete games, because as soon
as your pitcher tires, you start missing the strike zone completely. But
my biggest gripe with this game is the runners. You can have the computer
control the runners, or you can control them yourself. Either way, tagging
up on a fly ball is impossible. If you do it yourself, all runners automatically
takes off on contact; so the guy on third that you want to tag up and go home
is halfway home before the catch. You have to immediately send him back,
and it is very hard to try and stop him before he gets far. Anyway, other
little problems I have with the game include the toughness of pitching
inside. Unless you are Maddux, you're bound to hit batters more frequently
then should be possible. Also, if you get a big lead, your pitchers are more
apt to surrender home runs left and right. And I can go on. I got fed up with
the game real fast.
Replayability: 5 out of 10
Hey, if you actually like the game and find it fun, then you can replay it
over and over. It's got a season set up where you can play all 162 games
of a season plus playoffs and the world series. But I found the game so
maddening that I stopped after 60 games of the season. It is tough to
master the game because the computer just won't let you. It also has
difficulty settings that you can increase as you get better. I didn't
experience my problems at the easiest level. All of my problems came
at the intermediate level.
Game Value: 5 out of 10
This game is not worth the price if you bought it new. But graphics
lovers will like this game. So if you want to just watch it, or if you
want to play against your friends and not the computer, then by all
means buy the game. But buy it used.
Overall: 3 out of 10
Overall, I hated this game. I sold it on an auction site because I disliked
the game so much. When I called their tech support (I guess that is what
they called it), they're explanations were sorry excuses. They acknowledged
the difficulty of controlling runners and ignored my complaints about
pitching inside. Maybe you can solve the problems I had, but I wasn't
willing to put in the efforts that it required, and there is not practice
settings to get better at those areas I had problems with. So, it could
have been just me, but I doubt it.