User Rating: 8.8 | All-Star Baseball 2004 GC
All-Star Baseball 2004 is the baseball game I've been waiting for since Bases Loaded II for the NES. Perhaps the best thing that I can say about this game is that it shys away from the "homerun every inning, 20 run games, everybody on your team has a .450 average with 40+ homeruns" trend that's plagued baseball games since the original World Series Baseball for the Sega Genesis. In World Series Baseball, everbody on my team had over 200 homeruns at the end of the season, and no-hitters were a daily occurence. The same is true, though to a slightly lesser degree, with most of the games on the market today. Offensively you really have to work for your runs. You can't rely on hitting one out of the park to get your guys across the plate. You must rely on strategy, and the degree of freedom that you have allows you to play however you like. You can control how you want to hit the ball, whether it be a pop up, line drive, grounder, etc. It isn't as easy as selecting an option from a menu though, as a mistimed swing or an "intelligent" pitcher can thwart your plans. When up against a particularly troublesome pitcher, it's often best to make him throw a lot of pitches, hoping that he'll be taken out in the 6th of 7th inning. It's remarkable that the computer pitching is realistic enough that you can execute this strategy. After you get the hang of the game, you can also foul off balls intentionally, further increasing the pitch count. The defense is good, and the pitching is excellent. I recommend setting the fielding to manual, as if you give the computer any say with your fielding, the results will often be disastrous. I can't tell you how many times when a soft grounder was hit to the first baseman, that he'd throw the ball home instead of to the pitcher who's covering first. The result is that the runner is safe at first, and you have to dig yourself out of a hole that you shouldn't be in in the first place. A lot of errors also occur on the field, which keeps things interesting. While it can be frustrating to see your third baseman botch a routine grounder, whether or not they make mistakes in the field depends on their skills. An outfielder with a weak arm is likely to blow a throw to the plate, and a short stop with poor agility may miss a grounder with a bad bounce. While it can be frustrating, it adds a level of realism missing in most baseball games. If you're a real baseball fan sick and tired of unrealistic games that offer too many runs and little or no freedom to execute your own strategies, then this game is certainly for you. Casual fans are likely to become frustrated, and should probably stick with more straightforward games like MLB, Triple Play, or High Heat. This is the most realistic baseball sim that I've ever played, but it's also a whole lot of fun. The freedom that it gives you far exceeds that of other games on the market, making this a must-have title for any hardcore baseball fan. 
