All-Star Baseball 2005

Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Acclaim Studios Austin
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Players: 1-4
Roster Status: Current as of 03/01/04 (built-in player and roster editor)
Video Options: 480p progressive scan
Online Features: Exhibition games, rankings, multiple leaderboards, and roster downloads.

All-Star Baseball is Acclaim's baseball franchise.

ATMOSPHERE
GRAPHICS
SIMULATION DEPTH
FEATURES AND MODES
ONLINE OPTIONS

If you're looking for a solid, all-around baseball video game, All-Star Baseball 2005 should fill your needs nicely. The list of modes is comprehensive, the franchise mode is rich enough to keep most stat-heads occupied for months, and the general play mechanics strike a good balance between ease-of-play and simulation-style realism.

For roughly 40 bucks, you get all 30 MLB teams, 15 star and heroes teams, more than 100 legendary players, 67 different ballparks, and more than 100 alternate and retro jerseys. The selection of modes includes exhibition, franchise, expansion, pickup games, home run derby, trivia, and the "This Week In Baseball" (TWIB) challenge--a mode that lets you jump into some of last year's highlights in an attempt to change history. The franchise mode contains everything a franchise mode ought to, including player drafts, minor league teams, spring training games, contract arbitration, a disabled list, and staff budgets.

Take a close look at the back of the box, and you'll also see that All-Star Baseball 2005 is the only console baseball game this year to support four-player games. Invite your friends over, and you can join forces to control specific players on a single team, or you can pair up on opposing teams.

The close-up fielding camera puts you into the game.

The main thing Acclaim did to make the 2005 installment better was to expand its online features. Last year, all you could do was download roster updates. This year, you can actually play against other players in exhibition games, and you can keep track of your rank and statistics on a set of constantly updated scoreboards. The only thing missing from the package is the ability to set up custom tournaments.

Another nice aspect of the game is its hitting interface, or rather, the four different hitting interfaces that you have to choose from. Do you prefer timing-based hitting? Are you a fan of zone-aiming? Perhaps you'd prefer a 2D or 3D hitting cursor. All-Star Baseball 2005 offers all of these options.

What else is there to like? The accuracy of the stadium models is frightening. You can see fans sitting on the rooftops of the bars across the street from Wrigley Field. When you launch a home run into the outfield at Yankee Stadium, it has a chance to land inside of Monument Park--where the plaques commemorating famous Yankees players sit. Check out the scoreboards, and you'll see that they all update to show the current line score, scores from around the league, and player photos. The variety of player animation is ample, even if the game doesn't get as lavish with the details as MVP Baseball 2004 does. Alongside the action, Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons call an accurate game. Their conversations sound natural, for the most part, even if they're not as excited as they've been in years past.

What's not to like? Acclaim seriously needs to revamp its instant replay system, and it needs to change the fielding camera back to the way it was in ASB 2004. Sure, actual TV studios do zoom in on an outfielder when he's going for the ball. However, that doesn't mean it's the best way to portray fielding in a video game. Also, the days when spectators only make generic catcalls are long gone. The crowd in All-Star Baseball 2005 has a good variety of one-liners, but they'd come off better if they were directed at specific players. Likewise, the awesome stadium PA music from last year (which featured House of Pain, LL Cool J, and Queen, among others) has been replaced by ill-fitting, unknown music from the likes of the Vengaboys. Blah.

Overall, there's more to like than not to like, especially if franchise and online modes are your main concerns.

Read the Reviews - PlayStation 2, Xbox
See the Game in Action - PlayStation 2, Xbox