Gameplay:
9
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 10
Control: 8
Replay: 8
Multiplayer: Yes and Xbox Live Enabled
All-Star Baseball 2011 is definitely a step in the right
direction for sports games. Many different play modes along
with a deep, fairly complicated franchise mode make this
a game to seriously consider.
Gameplay:
9
ASB
2011 has many strong points in its gameplay, but there are
a few glaring weaknesses. The highly touted fielder cam
has been a mixed bag of results. Sometimes it puts you on
the right position, with the right angle. Other times it
can give you a bad angle to judge a dive or a jump, or it
may just flat out go to the person it deems "closer"
even though it makes the play almost impossible to see.
For instance, an easy fly ball was hit to right-center field,
and the camera insisted it focuses on the center fielder,
even though the right fielder was in a better position and
ultimately made the play. This is something that can be
very aggravating in a tight situation. The other major problem
was little choppers hit off the plate and bunts. It would
select the catcher to make the play, then at the last moment
switch to the pitcher, changing the view and causing you
to miss the play. The other aggravating thing that caused
many an argument and problem among my chums and I was the
late tags made by basemen. If it wasn't a force, half the
time the tag would be late and the guy would slide in safe.
It kept many an inning going and turned the tides of quite
a few.
Luckily, for the benefit of us, the games positives out
weigh the weaknesses by far. The franchise mode alone could
almost be a game in itself. Pick your favorite team and
go at it for a season, or hunker down for all 20 seasons.
Or if you don't have a favorite team, expand and create
your own. You can't name it but you pick a mascot that comes
with the team, and that gives you the name. Spring training
during the season allows you to earn points to improve the
team budget or individual players, such as improving speed
or power, or teach a pitcher a new pitch, or improve them
in whatever way you feel you need to build the dynasty.
On the GM side of the franchise mode, things get a little
tougher. The book is skimpy on details, but the game has
it all stored in the help menus. Here is where you deal
with the egos of overpriced stars, underpaid talent and
everyone in-between. And it is set-up fair, so you can't
trade bottom of the barrel talent for A-Rod or Mike Mussina.
In fact just for me to get Jason Giambi, I had to give away
one of my young talented pitchers and two developing mediocre
players. And that was after ten or so tries to get the right
deal for my team's smaller-than-the-Yankee's-budget.
For mini-games, there more than most games to choose from.
Along with home-run derby, you can play a mini-trivia game
that rewards you with points to buy the cards that unlock
cheats and bonus teams. There is also the sandlot game which
lets you play on city parks and corn fields. Pick-up game
as it's called, has the game pick 18 random players off
all the available teams and lets you and another player/
computer pick until they are all gone. Then you play ball,
just like in the schoolyard, or in this case corn field.
Then to top it off, there is the This Week In Baseball Challenge.
This lets you replay famous events from the 2010 season
and see if you can sway the outcome. It even has the foul
ball Moises Alou could have caught if that fan wouldn't
have leaned over the wall and caught it, dooming Chicago.
You get to try to catch the ball, and if you do virtually
change history.
Graphics:
8.5
ASB is not bad graphically, most of the time. All the parks
are modeled beautifully after their real life counterparts,
with working scoreboards and Jumbotrons to boot. The camera
angles all work very well, except for that fielder cam,
which is only half the time. Pitching is beautiful from
the broadcast angle, looking in over the pitchers shoulder.
It lets you see the pitches move and break really well,
or see that fateful curveball hang. The only flaws I could
see were the occasional passing of the camera into the seats,
which is the minor complaint, and then the times the guy
would slide in safe and stand up afterwards, without calling
time, and get off the base. I was yelling at my TV for that
second baseman to tag him already.
The players in ASB are all modeled very well, even thought
they appear blocky at times. They are all animated wonderfully,
the dives, the jumps, the crashes into the walls, it all
works. The pitcher gives up too many homeruns? He will either,
visibly get mad, or look up then fall over as if he gives
up. It's really amusing to watch the hit-by-pitch animations.
Plunk a guy in the head, he staggers around. Hit him in
the legs or arms, he may rub it, or he may thump his chest
and threaten to charge the mound. If he does, al you see
if the pitcher go to a karate stance, if he isn't ejected.
If they dive or slide, the dirt or grass stains will actually
stay on the uniforms throughout the game, giving the players
a worn look.
Sound:
10
If you notice my reviews, the sound rating is either high
or low, and never in between. To me, sound makes or breaks
the game. And here, the game definitely is enhanced beyond
belief. The strikes and balls the umpire calls are humorous
to hear, but the rest is just like a real life park. Vendors
selling food, the crowd noise, people yelling at the umpire
questioning his calls (makes you think about alcohol sales)
and the announcers. Thom Brenneman and Steve Lyons call
the shots, while Oscar Soria announces in Spanish if you
utilize the SAP button in the game. For the hearing impaired,
it has the closed captioning too. The sound really makes
you believe you are there.
Control:
8
The control on this game is fairly well done. The 3-D hitting
allows you to aim your hit more precisely than the timing
methods. Running the bases takes a little time to learn,
but once you do, it works well. The biggest thing to get
used to is the reverse of what seems normal when throwing
the bases. When you are looking in, it seems to be reversed,
so unless you use the flip base option, you will be throwing
to 3rd a lot more than 1st base. And make sure you tap the
button for the base you want to throw to before you catch
the ball, or your fielder will take more time. It gets annoying,
but it adds to the realism.
Replay:
8
This
game definitely has the legs to make it a winner in the
long run. The deep franchise mode combined with the mini
games make this game very hard to pass up, especially if
you are a statistics nerd. When you add that to solid gameplay
and a great presentation, you have a winning game about
a bunch of guys making millions of dollars sitting around
in a dugout 9 innings a game attacking running sausages.
