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Coming Soon > PlayStation Game Cheats > PlayStation Reviews > Staff Review | |
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| Playability: The Triple Play series has always been in contention for the top seat in baseball titles for the Playstation. Usually running neck and neck with the 989 MLB titles, the TP games the last few years have continued to evolve and improve with MLB merely updating the rosters and remaining somewhat stagnant in the features and graphics departments. Well this year EA has thrown a bunch of neat stuff into the series and have given the game an almost arcade feel to it (for better or worse). Besides the normal options like season play, single game and Playoffs modes, TP2001 also has a couple of side games included. The standard home run derby is there but with a new twist…calling itself the Big League Challenge, in addition to the typical one-on-one homerun slugfest there is now the Extreme mode. Here players can choose which slugger to knock the balls out of the park and also hit for accuracy because now there are targets to scope in on. Here's the cool part though, the stadiums you choose are wild. Bat from a living room or a construction part to name a few, complete with the targets that when hit will give you extra bonus points towards your victory total. The number of innings can be set up however you choose, just get yourself out there and swing for the stands! The other game was called Home Run Legends. Here you can choose legendary sluggers and battle in a tournament round robin style matches. Here you will find the Babe, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, etc. I found this to be another fine diversion to the actual baseball game, but lets get to the real meat itself shall we… The real draw of the TP series has always been the Season Mode, with its realistic play mechanics and stat tracking. This year's release has a roster current as of January 15, 2000. The menus are extremely straightforward to navigate and jumping into a season is as easy as you are likely to find in a console b-ball game. I decided to choose the good old Mets as they are my home team and set out to do some pre-season drafting and creating of players. Drafting can be done manually or by letting the computer go through the entire league (not advised unless you want a virtually new team in place) and with a team cap play turned on or off. With Cap Play turned on you accumulate points throughout a season that can be used at the Season Store to purchase things like a new stadium or legendary players like Cy Young or the Babe. With Caps on your players also get attribute boosts throughout the season…sweet! The Create a Player mode had all of the basics like hair, color, height, and other characteristics. What I really liked though was the fact that once you started assigning values you are not limited to a "pooled" number that gets reduced as you create your player. I have always felt that if I wanted to create a "super-star" with all 100's (in batting, catching, running, etc.) than I should be able too…hell, why not? Well now I can. After creating the player, you go to the free agent screen and sign him up. The game will then re-calculate the stats for the entire team based on your new acquisition. Starting the season play up, it accurately showed the Mets opening against the Cubs. Unfortunately it did not plop them into the Tokyo Dome in Japan where they actually played their first two games of the season. Ah well, it did accurately show the Mets "at home" for the first game and the Cubs "at home" for the second. The first thing I noticed was the ease of control I had over the players both on offense and defense. Running after and tracking a ball was a breeze and even climbing up the side of a wall to make those "play of day" catches was almost second nature. Pitching seemed way to simplistic at first but after a few games I could start to appreciate the depth of play involved. Base running was a similar experience…easy to get into, but contained a of lot depth, control and strategy elements. About the only disappointment was the batting. The interface allows for a lot of control like moving the batter in and out of the box, open and closing the stance and adjusting for a normal or a power swing. Controlling the placement of the ball depends on when you press the hit button. While this all may sound very good, I never got past the impression that 90% of my swings where just random luck or the obvious Home Runs from the "super" player that I created. While this truly did not ruin the game for me, it just ended up giving it a more arcade feel than previous Triple Play games. For the majority of its existence the Triple Play series has always had one rather glaring deficiency…the frame rate in the game always seemed to slip when there was a lot of action going on in the screen (heck, the '98 version used to jitter when you just hit the ball!). Well I am happy to say that this particular problem has all but been eliminated. Gameplay while still not silky smooth is about as good as you are likely to see in the series. Maintaining a constant frame rate so you can now settle down and enjoy the title much more than before. Overall I thought the game moved along at a nice pace. If you want to speed things up at the end of an inning and not listen to the announcers banter, you can just press a button and the other team is at the plate (or in the field). After going through a good number of games, the stat tracking appears to be error free and the overall experience of playing baseball is a really good one. What I think really makes TP2001 shine though are the little extra touches that you will find in the game. Screen graphics displaying stats, special plays like home runs or double plays are flashed on the screen. The fact that you can actually warm up a new pitcher. The crowd is much more dynamic then in past titles and appears to understand what is happening in the game by throwing out phrases like "you suck" and "I thought this was supposed to be the majors" at seemingly all the right times. The announcers keep on top the action pretty well and when they slag on a call they will normally correct themselves moments later. There are also a whole lot of new textures for the "big league" players that you will recognize immediately. Their appearance and batting stance and to a smaller extent, reactions all mimic the real life players really well. All of this comes together and delivers an enjoyable, event filled game. Another new "extra" this year is the inclusion of the "rewards" system. As you play through a game you will hear a "ding!" at certain times. The announcers will then alert you that you have unlocked a reward and to remember and check to see what it was at the finish of the game. These rewards are supposed to be rewarded during significant events during the game (double-play, stolen base, run scored, etc.), but I found that it seemed to happen occur at set inning intervals. Either way, it's a nice little extra that will give you things like "Big Head" mode, "Pencil Head" mode, etc. There are a ton of old time players to unlock and a bunch of secret stadiums that become available when you reach certain gameplay milestones that will certainly hold your interest for a good long time in addition to all of the gameplay modes available. Triple Play 2001 appears to be grand culmination of years of effort on the part of EA to make the perfect console baseball game. While I do not believe this game is perfect, it is definitely one of THE best and most enjoyable B-ball titles that I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Game Options: This is a 1 disk game for 1-2 Players. It is compatible with the standard (digital) joypad and the analog stick controls of the dual shock joypad. Games can be saved via memory card (7 blocks per save). |
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