Microsoft Baseball 2000

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: July 01, 1999
• Genre: Sports
• Style: Baseball
• Similar Games: HardBall 6 (IBM PC Compatible), High Heat Baseball 2000 (IBM PC Compatible), Interplay Sports Baseball Edition 2000 (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Microsoft Baseball 2000 is fully licensed by Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The game features 1999 MLB rosters and ratings along with up-to-date player statistics. Realistic team uniforms and logos are used throughout the game and all 30 MLB stadiums are represented.

Gameplay options include single games, same day match-ups based on the MLB schedule, guiding a specific team over the course of an entire season, setting up an eight-team playoff tournament with your choice of teams and a Home Run Derby with as many as eight hitters where only homeruns and outs are registered.

Microsoft Baseball 2000 supports 3dfx graphics accelerator cards but can be played without one as well. The in-game play-by-play is handled by Thom Brenneman, the announcer for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Fox Sports. A streamlined mode for fans without much playing time is provided through a QuickGame function. Various camera angles cover the on-field action from multiple perspectives and on-screen batter and pitcher statistics are viewable prior to each at-bat.

For a detailed look at specific in-game situation controls available, check out the above link to the "Instructions" screen. Separate game pad, keyboard and joystick controls are provided for segments of the game including batting, running the bases, pitching and fielding.

On November 15, 1999, a new dimension to Microsoft Baseball 2000 was introduced with the availability of the DualHead patch for the game. To quote the developers: "...the patch allows gamers to output different views of the Major League Baseball game to two display screens for a true head-to-head gaming experience." The patch can be downloaded at www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/.

Roots & Influences

Microsoft Baseball 2000 is influenced by all the previous computer industry baseball simulation games released and is based on realistic players, teams, stadiums and statistics.

Review: Overall

At first glance, Microsoft Baseball 2000 looks like a fairly solid baseball simulation. It promises smooth 3D graphics, authentic play-by-play, complete team rosters and stadiums and intuitive controls. Sounds good, right? Well, maybe not. There's very little in it to raise the bar for other hardball simulations and more than enough bugs to push it to the bottom of the pile.

Like most of the others, Microsoft Baseball 2000 allows you to play in one of four different modes: Single Game, Full Season, Playoffs or Homerun Derby. From there, you select your player and team match-ups and then it's time to play ball. Will it be the grueling 162 game marathon? The quick Division Series playoffs? Maybe a simple nine-inning affair? Take your pick. But forget about making trades or creating players. No such choices here.

Another unfortunate flaw is the intrusion of advertising (read: product placement) at every turn. Isn't it enough that we have to deal with commercials in the real world? Now we can't even turn on our own PCs without being assaulted by some not-so-cleverly-placed advertisements all around the virtual ballparks. What's next, commercials between innings?

I might have filed my previous complaints away in the "but everybody else is doing it" category, but even then the game falls short. It has complete Major League Baseball rosters and all the Major League ballparks but no graphics to back it up. What Microsoft calls "broadcast-quality camera angles," I call choppy and distracting visuals. If this is how baseball is supposed to be watched, Americans need a new national pastime.

Tip your hat to Microsoft for using real player visuals but, even there, drop the ball. It's like watching a game through a kaleidoscope as a polygon-based Ken Griffey Jr. faces off against an equally blocky and distorted Roger Clemens. You get the idea that these might be the players you know but only if you come from the planet Bizarro. It's not a pretty sight.

Stiff, robotic-sounding play-by-play from Arizona Diamondbacks' announcer Thom Brenneman adds the final nail to Microsoft Baseball 2000's coffin. Most baseball simulations of the late 1990s put too much emphasis on rosters and stats at the expense of playability but at least many of them give you other options. Microsoft's 2000 entry has just the bare minimum and there's nothing in its actual gameplay to make up for its glaring omissions.

Do yourself a favor and skip Microsoft Baseball 2000's foul ball. Your money would be much better spent at a real ballpark anyway.

Review: Enjoyment

More fun than sliding face-first into home -- but just barely.

Review: Graphics

Like watching a baseball game through a kaleidoscope.

Review: Sound

Robotic-sounding play-by-play.

Review: Replay Value

What replay value?

Review: Documentation

Fairly straightforward.