Windows

Microsoft Baseball 2000

Baseball 2000 is a game that most baseball fans will be sure to enjoy. Everything about the game was excellently produced, from the menu screens to the crack of the bat and it all shows while playing the game. The graphics are great, the sounds are great, and the playability is great. This game is for anyone who would even slightly enjoy a baseball game.

Baseball 2000 surprised me. I was expecting an upgrade disguised as a new game, like Microsoft Golf 99 - that's not what I found. I found this game to be full of improvements, both in graphics and gameplay. The fact that it retails for less than 20 dollars is a surprise bonus. Don't let that price fool you into thinking that this is an inferior product - for that price this game is a an excellent value. Bottom Line: Graphics and gameplay is improved from the last version. Sounds still need some optimization to eliminate stutters and pauses. Many options make the game approachable to anyone from beginners to advanced players. The opportunity to play tonight's game is wonderful. An excellent value, the game is retailing for under $20 US. In-game advertising is not too distracting, but I hope it doesn't set a bad precedent.

Passabel animierte Spieler, ein gutes Stadion, mehrere Kameraperspektiven, korrekt, doch texturarm nachgebildete Stadien, wenige Optionsmöglichkeiten - doch wo ist die Zielgruppe? Den möchte ich sehen, der eine komplette Saison mit allen 162 Spielen durchzieht, denn weniger ist immer noch nicht drin. Microsoft kann diesem Titel allenfalls durch seinen Preis, der in USA nur rund 20 Dollar, also knapp 40 Mark beträgt, einen Marktanteil verschaffen.

Baseball 2000 is a fun game with quite a few bugs that need to be worked out before it becomes a challenge to the other baseball games on the market. If you are on a tight budget and need to play some sort of baseball game on your PC, go ahead and give it a try. Heck, for 20 bucks it can’t be beat. Just be forewarned -- most of the Deer Hunter-style games are the same price, so that should be a telltale warning of the kind of quality you are getting yourself into.

At the bargain-basement price of $20, Microsoft is sure to sell a fair number of units, and casual baseball fans with high-quality hardware will probably feel that it was money well spent. You do get a good sense of being at the ballpark, and the game is fun in limited doses. But more demanding fans of the sport will, more than likely, tire quickly of the game's limitations, leaving it on their hard drives only to serve as a great-looking example of why they've spent thousands of dollars decking out their computers.

Microsoft Baseball 2000 is like a date who has almost everything you could want: sparkling good looks, nice conversation, and a good time, yet for some reason just doesn't "feel" right, and eventually you stop calling. In the end it's missing that extra kick that makes many sports games so much fun to play.