LADYDRAGON.COM - World Series Baseball 2003

Developed by Blue Shift/ Visual Concept and published by Sega, this year World Series Baseball 2K3 is endorsed by the New York Yankees all-star first baseman Jason Giambi.

Before you start playing you can adjust easily the presentation of the game. You can choose to view the game in Standard, TV Broadcast, At the Park or Custom. Automatically it will adjust 8 setting; Announcer, PA Announcer, Music, Crowd, Umpire Game FX, Vibration and Background Music. Since Sega has the ESPN license the TV Broadcast has the ESPN touch.

In the main menu you can either play a Quick Game or choose a Game Modes like Franchise, Season, Play Off, Big League Challenge and Exhibition. There is also a Game Mode called Sega Sports Challenge where after you have competed in a game you will be given a code to enter on Segasports.com where you will be able to see how you rank compare to other players in the world. Plus a section called Roster Manager where you can create, edit and import your Roster.

World Series Baseball 2K3 offers these new features;

In one-player games, you can battle the CPU while using the same camera view that you see when you watch ballgames on ESPN.

They have added 5 historic ballparks in which you can play; Crosley Field Cincinnati 1912-1970, Forbes Field Pittsburgh 1909-1970, Griffith Stadium Washington DC 1911-1961, The Polo Grounds New York City 1911-1963 and Shibe Park Philadelphia 1909-1970.

If you have a speedy player you can try to catch off guard the defense by performing a Drag Bunt.

Your baserunner has the ability to increase his lead by one or two steps.

Your outfielder has the ability to run up the wall and catch the ball is order to rob your opponent of an home run.

You will be able to see your strengths and weaknesses by selecting each user's batting and pitching profiles.

WSB 2K3 introduces a Loyalty rating for each player, signifying how loyal the player is to your organization. It is not an automatic value it will vary depending on how well you are treating your player.

You can give your good player some Time off.

You can decide your organization's coaching philosophy like if you want your hitter to be patient or go for an home run when he is at bat.

World Series Baseball 2K3 hands out numerous awards both during the year and at season's end like Most Valuable Player, Pitcher of the Year, Reliever of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Louisville Silver Slugger and Rawlings Gold awards.

You can save the last complete half inning of your game when ever you want.

Although the face of the players are a little stiff the motion captions are well done and are combine with nice graphics.

The Gameplay is really good since you can really personalize your style of coaching to your Franchise with the Philosophy feature and the loyalty feature give more depth to the game since now they are consequence on how you treat your player like in real life.

Even with his depth the game has features to make it easy for newcomers of baseball like on screen text after the pitch telling you if you swing too early outside or too fast inside.

Although World Series Baseball 2K3 does not have a Spring Training mode it does have many new features and an in depth Gameplay for you to enjoy for many hours.

Companies

Developer
Blueshift

Publisher
Sega

Category
Baseball

Notes

Originality: 90%
Gameplay: 92%
Graphic:93%
Interest: 91%
Control: 93%
Sound: 93%

TOTAL: 93 %

Requirements

Console
PlayStation 2

Analog Controller
Compatible

Vibration Function
Compatible

Digital Control
Compatible

Pressure Sensitive
Compatible

Memory Card
250 kb

Multiplayer
1 - 2 Players

Rated by ESRB
"E" Everyone

Kelly Jackson

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