High Heat Major League Baseball 2003

This release seems a lot more stable than last year's. And that may be an understatement. The game doesn't crash, the stats engine seems much more accurate and refined. >p< Simulation: The computer AI is much smarter than before; my only decent catcher went down with a season-ending injury, and I was offered many-a-trade for opposing team's catchers. >p< Gameplay: The graphics are not what I would have hoped. They weren't exactly great last year, and there were little if any improvements. Not only that, but the motions are unchanged as well. Pitchers still have an extremely akward looking pickoff to first. Catchers' reactions are still delayed (e.g. a pitch will hit the dirt, and a half a second later they'll reach for it). Outfielders will still run in place against the outfield wall (and occasionally make the catch, even if the ball bounces off the wall). On a side note, the announcers are better than last year. I turn off all other sounds aside from the sound effects. >p< One thing they screwed up in this year's version is the buttons for the console (I use a MS gamepad). Apparently the game isn't reading the mappings correctly, and you have to manually tweak a configuration file to get it right. VERY ANNOYING. But once you do it you're ok. >p< After all that, I still like to play the game. I love setting up a career league and either simming or playing it through. And I also believe it still has the best pitcher & batter interfaces. Extremely easy to use.