DO NOT Buy High Heat Baseball 2003!

[AaronP]

This game is a disgrace. First off, there is hardly any difference at all from the 2001 and 2002 versions! The graphics SUCK, and there are TONS of bugs in it. One of the worst bugs is constant sound popping and skipping with Sound Blaster Live and Audigy cards. I guess those cards are too obscure to test eh 3Do? What a load of crap.

---> edit WTF I am sure I was in software when I posted this!

 

[Shooters]

My friend (Masterhoss here in the forums) bought this game when it first came out, and he also told me that it is EXTREMELY buggy. He contacted 3Do about how buggy it was and said that they weren't much help.

 

[nitsuj3580]

I learned my lesson with High Heat 2002. I pretty pathetic baseball game.

 

[Rand]

Naturally, it's the usual routine for 3D0's HighHeat series, 2001 was incredibly buggy on release, 2002 was even worse, and 2003 actually seems decent in comparison to the above two but it has a number of bugs also.
It's also almost identical to the 2002 version, but that's to be expected as 3D0 did announce they were mostly leaving the game untouched and concentrating on fixing the majority of the bugs.
IMHO it's advanced quite a bit from the 2001 iteration though.

Luckily the latest drivers for the Live! fixed the sound issues for me, and I've been able to play it perfectly.
As annoying as 3D0 is, and as far behind as they are in graphics.... the actual gameplay is still lightyears beyond EA's TriplePlay or for that matter any other baseball game.
HighHeat manages to be true simulation of baseball whereas TP and the rest are totally arcadeish.

If the 2002 game is any indication they will release one ineffective patch that fix bugs by removing features
Though I do have to admit by the time they finished their couple patches of 2001' it was actually clean of bugs and wholly playable.

 

[MasterHoss]

Yeah, I'm having the same problems with HH 2003. I also have HH 2002 and it played well under WinMe AFTER THE GAME UPDATES. I think there were 2 of them... the first didn't do too much and the 2nd made the game perfect for me.

I agree with Rand. I believe that HH Baseball is a much better game than EA Sports' Triple Play Baseball. Also, I believe that HH 2003 is a better game than HH 2002 (of course, not including the bugs) because they addressed issues several wrong ground rules in the stadiums throughout the league; however, I still notice that they have some rules just wrong.

Anyway, I think 3do makes the best baseball game for the PC (they just always seem to release a game that's nothing but buggy... eventually, they release patches that address the bugs. It's kind of an extreme version of what Microsoft does.)

 

[m1ke101]

there are definitely a lot of bugs.....anyone else having the background of the stadium constantly flash? it was bugging the hell out of me. although the game is still fun to play.

 

[Rand]

<< there are definitely a lot of bugs.....anyone else having the background of the stadium constantly flash? it was bugging the hell out of me. although the game is still fun to play. >>



Yep, I fixed it by disabling Hardware T&L in the options though, no more flashing and I barely lost any performance.... about 2-3FPS according to HH's diagnostics. T&L doesnt seem to help HH very much, so and it seems to fix the problem.

The only other issues I had was the stuttering/repeating audio, and that was fixed by updating the drivers for my SB Live!.

 

[alrocky]

So 2003 is fine with a patch? Cause gogamer.com has it for $20 for only a limited time. Any additional yeas or nays?

 

[aircooled]

Is there a good 3d baseball game that works on winXP????

 

[MasterHoss]

Unfortunately, 3do's High Heat Major League Baseball games are simply the best baseball games you can get for your PC... unfortunately again, 3do must hire jackasses because no previous version of the game runs under the NT kernel. Moroever, they even say that you can only use WinXP Home Edition to play the 2003 version of the game (which simply isn't and can't be true).

Anyway, yeah, basically you buy this game play with it with all the bugs and wait for the updates. Apparently the crazy sound problems only effect Audigy users as Live! users can just install the newest drivers to fix the problem... I haven't verified this however. (Anyone play this game and use a non Creative sound card?)

 

[AaronP]

<-- Live user with latest drivers and sound problems are a pain in the ass.

 

[RudeBoie]

<< Unfortunately, 3do's High Heat Major League Baseball games are simply the best baseball games you can get for your PC... unfortunately again, 3do must hire jackasses because no previous version of the game runs under the NT kernel. Moroever, they even say that you can only use WinXP Home Edition to play the 2003 version of the game (which simply isn't and can't be true).

Anyway, yeah, basically you buy this game play with it with all the bugs and wait for the updates. Apparently the crazy sound problems only effect Audigy users as Live! users can just install the newest drivers to fix the problem... I haven't verified this however. (Anyone play this game and use a non Creative sound card?) >>



I ran HH2002 under 2K last year just fine. There were problems with player images and the sound popping (which I guess is in there this year), but overall I had a blast.

I always thought that 2003 would use last years gameplay engine and rehaul the graphics like they did for the PS2 version. I may just try All-Star for the XBox then

 

[XMan]

<< The only other issues I had was the stuttering/repeating audio, and that was fixed by updating the drivers for my SB Live!. >>



Hmm, I think I have the latest drivers for mine, and it still does it.

Strangely enough the game runs fine under Windows 2000 for me even though they said it was unsupported.

 

[MMarks2]

I had the same problem with the sound. Heres the fix i was give by 3d0 corp:

Go to DXDIAG on the run menu to pull up directx.

Go to the sound tab.

Turn direct X features down to basic accelleration.

I did this and it fixed the popping and skipping sounds. Hope this works for you.

 

[FuManStan]

Not only do i have sound popping (which isnt that annoying) the game crashes once in awhile. I hate having the game crash in the 7, 8, or 9th inning with a lead. Its just tedious having to replay it again. Plus, it crashes my AIM on start too

 

[MMarks2]

did u try the fix i gave you?

 

[XMan]

<< did u try the fix i gave you? >>



Yup, thanks.

 

[bob332]

the game works okay for me under 2k, when i play alone, but if i try to network play, i get all kinds of sync problems and both games freeze after 4-5 innings. a real pain in the a$$...