|
News
Game Reviews
Hardware Reviews
Cheats
Features
Editor's Choice
Beyond the Box
Forums
Newsletter
Contests
Links
True Crime Hardcore
MySpace Bear
LOL Center
The Animation Blog
|
 |
News: Tom Morello stars in Guitar Hero III
Activision has announced that Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, will guest star as a boss character in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Click here to read the article.
|
 |
MLB SlugFest 20-03
Out of nowhere comes the most entertaining baseball game ever made! That is correct, ever! Midway is known for its over the line sports games, such as NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, and Redcard. Well, since they had football, hockey, and soccer covered, why not baseball? Well that is what Midway did and they did it well!
I am not one to sit around and watch baseball on TV regularly or even play a baseball videogame because, to tell you the truth, its boring. Not anymore with Slugfest! This game takes the word extreme and clones it! Addictive and funny, Midway comes away with one of this year's sleeper hits!
Forget about the stats and all the little details that only a few people bother with. Slugfest only had the neccesary stats; season averages and records, and power/batting/speed stats. That is all you need.
Easy to pick up and play and very addictive. You'll be hitting homeruns to the moon with the help of Turbo and the power-swing button or striking out you opponents with a variety of wacky pitches!
As a pitcher you have the choice of throwing a fast ball, changeups, curve balls, or screwballs. When I say fast balls, I mean fast balls! 125 mph pitches are a normal thing in Slugfest. Too fast for you, then maybe a changeup which ends up at a snail pace of 55 or so mph? Or maybe you are into the screw balls, well then you are in luck, these are the wackiest screw balls that you will ever pitch! They will literally spin in tiny circles as they approach homeplate. Fun, fun, fun!
While batting you can choose to use the normal swing or the power swing. Along with these you can use the Turbo feature for an extra boost! Hitting is somewhat easy, depending on the difficulty setting, it is all about timing. Time the pitch correctly and its bye-bye baseball! Trust me on this one, you wont want to go back to those other traditional baseball games after you've played Slugfest.
Feilders make outrageous diving catches and leaps, run fast, can run faster with turbo, catch on fire with good batting and can throw a frozen rope to home from the centerfield wall.
While in the outfield, you can dive for balls or jump for them. You can also use Turbo to run faster and throw harder. To throw to a base, just use the D-Pad and press the throw button. Right is for first base, up is for second base, left is for third base and down is for homeplate. You can also switch to any outfielder on the fly by pressing B, giving you full control of the game.
Visually, Slugfest delivers! Players are all nicely modeled with a buff look, this is after all a Midway Sports game. Players have many animations and all move in a realistic way. On some occasions when you hit a homerun, a very cool animation will play. It is the ball you hit flying at hyper-speed with smoke trailing from it like a rocket, very cool. The stadiums all vary in size and style, just like their real life counterparts. But what Midway game would be complete without cheats to unlock special stadiums. I wont give them to you here, but they are out there and they will make the game even better. The downside to the graphics are the crowd and the player faces. The crowd looks 2D-ish and doesn't really vary. The player faces are a bit repetitive. They vary but not much and they sometimes resemble the real life players.
Sound wise, Slugfest has the most entertaining commentary ever in a baseball game! The announcers are downright funny that you'll actually look forward to hearing a new line. The announcer text varies greatly. Occasionally some phrases will be repeated but for the most part you get something fresh and new everytime you play.
Sound effects are nicely done aswell. Players' names are announced in the background by the stadium announcer, pitches have a zing to them depending on their speed, and when players get hit, you'll know it!
Overall, MLB Slugfest 2003 is a must buy game for anybody looking for something different. Great visuals, commentary and gameplay make this a great addition to your Xbox library. Midway has done a great job with this game and I can't wait to see how they will expand this franchise!
Report Card:
Gameplay = 9
Graphics = 8.5
Audio = 9
Replay Value = 9
Overall: 9/10
Click here for the SlugFest 20-03 screenshots gallery!
|
|
|
|
