Stadiums and players are rendered in glorious high-resolution detail, to the point where it's easy to recognize a player by looking at his face. Similarly, most of the animations look terrific--especially diving catches and quick across-the-body throws. We also enjoyed the pitching and batting interface, which is more complex than that found in most baseball games but becomes a lot of fun after a little practice.

Unfortunately, the game is all downhill from there. Once a ball is hit, players are forced to sit and watch the computer field it. The lack of control is absolutely infuriating, especially since Sega hyped this game's realism from the beginning of its development. The crowd sounds are anemic and there is no color commentary, which is just as well considering how terrible the play-by-play announcer is. If you really love baseball, you'll really hate World Series Baseball 2K1. For casual fans who prefer flashy graphics and a fun pitching/batting contest to thorough stat tracking and the ability to field the ball, this game is a home run. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Gorgeous stadiums
• Nice TV-like presentation

• No fielding
• Stuttering animations
• Lacks fun extras

At the end of the game, it tells you the winner, the loser, if there was a save & the homeruns. NO BOXSCORE!!!??? I don't know about the majority but I like to base my players starting status on two things. 1. Reality (the correct rosters) 2. Game to game statistics. If a player is slacking you have no way of knowing. You can't check in the middle of the game to see what the player is batting on the game. And if you want to change pitchers, you must also call it blind, as they provide no information as to what your players' ERAs might be. Usually games will tell you when a player steps up to bat, how they have faired in that particular game, along with season stats. Here they only provide season stats. I would like a 1-1 today, 2 for 3, etc.

This game is not fun. I gave it 2 stars because it looks good. Don't bother buying this game. It will only frustrate you, unless you care nothing for real game play.


not their best   January 28, 2003
adead_poet@hotmail.com (Austin, tx USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've been touting the Dream Cast's sports game for some time now. Generally they are some of the best--NFL 2K, NBA 2K, Virua Tennis... I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that sooner or later I'd find one that isn't that great. And I'm not surprised it is the baseball game. Unlike football and basketball, there really is no movement in a baseball game, which I think is partially responsible for how much I dislike this game. Just being baseball itself. Add that to a difficulty in pitching and batting, and the problems with fielding a ball and you've got a game that isn't real great (I remember a nintendo baseball game that was more fun, even if the graphics weren't that great). I will say that the stadiums and graphics are beautiful, but it takes more than a pretty picture to make a fun game. And this game isn't much fun.