Going beyond motion-capturing batting stances (there are 89 distinct ones in here by my count), they've done a great job of animating pretty much every aspect of the game in pitch delivery, fielding, and base-running. The instant replay system, which borrows from and improves upon the one seen in the High Heat series, allows you to move the camera anywhere on the field to see the realistic movements at any speed. You can also use the feature to see the game's sophisticated artificial intelligence--for example, there's a brief, realistic delay when a player tags up from third on an outfield fly.

There's also a solid pitching game that lets a starter like Tim Hudson get off without a shelling when pitching heat down the middle, but try it with a pitcher like Byung-Hyun Kim and you're bound to see different results. And the TV-style zone chart shows which locations each batter is best at connecting to and where your sequence of pitches has landed.

A number of the new features are so obvious that you may wonder why you've never seen them before. One is a controller map in the pause menu that quickly shows you exactly which buttons perform the task you want. An option is also included that sets the relative speed of pitches to the plate. This really comes in handy when coming from another baseball game like All-Star Baseball 2003 where pitches seem to blur to the plate.

To put it bluntly, the game has almost no downside. There are some very powerful GM and manager functions--including a fantasy draft and exhaustive franchise tools--though using them is somewhat counterintuitive. Stealing is kind of tough to pull off; in one game, Ichiro got caught twice out of three attempts. And, as stated above, there's no Internet play--but that gives us something to look forward to for next year. --Porter B. Hall

Pros:

• Realistic player movement
• Smart AI
• TV-style zone chart marks hot and cold areas for each batter
• Variable pitch-appearance speeds

Cons:

• No head-to-head play over the Internet

I think diehard baseball fans would have less of a problem with that stuff. I had absolutely zero problems with any of those things on the All Star mode. I didn't have a problem hitting too many home runs. I didn't hit more than 45 with any player on my roster, and some everyday players didn't hit 15 for the year. Now, my batting cursor was on small, so maybe that did it, but I don't know what to tell you there.

My problems revolved around the number of absolute BLOCKBUSTER trades that went down and the lack of a jump button. First off, you just really need to be able to jump. Secondly, Giambi was traded FOUR TIMES in my game . . . WITHIN THIRTY DAYS. That's just plain laughable. Sosa was traded three times within 60 days. Clean those two things up, and I think you've got one heck of a game.