Graphics wise High Heat 2004 took a serious step up from its previous console attempt on the PS2 last season. Still the animations are far from being fluid, and the PS2 version of High Heat suffers from some severe slow downs during gameplay. Furthermore, 3DO has increased the amount of animations that were put into this year’s version of High Heat, but they tend to overuse some of the animations at inappropriate times. The overused animation that sticks out the most in my mind is the annoying base sliding animation. When a player is returning to base from a pickoff attempt they tend to use an animation that looks like they were running with a full head of steam, as they slide into base head first, Pete Rose style. This animation looks completely out of place when a person is just going back to first on a pick off attempt and comes sliding like he just ran 90 feet full bore.

The character models in High Heat, all have a very generic feeling about them, although better looking then previous versions of High Heat, the character models still seem outdated - especially in this year’s crop of console baseball games. The ballparks in the PS2 version of High Heat look rather nice. However, during gameplay the ballparks seem lifeless and dull. Even the hecklers and the ballpark venders don’t breathe life into the ballparks, something that the past incarnations of High Heat have done so well.

High Heat’s presentation is also somewhat lacking this year. Although presentation was never truly a strong point in the High Heat series, this year’s offering is fairly weak. The announcers have trouble keeping up with the plays; they make comments on plays that never really happened, just a rather shoddy effort put into this year’s presentation by 3DO.

What makes High Heat worth playing this year, and almost every year since its conception, is its incredibly deep franchise mode. This season’s franchise mode is even deeper and more robust than its predecessors. The biggest change in High Heat 2004’s franchise is the addition of a financial model, a point based system that brings contracts to HH’s already amazingly profound franchise mode, which is something that fans of the High Heat series have been waiting for quite some time now. Along with major league players, High Heat 2004 also has a minor league system that they were able to tie in with the point system they implemented this season. 3D0 accomplished this making the minor leaguer that is being brought to the big leagues count against your budgeted points for the season. Furthermore, the crew at 3DO, made all of the small market teams have a smaller allotted budget of points, while the bigger market teams have a larger amount of points at their disposal. High Heat’s franchise mode is completely customizable, so if you want to turn the Kansas City Royals in to a large market team with tons of budget for your many off-season free agent acquisitions, you can do so with the simple touch of a button.

Traditionally the High Heat series has always been a game that was weak in the graphics department, but had an extremely heavy emphasis on gameplay. High Heat 2004 is no exception to that tradition; however, the gameplay severely suffers from the slowdowns that High Heat’s new graphics engine encounters. While graphically better looking than the last installments, High Heat is graphically sub par, at best, when compared to its competition. But if you are a baseball stats junkie, then High Heat has you covered with a plethora of various stats to keep you number crunching all night. Nevertheless if you are a baseball fan that truly wants substance over style, then High Heat is a baseball title that should be worth your time to check out this season.