Visually, the engine needs a serious overhaul. While the player models are size proportionately accurate, the face detail goes from decent to scary. Each player, at least the All-Stars and superstars have their faces mapped on, but the results are horrific. In the past, this was looked past since no other game provided detailed face models, but with the competition outdoing Acclaim in this feature, this is one step that needs looking after. Next thing Acclaim needs to fix is the animations. While not bad, you see way too many of the same animations repeatedly. Oh and did I mention that the vacuum catches are still present? Even though Acclaim swore they wouldn’t be there, they are and are just as noticeable as before, if not more as the competition once again has the leg up on collision detection. Want more bad examples in the visuals department, or should I say bland? The presentation really needs a boost. There just is no charisma in ASB, as the menus are plain, you get no feedback from players, it all really ends up like a playable mogul. What Acclaim has done right, as they’ve done every year is the stadiums are the best without a doubt. Accurately modeled in both detail and size, no other game has better stadiums. What are missing in these stadiums though are lively HR celebrations. Once again, you are treated to a HR cut a way, and a crappy rounding the 3rd base path with some silly celebration which you get to pick for a gesture. No fireworks, little and few stadium nuances, nothing that gets you excited in the least when belting one out of the park. Oh and I guess I should mention the new touted Fielder Cam? Well maybe I shouldn’t unless missing routine grounders, and the camera fixed on the wrong player some of the time appeals to you. Maybe next time Acclaim.

Audio is decent, but is another feature (in the list of many) that needs to be redone not tweaked. The commentary is very strong, informative and precise, but the sad thing is you’ll get the best and most amusing info if you just leave the game running without throwing a pitch. Try this and you’ll get some of the funniest comments in any sports game to date. The downer in the audio is the crowd, or should I say the lack of crowd. The crowd is always at a low roar, and will give the occasion boo and jeer, but for the most part the crowds are not very interactive. The most evident example is when you come from behind to take a lead or hit a homer at your home park, it’s almost like the crowd doesn’t care. Sure the commentators will say, “And the crowd is coming to life now.” But they must be watching another game, as my crowd wasn’t lively at all. One thing I was happy to see Acclaim do was add Custom Soundtracks option to the Create and edited player. This allows you to put whatever walk-up or bullpen music in for each and every player in the game. While only 100 songs were supported from you soundtrack, it’s a nice start and hopefully will be picked up by all sports games for the Xbox in the future. All in all the sounds won’t give your new surround unit a workout, but it gets by admirably.

ASB has always gotten by all the lack of frills and flash by providing solid and realistic game play. This year is pretty much the same except in one aspect, the pitching. Before I get into that, let me assure all the stat nuts out there, ASB provides some of the most accurate box scores compared to the other games on the market. Your hits, runs, HR, strike outs, walks, steals, and more will tally out very accurately in the end, especially when you sim. What does plague the series this year, is what most people complained about last year, the pitch speed. This year on the other hand, I have to say, “ Shame on you Acclaim for bowing down to the masses on this issue. Last year too many babies complained that the pitch speed was too fast and that they couldn’t hit. This year, even on the fastest speed and hardest difficulty setting, you still can’t match up to a medium difficulty setting from last season’s offering. This totally killed the game for me, as if I wanted to get an accurate display of hits and K’s, I needed to turn on the cursors, which I hate, in order to play a fair game with a low hit count. Why? Because the Zone hitting is now broken and the collision is too forgiving even on Legend. If I guess wrong on a fastball, I want to pay by striking out. Here, if I’m even marginally late, I still manage to connect solidly with the ball, and that shouldn’t happen. This has ruined for me, what used to be the best baseball series the console had to offer. I forgave the bland visuals, lack of HR celebrations, horrid crowds, and other flaws the game offered in presentation, because the game USED to play a great game of baseball…now my mother can hit the freaking ball. BAH!!!

Acclaim has basically spewed out the same old franchise and options from last season. Adding only a few new options, fans who played the devil out of last years game will have very little to look forward to in this year’s game. The only major new addition is the online play. While the options are there, the game play was not. The game was extremely lagging, and was virtually unplayable. Hopefully this will be fixed as ESPN is also out at this point and will beat out ASB for the top spot for those Xbox owners wanting online play. You have many stadiums, many legends, and many things to do in franchise mode, but in the end you have the same basic layout as before, and before, and before. Come on guys…excite me a little.

This review was hard for me to do as I’ve always loved this series, and readers know that I picked them as the best for the last two years. This year on the other hand, you have more options and better games that have “stepped up to the plate” for you and have given you what you want in a baseball game. ASB 2005 does do a lot, but so does the other guys and unfortunately for Acclaim, they also do it better.