Well, baseball season is just around the corner, and that means a new slew of baseball games are hitting the shelves. 3DO's High Heat: Major League Baseball 2004 looks like it may give some of the bigger hitters a run for their money. The graphics won't make you think you're sitting in Wrigley Field, but they are solid, and the game has all the numbers, stats, and customization that die-hard fans crave.

High Heat's graphics are clean, pretty, and do the game justice. There's nothing flashy or much of anything that will make you go 'Wow,' but the most interesting thing about the graphics is the true to life detail given to many aspects of the game. Aside from just the accuracy of the team lineups, the stadiums, pitches, and even batting stances are all in there. The only thing I'd say I found lacking was the amount of detail in the player faces. While other games seem to be getting more and more realistic in this aspect, High Heat 2004 continues to suffer from more or less generic faces. This isn't a new problem - it was also an issue last year with High Heat 2003. Also the crowd, while diverse, seems to be made out of cardboard cutouts. This wouldn't be a problem except that you can see this pretty blatantly when the camera does something like pan around a ball during a homerun. Make them turn or something; I know I don't just keep sitting forward when a homer goes flying over my head.

I'd imagine the idea behind the sound effects in a baseball game would be to make it sound as much like a baseball game as possible. I can't think of much more they could have done - High Heat 2004 covers all the bases (snicker). The sounds on the field seem about right. You have your guy in the stands trying to sell hotdogs. There's the occasional flourish of baseball game music.

One thing that anyone who's played a lot of baseball video games would wonder about is the announcers. They can either have five or six things to say and get extremely irritating, or they can really shine as their commentary appropriately reflects what's happening on the field without saying the same thing 20 times in a row. It's always a little creepy when I get some slick idea, it doesn't work, and the commentators point out exactly what I was thinking. Suffice it to say, High Heat 2004 falls into the latter category, with announcers who never get irritating. Well, except when they show that replay of me making an error.

Well, you have all these guys on a field, and one guy throws a ball at another guy who has a big stick... okay, okay, I'm going to assume pretty much everyone reading this, more or less, knows how baseball works. Since baseball is pretty much the same from game to game, the only thing to stand out is the different modes the game may offer. High Heat: Major League Baseball 2004 doesn't skimp on the options, and you'll find a wide range of different modes to play from.

The staple mode in most sports games is the Career Mode, and it's present in High Heat 2004, with a couple of different options to choose from. You have Single Season, Franchise, and Career mode. I think Single Season is pretty self-explanatory, so we'll skip on ahead to Franchise. Franchise mode is probably the most involved way to play the game. You not only have to play the games season after season, but you get to worry about things like budgets, contracts, free agents, and the draft. If managing money isn't your thing, Career mode offers the same gameplay as Franchise, but without the contracts and budgets.

Maybe managing a team just isn't your thing. Perhaps you'd rather just play a quick and dirty game of baseball. Well, you can just play a quick exhibition match too. Heck, maybe even base running and fielding aren't your cup of tea. Well, with 'Two-On-Two Showdown,' it's just a pitcher and a batter going head to head without all that annoying baseball to get in the way. In short, there are plenty of different ways to enjoy this game: you can just play a quick set of playoff games, have fun with 'Home Run Derby,' or play an 'All-Star Game.'

High Heat: Major League Baseball 2004 is as easy or difficult as you want it to be. The game's difficulty settings are fully customizable in a number of ways. Any baseball fan will be able to find a challenging game, without being overwhelmed by an apparent computer phenom. Once simply winning a game of baseball becomes too easy, you can always try to do more challenging things like pitch a no-hitter or have a perfect season.

A heck of a lot goes on during a baseball game, and controlling a group of guys whom all do different things, while still letting the player have the majority of control, is a daunting task. Batting is a fairly simple exercise; X swings the bat and you can use the D-Pad or analog to control the swing. You can also use Triangle to bunt. Base running is pretty straightforward as well. The Square button is used to advance and Circle is used to go back. L1 and R1 are used in leading and stealing. There were a few problems with leading; I found it wouldn't always respond and it sometimes led to some outs that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. Also, you can send these orders to all your base runners at once, or use the D-Pad/Analog to move only a specific runner.

Pitching is always one of the most fun parts of any baseball game. Each pitcher has a unique selection of pitches. After choosing one, you then select whether you want to throw a ball or a strike; this is just what you're 'trying' to do, however. No pitcher is perfect, so sometimes that strike ends up being a ball, or vice-versa. You can also specify a little bit of control with the D-Pad/Analog. Again though, no one's perfect. Although sometimes, I thought the pitches could be a little too off. People don't often throw a curve and hit a guy when they were pitching to force a walk. Fielding is pretty simple, the four buttons on the right throw to their respective bases (Circle to first, Triangle to second, etc.). D-Pad/Analog moves around, and you can dive/jump with the X button.

It doesn't have a lot of glitz or glamour, but High Heat: Major League Baseball 2004 is definitely worth shelling out some dollars for. You'll have a lot of fun with this one.