All-Star Baseball 2003 is a nice-looking baseball game. That's the only way to say it. Acclaim went all out in trying to give gamers everything they could ever want in a baseball game. The amount of detail is phenomenal - right down to player unique batting stances and accessories.

I've played some of the other baseball games available for the PS2 and none of them even come close to touching All-Star's presentation. Again, I just couldn't get over how detailed things are - players adjust gloves, umpires stretch, and mascots dance on the dugout. During some games you'll even see planes flying over stadiums or fans placing K's on the wall. I only had two major problems with the game. The first is the crowds. Unlike the GameCube version, the crowds in the PS2 version are a jumbled, blurry mess. Also, the player collision detection leaves a lot to be desired. It was just weird to see Derek Jeter walk toward the dug out while Jason Giambi walked up to bat a swing the bat through Jeter.

The commentary is some of the best I've heard this side of a Sega Sports title. I don't know who Acclaim hired as their sound team, but these guys deserve a raise because, for once, it seems like they actually 'got it'. All-Star 2003 sounds like a real game. What I found really interesting was that the commentators weren't just limited to what was going on in the game and would often go off into little tangents about other teams in the league just like in a real game.

All-Star 2003 is the best version of the game yet. There are a few problems that need to be ironed out, but this is baseball at its best. Once again, Acclaim has gone above and beyond the call of duty in bringing fans what they want. The 10 different modes in All-Star Baseball 2003 run the full gamut from Franchise, Season, Career - it's all here. Over the course of your season, the game keeps track of every stat known to man, player trades, injuries, you name it. All the game needs is a pre- and post game version of SportsCenter. As if the game couldn't get any deeper, you can choose to play through numerous season types like a 162 game season, 81 game season, a 87 game round-robin tournament...again, if you want it, you got it.

All-Star also includes every major award a player can win, including the Golden Glove award and Cy Young award. The game also keeps track of awards and mentions them in the commentary. Oh yeah - in addition to all these cool features, you can play a great game of baseball against the computer or a friend.

All-Star Baseball 2003 offers three difficulty levels, Rookie, Veteran and All-Star, all of which fit nicely - in other words, Rookie will give you an easy game while All-Star will give you a hard time. My only complaint that seemed to appear in every difficulty was the computer's outfielders. This was also a problem I had with last year's version - no matter where the ball was going, the computer's outfielders always seemed to be right in the area to catch the ball while mine, which were also controlled by the computer - don't even seem to realize they're playing. The computer is prone to the occasional error, but it doesn't happen nearly enough.

Control is just as good as it was last year, and actually manages to make a few improvements. The most noticeable one has to be the larger 'bat' icon. Last year, the triangle was a tad small, which made batting a pain. All-Star also offers an 'Easy Bat' option. As I mentioned, fielding does leave a little to be desired when allowing the computer to control your players - so I recommend switching to manual. Overall the controls have a very natural feel.

As a die-hard EA Sports fan, I'm always skeptical of other sports games - but no baseball game has ever gotten me hooked enough to try a 162 game season, so Acclaim has got itself something special here. Give it a try, you'll like it.