For the most part this year, I have been very impressed with EA Sports' graphics. That is, until I played Triple Play Baseball. I haven't seen graphics this generic since I played baseball games on my Sega Genesis. The stadiums weren't completely accurate, including the absence of Bernie Brewer's Slide at Miller Park. Also, the stadiums themselves looked more like 2-Dimensional backdrops. Not only that, they seem to be translucent as the ball traveled through seats and walls with no ricocheting at all. In spite of this, the player models looked pretty good with some sweet animations, but in order for a baseball game to be successful, it needs an overall beauty to it.

Another letdown was the sound category, namely the announcers. I felt like turning them off after listening for two minutes of their horrible banter. The play-by-play sounded very robotic, repetitive, and didn't follow the game very well. For instance, I was up to bat for the first time of the game, when color commentator Buck Martinez said, 'This guy hasn't done anything all day.' Granted, it's somewhat true since he hadn't been up to bat yet, but it didn't seem fitting. The only bright spot of this category was the soundtrack, highlighted by Chuck D, Vitamin C, Utah Saints, Fastball and more.

Keeping with the pathetic theme, we move on to the Gameplay section. Being a huge baseball fan, I found Triple Play Baseball was not the simulation counterpart I was hoping for, but more of an arcade feel. For instance, the handling of the infielders and outfielders was completely horrible. When the ball was hit, the AI would more than likely give control to an outfielder instead of an infielder that could make the play. Speaking of crappy AI, I also found it incredibly difficult to keep my runners on base since they were too busy jumping off base on their own while getting picked off. In addition, if they slid back underneath the tag, there was still a good chance they'd be called out. It reminded me of the original R.B.I. Baseball on Nintendo, where you needed to be standing up to be safe.

TPB's batting and pitching also led me to believe this was more of an arcade game, since the ball was tremendously juiced. Put it this way, if the pros got pitches this easy, we'd see Big Mac's record broken by a number of players. Frankly, the pitches were slow, so timing your swing won't be a problem. If that's not enough, 2-Player match-ups won't be any fun because you can't hide your pitches, thanks to the cursor interface showing where it will be. The only way to conceal the location is Aftertouch, though you can't tell how far you're redirecting it.

There are four modes to play around with in Triple Play Baseball: Single Game, Season, Playoffs and Big League Challenge. Single game is like an exhibition game, whereas Season and Playoffs just lead up to the World Series, only Playoffs skip the regular season. You can shorten the Season mode from 162 games down to 15. The Big League Challenge is like a Homerun Derby, where you select twelve different sluggers, which stadium to play, in an old-fashioned slugfest. Triple Play's other options include selecting how many innings to play, Creating Players, and drafting fantasy rosters.

Supposedly, EA had San Francisco's Dusty Baker apply his knowledge to the AI of Triple Play Baseball. The problem is, I really couldn't tell. The levels of difficulty go as follows: Rookie, Pro and All-Star. The intensity basically rose only with the pitching and batting. Still, hitting was too easy, and you couldn't hide any pitches with 2-Player games. Facing the computer is different since they won't catch on, but it still lacks the realism I was looking for. Plus, don't forget about the less than impressive AI when it comes to fielding the ball.

Ironically, once you finally field the ball, throwing it to any base proved to be very simple, especially with the new trick they added. Commendably, EA installed a power sensitivity feature with the one button throws. The harder you press down to throw, the harder your man guns it to the base. The controller configuration itself was pretty basic, though a few buttons were a little tricky to master. On to other subjects, the Aftertouch feature for pitching that I mentioned earlier, is controlled by the left analog stick, fairly simple. Remember to work on it before playing your friends, otherwise you'll be giving up more homeruns then you can imagine. Other notables: the loading time was quick, and only a small portion of your memory card will be used up.

All in all, I really wasn't impressed with Triple Play Baseball, due to the horrible gameplay and easy difficulty. The graphics and commentary both lacked the overall package to be a truly great baseball game. My best recommendation would be to look elsewhere for a more realistic sim, because this game was a big swing and a miss.