Could a game like Inside Pitch give me a rejuvenating shot to love the game once more? Read on to find out if Inside Pitch 2003 is your ticket to baseball heaven.

First and foremost I have to admit the one thing I do like about Inside Pitch is that it plays as a more quicker baseball game, and playing a nine inning game doesn’t take as long as you might think. The game moves along very smoothly and even people who dislike baseball because of its slow style of play might consider giving Inside Pitch a try. Inside Pitch comes equipped with everything you’ll need to start a season, create-a-player, manage a team, and even draft players. You can set your pitching rotation, train your created players, and talk trash to your buddies online via X-box LIVE.

Before even entering the game I had to jump into the create-a-player option, and suffice to say I was very pleased with how you can create and train your player. You’ll be able to choose your height, body build, clothing, number, face type, batting stance, and even the type of bat your player will use. This is, of course, what you’ve come to expect in any sports game. It’s training the player that I found to be the most intuitive part of the create-a-player feature. In order to make your player successful you’ll have points that you start out with to develop some necessary skills. Skills such as base running speed and arm strength will be open and accessible, but other skills such as bunting, out fielding, and pitch recognition (balls and strikes) will have to be unlocked through various training sessions. The training sessions can be a lot of fun and Microsoft Game Studios did a great job with this feature as it adds to the fun of creating and molding your own player into an all-star.

As much fun as you may have with the create-a-player feature, I do have a baseball game to write about. Inside Pitch offers the nice option of training in batting, fielding and pitching. So for gamers who are a little hesitant to start out in the big leagues, feel free to try out the tutorial section to get more accustomed to playing. Jumping into a single game I selected my home team, the Phillies and faced off against a lesser threat, the Detroit Tigers. I figured if I was going to win my first game, why not make things a little easier. Being the home team allowed me to start off on defense, which is actually an enjoyable part of Inside Pitch. Pitching is done very well and you’ll have a selection of three or four types of pitches, varying on who is pitching. You’ll have choices such as: curveballs, sliders, fastballs, forkballs, sinkers etc… Pitching in Inside Pitch is very easy and is opened to a wide variety of strategies. You can choose where to place your pitch in nine different directions, then you also have the option of making your pitch a ball or strike. If you opt to select pitching a ball you then can put your pitch inside or outside of the base getting the batter to chase the pitch far from his reach. This can be real fun, especially when facing off against a friend who loves to chase those really high and outside pitches. As your pitcher gets tired you’ll notice that your pitches won’t be as fast and won’t be on target as much as you would like. It becomes a game of chess sometimes. You pitching a fastball, the batter is thinking change-up.

Regrettably, fielding isn’t as fun as pitching and at times, suffers from a brain fart. When a ball is hit the closest person to the ball should automatically become the select fielder, unfortunately that isn’t the case all the time, and you’re left with some very upsetting plays. Grounders that should be played by the shortstop go unattended and you’re left chasing the ball into the outfield. It’s something that happens a little to often for my pleasure and you have to learn how to counteract the situation by manually switching to the player closes to the ball, even though it might be too late and your forced to just live with it. On a brighter note, throwing to your cut-off man and the individual bases is very easy and should be applauded. Hitting the cut-off man is simply done by pressing down the analog pad and each direction represents a base. By simply pushing that direction you’ll throw the ball to the corresponding base. There are no fumbling around with 1000 buttons or confusing directions.

Switching back to something positive, batting proved to be more in-depth and likeable. Inside Pitch gives you a time meter that let’s you know how early and late you swung at the last pitch. This gives you an idea of when to swing, especially if you’re looking to pull the ball or hit down the line. Once the pitch is thrown you’ll see a quick glimpse of a yellowish ball outline where the ball is going to cross the plate. It’s up to you to time your swing perfectly to get a hit. It’s a mechanic that takes some time to get used to, and with so many different pitching styles, it can become a very challenging but very fun time. Once you get the hang of batting and actually get a man on base you’ll then have the fun time of stealing, or running around like a mad man. Inside Pitch allow you to control every base runner together, or individually. By pressing the L button you can choose to advance all your players to run, or if you’d rather send one man running you can hold down the X button and hit the direction of the base on your D-pad. Like batting, it’ll take some getting used to, especially when there are multiple players on base, but I can’t think of having it done any other way. Microsoft makes use of all the buttons on their controller and they did it well for Inside Pitch.

Of course probably the most important fact is that Inside Pitch can be played online with your X-box LIVE brothers/sisters. Playing online is a fun time as long as you can find the right type of people, as that tends to be with every game you play online. Even though there was some lag during a pitch or hit, I was generally happy with the outcome. Talking baseball while playing baseball can be a really fun time, especially if you’re a die-hard baseball fan. Making this game LIVE compatible really makes worth buying.

Finally something else that Inside Pitch includes is the Championship Challenges. These nifty challenges allow you to take control of some of the more memorable moments of the 2002 baseball season. You can hit for Barry Bond’s 600 homer or pitch a perfect game with Kenny Rogers. The challenges can be fun and it’s always challenging (no pun) to try and out due yourself later on.

Inside Pitch plays well and more importantly, isn’t too difficult for the average gamer to tackle. It plays quick for a baseball game, and if you can get past some of the nauseating fielding you’ll probably enjoy the core game mechanics mentioned above. Unfortunately it takes more then just good gameplay to win my heart over and as you’ll read Inside Pitch lacks what it takes to bring home the pennant.

It’s a mixed bag of shells when we talk about the graphics of Inside Pitch. On the one hand there’s the beautifully render, authentically looking stadiums that are done extremely well detailed. From Veterans Stadium to Candlestick Park, you’ll be treated to all of the nicest ballparks in baseball.

On the other hand there are the weird and repetitive animations and only semi good-looking character textures. Even though the players look like the real deal, you couldn’t always tell. Some players looked very real, while others seemed to be less convincing. Some of the less appealing things had to be watching the running, throwing, and especially diving of the players. It just made me laugh. A player dives for the ball like he’s diving on top of a hand grenade, and if I have to look at those huge gloves I think I’m going to wet myself. It’s a funny picture when a player catches the ball with his huge mitt and then proceeds to rock back and forth as if he’s going to go hunt something. Though hands down, the funniest thing has to be at the end of the game when all the umpires stand around rocking back and forth as if they have no idea what to do. It’s as if someone forgot to add some animations for the end of a game. Rehashed homerun sequences also got old pretty quickly and the only thing that impressed me graphically (not counting the stadiums) were the jersey textures. They looked very well done and you could almost see the individual stitching. The bottom line on Inside Pitch is that it could have been better, a whole lot better, and what’s there just gets by. Definitely not the prettiest baseball game ever; Inside Pitch feel way short in my eye candy consumption for the day and I’m really not sure how some of these animations passed the screening test.

Since there won’t be much praising in this department I might as well start off with something positive. Microsoft did a top-notch job of incorporating surround sound for Inside Pitch. Listening to the ambience during the gameplay and hearing the umpire call balls and strikes behind me was very realistic and noticeable. It’s one thing that stood out above everything else in the game. The ambient sounds really mixed well and listening to them in 5.1 surround sound made me believe I was in the batter’s box. Unfortunetely, having surround sound also meant listening to a lot of repetitive play-by-play as well. The play-by-play, done by Tim McCarver and Joe Buck, basically consist of calling the game as it progresses. McCarver will talk about players’ stats, his last at bat, and the oncoming play, while Joe Buck will occasionally add his two cents in. There isn’t much chatter between the two as there would be in a real major league game and I guess it isn’t too bad, but at times just comes off as someone reading from a script and ends up stale. The sound effects also ended up dry and listening to the ball hit the bat (a defining sound in baseball) didn’t do the real thing justice. I wanted to hear a crack and instead I got a thud. The one good nice feature added to Inside Pitch is that there are some interesting facts about each ballpark you play at and if you’re someone who is interested in the history of baseball you can get a good earful about each ballpark and its home team.

Offering a slew of content, Inside Pitch allows gamers to go online and experience peanuts and crackerjacks with their fellow X-Box Live members. Joining the party of added content are our friends Dolby Digital surround sound, downloadable rosters, and even custom soundtracks! Unfortunately HDTV wasn’t invited so he’ll have to sit out of this one. I can’t complain with everything put into Inside Pitch and without all of this content it wouldn’t have scored as well in the long run.

Pitching and batting each have different camera angles, but all relatively the same as the camera just zooms in and out a bit. The one angle that is different, and I don’t recommend, allows you to get a perspective from just outside the pitchers mound. Depending on which hand the batter is you’ll see a HUD on the left or right hand of the screen that will show you everything you need to know. Pitch type, scoreboard, outs, inning, base runners, pitch speed, strikes, outs, and even the name of the batters dog! Well ok, maybe not that last one but Inside Pitch does a very good job of putting everything up for display without cluttering up the screen. Baseball is a game of statistics and everything you need to know about the game will be there for your pretty little eyes.

It’s not the best baseball game by far, but with online play and some very easy and approachable gameplay, Inside Pitch can appeal to the casual gamer as well as the die hard fan. Though the presentation falls short and you probably won’t be praising this game for “complete realistic ballpark action” it can offer you, as it did me, some hours of fun. Definitely a rent-before-you-buy game, Inside Pitch isn’t for everyone. Hopefully next year will offer us a whole new season.