Front Page Sports Baseball - Graphics and Gameplay

Graphics and Gameplay

The game had good graphics for its time period. These improved with each release but stayed true to the Sierra format. In batter/pitcher mode, the view was 2D and when the ball was in play the game switched to 3D mode. Team colors could be adjusted, but there were no logos on player uniforms.

Despite its sophisticated physics engine, the game's graphics did not measure up to the baseball games released at the time by EA Sports. The game's strength was its statistics engine, support for career play, and roster management. Each team holds 50 players. 25 players on active roster, 15 in AAA, and 10 in low minors.

The game was never strong as a first-person arcade style game. As one review states "But just as with Sierra's Football Pro games, arcade-style play is not this game's strong point. The graphics, at least from the batter-pitcher perspective, are certainly decent - until you notice there's no option for a pitcher-batter perspective, and that, with the exception of skin tone, all the players are generic in the way they look, the way they step up to the plate, and the way they swing."

"On the up side, you do have a nice variety of managerial options available in the hands-on mode, as well as extensive control over pitching (type, location, speed) and batting (type of swing and area to look for the pitch). The game looks and feels a lot like real baseball - the animations are dead-on without looking canned and the ball physics seem to be about right."

The game also featured many ambient sounds the add the baseball experience. WAV files were used to add crowd noises, cheers, boos, pop corn vendors, hecklers etc. The game opens with the Star-Spangled Banner, and during the 7th-inning stretch, Take Me Out to the Ball Game is also played. As a special touch when playing in SkyDome or Olympic Stadium, Oh Canada is played.

The graphics were not a concern for serious fans of the game. At the height of its popularity, there were dozens of online leagues, and many took up the task of writing utilities for the game. Shaun Sullivan (of PureSim Baseball 2007 fame) and Rudy Kaman are among the many utility writers that made the game easier to play. There were also a few websites devoted to discussions on better tweaking of the pb.ini file.