Trip Hawkins

If You Can

My pick is High Heat: Major League

Baseball 2004. While I know many Edge readers don’t care much about baseball, I believe this game still sets the high bar for authentic sports simulation. While this was about the time that developers had enough time with 64bit graphics to make models, scenes and camera movement that were plenty realistic, the key was attention to detail and accuracy in the physics and gameplay, and how that was harnessed accurately to the genuine strategy, tactics and statistical outcomes in the game. While graphics have indeed gotten better since that time, I see more of a regression in the simulation and gameplay elements in sports games.