It remains to be seen if their commentary has legitimate staying power after the 100 th time around the horn, but at least they’re trying to keep things fresh by infusing a little new blood into the mix Also, the flow of conversation between hosts feels more organic than prior in years. While I am still in the honeymoon phase with this new duo, I’ve found their dialog to be far less wooden in its delivery than the aforementioned bleacher with a mic. After five seasons of listening to Eric Karros continuously prove that he was as charismatic as a park bench, it was nice to see them hand the microphone to broadcasting veterans Harold Reynolds and Dan Pleasac. Personally, I think this was a change that was long overdue.
#Mlb the show 17 ps4 review series#
Series mainstay, Matt Vasgersian, was the sole survivor. In a move that came out of left field, there was a rather vicious purge of the announcers booth. It may seem minor on paper, but this evolution opens up the door to offensive possibilities that advance the on-field experience just one step closer to the real thing. Once players fully grasp these new concepts, it’s only a matter of time before they start applying English to a swing. Hit trajectories that would have never been possible in prior seasons are now fair game. The path that the ball takes when leaving the bat is now determined by a variety of different situational factors. There was quite a bit of attention being shown to this enhancement leading into the season, but I cannot begin to overstate its significance. So play nice!Īnother area of dramatic improvement is the in-game physics engine.
Though I definitely wasn’t happy with being ripped away from the New York Mets, it was nice to see that there was actually consequences for bad behavior. My newly anointed CY Young award be damned! Eventually the coaching staff was so fed up with my shenanigans that I was shipped off to baseball’s Siberia - the Minnesota Twins. I started to play my character like the most insufferable asshole on the planet. It eventually got to the point where I was so disillusioned with the conversational repetition and predictability that I decided to make my own fun. While this is initially a fun new variation to the existing formula, it doesn’t take long before the conversation and dialog options begin to repeat ad nauseam. Essentially, this amounts to a post-game dialog tree that can be used to portray a modest, confident or conceded personality. Depending upon the performance of your up-and-comer, the coaching staff will interact with you in a handful of different ways. There is now a loosely constructed narrative that underpins your ascent to stardom. My personal favorite mode, Road to the Show, was also given a significant amount of attention this off season.
Everything from handmade logos that don’t seem to have a content filter (don’t ask me why I know that), to the color of your socks can be micromanaged to your heart’s content. Additionally, the level of player customization is off the charts. The roster of available player cards clocks in at over 2,000 from both the past and present. Taking a page from the EA Sports playbook, the series continues to make impressive investments into the Ultimate Team mirroring Diamond Dynasty mode. Most of the modes from last season are back again, only with a serious fresh coat of paint. Where some seasons tend to be more revolutionary than others, this year’s installment tends to lean more toward the evolutionary side of the spectrum. The entire studio was able to singularly focus on the current generation version, and it definitely shows. Even more promising is the fact that this is the first season without the release of an accompanying PlayStation 3 version. Though the lack of competition is an easy recipe for complacency, Sony San Diego has somehow managed to keep expectations high and the bar of quality even higher. If MLB The Show was a political candidate, it would have been running unopposed since 2013.