Ten Areas of Improvement for MLB 12: The Show

Feature Article

Submitted on: 10/26/2011 by Phil Varckette

With the World Series coming to a climax the next two nights (Editors note: or one if my Rangers have their way), you may be thinking that it’s a bit early to start looking forward to next season. But with free agency starting not long after the Classic ends, time will start to fly by. After all, MLB 12: The Show is the next big sports game release.

Here are a few things I think could improve the annual SCEA release.

1. More control over the fielders

This is something fans of The Show have been asking for, for a very long time. It was reported from those who attended The Show’s community day last year that Sony gave this a shot. It was said that the ball travels to fast for the user to field it effectively.

If possible, slow the ball down. Let us have total control to make the play.

2. Fix the Pick-Off System

Runners shouldn’t be getting picked off multiple times a game. It seems like whenever you take that extra step, your chances of getting picked-off skyrockets. Let us hold down L2 and release to take off, Instead of doing it automatically. MLB 2K11 does this very well.

3. Better Ball Physics

I would like to see the ball come off the bat more realistically. When a ball is hit down the line, it tends to slice. This is represented to a small degree, but could be done much better. This would also include balls with top spin and knuckling action. It would add just another touch of realism the series is so well known for.

4. PS VITA Compatibility

Whether it is the ability to actually play our franchise games on the VITA or just manage our franchise, give us something innovative. This is something the fans have wanted to see with the PSP for years, but it never came to fruition. Sony may be surprised how much VITA sales spike by implementing this feature.

5. Franchise Changes

Franchise mode, for the most part, is well done in The Show. The upgrades needed shouldn’t be in the form of an overhaul or anything like that, but we would love to see the scouting system get some love. Team tendencies should be tied to the manager; trade logic needs looked at as well as roster management; make managing rosters more user-friendly; and last but not least, give our editors, like Knight, better tools for roster adjustments.

6. Licensed Equipment and Accessories

Another long standing community wish. With seemingly every other current-gen sports game having licensed equipment and accessories, it's time for The Show to follow suit. It would add so much to the immersion factor. Being able to decide if I want Carlos Santana to use Nike or Under Armor catchers gear would be pretty cool. You could also take this a step further in Road to the Show mode and have certain brands offer to sponsor your player based on performance.

7. Presentation Upgrades

Announcing needs a breath of fresh air. You don’t necessarily have to add or subtract anyone; just give us a ton of new commentary. It would also be great to see enhanced presentation for rivalry games, or games with meaning. That could be something as simple as some special commentary, new graphical wipes. Same goes with playoff games; make it feel like October and give us some on-screen playoff logo splashes. Talk about the importance of each and every at bat.

8. MLB Today-Like Mode

Sometimes a competing company does something so well that you have to capitalize on it for yourself. I am a big “Play Now” guy, and this feature would be a fantastic addition. Keep the rosters updated daily and let the user follow along with the season.

9. Create-A-Team/Expansion Mode in Franchise

This was a blast in the now defunct All-Star Baseball series. The Show lovers love customization. Give us the ultimate customization experience with this mode. Let us select our city, build our own stadium and jump into whatever league and division we want and participate in an expansion draft.

10. Miscellaneous Additions

Co-op Franchise mode, more sounds of the show options, Single-A teams, cleaner user-friendly interfaces, more uniforms, umpire arguments, ejections for arguing, more stat overlays, more hit variety, stand-alone Playoff mode and more catcher animations.

Final Thoughts

This is just a small sampling of what the community would like to see this year. If we know the folks at SCEA like we think we do, I would be willing to bet a lot of our wishes will be granted this year.

After all, there may not be a company who listens to its fan base like SCEA.

MLB 12 The Show Videos

Member Comments

# 21 Knight165 @ 10/26/11 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capa


	Unfortunately, as Russell has already said in threads on the board, it is too late for any real major changes. Just tweaks and minor fixes might be doable for the 2012 game. This will start up again after the game releases in March. As of now, I am sure most of the hardcore features are locked in and being tested. They are not going to add any new major functionality this late in the cycle. Not sure how big an effort some of the items are that were mentioned in the article, but chances are if they are not already in they will need to wait til the follow on release.

Well... to be fair....what he meant was that there is little chance to do anything except tweak things that are existing...AND to things that might have been changed/added for '12.
We don't know what those things are(yet!)

I can't really "argue" with anything in this article. Good stuff for sure.

M.K.
Knight165

# 22 statum71 @ 10/26/11 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armor & Sword


	I think my biggest area of improvemnt would be the baserunning system. I do like the stick vs the classic baserunning but I still think that just looking at what MVP 2005 did on PS2 with baserunning is a model for success. I also agree with the October atmosphere. I am currently in my year one post season and the crowds are not any different. I would love to see the chilly air, the fan's waving their towels on 2 strike counts and rising to a fever pitch....some shots of players in the dugouts biting their nails, or spitting seeds on a crucial at bat...of course you can "x" through those cut scenes of players or managers pacing but that would add a sweet touch of realisim in the post season. A "this week in baseball" type of show showing standings, hot and cold batters and pitchers and a AL and NL player of the week would also add another layer of immersion to franchise. As far as fielding, that has been my biggest pet peeve of the series. And I went to auto fielding and manual throwing because it looks flat out beautiful and as sim as any sports game I have ever played, and I got tired of wanting to fling my controller across the room. Being a baseball player myself, defense is one of the things I love. And when the animations get in the way of the control...it can be very frustrating. What I don't want to happen is that in the name of control we lose the beauty of this game. I am very happy with the ratings playing out the result in the field. But if they find a way to make fielding much more smoother and tighter I am all for it. But I think it will be a tough task.

OMG!!! For me personally....if this were added, I wouldn't need another single improvement from SCEA. Gosh thats what I've been waiting for.

I don't even necessarily need highlights. Just something that "brings it all together."

# 23 tnixen @ 10/26/11 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armor & Sword


	I think my biggest area of improvemnt would be the baserunning system. I do like the stick vs the classic baserunning but I still think that just looking at what MVP 2005 did on PS2 with baserunning is a model for success. I also agree with the October atmosphere. I am currently in my year one post season and the crowds are not any different. I would love to see the chilly air, the fan's waving their towels on 2 strike counts and rising to a fever pitch....some shots of players in the dugouts biting their nails, or spitting seeds on a crucial at bat...of course you can "x" through those cut scenes of players or managers pacing but that would add a sweet touch of realisim in the post season. A "this week in baseball" type of show showing standings, hot and cold batters and pitchers and a AL and NL player of the week would also add another layer of immersion to franchise. As far as fielding, that has been my biggest pet peeve of the series. And I went to auto fielding and manual throwing because it looks flat out beautiful and as sim as any sports game I have ever played, and I got tired of wanting to fling my controller across the room. Being a baseball player myself, defense is one of the things I love. And when the animations get in the way of the control...it can be very frustrating. What I don't want to happen is that in the name of control we lose the beauty of this game. I am very happy with the ratings playing out the result in the field. But if they find a way to make fielding much more smoother and tighter I am all for it. But I think it will be a tough task.

Same here in no way would I want full control over the fielders if it meant losing all those great fielding animations.

I think if Sony can remove most of those slow animations that users hate so much and make the fielding feel smoother and tighter the fielding in MLB The Show would be just about perfect at least for me anyway.

# 24 humaca80 @ 10/26/11 10:33 PM

Please give us a highlight show with "plays of the game" from every game played that night during franchise mode. Maybe then at the end of the week, have top plays from the week. This would add a TON to the franchise mode.

# 25 FroznYogurt @ 10/26/11 11:27 PM

I'm lovin' this list. 3, 8, and 9 are my personal favorites. For commentary, have them engage in regular convo's during the game. All I really play is "play now" & local/online multi-player, so 8 would be a fantastic addition.

# 26 Artman22 @ 10/26/11 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by econoodle


	good article. I am in agreement with everything. also, agreed, statum. i'd be shocked if SCEA doesnt finally step into the new millennium with tv style presentation ala NBA/MLB 2K i.e. stat overlays, league leaders, headlines. its been 3 years of the fans requesting those babies.

This would be great. I hope they really add this.

# 27 DeuceDouglas @ 10/27/11 12:23 AM

Long live MVP 2005.

# 28 Knight165 @ 10/27/11 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas


	Long live MVP 2005.

Hell yeah!
What VHS tape you watchin' tonight bro?!

M.K.
Knight165

# 29 Dazraz @ 10/27/11 04:19 AM

Good list. Commentary isn't bad compared to many sport titles but it needs to be more dynamic, progressing in line with the season, with more stat analysis. Having an NBA Today style feature with breakdowns of other games from around the league would add alot to the gameday experience.

I don't necessarily agree with your comments about the lack of fielder control. The majority of fielding plays in regards to catches are pretty routine so I don't really see how the developers can make this any more challenging without ruining the game with a load of unlikely fielding errors whereby a player has not quite got his fielder in the right position. Likewise, fast ground balls to the infield would be hard for the player to react to in real time due to the switching camera angle therefore a degree of AI assistance is acceptable.

For me the biggest gripe with The Show is the Base Running system. On paper it looks straight forward enough. In reality it leads to too many situations when baserunners are not progressing when you have multiple runners at the plates. I've lost many an out/run through this.

# 30 DeuceDouglas @ 10/27/11 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knight165


	Hell yeah! What VHS tape you watchin' tonight bro?! M.K. Knight165

Whichever one plays better.

See what I did there.

# 31 gigadkc @ 10/27/11 07:29 AM

I think that the ball physics and hitting in general have to be more realistic. Anybody who ever played PYS likely knows what I mean. I'd also like to see cursor batting as an option because I don't like any of the hitting modes in The Show.

Another great thing would be a "Grand Prix Mode" like in PYS where you start with a crap team, have to advance through tournaments and earn coins to buy card packs to get a better team. That's such a fun mode and I think it would be awesome to have something like that in an MLB game. (The Ultimate Team mode in Fifa is pretty similar)

Anyway, if there aren't any changes to hitting AND ball physics in MLB 12 then I won't buy the game for the first time since MLB 07.

# 32 antilowpe @ 10/27/11 08:08 AM

I've wroten this in April but still what I think about franchise mode

Franchise Mode
In your opinion what needs to be changed, added, or tweaked to make this portion of the game better? Along with that what would you like to see more of?

*** Give us the ability to modify divisions (ie put the Brewers back in the AL Central)
OCTOBER EDIT : or put the Astros in the AL WEST

*** Create-a-team which replaces another one (location, name, uniforms)

*** Create-a-team which would be add to a division which means 31 teams I know (so maybe 1 more team to create 2 conferences with 16 franchises)

*** Create-a-stadium if we create-a-team / Create-a-stadium during our franchise.
This feature should allow us to determine :
#1: the field's dimension (left field, left center field, centerfield, right center field, right field but also foul territory with the ability to "draw" it, the depth behind the plate) and its form (is the outfield is straight (as progressive field) or "curve" (as US Cellular field))
#2: the height of the wall (with different height for different zones of the stadium) (as Citi field) and even the possibility to add high wall like the Green Monster
#3: grass or turf / roof or not
#4: obviously the number of rows/seats (which would be related to budget)
#5: positions of the benches / pen / ...
#6: Decoration (like the fountains in KC)

*** Extend players/coaches' contracts during the season

*** Firing coaches/scout/staff during the season

*** More stats (players & teams) & more splits stats (batter vs pitcher, performance of a player vs a team, in a particular stadium, month by month,...)

*** If possible each player vs player stats during the franchise (which tells us if we perform with a specific player vs a specific player or not)

*** Contracts offered, free agent's type (A/B/ nothing) based also on performance and not only related to ratings

*** Rename our franchise save data (if you play like me with a lot of save you certainly keep some save @ some moment of the season like AS break end of each month,...)

*** Promotion (cal up/send down) based on performances for each level (AA/AAA/MLB)

*** Add the possibility to convert players to another position (rather than just editing him)

*** Learn a pitch for a pitcher (rather than just editing him)

*** Add a personnality to players (like Madden 10 did) which influences their choices (for instance, what are they looking for first ? Money ? a ring ? coming back to their birthplace ? neglects small market teams ! never play for a rival or a specific team (do you see A-Rod in a BoSox uniform?) / rival players in the future club / clubhouse cancer like Manny

...)

*** Add a personnality to managers (type of line up : pitching, speed & defense, power, small ball,...)

*** Add a personnality to GM's too. This means going further than just the rebuilding/normal/playoff profile (what do they want ? Obviously if you ask a GM he wants to win so how could he do it ? First making money and then being a contender ? if so, how? marketing, being aggresive on FA to draw a lot of people to the stadium, ...)

*** View stats/awards/winner/standings of the past years.

*** Maybe the overlay of the stats could be like baseball-reference

Thx for reading

EDIT :
*** Each stadium created should be shared between players. This allows people to create old stadiums as some did by creating classic rosters.

*** Give the possibility to discuss the retirement of a player, try to convince him to play one more season. If we fail, we should offer him a job in the organisation.

*** I like the TWIB idea. And maybe we could see some higlights of the games we've simulated during the game we are playing (like "live look-in" on MLB)

# 33 johnpreyes @ 10/27/11 09:56 AM

To be honest, I think the gameplay is close to perfect. The only upgrades I want are presentation and better QA/QC. The dropped third strike is annoying as hell but doesn't ruin the game for me.

# 34 Knight165 @ 10/27/11 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas


	Whichever one plays* better. See what I did there.*

No...it's says no message.
You must have had no bars on that LG flip phone you're using.
Borrow a friends iPhone or Droid and try again!

M.K.
Knight165

# 35 hf199 @ 10/27/11 10:58 AM

A few things:

> More umpire personalities, animations and uniforms (long sleeves in early spring/fall, blazers). This makes the whole pitcher and batter experience more fulfilling.
> Where are the 2 extra umpires in left and right field during the playoffs? Fix this!
> Commentary! 2K11 blew you away, NUFF SAID!
> More control over mound visits and who you want to send; pitching coach or manager and have effectiveness
> I love the working jumbotron but you can't enjoy them if you don't show them enough and the screen cuts off when a homer is hit so you can't enjoy the animation and that goes for K's, walks, etc.

Well now wants to run a franchise when the marlins have a new stadium now I have to wait for '12 bummer! realism people this should have been included somehow.

# 36 hf199 @ 10/27/11 11:00 AM

More stats like 2K11 for pitchers and batters up to the plate!

# 37 hf199 @ 10/27/11 11:01 AM

I meant long sleeve pull overs and blazers that some umpires like to wear and different masks

# 38 HustlinOwl @ 10/27/11 11:13 AM

Isn't improvement defined as improving what already exists in the game and not adding more fluff, that will more than likely not meet everyone's expectations? Just give me MLB12 and Im happy. Another note, moving here around the first of December AND NO MORE SATELLITE INTERNET

# 39 Galarius @ 10/27/11 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yount19


	Knight would probably agree with me on this request; How about two player manage only mode? It would be like any great tabletop or pc text simulation baseball game but on steroids!!!!

yeah, bigtime....and for online play as well

# 40 Galarius @ 10/27/11 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derekjeter02


	this game needs one thing its not the commentary, its not the camera angles it needs legend teams like nba 2k12 that would be great who agrees?

definitely...entire classic teams would be great and it is definitely an area that is open for expansion

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