Phil Varckette: I have to be honest, I was getting a little bored with The Show. I was upset that Progressive Field didn't receive the renovations for this year. But then I saw the grass pattern correct, the wall color right shade, and alternate uniforms fixed. I started to feel better about the game. 

As I was playing through the first game last night I started to notice improvements right away. Fielding felt tighter and I saw new animations. Pitching just felt better than last year. I can't put my finger on it, but it just feels better. I need to get back into the swing of things with hitting. (no pun intended) I only scored 5 runs in three games, but It always takes me a while to get the pitch recognition down in this game. Sony boasted a new ability to see breaking balls and I have to say they weren't lying. Its much easier to recognize a breaking pitch from a straight pitch now. This should eventually help my hitting. 

Overall, even though its very early I am liking the game more this year than I did last year. I feel like the the second season on PS4 is really showing the advantage of the hardware. 

Matthew Coe: MLB 15: The Show feels like a very refined version of MLB 14: The Show. This may bother some series veterans, but to me the changes that I've seen so far on day one, warrant a purchase. The new directional hitting is a standout on day one, as is the improved control over my fielders. 

This year's game feels tighter than last year's in almost every respect. I have only had limited time so far, but I'm feeling really good about this game.

Robert Kollars: Tweak and refinement seem to be the descriptions that fit MLB 15 the best, but you should not take that as a derogatory statement. 

If you're a seasoned veteran of the game, than most likely you have little quirks about the game that have built up over the years. With the latest version of their MLB franchise, it is quite obvious that Sony San Diego has been listening, and tried to correct as many little things as possible over a single development cycle. When you combine the new animations, new lighting system, and the make-over that all of the ballparks have received, it equates to a lot more than just a new coat of fresh paint and roster update. 

One of the hardest things to do in the world of video game development is to take a yearly title and make it feel fresh and new, yet Sony San Diego has done a wonderful job of making MLB 15 feel like that.

Glenn Wigmore: This year's rendition of The Show, after playing a couple of games, feels pretty good. I noticed some of the new fielding routines, batting animations and pitch break stuff right away. I felt somewhat more empowered at bat than I have in previous, with just a tad more ease at working a count or laying off a borderline pitch. That felt good.

The new directional hitting seems like a nice hybrid for someone like me as well, since it allows for the standard timing-based input if you want, but then you can add in push or pull (or getting under or over the ball) in order to place the ball where you want. It's still taking a bit of getting used to, but I think the timing is starting to make sense.

I agree that the field textures aren't as high-fidelity as they could be, and some of the walking/running speeds on animations still aren't quite right, especially when you factor in user input. That said, the enhanced crowd, which now fills seats and moves a bit more believably, looks great, and I also enjoyed the licensed equipment for batting gloves and cleats.

It makes me sad that online is probably still going to be a gong show (I'll have to try it out soon), but this year's release looks to maintain the single-player quality just fine.

Jayson Young: After finishing six matches (half of them offline, half online), I was immediately disappointed in the frame rate and the online performance, both of which don't seem to have improved much since MLB 14: The Show. Sony San Diego has again released a very choppy game with an annoyingly inconsistent frame rate, regardless of whether you're playing the solo or multiplayer modes. Online, I immediately encountered the same synchronization issue from last season, which still causes objects to warp all over the field unexpectedly. Diamond Dynasty is also having trouble registering completed games, just like it did in MLB 14; both Extra Innings DD games I played this afternoon have not appeared in my match history. 

The inability to take custom camera angles online remains a bummer, too. And I don't understand why my friend and I cannot play an unranked multiplayer match on separate difficulty settings. We can do that in co-op mode, if we're sitting on the same couch, but if we're playing over the Internet, both of us have to use the same difficulty settings\. Speaking of co-op mode, an online version of that feature still doesn't exist on the PlayStation 4, as sadly, it was last seen in MLB 13: The Show on the PlayStation 3.

MLB 15: The Show's subtle gameplay improvements and year-to-year saves will probably please the people who just want to continue their Road the Show or offline Franchise against the computer. But as someone who'd prefer to compete against/alongside my friends, Sony San Diego's baseball series continues to be as far from matching Madden and FIFA as the MiLB is from competing with the NFL and the EPL.

Caley Roark: I was immediately struck by two relatively minor things that have really freshened up The Show for me: the lighting and user interface upgrades.

Much has been made about the lighting improvements, but you really can't appreciate them until you are in-game. I played a game at night, in the rain, and during a summer day. Each looked different, and frankly, much more realistic than in the past. Night games look especially good.

I didn't hear quite as much publicity for the upgrades to the user interface, but they, too, are really well done. First, when batting, everything has been "decluttered." Things like the pitchers' repertoire are hidden--but still only a button press away. While in the field, pitch history is equally accessible. 

Other improvements to the UI make the game easier to play, such as contextual base running and pickoff commands. 

These are two pretty minor changes -- as most of the changes this year seem to be -- but are very effective.