Chase Becotte: Beyond the somewhat expected hiccups of really slow menus for the online modes, the game is feeling mighty Show-y so far. The love and care is there, and I still felt right at home sitting down to play my first game.

Which is not to say the game feels the same as last year -- I'm hitting like garbage so far -- but more means it just feels comfortable to get back into the swing of things. The fielding has stuck out the most so far as it feels much more clean both from a visual and controls standpoint to this point. I'll certainly be digging in during the coming days, and I'm stoked once more to have The Show back in my life.

Mike Lowe: The precision response (or whatever it's called) is very noticeable, and is the best subtle improvement to the game this year. Pulling the ball finally feels realistic.

Franchise mode needs some attention, especially for carryover saves and official game-scoring because things like caught stealings shouldn't be happening on a hit-and-run where there's a force out. For a mode that tracks stats like franchise, it's sort of a big deal (like the Chris').

Battle Royale is very cool, and it's a lot of fun drafting teams--you'll quickly discover some very intuitive ways you can and should be constructing your team for a 3-inning game.

Millennium: My first impression can be summed up in one word: polish. The game's familiar feel is ramped up by an amazing new lighting engine, immensely cleaner defensive animations and the presence a more responsive input system. Loading into your first afternoon start you are immediately hit with the increased visual quality of the stadiums, although the player models are showing some age. As you play the audio atmosphere of the crowd and the striking of the ball on the bat bring you front and center into spring. Drafting a Battle Royale team is a great way for user to be able to experience usign cards they may otherwise never see in Diamond Dynasty, while Conquest mode brings a Risk-type meta game using your Diamond Dynasty line up against the CPU. Both of these modes using 3 inning match ups give the single serving gamer even more reason to dive in to baseball (and the hardcore DD player more options to build their sqaud. It's easy to see why MLB 16: The Show is a significant upgrade from last year's iteration.

Chris Sanner: The Show continues to be a stable, consistent performer in Sports Gaming. You know exactly what you are going to get every time with this series. The baseball action on the field is still super authentic and the bells and whistles around that continue to improve.

Really the first thing which stood out to me is that the production values and overall design of the game continues to improve. The tooltips are annoying for vets but will be helpful for newcomers of the series. Also the helpful on-screen hints and guides, especially the subtle ones, are well done and really help your understanding of what it is you want to do. On that front, The Show has really improved for newcomers.

As far as the modes, I haven't gotten to sink enough time into anything to form a real opinion -- but overall the game looks to have taken a step forward. We'll see what the coming weeks bring.