Operation Sports MLB 13 The Show Community Impressions Thread

[Strings74]

Moving my post to the proper thread:

The more I play RTTS the less I like the presentation and I am a RTTS vet with probably 2,000 games played (no joke). Bought bothi ps3 and vita version first day.

Love the game, love the developers and their obvious devotion to the fans here but I'm just bummed about the presentation design choice.

For the record, love the new fielding cams and the catch button etc. etc. Love the tails/parabola on the fly balls. The play by play thing takes some getting used to and I skip it most times but I definitely like it when I get on base to see how the inning shakes out or in close games. It was an addition that was needed.

The only thing I do not like is the presentation and I desperately miss the play by play. I understand the idea and having this "on the field" audio mode would have been a very cool addition but I agree that it should have been an option of some kind vs a default. Also i agree that the sporadic commentary is just... weird.

I'm guessing that the integration of the new stuff made making two kinds of presentation as options a programming difficulty. I get it. But man, I feel like I have no clue what's going on or what I've done so far in the game or season. Miss the overlays.

Also missing is maybe my favorite single part of RTTS: the replay of my monstrous home runs when I come up to bat again later. "We take you back to the third inning when he went deep!"

Anyway, not going to cry too much about it because the game is awesome and the developers absolutely care about their product but if there is any possible way to somehow add the option back, this particular player would be much, much appreciative.

Finally, can someone who knows for sure please explain the modulated audio? Is it supposed to simulate a radio? For the record, it would have been awesome if the games in Double-A had no announcers and the games in Triple-A were only "on the radio" but when you finally make The Show you get the full presentation. Kind of like the old NCAA games where games between small schools were not televised and hence had no announcers.

Anyway, this is my favorite sports franchise and I'm half a fanboi at this point but just keeping it real. I hope you consider this input going forward.

Play ball, my brothas.

[stealyerface]

Ryan Dempster had 9 K's for me last night, although his manager left him in for one batter too long, and ruined his gem.

The new swing and miss animations, especially from the Broadcast view while pitching, are really well done, and add a lot to the feeling of fooling the batter with a great pitch selection.

Very well done.

~syf

[stealyerface]

The bottom line for me is this:

You know you are enjoying a game when you are at work, and you can't wait to get home and play. I think about how I could have gotten my starter out a batter sooner and saved a brilliant effort he had put forth. I think about whether I can afford to play Drew at shortstop when Pedro has so much more range, but a suspect bat. I think about why I thought that there was any reason to throw anything but offspeed pitches to Jason Hayward, and the resulting whiplash Ryan Dempster received turning his head to quickly to watch a three run jack hit the trees. I think about how much I love Shane Victorino's absolute cannon in right field, but wish that he could give Ells a few pointers on how not to bounce a ball five times on a throw to the plate.

So, I suppose the highest praise I can give to a game is that after all the little nuances and things, I just cannot wait to play it.

~syf

[barsoffury]

One thing I love about this game is you can really feel and see the difference in how good or poor a fielders ability is. You really have to be careful with who you have at certain positions.

If you have a guy who is slow or has a brutal glove it can really cost you unlike in years past. Such a relief to finally be able to tell the difference between a great fielder to an okay one to a butcher of one.

[Armor and Sword]

Just when I thought it could not get any better with the amazing MLB The Show 12.....SCEA rolls out 13.

I got to say....I have been playing this game a lot of course testing out everything. So I have had a nice opportunity to just really dig into the gameplay and all the nice little touches they have fine tuned.

What jumps right out at you is the vastly and I mean really big time improved Ball Physics 2.0. I mean really guys? The ball and they way it comes of the bat, field, wall etc is the most life like baseball video game experience ever for me personally. So for anyone that thinks this is a roster update.....your don't play this game enough. Because if your a hardcore Show player it is so obvious what they have done this year. It happened on my first at bat with Derrick Jeter. I hit a looping single that sailed (rising) right over the second basemen's head.

It was a thing of beauty.

The flight of the ball this year looks, and feels so natural and organic. I really can't believe it. I am in heaven just from this one thing alone. Because quite frankly the only thing gameplay wise missing from 12 was this. The evolution of how the ball bounces, rolls and looks and feels when hit. It was a nice step on 12 but the flaw was evident with too many ground rule doubles, too many hard hit screamers caught for outs by ungodly and perfectly positioned OF's. Sliders helped alleviate this but it still would rear itself.

13? My goodness we have the most true to life ball physics ever for any sports game in history.




Fielding animations are sick. Last season I saw too many balls booted when hit in the hole or almost out of reach by all-star, gold glove caliber players. This year player ratings matter more than ever. Cano makes great plays, but a scrub journeyman boots balls.

The new OSD's are on point, and awesome. The new scoreboard bug is fantastic.

Lyons is a major breath of fresh air.


Franchise has some fantastic new features with a much more intuitive interface, scouting and player training. Better budget logic. Just better.


True Broadcast is even better this year. They brought back batter routines. Thank you!

Playoff mode.....rocks!!!!!! Atmosphere is totally there.

RTTS is very cool and feels fresh this year.


Ok so what don't I like. To be honest the only thing that I am not thrilled about is the warm up pitch music. While it is actually authentic to what is going on in ballparks around the league today....I miss my traditional organ music as I warm up my guys. It was relaxing, and very cool. It is the old school in me here complaining.


The Show 13 is a masterpiece. It really is a joy to play, and just keeps getting better and better every game. So many little things that just make you giddy as a die hard baseball fan.

OSFM is around the corner, some great classic rosters are in progress (1984,1987, 2001 OS All Time)

What more can you ask for?

This is my game till I get a PS4 in a couple of years.

SCEA thank you again for putting a ton of heart and soul into this game. You truly are on the same page with hardcore baseball fans.

[slthree]

In the past, a wild pitch has always meant I gave up a run to the computer controlled team. But I just threw a wild pitch and got the runner at the plate

[canuckassassin]

I'm going to confine these thoughts to Franchise/season mode, since its the only mode I've played in depth, and I find myself unqualified to talk about the gameplay itself.

I think its rather obvious that the thing most of us look for in a season simulation mode is realism. We want the things that happen in the game to reflect what could plausibly happen in real life. These are simulation games after all, not fantasy games. While no one can even come close to the show in terms of realistic gameplay, realism in season/franchise mode in previous iterations has severely lagged behind games like Baseball Mogul and OOTP. 2013 addressed a lot of these issues, and overall the game is much more realistic, however, there are still some issues that should be addressed either via patch or in future games.

Up until The Show 2012, I had chosen primarily to play season mode over franchise mode. However, as I gained an appreciation for the more delicate intricacies of the game, I switched to Franchise. OSFM made this a no brainer. Its just hard to get into managing a farm system when none of the prospects are real. Having played both franchise and season in 2013 I'm actually reconsidering what mode I will primarily play going forward. The reason for this is simple:the regression system.

Previous The Show games had terrible progression systems. Top prospects would very rarely develop realistically, and would be stuck in the minors until their late twenties, never turning into the superstars that they should have. 13 fixed this problem, and prospects develop much more realistically. However, on the other side, regression is completely broken. Players regress far too fast and far too randomly. I understand the spirit behind this change. You want older players to decline and not remain superstars into their late 30s and early 40s. However, the declines are far too steep. After one year virtually every player in the game over 35 will drop off below 70. This is completely unrealistic. There are many very good baseball players in their late 30s. What's even worse, in many cases, players will drop off BEFORE their mid 30s. For example, Stephen Strasburg, at 29, had dropped to 84 overall. MLB players tend to peak in the 27-32 age range, yet in this game, some players decline after they turn 25, and this seems to be completely random. In order to keep the game realistic I must edit every players attributes back up to where they should be. This is of course incredibly time consuming and is why until this problem is fixed, season is preferable to franchise. In season, players do not decline mid season. If you set a players overall at 90 at the beginning of the year, he will remain a 90 until the offseason. In franchise, he will begin to decline DURING the season, necessitating an impossible amount of micromanagement to keep the game realistic.

Flawed regression aside, there have been many improvements to season/franchise this year. Ironically, the scouting system, touted as the biggest improvement in the game is not one of them. Scouting is completely unnecessary, as the AI teams are completely inept at drafting. Many of the "blue chip" prospects go undrafted, meaning you can snag one in every round without having to spend a penny on scouting. In season mode, the draft is a crapshoot, as you can no longer see a players potential by looking at his card (as far as I know). Even after you draft a player you can't see his potential until after you sign him.

Another minor quibble: awards are still broken. Cy Young awards are still too dependent on wins, and more often than not MVP awards just go to whoever has the most home runs. Gold gloves still seemingly have no pattern to them whatsoever (though I've noticed a slight improvement). While the game does have advanced stats, and integration of them into the award calculation would help, most of the advanced stats are horribly dated. No one uses hoban effectiveness quotient anymore. I know that adding WAR would probably be too complicated, but there are a modicum of advanced stats that could be integrated in future games.

Aside from that however there are improvements. The AI no longer makes ridiculous trades. Teams guard their superstars and top prospects more carefully now. AI teams seem more willing to swap prospects for MLB ready players and vice versa. The top 50 prospects icons are a nice touch. And perhaps most importantly, retirements are fixed. No longer do players in their mid 30s randomly retire, and most high end players go at least until 40. I also like how the HoF inductions occur the year a player retires, as its easier to keep track of.

The budget system is an improvement. It helps with parity, which was a huge problem in the last game. Rebuilds are possible, even for the AI. One major flaw however is the "Team X can no longer afford this contract" issue during the offseason, even though the team clearly has enough money to pay the player.

I know most of this post has been devoted to negatives, but I still think this is the best baseball game ever made, and if they could patch the regression system, it would begin to rival Baseball Mogul and OOTP in terms of simulation realism and depth.

[Armor and Sword]

I agree that the off the field simulation side of The Show is not up to the deep AI of OTTP or Baseball Mogul. But I don't expect it to be as those are purely text baseball sims while The Show is a true console video game. Huge difference is in the available memory and disc space.

I have a hard time comparing console video games to PC sports text sims. It's apples and oranges IMO.

When it comes to console video games is it hard to not agree that The Show 13 quote frankly has the best franchise mode to date this gen? The only other game I even mention in the same breath is NBA 2K11