MLB 15 The Show: A Look Back At What Worked and What Didn't

[bhazlewood]

I haven't played the game for as many years as some (most?) of you. Mostly, I play RTTS, so there's a few things there:

1) Would like an opportunity for endorsements and interactions with other players (a la NBA2K)
2) Getting signs from the coaches (bunt / hit & run / etc) - a fundamental part of baseball.
3) Nit pick, I know, but the animation when there's a pickoff play at 2B - the runner ALWAYS takes his hand off the bag before touching it with his foot, which an alert infielder would tag for an out.
4) Agree with others, commentary gets old fast. "One thing he can't do, is walk him and load the bases..."
5) One step lead off from 1B = Picked off every time. Seriously? Maybe I'm just not fast enough on the stick LOL

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor and Sword

2. Scouting - Obviously it had a bug (well documented) and that needs to be seriously looked at to enhance the draft and make scouting a rewarding part of the game.

IMO, scouting needs to be vastly reworked or just dropped.

The fact that "discovery" is just creating new players on the fly instead of actually discovering unknown talent or going to different regions to try to find talent is a turn off for me.

I couldn't tell any difference to the pitching/hitting abilities of scouts. What did these actually do? Doesn't seem to impact the accuracy of the report.

Also, when I learned that "discovered" players are available to all teams...why? How does the rest of the league know about a talent I found unless they scouted him, too? Even then, why are we all finding the same guy at the same time (i.e. when I do)?

Scouts should also impact while players are on your team, especially for younger more unknown quantities. I mean, we all know what Mike Trout can do - but what about this hot young kid that's fast and seems to have pop in the bat? Is he really that good? Are they over(or under)shooting on him?

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor and Sword

I actually disagree with the article talking about XP progression. Oh god no. Please do not do that. Instead focus on a smart intuitive stat's based algorithm system based on: 1. Potential 2. Performance 3. Age 4. Injury

So much this. Though I'd like to add coaches in there somewhere as well. Another aspect of the game where I'm not sure how much it matters. Does 3 points of speed or contact or whatever even make a difference? Now if it was a +3/-3 modifier to development, then I'd probably care much more.

[DJ]

Quote: Originally Posted by P.A.D.

THANK YOU! I'm tired of these reviews that leave out GLARING issues. The game is good, but FAR from great and, in my opinion, not even close to the best of the series. In fact, this was the first iteration that I failed to get through 100 games, let alone a full season. Some of us play solely on manual fielding and the fielding animations and downright ludicrous errors made the game virtually unplayable in my eyes.

Yeah, I easily have played fewer games of 15 than any other MLB The Show game released in the last 5 years. I thought the hitting was unbalanced this year and frustrating (very similar to 13). Seems like they tinker every year with hitting timing and I enjoy it every other year.

Manual fielding produced so many unnessecary headaches. Getting locked into animations that cause you to miss the ball forced me to go back to Auto fielding.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by DJ

Yeah, I easily have played fewer games of 15 than any other MLB The Show game released in the last 5 years. I thought the hitting was unbalanced this year and frustrating (very similar to 13). Seems like they tinker every year with hitting timing and I enjoy it every other year. Manual fielding produced so many unnessecary headaches. Getting locked into animations that cause you to miss the ball forced me to go back to Auto fielding.

Oh you just had to bring up MLB13's timing window. Don't know how I got through that game lol.

MLB14 felt perfect for me.

For MLB15 - hitting from the pitcher view changed the game for me. I feel like it's much "truer" timing - though I really wish there was a view that gave better depth perception without sacrificing judging strike zone location. Still, though, I have to up pitch speed so breaking pitches act like baseballs and not wiffle balls.

What's funny is auto fielding is locked into animations, too. I use it with manual throwing and see it frequently where the throw won't even attempt to happen until after certain parts of the animation. Can't break/branch it into the action with the appropriate risk that should come with trying to make a high-difficulty throw/play. There's also times where I can't move the fielder after he's fielded the ball to try to stop him/trigger him to try to break down and make a throw.

There's issues with fielding I haven't seen before. Last night had a game where my pitcher just stood there with the ball and would not throw home - at all - until the runner had long since crossed the plate. THEN he flipped it to the catcher probably as the game went into "the play is over" mode. That kind of thing needs to go. It's not realistic, and the "balance" would be the man on third not running on a comebacker to the pitcher in a non-force/non-squeeze situation. Seems like there's the play the game thinks you should make and doing differently brings up these sorts of things.

[Picci]

I want Sounds for the Show DLC packages to help boost team sound and video tendencies at the ballpark.

I want to go to Yankee Stadium and hear their annoying melodies. To Braves country and listen to their tomahawk war chants on the organ, or other stadium-specific favorites like president races.

I'll pay for these team packs if it be. I want to bring these cathedrals to life! For 2016!

[Sco291]

I will be dead honest, I think Diamond Dynasty should be warped and just changed into Expansion Mode. So many players, both die-hards on OS or in general seem to want this game mode. The whole creating the team logo and colors and what not is already there in DD, id just like to see it made into Expansion Mode and have DD dropped completely.

2.) Franchise: This game desperately needs something like a My Story like 2K does. Honestly, it gets boring playing The Show - its winter, offseason, drafts, free agency, ST, games, games, games, games, games, HR Derby, games, games, trade deadline, games, games, etc etc. The game is beginning to fail to keep me interested as a player. There's just not too much to do that I havent done in the past 5 years of the game. I didn't get through even one full season. It just gets really boring.

3.) Presentaion: Not sure I can say much else other than what others have already stated. I will say this: I don't want to see devs showing how they places pictures and furniture and what not in buildings way across the street from a stadium that we cant even see like they showed last year in detroit on the live stream. I felt like if they're gonna go out of their way to add elements in the game like that, then for heavens sakes do it within an area of the game that actually needs it!

Count me in as someone who also misses the newspaper. Id rather have that again instead of the radio show. Feeling relevant in this game is important when there's not a whole lot of anything else going on other than truly playing game after game.....after game....after game..............after game.

Fielding still needs a ton of work. STILL getting sucked into animations. STILL gettng sucked into the walls which allow extra bases. STILL fielders double clutching or doing unnecessary things that result nothing more than us, the player, going into rage mode.

just my 2 pesos

[HypoLuxa13]

Thought a while before I decided to respond to this thread. I have to say this year's Show was the best ever. Easily.

1) the fielding animations a few people complain about endlessly, I can understand what they are talking about. But I don't understand how it is such a big deal to some people. It honestly only took me 10-12 games to get the feel of the fielding changes, smaller catch regions, etc. And the only major fielding animation issue I ran into was patched (casual catch when runner was on base and tagging up). The wall suck animation was easy to avoid and was greatly reduced over previous years. The double clutch animation is just a part of baseball. If it didn't happen, you'd have many users complaining that fielders never double clutch before throwing like they do in real life. I dunno, for the most part I didn't experience a lot of the issues some of the others here harp on so much. Maybe it is just my play style.

2) I've said it before and I'll say it again. The lighting is so freaking gorgeous. Late afternoon/evening games especially.

3) I agree RttS needs more meat to it. Not some cheesy story like NBA 2k16 though. Ugh, that Spike Lee stuff was painful to watch, I ended up skipping it. Maybe more activities like coach and teammate interactions, media questions, etc.?

4) Hit variety took another step, with the updated ball physics and launch angles/speed. More balls over outfielders heads, slightly more bloop hits. Still could use some work though. Hard hit balls down the lines especially. It is still mostly impossible to get a double down the line on a hard hit grounder. They die in the shallow outfield and never make it into the corner. I also would like to see CPU outfielders misjudge balls off the wall more often. Even poor fielders usually run to the perfect spot to grab the ball after it hits the wall.

5) Dynamic difficulty was great, being able to adjust how quickly the difficulty adapts, and then lock it down when you find that sweet spot between challenging and fun. Honestly, I think this was one reason I enjoyed this year's game so much. I didn't spend so much time flipping between difficulty settings and slider sets.

6) Franchise mode is still decent. Nothing spectacular. I agree scouting needs to be refined some. Also, I'd like the whole concept of Potential to be more understandable. Is potential the amount of developement they have left until they reach their max? Or is potential an actual measure of their overall cap? Player progression just needs some work. Sure it can be dynamic, but it shouldn't be so hard to develop star players who are truly Hall of Fame level talent. Very difficult to get a Bryce Harper, Mike Trout or Kris Bryant in the game, guys who come up and are already All-Stars their first year or two in the league. It Seems like even high potential draft picks still take 5 years to make it to big-league skill level. Whereas in real life, you see a couple guys every year who spend a year or so in the minor leagues and come up and are ready to go from day 1.

That's all I have time to write about for now. Overall, gameplay I think just needs fine tuning further. The animations are great, just need some tightening down. Hitting is great, just maybe a bit more evolution to the ball physics. Franchise and RttS need some work, but not an overhaul.

Basically, don't pull a Madden and start using gimmicks that are lame (passing vision cone from Madden 06, drive goals from this year's game, etc.). Continue evolving and refining and adding features that make sense, not just features to print on the box cover.

[Factzzz]

Quote: Originally Posted by ozcore

mlb the show is by far the best sports game out there, which i play all year long and never get fed up. unlike other games like nhl or nba which i play for like a week then i stop playing it. I'm sure we won't be disappointed with mlb 16

It's not even close to the best sports game, The Show can learn A LOT from NBA 2k.

I too play the Show by far the most and year long as well, but that doesn't mean it's the bests sports game.

Things like RTTS, Presentation, Player Models etc. seem unchanged over the past couple years, and until they start improving these things, as well as tweaking some gameplay things, and add better animations, the game will remain behind NBA 2k.