MLB The Show 17 Twitch Stream - Franchise Mode, HDR Confirmed (Archive Available)

I was really digesting yesterday's stream and wanted to gather my thoughts and express about where I personally feel The Show is as a full featured, accessible console baseball game and judge it top to bottom. Obviously I can't judge MLB The Show 17 in full, as it has not been released. But I think we all have an excellent idea of what kind of game we are getting in 18 days. Excuse me in advance for going on tangents within this post, because I have so many thoughts and feelings about the game I love more than any other. Not only on the console, but in real life. Baseball has been a part of my life since I was 3 years old. 5-6 days a week I am either coaching, practicing, or playing baseball with my now 12 year old son, and of course relaxing in front of my flat screen in my man cave playing The Show. I live and breath baseball just about everyday of my life. Before my son came into my life I was playing hardball and softball (not as much softball) up until age 40 (men's open hardball leagues on Sunday mornings for a long time). So this is coming from a player and coaching perspective as much as a video game players perspective.


First, let's talk about the state of Major League Baseball today. The game is somewhat in flux in terms of marketing the league to a new generation of fans. I feel like we lost a generation of fans (the people in their 20's and 30's today) to the NFL and NBA. Why? I can't say with any certainty, but the 1994 strike did not help, PED's, and.....

All the talk this off season and now during spring training is how they can speed up the pace of play and make rule changes. And this has been talked about for several years now and it is no coincidence that our beloved video game rendition of the greatest sport on earth has been more streamlined in it's presentation and how games play out. Yes, we don't see every foul ball anymore. Yes we do not see throw backs to the pitcher play out totally. But on the Full Presentation setting I do have plenty of time between pitches to reset myself, think and plan my approach on each pitch. Not as much as before, but it is still viable and not nearly as rushed as some may think. Batter rituals are still in, step out of the box and back in is still there, just not after every pitch.


Why do I talk about presentation right now? Because it directly correlates to the franchise experience. For me personally immersion means a lot and it might mean something different for you. So with that being said one of the biggest wants for me has been a true broadcast presentation package and they have delivered us an MLB Network Presentation package with 2 new color guys in the booth. Not only that, we have two other broadcast themes as well. W also have the greatest feature in franchise mode....Sounds Of The Show. Showtrack is now on a new level during the MLB Broadcast package, not only that we have the very cool radio show while we are in our menu's looking at stats and ratings, trades, potential free agents, training and scouting. So The Show has new ways to play Franchise Mode which speeds up the way you can play games. 162 games is a bear. I know this because in two of my franchises I play every pitch, every inning. I have a franchise I had started back on MLB 14 (1987 Yankees) that is now entering Year 3 on MLB The Show 17.

Speaking of that (again a little tangent here). The year to year save feature IMO is the single most revolutionary feature ever made in sports gaming history. Yep I said it. Seriously, I can't even begin to fathom the amount of blood, sweat and tears that went into coding this (and yes it had some hiccups when player morale was introduced which I hope were solved for files transferring this year to 17). This is has been total money for me and my Classic Roster addiction as well as knowing I can play my franchise at any pace I desire, because I can simply carry it over to the next game and not miss out on the new gameplay improvements and features by abandoning my current franchises which I have grown highly attached to.

So back to the state of Major League Baseball. The attention span of 98% of the people who play MLB The Show is a lot shorter than the 1% of us here at Operation Sports.

Yes folks, and it has been mentioned several times by the outstanding development team at SCEA San Diego. We make up merely 1% of the user base of this franchise.

Yet....yet they interact with us, get feedback from us, and amazingly listen to us. I have seen several tweaks and things added to the game because of our direct feedback with the team. These guys kill themselves to deliver us what I consider an incredible simulation of baseball.

I realize the new Franchise Launch Pad is for newbies. I realize this. But it makes the game far more accessible to new players. And it also cleaned up our menus for us veterans of the game. I love the new clean look of all the franchise menus.

Again the game play on this game is second to none in the sports game industry. It's opinion of course.....but man, I live and breath baseball and played at the collegiate level and can tell you with certainty that the pitcher/batter face offs we get on this game are simply life like.

That is to me the essence of why I play this game. It allows me to feel like I am truly at the dish facing off vs Clayton Kershaw. The game captures that better than any baseball game ever made.

Ever.

So they poured a ton of resources into making that gameplay truly next generation this year by revamping the ball physics. This year is going to be truly special in the realism of how this game plays. The biggest jump we had in that was back on MLB The Show 12 and it has been a slow but steady climb. But this year was the first time they did not have to develop a PS3 game concurrently and they did what I feel was highly logical.

Let's tear the cover off the ball on game play, presentation and appearance of the game. They have a new generation of playstation owners to get into this game so we can keep enjoying it year after year.

Like Major League Baseball they must attract a new generation of game buyers for the survival of the franchise. By simplifying the way you can get into franchise is a huge thing to make sure new players can play this game and enjoy it and not be intimidated.

Yes yes yes......we are the hardcore cult fans of this game. We are the die hard baseball guys who kept stats in notebooks playing baseball stars till 4AM in the morning, We are those guys.

You know what? The game functions really well. And I for one know in my heart that Franchise mode itself will get some more love as we move forward to 18 and 19 and beyond. I am talking about more GM options, 3 team trades, and more added to the ownership/front office aspect of the game. And all it will be able to toggled to auto for the more casual baseball players.


I am sure we can see some more under the hood AI logic improvements moving forward in Franchise Mode. They had to get some big User Interface improvements done as well as faster ways to play for the new generation of baseball fans. Let's be real. Us Gen X guys....we have the patience to play for 2 hours....1 game. Most kids today and younger folks can't sit still for 30 minutes. It's a new world. And baseball has to adapt as well. I don't think it will change to the extreme, but it is changing whether we like it or not.

But the bottom line is this. The Show plays an incredible game of baseball and this years version is far from a roster update. There are so many improvements on the field and in the presentation department that I am looking forward too. Game play is always #1 for me. This is not a text sim baseball game like OOTP Baseball, nor will it ever be as deep and as daunting as that game. No way they go in that direction.

But it has more than enough features inside of franchise mode where I am immersed every season. My immersion stems from the way I play on the field. The story lines I create within my franchise. The kids I draft, the players I sign and the games I win and lose. I couple that with incredible visuals, sounds, and of course Sounds Of The Show which is a monster immersion feature and we have a killer game of baseball here.

Yes. I want more like many of you. Yes I want dynamic injuries, rehab assignments, better player regressions and progression, the rotating inter-league schedule (but we got our answer on that), international free agents, rain-outs.


But more financial inertia like ticket prices, concession stand prices, merchandise and such? Meh I can take it or leave it and quite frankly I rather development time be put to better use on making the AI better in gameplay and off the field then that text based stuff.

Would it be cool to have relocation? Yes of course.

A build your own stadium? I just don't see that happening. That is so niche. far too small of a niche IMO.

They have linted resources and development budget, so their Telemetry really tells them a ton. And by the way while I am not a huge fan of focus groups, ton's of money goes into that market research and it works. So if focus groups are telling them the game is too intimidating menu wise and it needs to be streamlined....then they will do it. It's a business. They need to keep their jobs.



So let's talk about a big huge new franchise feature.

With Quick Manage Mode I can now play my minor league games and really dig into some of my prospects and play my definition of critical moments as I see fit inside of quick manage mode. This so called "casual" feature has opened a new world of immersion for me with my minor league system. Something I admittedly rarely played because of time constraints that most of us have here with real life. Now I can see my guys perform in 5 minutes. get a feel for how some prospects are doing, and jump in and play some innings as well without taking up precious time from the big league team.

With Quick Manage Mode and Critical Moments I will now be able play several Classic Roster seasons far more efficiently then in the past. I have so many amazing rosters from this community I have yet to really sink my teeth into....now I can. I never liked Sportcast or just simming games with no input. Now I have it.


Top 50 prospects is a great little add. I love we have that now.

The dedicated Moral screen is a huge add. I have one place now I can view and sort my entire rosters morale. And player Morale was a big add last season and I loved it. It gave the players more life.

And now we got player quirks which again gives our players personality and I feel far more invested in looking at my bench, and playing matchups and balancing that with morale and my fiances.


A huge thank you to the development team once again for focusing on gameplay and presentation. To me that is the heart and soul of any sports game. Because you can have the greatest franchise interface, stat engine, front office feature set in the world, but if the on field gameplay and presentation suck?

You have nothing.

MLB The Show 17 will no doubt be a huge upgrade over 16 and those thinking it's not?

You will miss out. Trust me. The gameplay and visual feast this game will deliver will be second to none once again in sports gaming.

I don't want to come across as an apologist, because there is nothing to apologize about. The game is great. The feature set is robust. No way they can hit everything we want every year. To me this year they hit several major things for many of us. Highly realistic ball physics, ultra realistic player fielding animations, outfield play (humanity AI), catcher play on basestealing and new catcher setups, A true MLB Network presentation package with two new guys in the booth!! I could go on and on. And the modes? Seriously so many ways to play this game:

Franchise Mode
Road To The Show
Diamond Dynasty - online, offline, play your friends, seasons etc
Conquest Mode
Playoff Mode
Season Mode



Oh and did I mention it was baseball?



Peace everyone and enjoy the game!!!

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