First thing i'd like to say is i'm a huge fan of MLB the show and have been since I purchased the first one made for the PS3. Every year i've enjoyed the enhancements (even the small ones). I've always appreciated Sony realizing they had a solid product and building on it, rather than drastically changing it just because like many games do. It's a solid product and continues to be a solid product.
Now that that's out of the way, here is why I believe MLB 15 The Show is actually worse than MLB 14 The Show.
1. Fundamentals.. The once solid franchise has disappointed me this year. This is the first time out of the box where I feel it is an incomplete game. Don't get me wrong, previous years had its flaws (as with every game). This iteration however has flaws that drastically change the outcome of the game. For instance the strike zone. Before the strike zone was simple. Sometimes the umps blew strikes and balls, but mostly you knew what was a ball and what was a strike. This year the strike zone is chaotic. It feels almost every pitch that is not centered can be called either way. It seems no umpire shows any consistency in how they call a game, it feels hit or miss, constantly. This has caused me to have higher score games (playing on HOF, both pitching and hitting, no GP, Zone and meter). Which doesn't accurately reflect the state of the game today.
2. Outfielders. The new outfield mechanic is awful. There really is no other way I can put it. It is terrible. Giving me a circle to indicate where the ball is and telling me "well the ball might not actually be there" might be the dumbest thing i've ever heard. Now when I started fielding pop ups like someone with his thumbs cutoff I thought, well it's gotta be me. So I looked at people play on twitch. I realized it wasn't me. The guy fielding might've been worst than I was. Every pop up is an adventure, no matter how routine. It's to the point where i'm scared when the ball get's hit in the air. Solid outfielders like McCutchen and Trout look plain bad out there.
3. Animations. They are great, they add to the character of the game. However, when a pop fly to shallow right results in a runner from first tagging up there is a problem. Especially when the throw to the cutoff man was preloaded well before the ball was caught. Animations should enhance your experience, not hamper it.
4. Features. This might be my biggest gripe. They stripped one of my most loved feature in the show. A feature that has been there for YEARS. The ability to see exactly how you hit the ball after you hit it. Why was this taken out. This was a great indicator on why you did what you did. If you were early, if you were late, if the PCI was in the correct location (the most important piece IMO). I could use that to adjust throughout the game. They've completely stripped it. Now you can only find out the first time through the order, or when that hitter comes up next. No offense, by the time he comes up next I really couldn't care less. Hell i've probably forgotten.
5. The amount of balls that are in the field of play (whether fair or foul). No matter what stadium. It's well off. I watch a baseball game and you see players foul off pitch after pitch. In this I may foul off 2 pitches successfully, the third is a pop out foul to the catcher, or anywhere in foul territory.
6. Glitches. This I won't count too much. Again every game has glitches. But I hope they are fixed by patch in the near future.
For the people who feel this is tl:dr I do like the game. It's a fairly good game and they have improved in some areas. But I feel the core aspect of the game has taken a step back. Something i'm not sure i've ever seen in a show game. I know some of the stuff I listed can be changed with sliders, but even with slider modification they are still a problem. Let's hope a patch clears up some of this stuff.
Now that that's out of the way, here is why I believe MLB 15 The Show is actually worse than MLB 14 The Show.
1. Fundamentals.. The once solid franchise has disappointed me this year. This is the first time out of the box where I feel it is an incomplete game. Don't get me wrong, previous years had its flaws (as with every game). This iteration however has flaws that drastically change the outcome of the game. For instance the strike zone. Before the strike zone was simple. Sometimes the umps blew strikes and balls, but mostly you knew what was a ball and what was a strike. This year the strike zone is chaotic. It feels almost every pitch that is not centered can be called either way. It seems no umpire shows any consistency in how they call a game, it feels hit or miss, constantly. This has caused me to have higher score games (playing on HOF, both pitching and hitting, no GP, Zone and meter). Which doesn't accurately reflect the state of the game today.
2. Outfielders. The new outfield mechanic is awful. There really is no other way I can put it. It is terrible. Giving me a circle to indicate where the ball is and telling me "well the ball might not actually be there" might be the dumbest thing i've ever heard. Now when I started fielding pop ups like someone with his thumbs cutoff I thought, well it's gotta be me. So I looked at people play on twitch. I realized it wasn't me. The guy fielding might've been worst than I was. Every pop up is an adventure, no matter how routine. It's to the point where i'm scared when the ball get's hit in the air. Solid outfielders like McCutchen and Trout look plain bad out there.
3. Animations. They are great, they add to the character of the game. However, when a pop fly to shallow right results in a runner from first tagging up there is a problem. Especially when the throw to the cutoff man was preloaded well before the ball was caught. Animations should enhance your experience, not hamper it.
4. Features. This might be my biggest gripe. They stripped one of my most loved feature in the show. A feature that has been there for YEARS. The ability to see exactly how you hit the ball after you hit it. Why was this taken out. This was a great indicator on why you did what you did. If you were early, if you were late, if the PCI was in the correct location (the most important piece IMO). I could use that to adjust throughout the game. They've completely stripped it. Now you can only find out the first time through the order, or when that hitter comes up next. No offense, by the time he comes up next I really couldn't care less. Hell i've probably forgotten.
5. The amount of balls that are in the field of play (whether fair or foul). No matter what stadium. It's well off. I watch a baseball game and you see players foul off pitch after pitch. In this I may foul off 2 pitches successfully, the third is a pop out foul to the catcher, or anywhere in foul territory.
6. Glitches. This I won't count too much. Again every game has glitches. But I hope they are fixed by patch in the near future.
For the people who feel this is tl:dr I do like the game. It's a fairly good game and they have improved in some areas. But I feel the core aspect of the game has taken a step back. Something i'm not sure i've ever seen in a show game. I know some of the stuff I listed can be changed with sliders, but even with slider modification they are still a problem. Let's hope a patch clears up some of this stuff.
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