MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Annoyed that disabling showtime option isn't working again. Mine is set to off and it's still available

[thescoop]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

I'm looking forward to trying the game out. I have it in my car as I picked it up on my lunch break. It won't be until late this evening as I do have places to be tonight as well.

[Impetuous65]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

That cutscene was terrible. It showed him rounding first twice lol. And Matty V sounded so fake with his excitement. And what's that yellow streak on the ball when it was hit?

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Who pissed in your cheerios? It's a video game dude, and I like the ball trail.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Way, wayyyy too much of the HR Celebration camera. It happens on every homerun that isnt a wall scraper now.

No absolutely does not. My ratio so far on no doubters has been 4-1 in favor of no doubt pull back broadcast view vs HR camera.


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[jeffy777]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Some early thoughts:

I'm enjoying how the fielders seem to have more weight to them when pursuing balls. It's early, but that should mean my years of universally dropping reaction/fielding ratings for OF (particularly in the corners) may be done.

Hitting is the same way in that the ball feels heavier off the bat. Now fly balls and gappers seem to spin better and come down instead of having that weird jumpy feeling on any hard hit ball in the air.

I hit a hard grounder that skipped down the line and hit the wall. The RF took a bad route and ended up chasing it around the corner as the ball caromed off the wall and actually kicked back up, rolling for a while. While I've certainly had XBHs down the line in prior years, I never saw that level of bounce/spin on a grounder as this.

Presentation is much improved. The packages all seem slicker and I had far more stat popups in each game than I did relative to any single exhibition game last year. The emotion of the game has taken a step forward also. Plenty of reactions, celebrations, etc littered throughout the game and, mostly, at the appropriate time.

The crowd sounds much better overall. Still not enough "swell" for big moment and some cheers die out too fast (still no "buzz in the crowd" vibe), but the overall sound quality is a big plus. The crowd looks/animates noticeably better too, though it's far less impressive when they're zoomed on (and pretty please, for the love of everything, enough with the dancing devs every couple of innings!)

Graphics are fantastic overall. CAP/Generated faces, etc. are much improved. Scanned stars look better too in several cases. Still some goblins and a few weird legacy animation issues still trigger which, unfortunately, look even worse with all the new bells and whistles, but it's a solid jump over 17 overall (which was mostly, IMO, a solid jump over 16, so a big kudos there!).

Commentary is meh. While I do miss the change of pace brought by HR, Derosa is fine and neither guy is the problem or solution. Perhaps the discussed work and shared booth stuff will shine a bit better in franchise, but it sounds just as disconnected and robotic as ever so far. Still no proper cutoff or transition in an out of stories for PbP. Nope, Derosa or Plesac are prattling on about whatever while the most recent play has negated the point and the next batter is already digging in.

Didn't ever mess with season mode, but I feel for those that did and lost it. Not going to dive too far down this particular rabbit hole, but the fact that it wasn't addressed at all is extremely disappointing to say the least.

EDIT: Oh, and a couple of other small things I remembered after seeing a video a couple of posts up.

I'm hoping it's not the case, but I was worried HR cam would be featured more from the changes they made for 17, due to all the batflip stuff. It's early, but from my limited experience and seeing some reviews here, I'm not having those worries assuaged. Seriously, a toggle, slider, whatever...just give us the choice back, please.

Also, still way too much focus on managers in the dugout. The occasional look of frustration, joy, whatever is fine, but I don't need several angles of them clapping.

Great observation on the fielder speed and sense of weight. I'm seeing bloopers fall in front of outfielders that would never be hits before until we turned down the speed/reaction. Also a lot more just missed dives going for extra bases hits. Love it. Amazing how well the game plays out of the box this year.

[KnightTemplar]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Wow, just wow! After doing some maintenance on my carry over franchise playing my first spring training game in Laughing Mountain Stadium (admittedly the Pro and 4k TV have really added greatly to the appearance of this game), but man....love that the quick fade/transition is gone between each pitch and has been replaced with some PRESENTATION instead. Just loving the pace of the game as a result.

I'm seeing animations I haven't seen already and I know the devs don't show them all at once. I'm sure I'll get some smiles as the season continues.

The game, to me, feels brand new (firstly due to just the way it looks). The color popping all over the place, presentation. Is this game a $60 purchase. Heck yes. This will give me MONTHS of fun.

[mlblover15]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Ok, first thing is that if this game looks this stunning on a 1080P display, I can't wait to see what I am in for this weekend when I pick up my new TCL 55" P series 4K tv. OH, MY GOD!!!! I am blown away by everything in this game after only one game of the franchise.

The ONLY thing I have to say they forgot to look at for upgrades were the team mascots. still very much PS3 models... other than that one very very very tiny thing... A+++++++++++++++

again if this game looks and plays this smooth on a ps4 pro with a 1080 display can you even imagine what we are in for in 2019 or 2020 when the PS5 drops... there will be no words...

thank you for all the extremely hard work on 18 SECA. I will def be putting in a heck of a lot more than 16 Hrs into franchise this year... thank you, thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[countryboy]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

This game is soooooooo smooth and so good. From the presentation to the play on the field, this is an amazing baseball title. Only hangup I have is that I had to increase pitch speed slider for fastball and offspeed (I hate adjusting sliders), but other that this game has been great in the limited time I've played it.

Finishing up rosters from carrying over my franchise as well as playing Play Now games since I had to skip ST to get my carryover to work. Once I'm done and content, I'll be jumping straight into my franchise.

[PhilliesFan13]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Players are still wearing sunglasses at night. Wasn't ever fixed in 17 so I guess it will be in for all of 18 as well.

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[SoxFan01605]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

No absolutely does not. My ratio so far on no doubters has been 4-1 in favor of no doubt pull back broadcast view vs HR camera.


Sent from Palm Trees and Paradise using Operation Sports

That's definitely not my experience. It's early, of course, but it's been the HR Cam for every no-doubter, so far.

[hyacinth1]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

just started playing and first thing I noticed is how great the graphics are this year. Colors so vibrant and its so clean and clear. I'm on a regular 1080p tv so probably looks so much better on a 4k.

[nemesis04]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Players are still wearing sunglasses at night. Wasn't ever fixed in 17 so I guess it will be in for all of 18 as well.

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Corey Hart approves of this post!

[Blzer]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

I'm going to give impressions later, but wanted to throw this gem out there before I forget it. Between innings, Matt said: "Don't touch that remote. More on MLB Network after this." Now because I'm me, I heard it as: "Don't touch that remote, moron. MLB Network after this."

Also, after my batter walked the CPU had a mound visit, and the camera cut to their pitching coach who ran out and called timeout pretty fast. He got out there so fast that he ran right in front of my batter-runner who was trotting to 1B on the walk.

Just as an overall first impression, I will simply say that I have seen things in one game played so far (five innings, actually) that I have never seen in this series before. Almost all of those things are good.

[TheBleedingRed21]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

Two quick thoughts:

Menus are sexy. Holy cow. Love them.

HDR is FANTASTIC this year. Last year my TV struggled with washed out or oversaturated colors but it is MUCH better this year.

If HDR looks worse for you then without it, your settings need adjusted. I did a few tests and the lighting is just phenomal

[jeffy777]

Re: MLB The Show 18 First Impressions

That's definitely not my experience. It's early, of course, but it's been the HR Cam for every no-doubter, so far.

Same here. I'm like 10 for 10 on the no-doubter cam.