More MLB The Show 17 Franchise Mode Details, Including Player Quirks

[Steve_OS]

Check out the latest MLB The Show 17 franchise mode details, from the PlayStation.Blog.

This year we added two completely new ways to play the game — let’s start with Critical Situations.

Instead of waiting for the best parts of the game, Critical Situations takes you directly to those nail-biting, game-deciding moments when they naturally occur, breezing past some of the time-consuming baseball details that can get in the way of an action-packed experience. This makes games short, intense experiences that have a huge impact on your team’s record. One of the many possible situations that might pop up: your star player at the plate with a chance to win the game with one swing.

In addition to these intense, game changing moments, you’ll also encounter other important situations, such as keeping long hitting streaks alive or hitting three home runs in a game. In these situations you’ll be “locked” to the player involved, meaning you’ll only play his at-bats or fielding chances (much like Road to the Show, for all the veterans reading this). And this leads us perfectly into our next Franchise feature, Player Lock.

If you’ve ever wanted to see what you could do with your favorite MLB player over a full season, but you’re strapped for time, you’re in luck. Player Lock makes this possible, allowing gamers to play exclusively with their favorite players and help progress through the season faster. With Player Lock you can say goodbye to playing full 9-inning games! And don’t worry — it’s not permanent. Before every game, you can choose a different player to “lock-on,” meaning you can mix it up between your star players or the prospects that are just getting their first taste of The Show.

What about all the simulation-minded Franchise players out there? We haven’t forgotten about you, and we think you’re going to love our next feature: Quick Manage.

Just as if you were calling the shots from the dugout, Quick Manage is a text-based simulation mode that puts you in complete control of all the managerial decisions during a game. Want to bring in the closer an inning early to lock down the game? Think a sacrifice fly will score you the winning run? All of these actions and more are available to you in Quick Manage, so you control your team’s destiny.

If you’re wondering what’s so “Quick” about this mode, it’s the fact that you see the results of your actions instantly with the press of a button. We’ve given you plenty of managerial depth as well, as you can see in the screenshot below with all ways you can pitch to the hitter.

Getting antsy and want to get back into the action? With Quick Manage, you have the ability to enter the game at any point and can jump back-and-forth between managing and playing as many times as you’d like. This means that you can pick and choose when to play, while always being in complete control of your team.

And for all of you stat enthusiasts who want our MLB players to perform even more like they do in real-life, we’ve got one more thing for you, and that’s our newly introduced Player Quirks.

Quirks are very specific traits assigned to a player based on real-life data which give the player a bonus when triggered. As you can see in the screenshot above, Anthony Rizzo has the Breaking Ball Hitter quirk, which means he excels at hitting curves, sliders, and other breaking pitches. When you’re playing as Rizzo, you’ll want to look for breaking pitches to hammer, since you’ll get a hitting bonus when swinging at these types of pitches.

There are tons of different Quirks for both pitchers and position players, and in addition to changing the way you go about at-bats, we think they’ll also change the way you construct your roster.

[zman2392]

Still hoping for more depth on Thursday but player quirks are awesome!! I wonder if prospects will randomly be assigned them.

Edit: These could make for some cool quirk specific commentary in the future that would almost feel player specific.

[sink4ever]

Hmm . . . cautiously optimistic about quirks. I've been hoping for quite a while for a way to really differentiate players and this could be a good step in the right direction. I have faith (based on experience) that this won't be too gimmicky or overpowered, but I'll remain a bit cautious until we can really test it out.

[BigOscar]

Very interested in player quirks and how they affect things, also how they are applied to draftees and young players as they grow up? Definitely interesting

[Impetuous65]

Quirks, looks like NBA 2K Badges, which is a good thing if they work properly. Knowing what your guy's personality and what he does well is great for scouting and capitalizing on his strengths.

[Mauer4MVP]

I'm really confused on the player quirks. That doesn't seem like that would be a franchise mode specific type of addition.
Kind of sounds like NBA 2k's badges.

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[Impetuous65]

The schedule states we will be getting a "Improvements VLOG", is that still the case?

[tabarnes19_SDS]

I've been wanting the "quirks" or "badges" for sometime. What I want to see is if they develop or evolve or if they are fixed. Are they editable? Do draft picks have them?

I also hope the CPU takes them into account when team building. I'm also hoping that the features that have been added over the years as a base have been expanded. The top 50 are pointless right now the way they are.

Hoping to see budgets and free agent process expanded. Currently a free agent that is worth x dollars is worth x dollars 10 years in the future. There is no inflation although budgets go up. I don't see teams overpay.

I'm also hoping they have expanded player cards to track awards. A full almanac would be sweet.

Looking forward to Thursday.


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