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FairCatchMANIA · 06-12-2015, 05:05 PM

I hadn't played this game since last Monday (and I even hadn't played with any regularity for about two weeks, mainly because all of the bugs have nearly turned me off from franchise play, which is my bread-and-butter with this game). Almost as if it were a chore, I turned on my PS3 today and decided to try MLB 15 again. I hit "check for update" on the home screen half-hoping that there might be a new patch (since they usually drop these patches on Thursdays). And imagine my surprise when I saw "New Update: 1.04"!

"FINALLY," I thought, "they've maybe made this game tolerable!"

As I downloaded/installed, I checked here on Operation Sports for the patch notes. And of course, I stumbled upon this thread and my heart just dropped.

Sad thing is, there's actually a pretty good game here buried underneath these bugs. I've gotten used to the in-game lagging/dropped frames (though it still pisses me off when batting on a 3-2 count with two outs and the frames drop mid-pitch and I strike out because I can't see or time the damn ball!). But the freezing issues are more frustrating. Being denied "an out" or "the continuance or ending of inning" because of lagging is one thing. Being a denied A WHOLE GAME (or much worse, a whole franchise file) because of freezing is way worse.

Here's the two-part workaround I've employed with a pretty high rate of success (but of course you only have to be unsuccessful ONCE to lose the game you just played, or worse, your entire franchise file, so it's not exactly failproof).

[This are for offline Franchise games played by the user]:

1. ALWAYS (for EACH GAME) save and exit your game at some point (I try to remember to do it at the top or bottom of the 9th. This will usually take you back to the franchise calender without incident. Then, simply exit franchise which will return you to the home screen. You can then go straight to "Continue Franchise" and reload the "in-game save" file you just created. Now you have a start-point in the 9th inning of that game near completion.

Best Case Scenario, the game plays out to its end and doesn't freeze when it returns you to the calendar screen for your franchise. (Save you game again at this point, of course.)

Worst Case Scenario: the games ends, you exit, and the PS3 freezes upon returning to the calendar screen. So now you've lost that last inning/half-inning (or extra-innings) that you just played. (This really sucks if you had a great walkoff ending, but that's the situation we're dealing with here.) Hard-reset and load up that in-game save in the 9th inning again. You're back where you started, and cross your fingers that you'll get the Best Case Scenario now (you almost certainly will; I've never had two freezes in a row).

The major drawback here is that it ruins the end-game highlight reel feature that they added back to the game with the 1st patch. When load up an in-game-save, all the end-game highlights that finally on the reel are POST- the point of the original in-game save. (That's often going to be just the final out.) So sorry; no more highlight reel if you use this workaround. But it's a relatively small price to pay for preserving whatever time, energy, and genuine interest you just put into playing 8+ innings of a game, in my opinion.

2. TURN OFF AUTO-SAVE. IMMEDIATELY. RIGHT NOW.

Considering how destructive this freezing bug has been, there's no point in ever using it. Please note that the only times I've personally had franchise files deleted with this game was when I was using Auto Save. It happened twice and then I disabled it. The good news is, when using the in-game-exit-and-save method I described above, I have NEVER had a franchise file deleted, even though the game roughly freezes upon returning the calendar 10%-20% of time in my experience. Every time that I've done the hard reset after the freezing, the In-Game-Save file I had created minutes earlier had been preserved.

That's the best I've been able to do to deal with this. It's worked well enough, but the only scary part is when you get TOO MUCH INTO a good gaming experience and you only realize after you've gotten the final out of an exciting game that YOU'VE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN TO SAVE-AND-EXIT AT A PREVIOUS POINT! I get terrified when that happens and I quickly try to exit the post-game to see if returns me to the calendar screen without a freezing incident. Again, about 10%-20% it'll freeze on you, and the hour spent playing a game so fun that you forgot to save along the way will have been for naught. But 80%-90% of the time, you'll reach the calendar screen without incident. Then can exhale, collect yourself, and promptly save that last game you played.

SOOOO FRUSTRATING this whole thing is, and I can't believe they haven't fixed it. Really blows my mind. But I guess we're just going to have to make do with a significantly-flawed, though otherwise pretty-excellent last gen release, becuase I don't remember there being any patches after June for MLB 14 (at least not for PS3).

I guess this game only cost $40 for a reason.

Good luck!

06-12-2015, 05:05 PM	#6
FairCatchMANIA Rookie OVR: 0 Join Date: Apr 2014	Re: FRANCHISE MODE UNPLAYABLE AUTO SAVE I hadn't played this game since last Monday (and I even hadn't played with any regularity for about two weeks, mainly because all of the bugs have nearly turned me off from franchise play, which is my bread-and-butter with this game). Almost as if it were a chore, I turned on my PS3 today and decided to try MLB 15 again. I hit "check for update" on the home screen half-hoping that there might be a new patch (since they usually drop these patches on Thursdays). And imagine my surprise when I saw "New Update: 1.04"! "FINALLY," I thought, "they've maybe made this game tolerable!" As I downloaded/installed, I checked here on Operation Sports for the patch notes. And of course, I stumbled upon this thread and my heart just dropped. Sad thing is, there's actually a pretty good game here buried underneath these bugs. I've gotten used to the in-game lagging/dropped frames (though it still pisses me off when batting on a 3-2 count with two outs and the frames drop mid-pitch and I strike out because I can't see or time the damn ball!). But the freezing issues are more frustrating. Being denied "an out" or "the continuance or ending of inning" because of lagging is one thing. Being a denied A WHOLE GAME (or much worse, a whole franchise file) because of freezing is way worse. Here's the two-part workaround I've employed with a pretty high rate of success (but of course you only have to be unsuccessful ONCE to lose the game you just played, or worse, your entire franchise file, so it's not exactly failproof). [This are for offline Franchise games played by the user]: 1. ALWAYS (for EACH GAME) save and exit your game at some point (I try to remember to do it at the top or bottom of the 9th. This will usually take you back to the franchise calender without incident. Then, simply exit franchise which will return you to the home screen. You can then go straight to "Continue Franchise" and reload the "in-game save" file you just created. Now you have a start-point in the 9th inning of that game near completion. Best Case Scenario, the game plays out to its end and doesn't freeze when it returns you to the calendar screen for your franchise. (Save you game again at this point, of course.) Worst Case Scenario: the games ends, you exit, and the PS3 freezes upon returning to the calendar screen. So now you've lost that last inning/half-inning (or extra-innings) that you just played. (This really sucks if you had a great walkoff ending, but that's the situation we're dealing with here.) Hard-reset and load up that in-game save in the 9th inning again. You're back where you started, and cross your fingers that you'll get the Best Case Scenario now (you almost certainly will; I've never had two freezes in a row). The major drawback here is that it ruins the end-game highlight reel feature that they added back to the game with the 1st patch. When load up an in-game-save, all the end-game highlights that finally on the reel are POST- the point of the original in-game save. (That's often going to be just the final out.) So sorry; no more highlight reel if you use this workaround. But it's a relatively small price to pay for preserving whatever time, energy, and genuine interest you just put into playing 8+ innings of a game, in my opinion. 2. TURN OFF AUTO-SAVE. IMMEDIATELY. RIGHT NOW. Considering how destructive this freezing bug has been, there's no point in ever using it. Please note that the only times I've personally had franchise files deleted with this game was when I was using Auto Save. It happened twice and then I disabled it. The good news is, when using the in-game-exit-and-save method I described above, I have NEVER had a franchise file deleted, even though the game roughly freezes upon returning the calendar 10%-20% of time in my experience. Every time that I've done the hard reset after the freezing, the In-Game-Save file I had created minutes earlier had been preserved. That's the best I've been able to do to deal with this. It's worked well enough, but the only scary part is when you get TOO MUCH INTO a good gaming experience and you only realize after you've gotten the final out of an exciting game that YOU'VE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN TO SAVE-AND-EXIT AT A PREVIOUS POINT! I get terrified when that happens and I quickly try to exit the post-game to see if returns me to the calendar screen without a freezing incident. Again, about 10%-20% it'll freeze on you, and the hour spent playing a game so fun that you forgot to save along the way will have been for naught. But 80%-90% of the time, you'll reach the calendar screen without incident. Then can exhale, collect yourself, and promptly save that last game you played. SOOOO FRUSTRATING this whole thing is, and I can't believe they haven't fixed it. Really blows my mind. But I guess we're just going to have to make do with a significantly-flawed, though otherwise pretty-excellent last gen release, becuase I don't remember there being any patches after June for MLB 14 (at least not for PS3). I guess this game only cost $40 for a reason. Good luck!