[rick diesel]

I just updated from 20 to 23 (on PS4) last week. There are a few notable improvements that convinced me personally to get the new game. The player editing/creating has gotten some improvements that allow for more realistic looking players. As someone who makes my own way-too-detailed fictional rosters to play with that was a big deal, but you probably don't care much about that lol. Along those lines, the graphics/lighting are a little better, but not a super noticeable difference. Seeing some cool new cutscenes is nice though, and the network presentations are really good. Gameplay-wise, hitting feels about the same level but there is a much better variety of defensive animations and they look more realistic as well. I had really gotten sick of the defensive animations in 20. There are new commentators too, but I was one of the few that still preferred Matty V. Boog Schiambi did a solid job, but I will probably mute commentary at some point. For franchise mode the biggest difference is probably the revamped draft, it is nice to have but I wouldn't say it is reason alone to switch to 23.

There are framerate slow downs, but I really only get them during some batter walk-up cutscenes, and that is despite playing on a regular old PS4, not the Pro which supposedly performs better. Others seem to have had more issues than what I have encountered so far, maybe I just haven't played enough yet or it is from digital download vs. playing off the disc (I have the digital edition). Overall I would say 23 is at least on par with 20, with some visual and presentation freshness at the cost of potential performance issues from time to time.