MLB The Show 24 Community Impressions (Early Access)

[Steve_OS]

With the "official" release of MLB The Show 24 set to hit at midnight EST, I...

Written By: Chase Becotte

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[milkmanbonzai]

I've really enjoyed the gameplay so far. There's absolutely valid concerns in terms of Franchise options (three-team trades when?) but in terms of getting out on the field, just like last year, I really enjoy all three phases of pitching, hitting, and fielding, it just feels so good to play so I'm happy on that front.

Also, I've really enjoyed Storylines. It feels like something to actively stick up for because in the OS leadup to launch, every time there was an article on Storylines, there was a lot of comment negativity of "Too much focus on this! No one buys it for this!" And I will raise a hand and say I'm happy it's a big focus on the product.

Of course, it would be nice to see similar efforts made across the legacy modes of RTTS and especially Franchise, but as someone who finally turned in my Franchise card last year (the fallout of now working 50-60 hour weeks in sports TV production), I've really embraced this mode as a nice "pick up and play" 1P mode without worrying about my Franchise logistics. Bob Kendrick remains a delight and as a baseball devout, it's fun to continue to learn more about history of the game I didn't know about.

The Jeter mode is also nice, including a fantastically slick interface and nice archival footage. While Jeets is not quite the wordsmith Bob Kendrick is, it's still fun to recall his old days and even a nice helping of archival footage from those years. I also enjoy the "side quests" where you can play as the other Core Four in missions to unlock their cards as well.

I also like the more user-friendliness of Storylines; it felt like quite a few times last year that some Moments required quite a bit of luck in addition to user skill to pass some of the criteria to advance, but here it feels a lot more balanced to achieve a goal and keep moving on, a lot of simple "get 1-2 hits" kind of deals. With the job done on both the NBL and Jeter stories, I'm actually looking forward to who gets focused on next year.

How DD will play out in the long-term feels very TBD, but in Early Access, I feel it's better balanced in terms of opening up valuable cards slowly and maybe having a better drip-feed of 99s as we go along. I also appreciate the longer seasons, about 90 days in S1 feels like I'll at least get some worth from said stack before having to flip them for the S2 deck.

Overall, there's still some legacy complaints to be had about MLBTS, especially the neglected modes and some of the visual aspects showing their age, but in terms of hitting the field and the emphasized Storylines, I'm still gonna be spinning the digital disc all summer long once more.

[jeffy777]

Chase, just wanted to say thank you for doing these recaps. Really makes it easy to stay on the up and up since we all don't have time to read through all the impressions, and thanks to everyone for providing their impressions as well. Much appreciated all around.

[LastActionHero]

Great recap, I think you summed up most of the good and bad the community has been discussing. Maybe you could add thoughts on the Stadium Creator. Oh and glad I could help with my youtube video of the hair physics

[thescoop]

Agree with Chase's points. I do hope they do a feature to highlight the lack of improvements to Stadium Creator as well. I may write something myself in my blog here. I know blog entrees don't get highlighted like this page once did but I still enjoy writing them. I just don't have the time between running a couple of podcasts and a real job to write for the website but I still like to put out what i can when I can do it.

[KnightTemplar]

Quote: Originally Posted by thescoop

Agree with Chase's points. I do hope they do a feature to highlight the lack of improvements to Stadium Creator as well. I may write something myself in my blog here. I know blog entrees don't get highlighted like this page once did but I still enjoy writing them. I just don't have the time between running a couple of podcasts and a real job to write for the website but I still like to put out what i can when I can do it.

Agree. The creators, the good ones, have done all they can. There is no room for improvement. What we will see is useless stuff, a few mountains/volcano in the background with a dinosaur, etc. The vault is already full of those. The stadium creator, as it is in 24, has just become moot.

[Njock]

you cant change cameras in manager mode! Cameras work in every other mode. U r stuck watching behind the catcher. Dealbreaker if this is not a glitch. I cant even play it! I will immediately go back to the old game if this is new norm. Anyone know whats going on? I am in the super small minority that plays like Stratomatic. This is so bad and dissapointing

[LetsGoBucs]

Quote: Originally Posted by Njock

you cant change cameras in manager mode! Cameras work in every other mode. U r stuck watching behind the catcher. Dealbreaker if this is not a glitch. I cant even play it! I will immediately go back to the old game if this is new norm. Anyone know whats going on? I am in the super small minority that plays like Stratomatic. This is so bad and dissapointing

I have not looked this year but in past years the Camera selection for Manager Mode has been in a different menu location (something like the Mode specific menu - again, can't remember off hand the name of the menu). Have you checked that out? If they did remove the ability to change cameras, it would be a HUGE mistake...