MLB The Show 23 Impressions (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5)

[MistaWartown]

Digging the storylines but the one thing that bothers me with that is……we know Jackie Robinson’s story……couldn’t they have given us a Josh Gibson storyline instead

[ralphus8]

After a few hours of gameplay last night:

Probably the hardest The Show I've ever played, in all aspects. Even on Veteran I'm struggling to throw strikes consistently when pitching (Pure Analog). Hitting struggles could just be needing to shake some rust off, but I will say I've noticed a lot more batted balls in play finding the gaps and shallow outfield for hits. Fielding has been super tough with button accuracy, but I expect that will take awhile to get used to.

(Edit: NVM, my TV wasn’t set to Game mode, so I was getting tons of display lag that made pitching and hitting so difficult ��)

Graphics are what they are, but the performance has been smooth so far -- no jitter or stuttering that I've noticed anywhere. The new pitching and hitting animations look fantastic to me. Pitches really feel like they have a lot of zip on them, especially fastballs where you can see the late movement on some of the pitches. The hitters really look like they are trying to turn on a pitch to mash it into orbit (check out Rizzo's swing) -- bat speed seems a lot faster to me.

The settings menu was way more confusing that it should have been, took me ages to figure out how to get the pitch API to work. I agree with a comment above about the catcher mitt showing the pitch location for CPU catcher suggestions is way too transparent, and even looks sort of pixelated, and makes it really hard to gauge where the pitch is intended to be thrown.

RTTS, I only created a ballplayer and checked out the draft -- no pre-draft games or anything, you either pick whichever team you set as your profile's favourite or you enter the draft, where you are immediately drafted by a random team. Not a lot of immersion. I expect the rest will be a carryover from last year.

Only other complaint I have is that in DD conquest, when you are moving to a new territory, there's like a one second lag afterwards before you can press X to move again (even after waiting for the little animation to finish). It adds up as you have to do this a ton of times during the game mode and makes it take longer than it needs to. I don't remember this being an issue last year.

Overall, pleased so far, looking forward to more time with the game.

[PVarck31]

I'm pretty easy to please. I'm 43 now and I love this game every year.

It does feel like there is sort of a fresh coat of paint this year. Obviously we could talk about the lack of graphical improvements, but it does seem like the lighting is a little better this year, making the game look better.


Gameplay is buttery smooth. No FPS issues on PS5.

Will take some time to get used to the new throwing. Made a few throwing errors already in just a couple games.

I'm having some trouble hitting. Not making solid contact much. I feel like there is almost a slight input delay. But I think it's probably just me and my timing.

I have yet to dive into anything other than exhibition. Debating on waiting for better rosters to start a franchise. Might just play with a bunch of teams until then.

Overall, solid effort this year as usual.

The only bad part about the game for me right now, is that I'm sick as hell so it's a little harder to relax and enjoy.

[Gosens6]

Very small observation, but for the first time ever pitching is more fun than hitting for me. Throwing with flamethrowers and you can really feel the "pop" of the glove with the ball gets to the catcher.

Satchel Paige and Roki Sasaki are absolute monsters in this game. Can't wait to try out some more heat throwers! Very rewarding

[PVarck31]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gosens6

Very small observation, but for the first time ever pitching is more fun than hitting for me. Throwing with flamethrowers and you can really feel the "pop" of the glove with the ball gets to the catcher. Satchel Paige and Roki Sasaki are absolute monsters in this game. Can't wait to try out some more heat throwers! Very rewarding

I was thinking the same thing. Sometimes in the past, pitching could almost feel like a chore. It just feels better this year. I agree with the "pop" thing as well.

[fuhrsy]

Started a test franchise. Got to the new scouting hub and the top 5 ranked players by mlb rank

CP
CP
CP
RP
SP

I could be wrong but I thought in the stream they mentioned they were trying to avoid that




Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Operation Sports mobile app

[bryanm1982]

Quote: Originally Posted by fuhrsy

Started a test franchise. Got to the new scouting hub and the top 5 ranked players by mlb rank CP CP CP RP SP I could be wrong but I thought in the stream they mentioned they were trying to avoid that Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Operation Sports mobile app

I think they might be ranked high but they won’t be drafted in the first round. But they shouldn’t rank them that high though.

[fuhrsy]

That's good to know I'll see what happens draft time

Quote: Originally Posted by bryanm1982

I think they might be ranked high but they won’t be drafted in the first round. But they shouldn’t rank them that high though.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Operation Sports mobile app