4/23/21

Happy Friday everyone!

I thought I would introduce the sports aspect of Connecting the Game with a classic video game franchise that is regarded as one of the best in sports video games. No, not Madden...MLB The Show (MTS). MLB The Show 21 released for everyone on April 20th for both Xbox and PlayStation for the first time in its existence. My history with baseball is that I have been watching it for twelve years, I play for teams myself, and I am a diehard Texas Rangers fan. My history with baseball video games starts all the way back at MLB 2k10 on the Wii and MLB 2k13 on the Xbox 360, with my most recent game being MLB The Show 19 when I picked up a PlayStation. So, now that you know where I am coming from, here are my live first thoughts during my first time playing the official new MLB The Show 21. (I used a stopwatch to get the near exact minutes and seconds for fun!)

(1:00) Great intro!

(2:00) I like that they give you the option to play one of three different play styles but let's see how they are. I will start with Simulation.

(2:30) Time for practice!

(2:50) I have to face the Dodgers as the Rangers in the practice game

(6:20) Oh boy is pinpoint pitching gonna be interesting.

(7:30) Ok I will try track fielding for now...

(9:30) Wow I already got an achievement? Just for breaking the hitter's bat.

(9:50) First perfect pitch of the year!

(11:50) So I finished my first half inning in the demo game. Thoughts so far:

  • Pinpoint is going to take a while to get used to; much different than Xbox 2k13
  • Nope, track fielding does not work for me. I need to have that ball icon.
  • The graphics seem laggy on the Xbox One maybe because of framerate limits?

(13:50) I love Globe Life Field.

(14:40) Lol Khris Davis is hitting 3rd in this lineup.

(15:30) I like the background beats.

(16:45) Ok, I'm done with the demo.

(18:00) Ooh, a free player for playing the Tech Test. (It's Gio Urshela...)

(19:10) I am giving the main menu design and layout a 10/10.

  • Slick and organized. I'm glad they do not try anything too special or crazy.

(20:00) None of the soundtrack songs sound familiar to me.

(20:30) So we have 4 featured game modes: Road to the Show (RTTS), Diamond Dynasty (DD), March to October, and Franchise.

  • Then there are 4 other categories below: Quick Play, Play Now, Other, and Learn

(22:00) Time to build my ball player!

(55:00) Gosh that took a while to make. I tried to make myself and did not like it so I started over and randomized. Onto loadouts!

  • They make no sense.
  • Why can’t I just set my primary and secondary positions?

(59:00) Onto Diamond Dynasty!

(59:50) Income the Texas Buffaloes.

  • I don't know why that was the team name that came up, but I love it.

(62:20) Nomar Mazara with the walk-off single. First Moment of MTS 21 done.

(65:40) Brad Wieck gets my first save.

(70:40) I feel like there is a great balance between CPU and online content in Diamond Dynasty.

(74:10) Into RTTS I go. I would like to play for the Rangers, but wherever I go is cool.

(75:20) Cool RTTS intro, but where is the pre-draft stuff?

  • (By stuff I mean the scouting games and drills pre-draft time)

(76:00) I get drafted by the Rangers.

(76:20) Lol the MTS Player's League guy is back for a generic draft pick intro.

(82:10) First game in the minors: Played DH and went 1-3 with a double. Franchise mode time.

(91:00) So, no Kohei Arihara? There is a pitcher named Rick Slade on the Rangers but he doesn’t exist.

  • And who is Rodney Pressley supposed to be?
  • Where is Anderson Tejeda?
  • (I started with a Rangers franchise, of course)

(94:00) No changes to the Franchise mode starting options. But hey, at least I can make a league-wide DH rule and no extra-innings runner like there should be.

I eventually took a break and have played about a dozen hours since launch day, so here are my now final thoughts from my first few experiences:

I don't know if I am the only one feeling this way, but I felt that the framerate of MTS on the Xbox One was not good in the practice game nor franchise. It felt like I was constantly behind in animations, making hitting very difficult.

Yet, when I when into a mode like RTTS, it seemed that the gameplay was smooth and that there were never any framerate issues at all.

  • This honestly might just be because of the crowd.

Upon continuing the start of my Rangers franchise, I decided to go straight into rebuild and trade away as many C and D potential players as I could for prospects like Wander Franco, Adley Rutschman, and MacKenzie Gore.

  • The trading system is either too legit or way too broken.

On second thought, trading is broken, but I love it and recommend to everyone starting a new franchise to just go for some cool 65 overall A potential prospects.

After playing a lot of MTS 19 on PlayStation but skipping MTS 20, I really like the hitting feedback changes, but I find the hitting to be more difficult due to the PCI when zone hitting. As for RTTS, I like how you can see live how your player is progressing as they have plate, pitching, and fielding appearances.

I got the chance to play the Tech Test in February which has been very helpful as I was kind of already adjusted to the game, but I knew what to look for. Excited to get to play with some of the legends I missed out on in MTS 20.

The changes the made this year have been minimal but have felt big, the one that sticks out to me manager-wise is the new addition of a depth chart in franchise to forecast the future of your team. Gameplay wise, the big change is the revival of pinpoint pitching. I played hours of MLB 2k13 on the Xbox 360, the most recent MLB game made for Xbox (sorry RBI Baseball, you don't count), and pinpoint pitching is the main option for pitching controls, so I am using it and it has been pretty fun with some interesting results.

Last but not least the features and feedback of things I do not like and/or need improvement. Here they are:

  • A desperate need for framerate increase on the Xbox One. I don't have the Next Gen consoles and do not intend on buying one anytime soon, so I am stuck with the worse version of the game. This is fine except for the fact that my gameplay almost always feels laggy with low frames. I don't know if this is because of my console being 5 years old or my TV, but I assume not. Please let me know if you have any idea why this is happening. (preferably is you play the game on the older consoles)
  • Stadium creator is a Next-Gen exclusive...stupid.
  • Missing early by about 0.1 seconds on a pinpoint pitch timing will make the pitch an automatic meatball, so I feel something needs to be done so that when I aim low and away, a slight bit of mistiming does not result in a grand slam.
  • As for loadouts and the new Ballplayer structure, it all seems too confusing upon first glance. In MTS 19, I was able to select my primary and secondary positions explicitly, but now I can't? I get the idea of being a two-way player but I can only play one position as of right now instead of the many I wish to be eligible for.

Hopefully you had a good laugh while reading this and if you love baseball and video games, I absolutely recommend playing this game.

Until next time!

-Andrew