MLB 15: The Show (PS4)

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Herschie1
Posts: 202
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

MLB 15: The Show (PS4)

Postby Herschie1 » March 31st, 2015, 7:28 pm

Holy cow! That's about what Harry Caray would say about this game. When I was a kid playing Hardball III (1992) on the PC, I remember imagining what the ultimate baseball game would be like. Of course, at the time, the technology wasn't available. Well, now it is, that technology is the Playstation 4, and that game is MLB 15: The Show.

The one thing that jumps out at me is the lighting in the game; it is phenomenal. It's the same lighting you remember in the bleachers with Cub fans falling over drunk. They have this new thing where the lighting changes as the season goes on; the field gets covered in shadows sooner in September and October than it does in June or July. They even have the sun position different during those months, as it is in real life. The level of detail is just phenomenal. In years past, they didn't have day to evening transitions, and the game looked like it was being played later than the indicated time. Well, let me tell you, 1:20 looks like 1:20 now, as does 4, 7, and everything in between. In fact, I heard that if a game goes long enough, you'll even see the sun rise the next morning. Never seen that in real life, but good to know it's there, as this game reaches the next level of realism. 

That's good, because the atmosphere of baseball games plays a huge part. It brings back memories of being a kid, coming home from school around 3:30 to catch the last few innings of the Cubs game, seeing home plate covered in shadow while Greg Maddux mows down the last of the Cubs hitters (If only Larry Himes would have offered him $500,000 more). They even made improvements to the weather, as the rain looks more realistic than ever. Gone are the big fat Amazon raindrops, replaced by more realistic looking smaller raindrops that you can barely tell are there. Just like real life. 

If you're going to pay attention to details like that, you'd better have everything else all squared away. Well, MLB 15: The Show certainly does. This is no huge stereo and nice rims on a hunk of junk car. The graphics themselves have been improved, and they added a couple nice simpler modes of batting. I found myself going back to what I was using last year, but I'm only one person. The physics are improved, as line drives now sink and dip like they do in real life, and you don't find your hard smashed line drives hanging in the air only to be caught as much as you did in 14. Modest improvements have been made to the announcers, but the crowd reacts nicely now. 

The wait for this game was killing me. Time moved by like a snail before this game came out. Here are some screenshots and a gameplay video: 


This one is in the late innings of a 4 pm start game. No, that's not real life, that's the video game. 
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This was in the 7th inning of that same game:

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I think this was in the 11th:

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Gotta show the Bronx Bombers:

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Finally, here's some gameplay between the Yankees/Tigers: 

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lbki3_mlb-15-the-show-yankees-vs-tigers_videogames[/video]

Just phenomenal. I love living in 2015. 

Gilly1
Posts: 133
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

MLB 15: The Show (PS4)

Postby Gilly1 » March 31st, 2015, 10:38 pm

I just got a PS4 over the weekend and this is likely the first game I buy. I've only played Last of Us so far. I'm torn on whether or not to shell out the 10 bucks for the 10th anniversary edition or not. Did you get that one for 69.99 or the standard one for 59.99?

Tron1
Posts: 401
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

MLB 15: The Show (PS4)

Postby Tron1 » April 1st, 2015, 12:14 am

Your link is a commercial? Yuck!

My peeve with the show is fielding. In Baseball Stars & Power Pros it's fun. You have to react quick & making diving catches is rewarding. The fielding in the show always felt too automatic. Granted I think the last show I played was 2012. Hopefully the fielding is better. Also is batting just about timing or do you have to place your bat in the right location? I do concede that the detail sounds amazing. Hopefully there is a fast mode too.

Herschie1
Posts: 202
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

MLB 15: The Show (PS4)

Postby Herschie1 » April 1st, 2015, 6:10 pm

[QUOTE=Tron]Your link is a commercial? Yuck! My peeve with the show is fielding. In Baseball Stars & Power Pros it's fun. You have to react quick & making diving catches is rewarding. The fielding in the show always felt too automatic. Granted I think the last show I played was 2012. Hopefully the fielding is better. Also is batting just about timing or do you have to place your bat in the right location? I do concede that the detail sounds amazing. Hopefully there is a fast mode too.[/QUOTE]

There is a fast mode. I think the commercial was what plays before the video does, so once you get past that, then the gameplay vid will show. There is indeed a fast mode. In last year's game, they also added "quick counts", meaning that you'll start with say a 1-1 count, or even a 3-2 count. Much depends on the pitcher and the batter, and there's also a random element to it. 

I can't stop playing this. Here's another gameplay video that I recorded: 

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L15gp5Rr9c[/video]


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