MLB The Show 17 Early Impressions

I’ve been a Show veteran in the past. Played a ton from 06-09 and then got burnt out on the series feeling it wasn’t changing much. Bought it again in ’12 and had a lot of fun with the new Pulse Pitching as they added pitching options. After playing over 150 games I was burnt out once more and other than barely playing a used PS4 copy of the Show 14 I hadn’t really played it until this year when my wife bought me the Show 17 for my birthday.

After 10-12 games I feel this game is largely the same. Some things are different but the feel is the same and veterans will feel right at home. That means I still don’t like the base running controls and use auto running lol. In any event, these are my impressions after a decent amount of time with the game.

PRESENTATION & GRAPHICS
Matt V is back and I’d like a change here. Maybe it’s change for change sake but he’s been the voice for too long. After hearing “One shortstop grounds out to the other” it can get old. Harold and Plesac are nice additions but it still feels like three individuals commenting on the game rather than a dynamic team working together. The commentary is fine but nowhere as good as MLB 2K was. Matty V has said a couple things wrong at times as well. He mentioned an error that was never scored. It wasn’t a good play but the ball never hit my infielder either and was never scored an error. I threw a wild pitch with 2 outs and the runner goes down to second. Matt says that hurts because it takes away the double play. Huh? There were two outs!

I feel like the in-game surround sound is too quiet. Don’t hear enough from the back speakers. The ball also lacks seams and texture. On foul balls around home it can look odd at first.

There are some new camera angles between plays both inside the stadium and out that are nice. But the on screen stats are sometimes displayed with a light grey on dark grey background that is hard to read and I have no idea why they used that colour scheme. That same grey seems to make its way on to managers’ teeth as these guys don’t seem to own a toothbrush in the game.

I do miss the Select button when batting. You could bring up all the information very quickly on pitch history and how fast the opposing pitchers’ pitches are. Now I have to hit left or right on my d-pad or R2 and I still can’t find how fast the pitches are. It feels like they broke up my stats into separate parts for no good reason.

The game itself does look great. The players, stadiums and grass look really good. There are many great baseball animations, even if you have seen some of them a little too often. But I don’t see graphics as any sort of negative here. Definitely a positive.

BATTING
The pitch speed feels slower than the past and I like the separate sliders for fastball vs off speed. Not sure when that was added but it helps me hit since I find it still too difficult to differentiate between breaking balls and fastballs. I really wish this game would offer a batter’s eye mechanic but the developers refuse. Hitting on All-Star feels pretty hard. I had a hard time scoring runs until really boosting the contact and solid hits sliders. Not sure if that’s because I’m rusty or because the game is tuned harder but I think it’s a little of both. I have seen one HR not called a HR due to bad boundaries in the game. This happened at Fenway in CF. I had read about this and saw it early on but thankfully only once. I will go nuts if this happens in a franchise or season game. See the image below where this HR was ruled a double.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDzbNIrUQAEOqET?format=jpg

I have seen more balls hit down the line than I used to in the past. I like this. Ball physics and hit variety seem fine. Every year the devs and fanboys tout this as the greatest improvement ever and every year I see subtle improvements rather than big ones. I like the L1 tag up options in the game now when using auto running.

I have tried the fisheye camera angle as I liked that angle in 2K but I find it even harder to pick up breaking pitches so I just use a custom camera that I like. There are too many foul balls, especially on long balls hit, where the camera just stays in the batter’s box. I’d like to see the camera cut to where they land more often.

Overall I enjoy hitting in the game although I do find this year’s version more difficult than the past.

PITCHING
I have no real issues with pitching. There may be too many wild pitches or passed balls at times and runners can take an extra base a little too often as a result but I am enjoying this. I played a little with Pulse but am having more fun with Analog. I had tried that briefly in the past but this year’s version feels better. I like how it’s working for me although it’s way harder than Pulse. I definitely had to adjust the sliders differently on All-Star (make it harder for pulse, easier for analog). I think most of my issues can be fixed with sliders. I will probably never see perfect K/BB ratios because I’m too aggressive on the mound and at the plate but I think total K and total H/BB numbers with appropriate runs and HRs can be found without too much trouble.

CPU hitters can be set up. They will fish at balls out of the zone at times and it feels good. This area is done very well imo.

FIELDING
Fielding is still a big weakness in this game if you play on manual. If you play with auto fielding the animations and results look fantastic most of the time. But on manual fielding there are still issues. The outfield suction is gone but unfortunately I think it’s needed. I had at least 3 balls just get past my outfielder on pop flies or line drives because I may have been too strong with the analog stick. My player ends up not using a needed animation or ghosting past the ball. After numerous misplays, for the first time in my life, I have switched to auto fielding with manual throwing. I just can’t take the glaring issues that happen sometimes and they happen too much. I do like how the ball marker on pop flies moves with the hit and that part added some fun while tracking down balls but I just can’t live with all the errors out there when on manual.

Pitchers are still an issue in this game. They get hit by a ball almost every other game and they don’t cover first base quickly enough. That’s not usually an issue because every first baseman can always outrace a batter to the bag which is still mildly annoying. Infield hits in front of home still have the pitcher using way too much momentum that takes them far away from first base when fielding the ball and causes too many weak hits to be safe.

I still see some lazy animations when I want to make a quick throw as well. I do like the Challenge system.

Again, with auto fielding most of the time the game looks gorgeous with great animations. I feel that manual fielding is poorly done.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Many of my thoughts were critical here but the game is a very solid game of baseball. While I think manual fielding is an issue and I really want a batter’s eye mechanic in the game, the rest of the package is top notch. It’s not revolutionary in any way. This is the Show and it will feel and play like it. If you were looking for something different you won’t find it here but you will find a top notch baseball simulator.

I can't seem to edit my first post to add this but I think contact hitters are better in this game than they used to be and that's good. In the past I found low average, high power guys overly effective and high average, low power guys nearly useless but I think it's more balanced now.