A ton of love, care, and attention, not only to the fundamentals, but to what the fans have been clamoring for have been answered in spades. The end result is in not only the best version this series has seen, and not only the most authentic and realistic baseball game created to date, but easily one of the best sports games this reviewer has ever played.
The Show proving once again why they are the best sports franchise out there. Graphics are top notch, as usual, and gameplay is as good as it gets. Hoping they add some more game modes, but all in all, a perfect baseball game.
This will be as much a review of the MLB Series as much as a review about MLB The Show 13. This years addition is again stellar, as fans of this series have come to expect. I myself love sports games and sports, though I will admit that baseball is low on my list of sports I follow. I like hockey, football, rugby and THEN baseball. So this is coming from someone who is slightly jaded when it comes to baseball as I lost interest after the first decade after Bonds left Pittsburgh and the Pirates stunk. I know we are doing well this year, but it takes more to wash away 20 years of anguish. In any case, I still respect the game, it's history and it's nuances. This is where San Diego Studios mastery of the MLB series really lies. No detail, no stat, no game mode feels unbalanced. Every player, uniform, stadium, score board....every little detail is painstakingly recreated in this game. I recently went to a game with my girlfriend to PNC Park and even she said, I feel like I'm in your video game. This is by far the best looking sports video game, There is absolutely no competition. EA wishes they has a game that looks this beautiful. There is no excuse. This game visually is stunning, even at the end of this current console run. As for gameplay....again, this game will please you. Not only are the animations spot on, the control is excellent and then on top of that, they offer you multiple modes to bat, pitch & throw. There are also customizable gameplay sliders that let you tailor the game to your liking. As for me, getting up to 37 years old now my brain doesn't fire off like a 12 year old's anymore. So I can tailor pitch speed & contact to have a fair balance as well as making myself good enough to have fun in Road To The Show. This game also sports some fantastic ball physics. Rotations, bounces and delections.....dying quails that drop in, slicing gap shots & frozen ropes are all present. I suggest playing RTTS and using a Classic Cather Cam Zoomed all the way in. You get a First Person feel to batting and really see the breaks and velocity of the pitches. Just leave a sliver of the top of home plate so you can judge your strikes. All in all every mode is fun, whether you like Franchise, Season or RTTS this game brings all the elements together that really make sports games great....attention to detail, gameplay, presentation, stats & above all atmosphere. You feel like you are in the ballpark. All that's missing is the smell of dogs and burgers & the drunk guy getting escorted out of your section. In my opinion, The MLB The Show series in addition to MLB 13 The Show is the pinnacle of sports gaming this console generation. The only missing element being Online Team Play. Besides this one aspect, EA Sports can only look at this game with admiration & wish they produced such a fantastic sports package every year. If you are a fan of baseball or a fan of sports in general & you do not own this **** get it now!! It's the best sports game currently produced by anybody, anywhere. Not Madden, NHL, FIFA, NBA 2K....Nobody can touch the MLB The Show Series. Thanks to SONY and San Diego Studios for such a fine closing offering to this generation, I look forward with anticipation to what they throw down in the next gen.
PlayStation gamers who are also baseball fans are a lucky lot. MLB 13: The Show is another winner in a series that’s easily the best baseball sim since EA’s since-shuttered MVP Baseball line.
MLB 13 The Show is the best baseball game nowadays. Great control variety for beginners and depth for experts, good in offline modes and awesome visuals. But has only a few poor new modes.
For those unfamiliar with baseball MLB 13: The Show is probably a curiosity at most. The fact that the game is also PlayStation exclusive further segregates its European audience so that it occupies a limited niche at best. Still, for those looking for a baseball game there is nothing better on the market.
It’s the best baseball simulation available, but the biggest new feature is the mode for beginners, not very interesting to PS3 baseball aficionados. And the rest will probably ignore this game. [CD-Action 05/2013, p.79]
Hands down, this is the best baseball game I've ever played, and I've played a lot of them. The difficulty has been scaled back just a little, which is exactly what it needed. RTTS is as good as ever while the graphics are better than ever. A must-own for baseball fans.
Yea so if you haven't heard, this game hasn't changed all that much from last year. Same silly bugs we get ever year. Same goofy problems. Biggest aspect of change you'll want to know, the guess pitch feature. They changed it so that you either guess correctly on pitch & location & lock on, or get one wrong & get no feedback whatsoever. The rankings, as you also probably heard, are atrocious. I can site examples all day but here's the bottom line: if you don't play online, stick with the 12 or older version of this. If you're the kind of person who has to have the new thing when it cones out, don't say you weren't warned.
Its the same as last years game. There are a couple changes to RTTS but nothing to warrant dropping $60 or trading in a bunch of your games to get this. Personally I think MLB 10 The Show was the best game and was almost perfect.This year pitching is harder and batting is also more complicated. Do I feel cheated again? Yup. Will you? Without a doubt.
REAL REVIEW from someone who has played every single game since The Show came out in 2006. Same as every other year. There are little improvements here and there, but nothing major. They added ONE new main feature (The Show Live) which isn't fun or interesting at all. This game is becoming like Madden. All they do is add tiny little features each year and you hear the word "Improvement" A LOT. Go ahead and read/watch some dev. interviews, you'll see/hear the word "Improved" a lot. They "improved" this and they "improved" that. Instead, they should be innovating (which this game does NOT do). You'll notice too that (just like Madden) they don't come out with more than just ONE new main feature each year. This year's main feature is The Show Live. Last year's main feature was Diamond Dynasty, see the pattern? They do have a "new" beginners mode. I put quotes around the word "new" because it's just another feature that they "improved" really. Also just take a look at Badasz's review... notice anything about it?? I'll take some quotes from his review if you don't feel like reading it.... "The game has a lot of improvement's from the last version".."Graphics and game play are the same"..."RTTS mode, its more realistic than ever" (another example of "improving" something)....Then he talks about the commentary and not hearing them while you play... umm... every single other The Show since 2006 allowed you to turn off commentary (which I always did)... so nothing new there. He talks about playoff atmosphere, just another little tiny improvement, I've always felt the atmosphere was great during playoff games in past The Show games. Manager mode, just "improved". They do this so that they have more to add into their game next year. They don't add other features ON PURPOSE....which I kind of understand, they are here to make money, not please their fans.... and we're the ones who suffer for it. They ad just the minimum amount of new features and improvements to fool players like Badasz into thinking it's a completely new game. Whatever happened to Create Your Own Stadium, Classic HOF players (Ruth, Mays, Paige).... I know they need legal rights to their names, but they've done it in the past, they can do it again.... what ever happened to players wearing their own team jerseys in the All-star game (like in real life), how about adding Fantasy Baseball in the game (like how you have fantasy baseball on yahoo or mlb .c o m. Where the HECK is The World Baseball classic... perfect year to have it. We've been waiting for The Show to add the WBC. I know they won't be able to use players real names, but isn't that what the Roster Vault is for?!?! Definitely wait for this game to drop to around at least $30 before buying it. With everything I said, If you loved last years game and aren't expecting/care-about huge changes and innovations and don't mind the exact same gameplay... then get this game. This game would be deserving of a 10/10 if it were the first or second baseball game to ever exist. It's a great game standing by itself, but since this game is part of a sports series, it deserves special treatment when reviewing it. Bottom line...
Nothing new. Same Gameplay. Lots of little improvements (batting stances, things like that). ONE new main feature (The Show Live).... that's it
For all these review that praise this game....what are they smoking??? Sure, this game has excellent graphics and the attention to detail is outstanding, but the actual gameplay...horrible! This game has more bugs and glitches that make the game almost worthless playing, unless you like to stress yourself out by dealing with it. An example, would be the "catcher freeze" glitch. This is where you've struck the opponent's batter out with a pitch in the dirt, and all of a sudden, the catcher 'freezes,' you cannot move him, or do anything. In the meantime, the opponent's batter that just struck out runs to first base, and if the opponent decides to take full advantage, he will seamlessly run around the bases to score and there is nothing you can do about it. This must **** if you've pitched a perfect game with a 1-run lead going into the 9th inning for something like this happen to you.
There are other things, such as your pitcher throwing the ball into the stands out of play when trying to pick the runner at 1st base off. I mean, often does that happen? Once in 'blue moon?' Not in this game. It happens so much, that you become reluctant to trying to pick the guy off at 1st in fear that you're gonna give him 2nd base for free by throwing it out of play.
I can't tell you how many games have been lost due to pass balls. Its beyond ridiculous. I mean just because the pitcher throws a pitch in the dirt, doesn't mean that it has to go all the way to the back-stop. I mean give me a break. These guys are professionals and practice countless hours on blocking pitches in the dirt in front of them. Again, how often do pass balls occur in real life? Not here, you'll be lucky if the catcher keeps the pitch in the dirt in front of him, otherwise, if there's a runner on 3rd base, you may as well just guarantee the other team an added run to their score.
There's also the network connection bug that should get an honorable mention. That's where out of nowhere, the game will end due to "network connection lost with opponent," but really, its a game server problem, because you will see that the opposing team will be awarded rating points even if you were winning 5-0 in the 6th inning. And the winning team is suppose to be the only one being rewarded with rating points, not the losing team as well.
The list goes on and on. Anybody who has played this game long enough, I'm confident can relate to these issues that I've mentioned. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these guys have had to replace their own controllers because they've thrown them across the room out of frustration, not because they're losing, but losing because of these flaws that they have no control over.
What surprises me the most, is that they have actual forums and a place where you can report these bugs; however, months, and months have gone by, and still the problem exists. If these bugs and glitches didn't exist, this game would easily be a 10+ score, but since that's not the case, I give it a score of **** that's being generous.
SummaryImprovements to Diamond Dynasty, Franchise and Road To The Show modes promise to make MLB 13 The Show the most realistic baseball game ever, while the addition of all-new game modes expand gameplay options even further.