MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review
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I would go about 7.5/10. Only real knock I can give it is how it plays online H2H. The game plays great outside of that. I enjoy it immensely when not playing someone else. With that being said I enjoy playing other people that is why I play DD. So I have to give it a big drop in points because of that. Outside that I would say a 9.5. If they could get the H2H stuff tightened up this would be amazing! And I am not really talking about server issues. I mean the fact you can play 3 games in a row and all 3 games have different timing windows and pitch speeds look different despite playing at the same level.
Baserunning and fielder urgency because of animations would probably be my main concerns gameplay wise. Besides that I think its an amazing game. Sure there can always be improvements but I think they do improve a little each year.
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@dirty-shawnchez_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
First bullet from What I don't Like:
To many Homeruns
Last bullet from What I don't Like:
Lack of consistency with hitting.
?????
Too*
And yes, you read that right. Too complex?
There are too many home runs. On top of that hitting is inconsistent. A perfect-perfect swing can easily be a ground out, line out, fly out etc, as well as a home run. Why doesn't this perfect input always result in a hit? Why does early timing with less than perfect contact result in home runs? It also results in fly outs, fouls etc, but hitting results are all over the place. My theory is...this is a video game. If I do something right I should be rewarded. If I do something wrong I should be penalized. Simple as that.
If I'm playing Halo and shoot the rocket launcher at my feet I always die. However if I shoot an opponent with a rocket launcher, they always die. Good actions are rewarded, bad actions are penalized. Get it?
And I have to agree with @ChuckCLC_PSN The Show at its core is a good game that needs some polish and love...but I do agree that the huge drop off in quality I'm speaking of occurs in head to head. But let's be honest, who wants to play Diamond Dynasty exclusively single player? It's meant to be a multiplayer mode. With franchise and RTTS basically getting no love and all the updates going into Diamond Dynasty, it's inexcusable to have your product in this state.
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First year player and most of it has been great. I mean I am still playing, so that says something right there...however online gameplay is a nightmare.
Core Game-8
I have rarely played it until the past few weeks, but it is a good game with a lot of good options and from my limited experience...the games play like real baseball games. Bullpens are used...you can run on certain outfielders and not others, etc.Now ...Diamond Dynasty
Content-9.5
Sure you can complain that we don't have 99s of guys like Griffey and Ruth at this point and it is frustrating...but the amount of free content is insane and there has been a steady stream all year...Topps Now, POTM, Player Programs, Evolution, Conquest Maps, Showdown, etc. There is almost always something new and at this point I could field about 10 different teams full of players I love. I get no Griffey and Ruth...it is a business for SDS.Offline Game Modes-6
I have no problem with Showdown...I actually think it is what it is designed to be. High drama boosted players with big rewards at the end. With moments I get tired of them because there are so many, but they are fine. When it comes to Conquest...I have gotten to where I don't hate it. But if I want to play offline games, I don't really want to simulate hexagons. I want to play games.The shining star of offline is Extra Innings. Most people playing DD want to use their best players against someone else's best players in a nine inning format. Extra innings is exactly that for offline...but it ends there. This needs to be expanded to something like a mini-season style format or something. I would love to see a program path or something built into Extra Innings...take away some conquests and drop packs in something based around Extra Innings.
There needs to be a format based around games that is not conquest and builds towards something.
Online Game Modes-9
I think it is almost perfect. Ranked is super team versus super team and you have to have that mode. BR is super cool and super fun and the program makes it accessible to everyone. Events are a lot of fun because it mixes things up...I do wish it wasn't free entries though, because you are really just playing until the first person quits.Online Gameplay-2
It is an absolute train wreck. I feel it mostly gets magnified in RS and some of the issues are isolated there...but it is just a mess.-
The Stamina issue just makes no sense. You can play almost any other mode in this game and stamina matters for your starting pitcher...but not in ranked. So people build these insane bullpens that are hardly ever needed and as a hitter, there is really no point in being a good hitter that doesn't swing at everything.
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It is as scripted as can be and I just can't see the games outside of that. I truly do not know each game if I was the better player or not...well actually I do normally know, but not based on the scoreboard. I couldn't begin to count the number of close games I magically lost or magically won in the 8th inning. It is always late in the game, but something about the 8th just seems terrible. Suddenly a fielder who never makes an error, makes one (they may call it a hit) and then something else falls or your pitcher suddenly can't throw strikes...then the bomb comes or some other really random infield play where a fielder can't get rid of the ball. Sure comebacks happen and clutch is a real thing....but the way this plays out is just not cool for a competitive online game and it happens WAY too often. This is the main thing that turns me away from Ranked...it is one thing to lose from scripted stuff in a three inning Event game...but it is so much more frustrating in a nine inning game.
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The most recent PCI update is terrible. The biggest problem with the update impacts the game significantly based on the difficulty level. With All-Star the foul ball game is now even worse...didn't know that was possible, but it is. However now a ball thrown anywhere on the screen can be fouled off and balls can be destroyed way below the zone. The increased sensitivity is annoying on All Star, but with HOF and Legend it is way worse. I mean the increased range might have worked at the upper levels, but it is hard to know with the sensitivity being the way it is.
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@dirty-shawnchez_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
First bullet from What I don't Like:
To many Homeruns
Last bullet from What I don't Like:
Lack of consistency with hitting.
?????
I know right!! You caught that too! He said “waaaaay too many homers”, then goes on to say “if it’s perfect timing and amazing contact it should be a homer every time!”
Can’t have it both ways.
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@chuckclc_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
I would go about 7.5/10. Only real knock I can give it is how it plays online H2H. The game plays great outside of that. I enjoy it immensely when not playing someone else. With that being said I enjoy playing other people that is why I play DD. So I have to give it a big drop in points because of that. Outside that I would say a 9.5. If they could get the H2H stuff tightened up this would be amazing! And I am not really talking about server issues. I mean the fact you can play 3 games in a row and all 3 games have different timing windows and pitch speeds look different despite playing at the same level.
Baserunning and fielder urgency because of animations would probably be my main concerns gameplay wise. Besides that I think its an amazing game. Sure there can always be improvements but I think they do improve a little each year.
I think this pretty much sums up my thoughts. Since starting DD last year, I've really enjoyed MLBTS. I used to be strictly a RTTS player (man, they really kind of messed that up this year, but I digress).
Regarding H2H... I'm not a great online player, but I'm "OK". When I get a good connection, it actually feels pretty good. It just doesn't happen often enough.
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2020 was my first year playing DD. I didn't play a single game of ranked this year. Events were my thing until I got into BR. Absolutely love that mode.
Things I loved:
Parallels - Loved this addition. Grinding for a V on or offline was a huge W. Being able to "import" the paralleled player into other modes like showdown, etc was HUGE.
Pitching - I didn't use pinpoint but the trend where balls would gravitate to the middle of the plate from '20 is gone.
Programs - being able to grind to get a WS player, etc was pretty cool. I'm not that great of a player so going 12-0 or getting to WS is almost impossible right now. (I'm working on it...and gettin' gud)Things I didn't like:
Dashboarding - still an issue. I don't care that people do it. What bothers me is the play should finish. I hit a bomb with a player I'm trying to get mission stats from and they dont count...thats not cool.
102mph high sinkers - I think they fixed this a bit as I'm not seeing them as much. Although it may be that I can recognize them more now.Overall I think the mechanics of the game were much improved from '20 (at least for me). The content was descent - always something to do but overall I think the rewards may have been a little disappointing. Mookie, Kershaw, Acuna and Ohtani were all ok. Surprisingly Ortiz was money for me all year. I couldn't hit with that card at all last year.
I learned a ton from '20 and had a strategy going into this year. I think it worked for the most part as I have almost every card in the game and a stub balance of over 4.3 million. -
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
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@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
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@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
20 suffered from COVID shortening the season to 2 months but SDS did a good job w/ the content. They were in a no win situation with 20 although I enjoyed 20 very much.
In the PS4/XBOX ONE era, I would rank :
1-MLB 21
2-MLB 17
3-MLB 20
4-MLB 16
5- MLB 18
6- MLB 19 -
7/10
Here's whyI like
The offline grinds - Not too long but always something new.
Parallel system - Rewards players for using cards
3-day daily moments - It's nice for people who aren't always home.
Extra Innings - Nice offline-online element
Create-A-Stadium - Quick and easy if you know what you are doing.
Pinpoint pitching - Makes pitching easier.Needs to be added
Difficulty Indicator - So many times I think I'm on HOF but I'm on legend instead.
DH - You can choose between AL rules and NL rules.
Longer Inning programs - Longer time-wise and longer reward-wise.
Late side of good buff - Nerf just early and early and give late side of good a chance to be "good."Things I didn't like
Too many off PCI homers - Self-explanatory.
Server issues - Couldn't even play half of the time because servers were down.Overall, could be better, but not horrible for a trial year.
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@surfinsantacruz_xbl said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
20 suffered from COVID shortening the season to 2 months but SDS did a good job w/ the content. They were in a no win situation with 20 although I enjoyed 20 very much.
In the PS4/XBOX ONE era, I would rank :
1-MLB 21
2-MLB 17
3-MLB 20
4-MLB 16
5- MLB 18
6- MLB 19Content doesn’t make up for your players not being able to catch a ball for 2 months, or your pitcher throwing pitches that defy the laws of physics and float into the middle of the zone. Content means nothing if the game plays like sh*t, which ‘20 did, its just my opinion but I stand by ‘20 being the second worst game in this franchises history.
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@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@surfinsantacruz_xbl said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
20 suffered from COVID shortening the season to 2 months but SDS did a good job w/ the content. They were in a no win situation with 20 although I enjoyed 20 very much.
In the PS4/XBOX ONE era, I would rank :
1-MLB 21
2-MLB 17
3-MLB 20
4-MLB 16
5- MLB 18
6- MLB 19Content doesn’t make up for your players not being able to catch a ball for 2 months, or your pitcher throwing pitches that defy the laws of physics and float into the middle of the zone. Content means nothing if the game plays like sh*t, which ‘20 did, its just my opinion but I stand by ‘20 being the second worst game in this franchises history.
I played about 100 RS (74-27 record) games and likely 200 event games in 20.
I've played 14 RS (12-2 record) games in 21 and about 20 event games.
I don't play BR.
21 has been awful. Hitting has been awful. Pitching overpowered, but that played to my advantage because hitting is so bad. There has been something "off" with this game all year and it has just made me hate it more and more.
I went back to 20 to play some RS and I went like 5-0 before getting bored there too. You could actually hit the ball in 20.
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Also, content this year doesn't make up the fact of the constant BS we've put up with. No stamina drain on starting pitchers? Come the f#!k on. Persistent all year and no fix? SDS just bad at their job. Once they put out 21, they started on 22 and just forgot about how bad 21 was and gave up. Took them 2+ months to get the servers up and running consistently. Trash. Pure trash.
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@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@surfinsantacruz_xbl said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
20 suffered from COVID shortening the season to 2 months but SDS did a good job w/ the content. They were in a no win situation with 20 although I enjoyed 20 very much.
In the PS4/XBOX ONE era, I would rank :
1-MLB 21
2-MLB 17
3-MLB 20
4-MLB 16
5- MLB 18
6- MLB 19Content doesn’t make up for your players not being able to catch a ball for 2 months, or your pitcher throwing pitches that defy the laws of physics and float into the middle of the zone. Content means nothing if the game plays like sh*t, which ‘20 did, its just my opinion but I stand by ‘20 being the second worst game in this franchises history.
I Play offline so never had those issues.
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I could write long paragraphs justifying my score, and maybe I will at some point, but I'll give a brief summary of why I think it is a 7/10.
The Good
- They fixed my two biggest complaints about 20, floating pitches and foul balls. (Though some would argue that foul balls are worse, I would not. I get way more strikeouts pitching this year) Remember how in 20 people could just sit fastball and foul off every offspeed?.
- Endless amount of players to use, and while you still see Degrom just about every ranked game, I'd argue that's more on the players, I've found success with so many different pitchers.
- The BR and Ranked season reward paths are awesome and solved the endless 1m orders on cards problem from 20 while giving everyone a chance to earn those players.
The Bad
- Servers, no explanation needed.
- I'm struggling how to word this, but HoF and above is to "hard", It's not something easily put into words without making it seem like I'm mad because I'm bad.
- Off inner pci home runs
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@eatyum_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
I could write long paragraphs justifying my score, and maybe I will at some point, but I'll give a brief summary of why I think it is a 7/10.
The Good
- They fixed my two biggest complaints about 20, floating pitches and foul balls. (Though some would argue that foul balls are worse, I would not. I get way more strikeouts pitching this year) Remember how in 20 people could just sit fastball and foul off every offspeed?.
- Endless amount of players to use, and while you still see Degrom just about every ranked game, I'd argue that's more on the players, I've found success with so many different pitchers.
- The BR and Ranked season reward paths are awesome and solved the endless 1m orders on cards problem from 20 while giving everyone a chance to earn those players.
The Bad
- Servers, no explanation needed.
- I'm struggling how to word this, but HoF and above is to "hard", It's not something easily put into words without making it seem like I'm mad because I'm bad.
- Off inner pci home runs
Good #1 - I wish they just fixed foul balls/check swings for online only. Offline is such a joke. They can't even get the animations to match the result.
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My biggest problem with this game is the online aspect. The lag is horrible. The ball jumps frames into the zone. Kinda making you guess where it will be.
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@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@surfinsantacruz_xbl said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@jeezy-e_psn said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
@schwizzle_nizzle said in MLB The Show 21: End of Year Review:
For first year players, they will always say this is the best baseball game they've ever play. That was the same for me in 20 jumping into DD. First year players shouldn't count. The game is great until you repeatedly see the same worthless [censored] year over year that SDS has jammed into the game. I'm still sticking to my 2.5/5 on this year's game. MLBTS20 was better.
‘20 was one of the worst in the entire franchise IMO, the only year that was worse was ‘18. If you launch a game where the basics of the sport cant be performed for the first 2 months I can’t put it up there with the likes of ‘17 or even ‘19.
20 suffered from COVID shortening the season to 2 months but SDS did a good job w/ the content. They were in a no win situation with 20 although I enjoyed 20 very much.
In the PS4/XBOX ONE era, I would rank :
1-MLB 21
2-MLB 17
3-MLB 20
4-MLB 16
5- MLB 18
6- MLB 19Content doesn’t make up for your players not being able to catch a ball for 2 months, or your pitcher throwing pitches that defy the laws of physics and float into the middle of the zone. Content means nothing if the game plays like sh*t, which ‘20 did, its just my opinion but I stand by ‘20 being the second worst game in this franchises history.
I played about 100 RS (74-27 record) games and likely 200 event games in 20.
I've played 14 RS (12-2 record) games in 21 and about 20 event games.
I don't play BR.
21 has been awful. Hitting has been awful. Pitching overpowered, but that played to my advantage because hitting is so bad. There has been something "off" with this game all year and it has just made me hate it more and more.
I went back to 20 to play some RS and I went like 5-0 before getting bored there too. You could actually hit the ball in 20.
I never said ‘21 was much better haha, the only thing I will praise about this years game is that SDS did everything they could to make DD NMS and to provide line up parody and variety.
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Give me 16 or 17 and I'm fine with the game. I have played 18-21 because it is the only baseball game but to be honest I haven't enjoyed those versions that much. My RS participation has slowed to almost a halt because of the way it plays online. Maybe someday it will get better but not if they cut and paste every year.
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No way I'm reading all of this. I don't even read books, lol.
