My review of MLB The Show 24
-
Hey guys! I am writing my review of mlb 24. I want to start by saying I am not a new player to MLB The Show franchise. I have been playing the game since MLB 06 on my PSP. Actually I put plenty of hours in "MLB" with Vlad Sr on it on PSP as well.
I am going to break down each part of the game and say what I like and what I'd like to see improved. Any comments (Even Trolls) are welcome!I'm going to start with Offline game modes and then move to DD.
- Road to the Show
When I first heard they were bringing Females into RTTS I was kinda excited. I really haven't played much RTTS in the past few years. The last time I actually had any decent time was in MLB 16. The game mode was basically the same thing over and over. I have watched different Youtube playthroughs including Mighty Goat & Dodgerfilms, so I had a good grasp on what the mode was. I want to say i only have about an hour in RTTS this year, but based on mighty goats play through I am not seeing a lot of differences from previous years. With the addition of Females I would have hoped they had different animations or swings, but I haven't noticed any. They look like the same male models except the face is different. That is very disappointing, I was hoping for someone NEW! One thing that really bothers me about RTTS is, MLB 24 is on the same consoles that GTA6 is coming out on and we CANNOT have voiceovers? Why is the entire mode built in text messages? I didn't get deep into the Female story but I know you are supposed to have a friend that you go through your career with, how can you develop a personal relationship through Text? You will probably mention budget but i'm not looking for a Meryl Streep performance here. LOL. Hire some voice actors to play the characters or even have devs read the lines. That would make it more engaging IMO. I know they have the "MLB Network" Videos but based on the ones i've seen they are mid. I say that because it doesn't feel like they are talking about my character. I remember in NBA 2k franchise they had Erin & Shaq between games scanned in and it made it feel like they were talking about my performance. The MLB Network ones feel like they are talking about a fake person. I'd love to see them Face & Body scan RoFLO & Sarah, that would be DOPE! I just watched MIghty Goats video from today and he didn't stop and view one cut scene probably because it doesn't really make a difference in the game because it is irrelevant. Please SDS put in effort here and make me want to play it please!
SDS can also do what 2K does and give your character a "Nickname" that everyone calls them, make it feel like they are talking about an actual person. I want an actual story and narrative in the game, not just skip all the cut scenes and go to the next game.
Rating: 2/10 NEED MORE EFFORT
Franchise
I haven't played Franchise much, but I've watched Ant Ortiz and RGS play. The game mode is basic and boring. I loved Franchise back in MLB 10-11 and those days. You could actually do hot dog prices, tickets, buy a new field for your stadium so it could avoid injury, training facilities, i can't remember all but it felt more of the business side which i enjoyed. Back in Dec I played MLB 14 franchise and rebuild 5 teams for the month to do something while I was bored of MLB 23. The game mode hasn't really changed too much in a decade. If I had more time to write and think about it, i could come up with more ways to improve the mode. If you play it for what it is, its not horrible, but I'd love to see more. I will give it credit that you can draft a 98 overall player that's fun.
**Thinking about it, more storyline driven content in Franchise would be cool. If your team isn't playing well and you have to DFA a player, perhaps they don't take it well and you get into an argument. That doesn't have to be it, but more manager and player communication would be fun to see. You get promoted to the MLB and you get a voiced over cut scene of the player getting hype, we all love those on twitter. that would be awesome to see get added to franchise mode! Imagine you are calling up your top prospect and you get a cut scene and its in the managers office and he's like you're going to the show and you see him get hype. I would love that!
Rating 4.5/10 MORE EFFORTStorylines
I haven't really played Storylines yet, but they are fine. After being tortured over the past 6 games in moments, I am glad they aren't too difficult and you can skip them. The video production is always top tier and Bob Kendrick is probably the best narrator in the history. I would love to see that effort put in RTTS. I will say I dislike doing moments and that ruined the mode for me last year. I plan to do these soon, so I may revise my review about them.
Rating - 8/10Overall offline gets a 6/10 Storyline really carries this rating. Without storylines its a 4/10
ONLINE Diamond Dynasty
Ranked
This has been the exact same mode as MLB 17, I think it was the same in 16, but I really got into DD In 17 and it hasn't changed. Yes we have the Ranked program, but that still doesn't change the main goal is to get to 900 rating. I've been at 900 rating so much I don't really have desire to do it anymore. I want a better progression system, something more from the mode. I am not sure how I would do it yet, but If i got paid to do it, it would be better. Don't get me started on the stamina system and quitting. It sucks when you start your favorite pitcher only to pitch and inning your opponent quits now you cant use him for 4 games. Please work on that. Freeze offs are just as bad, from my understand they attempted to help with the loss you get from quitting a freeze off but it didn't work coding wise.
Rating 1-10 - Please give us something different next year.Coop Ranked
I really enjoy linking up with my viewers on twitch and playing coop it is very fun and probably my favorite online mode. I have really enjoyed using Real 99s and cards we won't normally get to use. Its been fun. I do HATE freeze offs though, they have to be addressed in COOP. My partner and I were up 21-11 in a game and I had to quit because i was live on twitch for nearly 30 minutes looking at a freeze off game and no one wants to watch that. If they improved connections that would make the game better.
Rating 6/10Battle Royal
Similar to my above post, the only change is now 10-0. That is a nice quality of life change, but the concept is the same. No real changes here. We need something else. I wish i had more to say, but with very limited content there isn't much to talk about, we've had BR since 17 and the goal is always the same. No creativity at all.
Rating 1-10 - BORINGGGGGEvents
I do not see any value in events anymore lol. So far this year, they just have the same cards from Ranked & BR in events and you just got to get 20 wins for collection fodder. Why can't we have all Common event, Gold., silver. Just something to where i can use different cards, not the same diamonds. I can only hope they give us more, but based on last year probably not. Events haven't meant anything in a long time and with only 3 online modes its embarrassing. I'd like to see a month long event with multiple layers to it, making it 2 weeks and get a mid card doesn't make me want to play it, makes me want to stay away.
Events 0.5/10 Not a lot of redeeming qualities. Can only hope for betterWE NEED MORE GAME MODES. I was thinking the other day. What about a SHOOTOUT MODE. You start in the top of the 9th inning. You try and score and then save it in the bottom half, and vice versa for your opponent. You can have like 75 win rewards or something. It would be intense and engaging and probably fun. It would also give you a chance to get better in save situations in Ranked. I would love anything new. PLEASE SDS Give me something!!
Overall Rating 4/10 - if COOP Ranked wasn't here I would legit give it a .5/10 overall
Offline Diamond Dynasty
Mini Seasons
This is where I could write an entire novel about how bad offline grinding is. Again there is ZERO creativity in Mini seasons. I know they are trying to go for a "Ranked" like experience with MIni Seasons but it just becomes a drag after like 10+ wins. Once you've reached 10 wins you realize you're just playing the CPU, and that's all it is without a storyline, character/player development. It just becomes boring. I know there are people who enjoy the mode and I would pay money to hear how they enjoy it I've heard playing on higher difficulty is supposed to do that, but it just makes it more annoying. I will say you do get plenty of PACKS from doing it, but it sucks you have to be bored to death for 4-6 hours to get the packs. and I'll come back to packs later. I've personally really enjoyed the Salvy card from the grind, but I want more from the mode that just isn't there.
Rating 4/10 - Savly & Packs boost this lol.Conquest
For some reason SDS gets a pass every year for releasing the exact same game mode for 8 straight games without any differences and everyone is fine with it lol. I know Conquest was in 17, not sure about 18, but i'm positive it started in 17. They've made ZERO changes to conquest since then. Its a slug to get through. They could at least change the hexagon to a square or triangle or something. NOPE it just looks the same with a different pattern each year and we keep doing it. I don't understand why we need to see the SIMULATION screen each time you take a territory. Can't we just remove that screen and you tell me the amount I have left? I also dislike when i have 15+M fans going up against like 3M and lose and then the CPU starts taking the spaces I already had, then you have to go back and conquer those territories again. It takes forever, its boring. I know there are people who enjoy it, but I am not one of those. Doing the something over and over sucks, I wish SDS would make something new in its place. The USA Conquest board takes 6+ hours and is so boring to get through. I've heard, you don't have to play it. Yes you do, SDS hit 8 CORE cards in the Map so, if you want the CORE collection you have to do it. I did the stupid board, and I hope its gone in 25.
Rating - 1/10, it would have received a 0 but the packs are nice.Showdown
In MLB 20 when they introduced Showdown I actually enjoyed the challenge. It was a different way to play and I though it was great, but like all the other modes its barely changed in the past 4 games and has only gotten easier. They took any difficulty out of it and you just do it to get the TA tickets and you're done. Once that is over there really isn't a reason to go back. I wish they would release a few like 20 that are long and had challenge.
Rating 5-10 Its fine whatever lolOverall Rating 1.5/10 - MLB The show is in desperate need of something else.
XP Reward Path
The reward path has been fine so far, nothing special about it really. I think it is silly to have 30 cards in the path but you can only have 2 and the others were 25k a piece in the pack store so if you choose a card you aren't really good with FOR ME Adam Dunn you are now stuck with it. I though Dunn would be great to use, but I have struggled and now I don't have another option bc he is NO SALE. Who thought this was a good idea? Please tell me why I can't just change my player? I'm 3-18 with Dunn, maybe I get better with him or not. I FULLY understand why we have the XP limit, but come one who cares, let us play all day and get the cards we want to use. who cares if I get the 99 before someone else. Just let me play how I want to.
Rating 5-10, please do better next season.Team Affinity
TA is a grind to get through and I'm not really a fan. I can appreciate that you can do most of it online, but I wouldn't mind if it was gone. I never missed it a few games ago, and still wish it wasn't here. We have enough grinding in the game, i'd like to see less.
Rating 5-10, nothing really to say.Programs
So far the programs have been nice, a nice good surprise so far, all the cards given are actually usable! Missions weren't too long or felt over grindy. Moments are horrible but went by fast. Please keep it up!!
Rating 9/10 we need more stuff like this!Overall Rating 5/10 Please GIVE US SOMETHING NEWWWWWW PLEASE!!!
Misc
Packs
DO NOT GO INTO THE PACK STORE UNLESS YOU GET A FREE PACK. Packs this year are so bad. You should never spend stubs on packs you should only open the free ones given. SDS wants you to open packs to make more money by you purchasing more stubs, but its a waste. I've opened 2 Headliners and only got silvers. Base round on the Fresh Start pack. I am not money spent and stubs are important this time a year. To lose half of the pack value sucks.
Spring Chicken pack cards are mid, Ottavino is the best out of the pack so just pay 26k and not waste 20k on trying to pull him.
Chase Packs have been boring. I love Mantle and bc that card was so nice I was looking forward to the future packs, but Baez and Langford aren't great and there are free options thats better. Please make this pack the best card in the game at the time they come out.
DO NOT OPEN HEADLINER PACKS PLEASE. thats all i have to say.
SDS Needs to put in more effort to reduce pack costs and make the cards featured in the packs interesting. Not boring. No pack should cost 40k.Collections
Live Series Collections
I am not really interesting in doing live series collections this year. Babe is awesome but he has been in the game since 18, i'd love a new legend as the overall collection reward. Pedro is usually BP, and although I like the Palmerio card and understand why he is a 95, we should be getting all 99s for locking in millions of stubs. I wouldn't mind removing the collection all together in future games. Try something new.
Rating 2/10 - not impressed.Season Collections
This is a good idea, but it sucks we don't have the effort form 19 & 20. When the Wagner and Trout collection came out you had to lock in all your cards because they were the most expensive sold cards IRL so it made sense they would be expensive in the game. It was creative and brough excitment to the game. Now collections are just a feature that has been overplayed . I'd like to see them go back in the lab and think of more creative ways to do collections. I have not seen one person use Biggio, there are better options. Franco is a MUST have in the pen so good job there. I like Aurila but haven't used him yet. i'm sure he is great.
Mays, Brett, and Paige are great options, but don't really make sense in the "Collection" concept. Again just another part of the game.
Rating 6/10 Great cards, just no creativity.Special Collections
Hyper Vlad.
This is the worst collections in the history of Diamond Dynasty. The Vlad should be a 95 overall minimum, you have lock in 240k stubs worth of cards to get a 91 overall that other cards are already better than? the only reason to do it is because of the CORE Collection. This has to be the worst effort put into the game so far.
Rating 0/10 Don't do it.Card Art & UI
I really like all the card art this year, its a plus! The ripped paper look at the top is a great touch! Great job art team!
Rating 10/10!!Overall I give MLB 24 a 5/10, The lack of Creativity and nothing really new doesn't give me a lot of excitement to want to play everyday. Do it do it. Yes. I just want to see SDS revamp the game. It must be lack of competition that they release the same game each year and think its okay. I'd love to see 2k, EA, or another developer make a Baseball game, then we could see the real SDS back. Maybe one day.
Thank you so much for reading. I'm looking forward to comments!
- Road to the Show
-
Terrible review, didn't finish reading. Including the real 99 bug in coop as a positive is just dumb imo.
-
@go4stros25 Thats cool man, i appreciate you reading as far as you did! The real 99s in coop give me a chance to use cards I wouldn't have been able to before. Thats why i enjoy it!
-
You are writing a review for a game for a sport that had its regular season 5 days ago. Your review is longer than any article summarizing all the games played so far. Overall grade for this review is 0/10*.
*I did not read the review.
-
@fubar2k7 We already know how the game is going to be lol. Its the same thing for the past 8 years. Why not write a review. I do appreciate you commenting though!
-
@Weshill627_PSN Yet you bought it. I have a bridge in New York for ya.
-
I ain't reading all that, but IMO this game is crashing quickly...theres no good way to make stubs, rewards are awful in each mode, and all XP progressions seems stunted.
-
@fubar2k7 Yeah, i assumed it would be different, yet here we are haha
-
@bjd10048 another year that I probably won't play past april
-
I take your review as:
"I don't like offline, but I saw a video and it sucks."
"Change baseball, it's boring."
"I want free stuff, without having to work for it."
"I opened 2 whole packs and didn't get anything, it sucks."
"I don't know why you like that, but it sucks."
Did you read this before you posted? I'm long winded, and this was way too rambling for me. Baseball hasn't changed much in 150 years. What do you expect them to do? Maybe you should try Super Mega Baseball. -
@broken_toy1 1) I said offline is lacking in storytelling and character development thats why i dont like it.
I didnt say change baseball i said i want a new game mode, is that changing baseball?
I never said i wanted anything free. I want more game modes again.
I've opened hundreds of the free packs from Conquest & Mini Seasons, the 2 i've opened are directly from the pack store. thats why i said dont go there.
theres a lot that sucks in this game.Long winded or not, its my opinion
I expect for $100 they try and put in a litte effort in their game. We arent allowed to have the same effort as 2K or Madden in their career modes?
-
@broken_toy1 If you read i offered them a free new online game mode in there. So maybe they use it. If so great! I hope i get a shout out!
-
@go4stros25 I feel you on that. Its not a great start
-
They need a better ranked program mode since that mode and BR are the only actual competitive h2h modes. They changed it, added the progression program, but they could do more with this. As for everything else, I could care less.
-
@Weshill627 said in My review of MLB The Show 24:
@broken_toy1 1) I said offline is lacking in storytelling and character development thats why i dont like it.
I didnt say change baseball i said i want a new game mode, is that changing baseball?
I never said i wanted anything free. I want more game modes again.
I've opened hundreds of the free packs from Conquest & Mini Seasons, the 2 i've opened are directly from the pack store. thats why i said dont go there.
theres a lot that sucks in this game.Long winded or not, its my opinion
I expect for $100 they try and put in a litte effort in their game. We arent allowed to have the same effort as 2K or Madden in their career modes?
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion. With what you said and how you said it, I know what I would call you if you were my friend IRL. I'm guessing you do too. (I mean that as a joke) As a person reading this, that doesn't know you, this just sounds like another thread from a sports gamer, not a baseball fan, that thinks baseball should change to suit their gaming. You're a gamer first, that's fine. You don't like CPU games, that's fine. Your ratings are obvious biased by those factors. You even admit to not playing RTTS or Franchise.
You want a new online mode. You have one where you use your own cards, one with a draft of cards, and special time limited events with special rules. All playing the same game. So you just want to put another color of lipstick on a pig, ignoring the 3 colors already available. Which, in hand, would further dilute the player pool. Baseball is the third most popular sport in the US right now. The US is where the money is, but international sales inflate soccer and basketball sales. Baseball is international, but not to their degree. Because of that, you're not going to have the budget or audience of MUT, FUT, or NBA2K.
You mention how you don't like the hexagons in conquest. That's based off of a board game similar to Risk with the hexagons. I think it was actually called Conquest. I loved playing Risk and conquest feeds on that using a sport I love, with a board game I love. Change that to another shape?
I agree that improvements need to be made. Character development, outside of RTTS, is not one of them. As far as RTTS goes, you need to play it. I'm surprised of what's been added and changed. Oh no, they can't talk. Yes, it's annoying. I also remember Madden's storyline that was just a computerized video, with bad acting, that was worse than what we have here. Big difference is SDS builds on what they created. EA gives you what they want and that's that. EA has the budget to change it more often. I don't like basketball, so I haven't really played a 2K game since mlb2k was abandoned. I can't speak on them, but Madden's CAP game was awful. The progression system had no real, player input progression.
Thank you for the discourse. A lively debate is always pleasant. I did say I was long winded. Now you see why.
-
@bjd10048 Same, there's just no "juice" this year. I have 0 FOMO when not playing,
and the worst part is, each week that goes by is one closer to having your inventory Thanos snapped and having to do the TA grind all over again just to field a team.
-
@Weshill627 said in My review of MLB The Show 24:
@broken_toy1 If you read i offered them a free new online game mode in there. So maybe they use it. If so great! I hope i get a shout out!
I repeat myself. How did you not know there was nothing new added before you purchased the game? They blast all the information on their social media and have streams about what’s in the game.
-
Diamond Dynasty is a sht show. Pitching doesn't matter anymore in the game. Everybody hits homeruns. I am trying to pitch the ball in the dirt but for some reason the ball is in the middle of the plate even though I have perfect release. . Its a dmn softball game. Hitting is easier every year. It seem like since they made a Xbox version of the game hitting is a joke and everybody hits homeruns. I hit plenty of homeruns without lining my pci up with the ball. I can be far away and still get a hr. Outfielders all have 99 speed in the outfield but from reason they cant run to first base. They run so fast and sometimes teleport to the ball. Everybody has the same cards.
I can say hitting on simulation is the sweet spots but you can only do that offline with modes like RTTS/Franchise .
-
I AM GOING TO DO AN UPDATE TO MY MLB 24 REVIEW SOON!
-
The game is heading into its final real season. Next years game is already done and in testing. I said this earlier in the year and I will say it again, they are working next gen folks.
