My Review So Far of MLB The Show 25
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So, it's that time where we can give a pretty accurate review of the game. First, let's start with what SDS is doing wrong.
Team Affinity is a Catastrophe
We have gotten 3 diamonds from each team from TA all year so far. 3. The Jolt 85-86, the Color Storm 91-92, and the 2025 All-Star Game 96. Team Affinity used to be great. It would pump out plenty of cards that are usable for god squads and theme teams. Now, just look at some teams like the Rockies, Marlins, and Diamondbacks. And that's just to name a few. Our next drop will be Finest and that's probably it for the year. Not only that, to get each All-Star in TA, you need 285,000 XP for EACH TEAM. Now, I understand that you don't need to get EVERY single card from TA, but you need most. 285k is a lot of XP for one team. Personally, I think they should've done maybe 205k, get the Jolt player, use the Color Storm card, and boom, you're done. That's just my opinion. I get that these cards were part of a huge collection and it should be difficult, but I think, overall, that drop was a little lackluster and time consuming.
TOO MANY COLLECTIONS
Need I say more? DOES EVERY [censored] GREAT CARD HAVE TO BE IN A COLLECTION!? Jose Bautista is insane - behind the hardest collection in the game, costs about 6 million total. Ted Williams - another insane card - behind another collection. Carlos Beltran - still the best card in the game in my opinion - behind the Live Series collection, which makes sense, he should be VERY hard to get. Judge, Raleigh, Ohtani, Rolen, Griffey, Posada, Correa, all of these insane cards are behind collections. It's the meta these days. Not saying you can't build a good team without collections, but goddamn, can't we get one good card that's hard to get BUT FREE. Give us a long program, make us feel rewarded for playing the game instead of mindlessly flipping or playing the draft conquest over and over again for one [censored] card.
Programs Are Lackluster
Programs this year just suck. We get no more than 4 cards per program and the cards just aren't that good. We got a pretty mid 99 Ronald Acuna Jr. and a solid CC Sabathia, but that's it. SDS seems to have lost its creativity. Take the Outfield Assist program, for example. THE PROGRAM AND THE CARDS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH OUTFIELD ASSISTS. As a matter of fact, the cards were based on HITTING milestones. That's a nice 5 IQ move there, SDS. And always, if a program correlates with a pack or collection, like Pipeline Past or Prime, the pack cards will ALWAYS outshine the program rewards. I remember back in MLB 23 we got like 10 cards in the Great Race of '98 program, and the 99 Mark McGwire outshined everyone. It was a long program, but it was rewarding. That's more of what we all would like to see. I'm NOT saying that every card should be free, but, can't we get at least one 99 in a themed program that's maxed out? Next, the Spotlight Drops are a calamity. 3 cards in the program. Nice, and of course, the pack cards are usually better than program rewards. Personally, I hate this new Topps Now and Monthly Awards model. I wish we went back to the old model with the Topps Now cards having their own separate program and the Monthly Award cards having theirs as well. It would be more organized and more fun. However, I'll give SDS props for the player programs. I do like the way they execute those.
Chase Packs and Packs in General are the Meta, again.
Jimmy Rollins, George Brett, Babe Ruth, Ketel Marte, Leodalis De Vries, Mark McGwire, Bernie Williams, Jake Arrieta, Jhoan Duran, all in packs. Need I say more?
So far, this game is not a fan appreciation if you ask me. -
Honestly my problem with the TA All Star drop was that if you played the game regularly (~1 hour per day), and cycled through cards habitually, you had the vouchers already so the All Star Drop was just 'here, cards. No missions to use them though!'
And there is another TA drop on the calendar, but at this point its probably too little too late
Agree with everything else though and would add just how terrible innings are. The reward paths have junk besides the bosses and they launch without miniseasons, conquests, etc. This all was handled far better in 23
Still better than 2024 though, for what little that's worth
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@TheBigPapa55_PSN I think that’s why they changed to the sets and seasons. This is what it was before then. I didn’t care for putting cards aside for a few months but I like baseball enough to fill my roster with players I liked and enjoyed playing so it never bothered me and was completing those divisions within a week. I didn’t get far with the Dodgers TA before I got bored going back to this system and went back to franchise.
