My Final Review of MLB The Show 25
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I miss: 'Oh, he botches it!' Or 'Hit 'em with the Heinnnnn!' From Matty V.
I don't miss: 'Snap throw!!'
One little thing I noticed is if you press 'Gen' to generate a lineup, the pitching staff is always all LS.
I need 'Sounds of The Show' back.
The 99's came too plentiful, too quickly, with too many players with more than 1 99.
The repeatable Draft map was gold, though.
I enjoyed myself and am so grateful for SDS's efforts. I think 7.5 out of 10 is fair.
I don't think we'll get competition any time soon, as some companies may be scared. Look at how the only NASCAR game, '25 was ripped to shreds on YouTube, especially by Ryan Moody who is usually bashing Madden, although that is justified! -
@Teak2112_MLBTS
TREASON! You are right that Matty V wasn't really Matty V, but Boog and Chris are nowhere close to him even then. -
The game is pretty [censored] good offline (as long as the pitcher decides against walking you 7 times per game). I just wish they could create a better CPU hitting AI than "fastball up-in 2x, offspeed low-away" that they rarely ever adjust to. That said, I guess grinders would complain if it weren't like that
Online...meh, I have a lot of issues with that. It literally feels like an entirely different game than offline. I kept wanting to play more online this year but the online gameplay felt more like a script than an actual game. I'm not saying that as a "Sore loser" because it probably helped me more than my opponents in the limited events / casual games that I played. The input MUST matter more both from a hitting and a pinpoint pitching perspective. EDIT - I'd like to add that I don't remember allowing so many fouls and hard hits on pitches nowhere near the strike zone. My opponents will crush pitches out of the zone but swing-and-miss on hanging change-ups and curves. It baffles me.
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@TheBigPapa55_PSN I would love to see some WBC announcer options
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Weekend Classic- Was alright, significant upgrade from Events and BR. Still ran into a few WAAC players, but nothing horribly experience ruining.
Innings instead of Sets/Seasons- Much needed and requested return to this format didn't disappoint. Felt like maybe the Innings were a touch too short but overall I thought they were great. Decent rewards, only thing I would suggest is to please stop putting useless things like icons and banners in the reward path. If it's just gonna be fodder-esque, at least make it something we can use like more TS packs- at least we can use those for exchaning etc
Collections I personally loved the return to this format, plenty of collections to complete and play for, I enjoyed the rewards as well for completing the different steps in the collections
Ranked Program/Rewards- Really enjoyed this, as someone who only just got into online this year, I felt like the programs were decent, the rewards were worth the time it took, and online wasn't a slog like in past years.
Gameplay- Definitely lacked in some areas...CPU defenders were back to playing infinitely above their attributes at times...results of batted balls weren't matching the actual contact, pitch morphing was worse than it's been in a few years online
Stadium Creator- Largely untouched from 24 despite being in dire need of proper updates like movable bullpens, custom foul ground or foul ground template layouts, using min/max settings to keep online eligibility instead of "it moved a 6 inches, ineligible for online play"
Diamond Dynasty- Good mix of programs and rewards, power creep was fairly well executed. Only thing we need is a third jersey option in the custom uniform section and that's about it
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@Sarge1387_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
Innings instead of Sets/Seasons- Much needed and requested return to this format didn't disappoint. Felt like maybe the Innings were a touch too short but overall I thought they were great. Decent rewards,
The main thing I didn't like is that the bosses felt underwhelming, especially if it took you a while to get to boss packs because instead of the bosses being the Best cards of the inning they were being matched or surpassed by normal program cards in a matter of a week or two.
I feel like the bosses should be the ulimate cards for that inning and that the other cards would work their way up to those levels
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@Sarge1387_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
Innings instead of Sets/Seasons- Much needed and requested return to this format didn't disappoint. Felt like maybe the Innings were a touch too short but overall I thought they were great. Decent rewards, only thing I would suggest is to please stop putting useless things like icons and banners in the reward path. If it's just gonna be fodder-esque, at least make it something we can use like more TS packs- at least we can use those for exchaning etc
I coudn't disagree more strongly with this.
Separating sets from Seasons, which everyone should do, Seasons were just longer innings. And unlike innings, Seasons came with content expected to last you most of the season. yes, this was largely linked to TA, but I thought innings drops universally were terrible.
Just the weekly spotlight program and three cornerstone cards for content, two hours and it was over. The rewards tracks were copy/pasted from inning to inning, the wheel rewards stunk inning 1 and remained the exact same through inning 10.
Season drops were by far the most exciting Fridays for content in 2023-2024. In 2025 they were an off week unless it coincided with the lightning program, but even those after the first one were over in an hour or two.
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@Teak2112_MLBTS said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
innings drops universally were terrible.
Personally that's a hard and strong disagree from me. I think the Sets were god awful, until the "Open Season" came at the end of the cycle. The biggest issue the player base had with Sets and Seasons was that it made the grind feel like it didn't matter because all your hard work was being tossed out the window anyways. I can 100% understand the differing view point though, and respect it.
@Dolenz_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@Sarge1387_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
Innings instead of Sets/Seasons- Much needed and requested return to this format didn't disappoint. Felt like maybe the Innings were a touch too short but overall I thought they were great. Decent rewards,
The main thing I didn't like is that the bosses felt underwhelming, especially if it took you a while to get to boss packs because instead of the bosses being the Best cards of the inning they were being matched or surpassed by normal program cards in a matter of a week or two.
I feel like the bosses should be the ulimate cards for that inning and that the other cards would work their way up to those levels
I can understand that. I think the issue was they went back to the power creep, and kind of...over-corrected? Exactly what you were saying, the inning bosses early on felt way too weak compared to what was coming down the pipe through other programs
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@Sarge1387_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
rops universally were terrible.
Personally that's a hard and strong disagree from me. I think the Sets were god awful
That's fine, i didn't mention sets. I mentioned seasons.
Sets and Seasons are two unrelated concepts. In fact, expiring cards is also unrelated.
Seasons are just longer innings. Nothing more, nothing less. Sets were just the cards that released during those innings. You know what else is a set? Moonshot. Or New Threads. or Jolt.
SDS could make New Thread cards unusable during inning 8 if they wanted too, so you could have the thing people hated in 2023 and 2024 without using either the word sets or seasons.
My issue, is that as a mainly offline player, innings drops were just normal Fridays, if not worse. You had a spotlight program. Maybe a small conquest, maybe not. You never had a mini season, which was a staple in 2023 and 2024. You never had a big program to work towards. It was just the xp track which is mostly passive anyway (and cornerstone, which imo wasnt well done)
In short, i treated innings drops as a week off and I would come back when they released more things to do
Seasons, on the other hand, coincided with TA drops so there was always a LOT to do.
Part of this is TA sucked this year, but that combined with hollow innings really killed a lot of my enthusiasm for DD.
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Team Affinity was good, just needed rewards between 400K and 1.5M. I completed everyteam to get the finest reward voucher by mid july.
Conquest and Mini-Seasons were outstanding but could be improved by adding longer games, you get 3 innings usually against the best starters in the game, but I digress.
Diamong Quest should be configured so that if you complete the map, you get the rare prize, if you rush to the stadium without completing the map, then do the percentage gamble.
Not a fan of showdown.
Everytime I tried to play multiplayer I was put up against people who did bunt dancing and key mashing to slow down the game, no thank you.
Lineups should have more flexibility If I decide to only carry 6 relievers, I should be able to have more position players on my team.
More Customization for logos, stadiums. and Walk up music, being able to upload files would be great again. either via A usb drive or the show companion app. Franchise needs more features, people play those games too, it's not just for GM simming.
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@victoryphoenix_PSN the lineup flexibility will never happen because you can't do that in real baseball
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@sbchamps17_NSW said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@victoryphoenix_PSN the lineup flexibility will never happen because you can't do that in real baseball
You can carry 6 SPs?
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@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@sbchamps17_NSW said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@victoryphoenix_PSN the lineup flexibility will never happen because you can't do that in real baseball
You can carry 6 SPs?
He said carry 6 relievers not starters
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@sbchamps17_NSW said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@sbchamps17_NSW said in My Final Review of MLB The Show 25:
@victoryphoenix_PSN the lineup flexibility will never happen because you can't do that in real baseball
You can carry 6 SPs?
He said carry 6 relievers not starters
This used to be the norm and is still allowed under current rules as far as I know
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The issue with this would be everyone would carry 3 or 4 extra starters in their bullpen because we have so many good starters (which is not the case in MLB)
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I mean, technically, if you play the CP Yamamoto as an Opener, you can have six SPs.
