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@Sarge1387_PSN, it's amazing how much of a difference it makes when the physics more accurately reflect real life. And I don't know about you, but one of the things that makes it far and away superior, for me, is the more realistic depiction of time in-play; a ball can actually hang in the air for 3 to 4 seconds without a fielder being able to get to it... it takes a while for a slower outfielder to get to the corner to grab a ball rattling around there.

And after roughly 40 or so games played between the free version and the Japanese 2024-2025 game, I have yet to see a superball bounce ground-rule double.

@Easy_Duhz_It__PSN said:

According to the PSN store, the WBC game mode will only be available in Japan and the Asia region. Also, looks like microtransactions will still be a thing and color commentary wont be available in English. Good luck with this one lol

Yes, the WBC mode won't be available in our region, and that might be a deal-breaker for some. You're not going to find major leaguers in this game (save for former players now in Japan, and once-NPB players now in MLB), so if people don't like the idea of getting to know all new players and teams and stadiums, then maybe they won't want to give it a try. And there are microtransactions, but they're mainly stadium chants and customized sounds (at least in the full 2024-2025 version). Of course, the superior physics engine and a much better article of baseball will be available in all regions.

This game won't be for everyone. If you prefer a game where even the greatest contact hitters of all time are irrelevant because most singles are accidental, where pitching is an afterthought, and especially if you enjoy seeing the same six or seven hits repeated ad nauseum, then Konami's game probably isn't for you. If you prefer your defenders grossly out-of-scale relative to the field of play and like that middling outfielders cover so much ground and throw so hard that decisions are unnecessary while running bases, then you may want to just stick with the game you know.

As to the commentary, I agree that the English version will be terrible (as it is in the free version). So desu ne... I'd suggest pouring yourself a few fingers of The Yamazaki, choosing the Taisuke Mitsuhashi option, and opening your mind to the fact that there are few things more delightful than people speaking excitedly about baseball in Japanese.

@theBlindRhino_PSN, you should mess around with it some more.

It has an old-school, Wii-like menu and music to match that feels a bit odd, at first, but that hides a pretty [censored] good baseball simulation. The free game doesn't look as good as its Japanese counterpart because the players in it are all fictional, created models without any face-mapping, and it appears somewhat hastily constructed; but it led me to order the 2024-2025 Japanese version and the pitcher/batter screens look amazing. Not as graphically polished as The Show when the ball is in play, but MLBTS relies on canned animations that look smooth, and really just limit control to the point that you may as well be playing Dragon's Lair.

The physics engine puts MLBTS to shame, making it a much better baseball simulation, and if you played it for a few hours, I think you'd start to see just how many things SDS gets wrong. The free game gives you a taste, but it plays even better when you try the import version because the players have better attribute rankings (the free version starts you with a selection of pretty weak players), speeding things up and allowing for more variation without destroying gameplay like high ranked cards do in DD.

I don't know how online H2H play will be, but for anyone who enjoys a franchise-like mode (Konami's Season mode is amazing), especially, I think this will be a great alternative to what SDS is trying to pass off as baseball.

I'm throwing in the towel on DD. I've never been one for the big collections, so card caps and overpriced LS don't have as meaningful an impact on me as they do on others. For my style, I could always get the cards I wanted by playing the game; even this year, I hadn't had any issue getting enough stubs just from playing to buy the cards I wanted. Ranked lost luster for me with the further enfeebling of pitching and high scoring, but I figured I’d move to mostly off-line play. There were still plenty of cards in programs that I could grind for, but ultimately I just didn't feel like putting the time in and playing with cards I didn't want to play with to earn the cards I actually wanted.

I was bored. I thought I’d just play some Franchise, like the old days... but that wasn't a lot of fun, either. Granted, it played a bit better with lower ranked cards, but still far too easy to put the bat on the ball, the batted ball outcomes too repetitive, the physics not quite right, the fielders far too fast with arms like cannons... and I realized why I don't want to play DD anymore: sure, you can still get “rewards” by just playing the game, but I just don’t enjoy playing this game that much anymore.

I’d just heard about the F2P game Konami dropped a month or so ago, and tried it out. It’s bare bones, and has its own quirks, but it plays more like baseball. Admittedly, it doesn’t look as nice when the ball is put in play, but things generally progress realistically and at the right pace; a deep drive may hang in the air for a few seconds and fielders still can’t track it down, balls hook around the bag, fair, and curl into foul territory before rattling around in the corner. Home runs are rare enough to be special. Pitching matters, because making good contact is hard.

I liked it enough to order the NPB import version, and that arrives today, so I’m moving away from The Show this year. In April, which says something. And maybe people like the heavy emphasis on offense and home runs, in particular; if that’s you, this is probably a good game for you and I hope it brings you joy. If it’s not your bag, maybe that F2P game is the first salvo in what will ultimately be a US Konami release that will push both franchises to get better through healthy competition… and offer fans both a simulation and a slugfest.

But, yes; I think DD has gotten boring, and it’s more than a little sad for me.

I'd like to see what happens if Konami actually offers a more polished game in this market. That new F2P is a pretty decent simulation that does a lot of things right, and some where this game just flat out misses... where fielding is concerned, I couldn't have told you where TS felt off, exactly, but a lot of things that happen with the ball in play don't feel right. After spending some time with the Konami game, you can see how they intentionally focused on the time in which it takes events to unfold; balls driven into the gap hang up there for a bit, fielders take time to get there and simply don't move fast enough to cut everything off... it just feels better. It makes me smile playing it. This one doesn't anymore.

And I'm not saying its a better game, because it's stark, but the makings of a good simulation is there. It's fun, unless you're into smashing homeruns more frequently than you hit singles and want average exit velocities of 100+.

Regardless, it's time for someone else to push harder toward a more sim-style game and give a little love to pitching and defense. They matter. I know this game has its market, but I don't think it's for me, as-is... just ordered the NPB version of Konami's and plan to get my baseball fix this year running seasons using Hanshin and the Fighters. I'll miss the online play (but will play the F2P if I need it), but at least I'll get to learn a little Japanese while working my way through the menus.

@MrDero_MLBTS, sadly, that seems to be true.

It's just too bad that it infects the rest of gameplay... someone had posted a few days back about how out-of-whack defense is; about how everyone has a cannon arm and such. I've noticed that it's a real challenge to get to second base with anyone under 55 speed when a gapper finds grass and hits the wall... I'm talking about you, Pete Alonso. He hit 41 doubles last year in MLB, but he's getting hosed by a fair amount if he tries to grab second after hitting a screamer between the fielders. And forget trying to score or sacrifice him over with a fly to the outfield.

But, if batters are given endless chances at the dish and gameplay is tilted so that no one cries when they strike out, outs have to come from somewhere. More line outs. More ridiculous seed-like throws from the outfield with preternatural accuracy. This catering to the infants who can't handle not putting the ball in play if they're beaten has skewed this game into a boring and unsatisfying home run derby.

Call strikes. Make the inner PCI more generous. Kill the outer PCI altogether.

We've jumped the shark, here. Start moving toward more toward realistic outcomes, as advertised.

@MrDero_MLBTS, yes... except that isn't fun at all.

I've never been a good hitter (have always settled in around. 240 after 5 games or so), but I'm hitting about .315 and have scored 26 runs in my last 3 games in Ranked. And I'm dumber for it.

Endless foul balls, hitters diving away from anything inside to stymie swing attempts, and now pitches aren't strikes unless they catch 51% of the zone.

Not baseball. Not fun.

@Ditka06-_MLBTS, never watched a game streamer in my life, and hitting has never been easier; I'm hitting 60 points higher than I ever have.

If you mean pitching is easy as in it isn't difficult to get the pitcher to throw the ball toward home plate, sure. In terms of run suppression in Ranked on All-Star, its a bit trickier.

Regardless, if your argument is that strikes should be called balls because you aren't capable of digesting the fact that you should have swung but did not, then you should probably be playing Mario Kart. Or checkers.

Maybe baseball just isn't for you.

@Ditka06-_MLBTS, perhaps they should just eliminate pitching altogether and simply put the ball on a tee. We could all square the ball up as often as our fragile egos need and skip all that messy failure that the game of baseball tries to teach us to deal with.

Not calling strikes appropriately makes this game worse. As the pitcher/batter battle is the heart of baseball itself, it is absolutely inexcusable to blatantly ignore the rule most important to deciding those outcomes.

It's bad enough that the outer PCI allows you to foul off literally anything (a very early swing on a ball in the dirt should not make contact), but further protecting a batter from strikeouts by simply pretending a strike is something other than it is both sacrifices the drama of pitcher/batter experience and diminishes the importance of pitcher cards. And it's all to protect the fragility of little boys who can't handle striking out in a video game.

The entire game is poorer for it.

@Blind_Bleeder_PSN, pretty good start for Morris on opening night... happy for him that he's starting games now (and doing well, it seems), but sure would have liked to see him in the pen for the big club these last couple of days.

... and it turns out that a pitch is a strike if any part of the ball intersects with any part of the zone.

Here it is: https://www.mlb.com/video/logan-webb-called-strike-to-jose-caballero-capture-review

I'm sure this is being dutifully looked at by the team at SDS, and a fix to the called-strike mechanics is imminent.

@Blind_Bleeder_PSN, that's great... pitching on opening night is a pretty big deal. Looks like he's definitely going to get his shot to show what he can do this year.

I certainly wish him the best, and hope to see him at Sutter before too long!

@Onix_Savage22_PSN, yeah, that's tough... we do what we need to do, but you might find that you get to come back to it years down the road. Might not be at the same level, but there's something to be said about picking it back up, long after you convinced yourself you had to say goodbye to it.

I was slower, weaker, and had more trouble against softer stuff, but I loved being out there just as much as I ever had.

I hope you find your way back.

And try to keep your head on your shoulders when you play these video games

@Onix_Savage22_PSN, without addressing the rest of the post, why are you so quick to think you won't play real baseball again? If you want to, there's usually a way... might not be super competitive, but I started again in my 30's playing in men's rec leagues. Had a blast playing hardball until I was about 35...

@BuddyHightower_XBL, I don't think you are. I think it's kind of a clunky design, as-is.

I've just gotten used to looking at the card attributes first, sometimes even taking a quick pic of it with my phone, and comparing that to the displayed attributes as I slide through the different mods.

It would be better if it was as you suggest: show a +x or -x next to each affected attribute, relative to the current attributes of the non modified card.

@Ditka06-_MLBTS, I don't know what to tell you about that... that hasn't been my experience. In my 48 hours of play so far (only 9 Ranked games, and only a handful of BR or events, but lots of Mini Seasons and lots of Conquest), I have yet to be kicked from a single game.

There are things that frustrate me, but the game works. I see absolutely no difference in the state of the servers now than throughout the last cycle, with the exception of slow menus at the start.

Sorry you're having a hard time with it, but I seem to remember you having trouble with it last year, also...

And notice that I didn't say "blame the consumer"; I said that if we keep choosing the same things despite being repeatedly disappointed and expecting things to get better when there's really no reason to believe things have gotten better, then we should also look at our own decision making process. That's not a value judgement on you as a human being.

I'll say this, and I'll leave it be: the reason people get such pushback when making generalized comments like "the game doesn't work" is because that is not everyone's experience. Maybe it's regional. I don't know. But it isn't universal, and when people start calling other people bootlickers or offer some other jejune pseudo-analysis when they encounter others who are having a fine time, those people react.

I get it. You're having issues with the game. That sucks and I'm sorry you aren't able to enjoy it. I hope whatever it is gets worked out for you.

@RAisEdByGoAt_XBL said:

My first year of finally standing ground and not purchasing this game. In my opinion the only way they will ever do so much as even acknowledge the issues we’ve been plagued with.

I don't agree with you often, but I agree with this.

@TripleH-4481 said:

Problem is not enough people will hold off due to their love of baseball. Plus for every $70 or $100 game purchase they may lose there are a ton of people dropping thousands of dollars on the game at launch that offsets those lost sales by a mile.

I think this is a pretty accurate statement. And this has been true for several years, now.

I will not hold off because of my love for baseball... and because I have realistic expectations of what it is I'm buying. We all want constant updates and new content throughout the entire cycle, and then wonder why the new game is basically the same when it launches. That's the part I don't understand. If you like WoW, you play Wow, for years, and every few years you get a large upgrade, but it's mostly the same game.

The "new" Show is just the same Show (and I happen to enjoy the game) with a few new features, and why that surprises everyone is beyond me. I'd love to understand the logic of those who think that, somehow, we're going to get a brand new product that works perfectly when the studio has been busy, all year, creating content for the old game. By now, we should all know what we're getting, and there's really no excuse for thinking otherwise. We either like the game at its heart, or we feel like it has so far to go that it's simply not a good game. If you belong to the latter camp, that's fine, and if you only want the game if they've taken a major leap forward, or until they've fixed all the bugs that existed only months or weeks before the "new" launch, also fine; but then you really shouldn't buy it until you've seen enough to confirm that.

It's also appropriate to take accountability for our own decisions, and to manage our own expectations appropriately.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't voice their opinions and point out what they'd like to see worked on (I want a real strike zone, for instance), but if you are shocked at the state of the game, every year, and upset that they keep taking your money... well, at least some of that is on you.

@yankblan_PSN, behind a login so not sure if it links, but just hit "game" up top, to the right, and when it takes you to the Dashboard, use the gamer search just right of center... scroll down, and it already shows the most recent history, but you can click at bottom for more.