Official MLB The Show 18 Thread | Available Now

[brendasdeadbaby]

I play online too when my friends are on but I perfer to play a franchise on my own. Everybody's obsessed with online play like its the only way to enjoy a game

 

[amarano]

hows the RTTS mode this year.

i buy it every year pretty much 90% just for RTTS.

i felt year was very difficult at a reasonable difficulty and then when i lowered it , it was too easy.

im talking difficult like cheap. like who pop ups to the catcher 3 times a game. guessing pitch. come on.

 

[T0INE]

Some Early Impressions from OS:

[h2]MLB 15: The Show: Impressions After Four Days of Playing[/h2]

  Submitted on: 04/03/2015 by Ben Vollmer

Uniquely, MLB: The Show '15 seems to grow on you as you play it. The benefit of having such a strong, consistent core is that players are less likely to find bugs that may not seem like a huge deal at first, but begin to grate on you after the ninth or tenth game.

Fortunately, The Show doesn't have this problem. Little details that occasionally pop up keep things feeling like every game is its own entity. For instance, I won a late game challenge against the CPU that secured the winning run. Where else can you experience that kind of weird variable in a game? I was elated and couldn't wait for my next rare experience. The series is famous for "the little things" for a reason: they change the experience in a much bigger way.

After spending time with various game modes in MLB: The Show '15, here are some brief impressions on both Franchise and Road to the Show:

Franchise

- The new menus are nice, once you get used to them. Everything feels much more integrated, and it's nice being able to scroll threw various interesting bits of news and statistics with the press of a button.

- Trade logic is much improved, so breath easy. There were a few great examples in a simulated example that I came across, such as the well-known "bust" of a prospect in Jackie Bradley Jr. for AJ Ellis. The Dodger's young outfielder Joc Pederson had just tore his ACL and the Red Sox were in desperate need of another option at catcher. These were the kinds of deals I saw most frequently, with only one or two mega-deals going down during the course of a season.

- Speaking of trades, the trade finder is nice to finally have, but still falls a tad short of where it needs to be. Frequently, there can only be one or two trade options found for even the best players. I would imagine this is strictly because of the new, tighter budgets and enhanced trade logic that doesn't really allow for skewed trade offers.

- The draft and scouting is still a lot of fun. There seems to be less "gems" and less "busts" which is fine by me. The draft has a much more even progression with only a few surprises in there. Hopefully this doesn't diminish the importance of scouting, however.

- There's still no WAR stat. Perhaps the most used statistic in modern baseball isn't even in the game, and there's nothing I can think of to justify why that's the case.

- Through only a couple of seasons, it still seems like 30-team control might be necessary to get a proper pool of talent in free agency. With the tightened budgets, this is a bit surprising. It could be a result of players still taking way under their actual value (for instance, Wieters took a 3/30 deal fresh off of a .295/.329/.811 year).

- All in all, I'm really impressed with the mode, so far. The radio show is really well implemented, and even though I can't properly judge it because I've only been able to simulate through most of the games, I can imagine that it will help the mode's ability to immerse players in their franchise.

Road to the Show

- As usual, Road to the Show is simple, elegant and fun. It is, however, much better in small chunks because it has a tendency of falling into a rut if played for too long.

- There still isn't a factor that is going to pull a whole lot of people into a multi-season Road to the Show.

- There aren't a ton of additions, but messing around with the authenticated equipment is going to be a huge plus for equipment junkies. If anything, it's a good reason to keep plugging along.

- The audio is so, so good. Hearing the crunch of dirt beneath player's feet and the ball whizzing by you for a called strike are enough for any kind of former baseball player to get nostalgic.

Gameplay & Presentation:

- After playing a dozen or so more games, I think I'm ready to change my tune on the grass and fielding A.I. Neither are quite where they should be, but after plugging in MLB: The Show '14 there is a noticeable upgrade to both.

- The score bug is superb.

- Commentary is still boring, despite Matt Vasgersian's best efforts. There are just too many repeated lines and not enough strong color commentary to make it work. It still very much feels like all of the announcer's are doing the voice overs in separate booths, at separate times.

- Player models are fine, but there are far too few of them.

- Stadium sounds are too generic, and often placed at weird spots. Having a waling guitar riff in the second inning of a scoreless game just seems out of place.

Stay tuned for the official Operation Sports review of MLB: The Show '15, coming soon!

 

[T0INE]

All the team uniforms in MLB 15:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

hows the RTTS mode this year.

i buy it every year pretty much 90% just for RTTS.

i felt year was very difficult at a reasonable difficulty and then when i lowered it , it was too easy.

im talking difficult like cheap. like who pop ups to the catcher 3 times a game. guessing pitch. come on.

What level do you play on? I play with no guess pitch and strike zone indicator off on all star level working my way up to hall of fame next. Base running is still a joke tho. About to start this diamond dynasty tho.

 

[jaysfiend23]

its a great game i suggest it to any baseball fan and im playing as soon as im out of work becuase opening day is tom

 

[WAKKO!]

Can't get enough of this game

 

[T0INE]

[h2]MLB 15 The Show: Directional Hitting Guide[/h2]

  Submitted on: 04/11/2015 by Glenn Wigmore

MLB 15 The Show’s directional hitting has taken me back to MVP ’05, where moving the left stick in a direction would attempt to influence the ball to go that way. It’s a system that’s pretty confusing if you’re locked into zone hitting, but once you wrap your head around it, it can be very useful in key situations. The fact that your swing will revert back to a timing-based version if you don’t pick a direction, complete with hitting stats based on each player, means you still have a viable way of making contact if a particular at-bat isn’t going your way.

The basic conceit of directional hitting is that you’re influencing where the ball will go and NOT where you will swing. This means that aiming the left stick up and in with a right-hander will try and pull the ball for a home run. Just the same, aiming the left stick down and to the left will try and slap the ball on the ground to the right side of the infield, allowing a runner to move from second to third.

Honestly, the system makes a lot of sense to me, especially as someone who doesn’t play The Show with the regularity that some people do. I think it was implemented to give the casual or mid-level users like me an option that’s not the highest difficulty or the lowest. It allows some level of finesse without completely messing you up if you revert back to timing-based swings in the middle of an at-bat. Admittedly, swinging with a direction every time will probably lead to a lot of pop-ups and foul-offs, so it’s a tool that you have to deploy at the right time.

Setting Things Up

Initially, you might want to consult the game options to tweak the directional hitting to your liking. The hitting difficulty will affect how things go for you, so maybe consider turning things down to veteran, rookie or dynamic if you want to have a better chance of learning the system. A lot of how you do in The Show is going to be dictated by your ability recognize pitches out of the pitcher’s hand, and any of the available hitting systems become workable if you’re good at that right away.

The options screen will also allow you to decide whether you want to turn on the plate coverage indicator and whether that PCI involves a camera shift. The plate coverage indicator will show a yellow reticle on the outside of the strike zone box so that you always know where you’re aiming and where you might influence the ball to go. Enabling camera shift will actually tilt the camera (and the strike zone box) to focus your view on the direction you’re aiming. This camera shift is subtle, but it is enough that some users might get thrown off when picking a direction at the last minute. All of this can be turned off if that’s the case, so it’s good to try out various settings.

Directional hitting also supports analog input, so you can go down that path if you prefer. With the simplified analog inputs this year, it’s probably worth a shot, but analog hitting is kind of a take-it-or-leave-it for most people, so you probably know where you stand on this.

 ​

Working Things Out​

Taking things to batting practice is always a good idea, no matter what skill level you have. Since the game will generate various batting situations (counts, runners on base), it’ll give you a good chance to try and place the ball where you want it — or at least attempt to. This is also a chance to change around some settings and see what you’re comfortable with, as you can run through all the options here without wasting time during an actual season game or whatever.

Personally speaking, I’m still kind of working on getting down the timing aspect of directional hitting to fully take advantage of it. To be sure, I’m abandoning the directional aspect if I’m down 0-2 or 1-2, but I might still try and influence the ball if I guess both the zone and pitch type in those situations. I find guessing a direction — outside, for instance — and then using that to bat defensively in some counts can really aid the use of the fly ball for directional hitting. Sometimes you just need to score that runner from third, and this can help you do that. It’s also great for putting the ball on the ground to advance a runner, but it’s up to you to work a count that will make that likely to happen.

If you get overly eager in thinking that you can hit the ball where you want it to go at all times, you’ll end up fouling the ball off, popping it up or just lining out. The timing aspect is still incredibly important, and that will dictate a lot of your fortune with the directional feature. If you’re still way late or early on a lot of pitches, it might be a good idea to stick with timing-based hitting at first. Move your way up to new hitting system after putting in some games.
 

Final Thoughts

Directional hitting seems like a solid addition to the suite of options available in The Show, and it allows erstwhile users of the game to have a chance at a slightly more technical form of batting interface. It also gives fans of MVP’s hitting interface something to work with… even if I’m still waiting for the return of the hitter’s eye.

 

[mr marcus]

Still haven't copped

 

[mr j 858]

So has anyone figured out how to adjust the screen hud size ? The horizontal & vertical size since by default the screen settings don't fit correctly on some TV's ?

 

[T0INE]

[h2]OSFM 2015 Opening Day V.1 Rosters Available Now For MLB 15 The Show[/h2]

  05:46 PM - April 12, 2015 by RidinDwnKingsley

OSFM 2015 opening day V.1 rosters are available now for MLB 15 The Show.

To download the roster, follow these simple directions:

• Tab over to the Community tab
• Go to Vaults
• Roster Vault
• Browse Rosters
• Find the #OSFM2015 roster, created by RIDINDWNKINGSL dated 04/12/15 Download it, save it, enjoy it

Guys this is the work and collaboration of lots of people. This project did not just start on March 31 when the game was released, it started last year during 2014's release. Work done by all the editors and contributors for over a year has gone into this. So thank you to each and every one including the man Knight who started this project years ago. He and I never imagined it would turn into what it has. Thanks this year especially to Willard and his guys. The work they put into last years Hybrid which was based off our OSFM built a great foundation for this set. The work sheet and face editing done by those guys is/was exceptional. Please look for their thread on the Hybrid release shortly. Also thanks to Dynasty Manager and lots of the community members who jumped in to assist in final days.

This is the first of many versions to come. But in my opinion the best we have ever released. Following this will be V.2 with corrections, more edits, more equip etc. Watch for that, no timeline. If you notice any corrections that need to be made, please use this thread.

This set features:

• Full minor leagues
• 25 Man rosters set (big request so we went with 25 instead of 40)
• Edited contracts (thanks to Tabarnes)
• Equip Edits
• DL guys in A ball

Get them in the vault

PSN: Ridindwnkingsley

 

[CHAOSE57]

Starting to see the ball better.

I was struggling at first and then decided to make a new RTTS character, helped a lot.

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

I only play with direction hitting. I see almost every top player plays with zone and waits for a low pitch. That's not for me b. Also I use the catcher 4 camera. See the ball better imo.

 

[mr marcus]

I use analog

But I can also use the other way

 

[jordanhead2]

Catcher 2 for me. Being able to use Guess Pitch w/ directional hitting is

I especially love how directional hitting isn't overpowered.

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

Na I don't use guess pitch it feels like a cheese at least to me it does.

 

[dab34r]

So has anyone figured out how to adjust the screen hud size ? The horizontal & vertical size since by default the screen settings don't fit correctly on some TV's ?

Came in here for this. Any help?

 

[danyosahn]

i'm so bad at this game. 

fun game though.

I will need ALOT of practice to be in this league we got.

 

[jordanhead2]

Na I don't use guess pitch it feels like a cheese at least to me it does.

You're right, but I don't think it's that much of a cheese considering it penalizes you if you guess wrong

 

[a55a5in11]

It's not a cheese
that's what players do in real life

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

It's not a cheese
that's what players do in real life

True true, and their hands start vibrating too when they guess right as soon as the ball leaves the pitchers hand. All you have to do is focus on the timing.

Na I like playing sim style. watch and follow the ball wait for a pitch in a area I like to take the swing.

 

[a55a5in11]

It's not a cheese
that's what players do in real life

True true, and their hands start vibrating too when they guess right as soon as the ball leaves the pitchers hand. All you have to do is focus on the timing.

Na I like playing sim style. watch and follow the ball wait for a pitch in a area I like to take the swing.

So turn off feedback?

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

So turn off feedback?

What would be the point then? Minus well turn it off. There's no wrong way of playing as long as you're having fun but guess pitch system just ain't for me.

 

[a55a5in11]

So turn off feedback?

What would be the point then? Minus well turn it off. There's no wrong way of playing as long as you're having fun but guess pitch system just ain't for me.

The point?
because if you guess high fastball and are correct than you will get a better bat on the ball

 

[brendasdeadbaby]

The point?
because if you guess high fastball and are correct than you will get a better bat on the ball

Still tells you if you guess right and/or you get swing boost. How that's not a cheese I dunno. I Just watch the ball and hit accordingly.