It’s that time of year when San Diego Studio releases their long-running baseball simulation series MLB The Show.
MLB The Show returns with a heap of tweaks and updates from last year's solid entry.
Visually MLB The Show 22 looks fantastic with almost every character looking like a perfect recreation of their real-life counterpart.
Character models have captured each of the player's characteristics that fans will notice when they bat, pitch and claim bases.
This level of accuracy extends to the stadiums which also look equally as stunning. This is all from playing on the Playstation 5 which ran smoothly at 60fps, allowing players to follow the fast action.
I haven’t played on the Nintendo Switch as of yet so can’t say how much the experience will differentiate from the Playstation 5.
MLB The Show has always featured admirable audio from the sound effects to the crowd cheers. However, the commentary didn’t always land in past games with the commenters missing crucial moments or repeating phrases throughout the course of the match.
But this year they introduce a new commentator duo, Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton, who are a lot more entertaining and accurate than last year's iteration.
In a historical move last year, MLB The Show 21 was available on an Xbox console for the first time since the game was released.
This year San Diego Studio went one step further and added the Nintendo Switch to their list of playable consoles.
Players will now be able to cross-play, and have access to cross-progression and cross-save on all the three major consoles, which is fantastic as it will greatly increase the online community and players finally have a portable version of the game.
MLB The Show 22 looks to be the most accessible game in the series with lots of tutorials throughout to help players really get to grips with the gameplay.
There are also two new difficulty settings, Amateur and Minor which are much more accommodating and allow players to gradually work their way up.
MLB The Show 22 features all the modes from the last game with Road to The Show, Diamond Dynasty, March to October and Franchise all returning.
Road to the show features numerous updates that improve its overall experience from last year with players being able to create multiple ballplayers.
The progress system has also shifted the focus to offline play, meaning players won’t have to play online to improve their players' stats.
There are new narrative podcast moments between each match. My only issue is even though they are really engaging, they aren’t always accurate to what actually happens in the game and can feel more like generic skits.
Road to the show comes with loads of other updates that fans will simply adore which makes this the best campaign in the series thus far.
Players will also notice tweaks to their favourite modes like having multiple seasons from March to October, the new mini-game in the Diamond Dynasty or the additional props in the stadium creator to name a few.
There is so much content on offer here for players to immerse themselves in.
The newest addition is the online co-op that allows two-on-two or three-on-three gameplay. Players will be able to use real-life teams or test their card collections from the Diamond Dynasty modes.
The Custom Practice is great for testing out particular scenarios and this year the game has added fielding to the list of options.
This is great as it allows players to improve the quality of play in more areas than before.
Gameplay has also seen a few upgrades that fans of the series will notice, for starters the Dynamic PCI will now shrink or expand depending on where it has been positioned.
This will show how the player's accuracy changes when swinging at different pitches.
This works alongside the PCI Anchor which makes hitting much more user friendly by allowing players to use one of nine slots for precise placement when swinging.
These extra dimensions to the gameplay mixed with some pitching and fielding tweaks really elevate the overall experience for veterans while making the game much more accessible for newcomers.
Verdict
MLB The Show 22 is another great baseball simulation game from San Diego Studio, while there haven't been many dramatic changes, what has been upgraded really improves the overall experience.
Making the game available on multiple platforms is a huge win for the developers who will only see their fan base continue to grow.
MLB The Show 22 is out now for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X,Series S, PlayStation 4, Xbox and One, PlayStation 5
