MLB 15: The Show

[Jason]

I've held off on my comments about The Show so far. I think there are certainly some nice improvements like the new lighting and more responsive fielding, but there are still quite a few things that need to be fixed liked the homerun bug where if you hit a homerun with a runner on first it only counts as one run.

They also need to clean up the pitching interface. I always play with no strike zone and the location, speed and ball/strike would appear after every pitch for a second. This year you have to turn on batting info to see some similar. Also, I let me catcher call the pitches and R2 is used to see the pitch location again in cased you missed it the first time. R2 does that again this year, but it also displays the previous pitch spots over it making it very hard to see.

Finally, they still need to improve the frame rate in cutscenes. I'm also seeing big frame rate drops at least once an at-bat whether I'm pitching or batting. I haven't seen many other people mention this, so I hope the devs do know it's an issue. I have posted it to their bug report threads but it's hard to see in the uploaded video since they're so compressed.

A patch is supposedly being finalized so hopefully a lot of the little issues are fixed with it. This is actually the first PS4 game I purchased on release-day and paid full price for and I must admit I may not do it again anytime soon. It was nice being a late buyer for all of my other games since they were they much cheaper and the major patches were all released for them.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that they removed fouls balls going into the crowd. This was a huge disappointment for those of us who like the full broadcast presentation. A lot of other people have complained about this so hopefully it's patched back in.

[BDSooner72]

I get a few foul balls going into the crowd but they do tend to be ones just outside the foul lines.

[Jason]

I get a few foul balls going into the crowd but they do tend to be ones just outside the foul lines.

Yes, one's that may be playable are shown. Also ground balls along the wall where the fans reach over the grab them. It's a nice touch and shouldn't be limited to those few occasions.

It also took me a while to adjust to the way the ball comes off the bat when using the medium camera. At first I didn't like it but I'm warming up to it now.

[Brad Company]

I've held off on my comments about The Show so far. I think there are certainly some nice improvements like the new lighting and more responsive fielding, but there are still quite a few things that need to be fixed liked the homerun bug where if you hit a homerun with a runner on first it only counts as one run.

They also need to clean up the pitching interface. I always play with no strike zone and the location, speed and ball/strike would appear after every pitch for a second. This year you have to turn on batting info to see some similar. Also, I let me catcher call the pitches and R2 is used to see the pitch location again in cased you missed it the first time. R2 does that again this year, but it also displays the previous pitch spots over it making it very hard to see.

Finally, they still need to improve the frame rate in cutscenes. I'm also seeing big frame rate drops at least once an at-bat whether I'm pitching or batting. I haven't seen many other people mention this, so I hope the devs do know it's an issue. I have posted it to their bug report threads but it's hard to see in the uploaded video since they're so compressed.

A patch is supposedly being finalized so hopefully a lot of the little issues are fixed with it. This is actually the first PS4 game I purchased on release-day and paid full price for and I must admit I may not do it again anytime soon. It was nice being a late buyer for all of my other games since they were they much cheaper and the major patches were all released for them.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that they removed fouls balls going into the crowd. This was a huge disappointment for those of us who like the full broadcast presentation. A lot of other people have complained about this so hopefully it's patched back in.

Yeah, I'm about done buying on release day. Just no sense in it anymore. Price drops happen so fast and games need huge patches.

[Jason]

The true test for me will be when Project Cars releases in a few weeks.

[BDSooner72]

The true test for me will be when Project Cars releases in a few weeks.

They have no Chevy or Dodge cars. You are Murican!  If you can't drive your Chevy to the levy...

[Brad Company]

The true test for me will be when Project Cars releases in a few weeks.

Have you given up on Driveclub? Or do you actually have the time to devote to two racing games?

[Jason]

Not at all. I actually look at them as very different games since Project Cars has real tracks. I remember when Forza 3 and NFS: Shift were released around the same time and going back and forth between the two every other night.

[Jason]

Game Update 1.02 Fix List

   
• General - Highlight Reel was added back into post game menus, by popular demand!
• General â€"- Batters would strikeout on the second strike when the performed certain check swings at pitches in the dirt.
• General -â€" Baserunning/Lead Runner windows were missing from Manager Mode.
• General - CPU runners were not using correct lead off logic.
• General -â€" Adjustments to tagging sliding baserunners.
• General - Players will now wear sleeves when the game is played at lower temperatures.
• General â€"- Specific “wall s****ing” home runs would result in a baserunner staying on 1st base, and not score correctly.
• General -â€" Andrew McCutchen’s hair has been adjusted â€" We gave him a haircut to match his current appearance.
• General -â€" Specific edited rosters would cause the game to crash when loading into a Road To The Show Showcase game.
• General â€"- Front End User Interface tweaking. Team colors on User’s Player Card.
• General -â€"Tuning to trade logic, specifically how the CPU traded with other CPU teams in Franchise and Season modes.
• General -â€" Tweaking and refining of in game sound effects.
• General â€"- Sounds of the Show issues have been resolved. Custom music was not being saved correctly where users intended them to.
• General -â€" Public Announcer audio was frequently incorrect (announcing the wrong name) during the end of game wrap up and also when bringing relief pitchers into the game.
• General â€"- Wrigley Field had some collision/Home Run detection issues. Certain foul balls were being counted as Home Runs down the 1st base line.
• General -â€" Fixed many occurrences of consumer reported crashes, reported to us through the PS4 operating system crash reporting tool. Areas that encountered these rare crashes included: Exiting Amateur Draft in Franchise mode / Entering Diamond Dynasty / During initial boot-up / Using the Suggested Trade feature in Franchise mode / Specific in game scenarios.
• General â€"- Animation clean up and tuning.
• General -â€" Changing pages in the marketplace completed order now works.

   
• Card Collections -â€" Redeem Legend button was missing after completing a collection.
• Community Market -â€" Changing pages in the marketplace completed order now works.
• AI tuning -â€" Bunt success rate was incorrect/too successful and accurate.
• Year to Year Saves modifications -â€" Properly handling a small batch of players who were not in the league in MLB 14, and how they transfer over to MLB 15.
• Franchise mode - â€" Edit Player screen was limiting users from editing generated players, and players on certain teams.

   
• Online Franchise - Injuries were not occurring during Online Franchise games.
• Online Gameplay - â€" Guessing Pitches had a delay and users would occasionally fail to guess Location and Pitch Type when offering input quickly.
• Online Gameplay â€"- Game would occasionally hang following an Intentional Walk, a regular Base on Balls, a Hit by Pitch, or a Balk.
• Online -â€" Within Game Rooms, users were missing their rank logos that distinguished them as Rookie, Veteran, All-Star, Hall of Fame, or Legend rank.
• Online â€"- Play Now Rated and Diamond Dynasty â€" Home and Away team assignment was not random, resulting in some users always being the home team, or always the away team.
• Online â€"- Play Now Online rated â€" Controlling the KC Royals, user would be given control of the ace pitcher (Ventura) no matter who was chosen to be the starting pitcher in the Pitcher Select screen.

[BDSooner72]

Great article and video for us zone batters.

http://www.operationsports.com/features/2181/mlb-15-the-show-zone-hitting-guide/

[Ted]

Jake Berger makes great videos.  I loved his Madden series.

[BDSooner72]

As much as I am enjoying the game, they have to work on the commentary next year.  It has been a sore spot for so many years that one would have expected major changes by now. 

Tried Diamond Dynasty and like every other "card game" I stopped after the first game. The uniform creator was pretty kick ass, as I made some sweet OU baseball unis, but that was about it.  Guess I will never understand the love for these modes. A bunch of random players, on a random team, playing in a random stadium.  Spend tons of money to create superstar team to win online.

I did switch my franchise to the Mariners, as was the case last year but with the plan of actually completing a season. Won the opener on a walk-off HR in the 10th.

[Jason]

MLB 15 The Show patch 1.03 is available now for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, which fixes quite a few offline and online issues with the game. Check out the details below and let us know what you are seeing.

   
• Offline/Online - Fixed the issue causing runners to be left on base after a home run. This would happen any time a user runner went half way and was stopped when the ball went over the fence and was a called a HR
• Offline/Online - CPU or User would attempt to advance after a high infield fly ball was caught. Defender would use a casual throw to the next base, but it would be too slow and the runner would often be safe
• Intentional walk exploit fixed â€" Calling for an intentional walk after the baserunner leads off causes the baserunner to take additional steps and getting thrown out easily.
• Online - New Action shots for 50 players, to be seen on Player cards in Collections and Diamond Dynasty mode.
• Online - Collections screen now save and load the last page you were on, making buying and selling cards more streamlined.
• Online - Tuning to Online Gameplay - These fixes are all intended to stabilize online gameplay and eliminate consumer reported blue screen crashes and hangs that lead to standoffs.
• Offline/Online - Foul/Fair ball detection in CHI White Sox - 3rd base line
• Online - HBP/avoid and pitcher ejection issue - One user would get a HBP reaction and ejected, the other user would not resulting in a freeze.
• Online â€" When defensive shifts would occur in an online game, the OSD’s were inaccurate. Fix for Defensive Positioning drop down to reflect the current defense.
• Online/Offline - Reduce the success rate of bunts
• Offline - Fixed retail crash while simulating through Franchise mode. Occurrences described below:
  
        
  • Crashes when simulation far in the future
  • Crash when autosaving following very specific injury sequences
  • Crash when simming through certain pinch hit appearances
  • Crash when entering the amateur draft
• Offline - Fixed a low frequency retail crash in RTTS player editor.
• Offline - Fenway red seat added in the right field bleachers.
• Online - Restricting batting views for online games per Design - if user has batting view that is restricted, force batting view to catcher - don't give user restricted views for batting view
• Online - issues with take it yourself plays at first base online have been resolved.
• Online â€" Numerous online gameplay stability checks to eliminate consumer reported blue screen crashes.
• Online - Resolving guess pitch on defensive machine and forcing offense machine to use data from defense machine
• Offline â€" Changed the art of the Injured icon (Franchise/Season)
• Online - Adding additional entitlements to the show shop, to allow for future promotional packs
• Online/Offline â€" AI check that was not allowing for early moving catches
• Offline - Fix for crowd catching flyball vs. fielder catching robbable balls - don't allow ball to attach to crowd if already attached to a player
• Online Franchise/Diamond Dynasty â€" Play by Play audio code has been modified to exclude filling in career stats for Arena mode (DD) and League Mode. They get filled in for MLB season mode only. Online modes career data was incorrect.
• Online - Adding one more minute to the online Pause menu countdown

[Jason]

I've noticed a few things not mentioned in the notes. The frame rate seems to have been improved for the cut scenes and they fixed up the pitch location display (R2) when using catcher suggestions.

[BDSooner72]

For those of you that watch the real thing. How often during an average game does a catcher drop a called third strike?  Between me and the CPU it seems like 5 to 10 times a game this happens.  It is almost as annoying as face-offs in hockey.  Looked for a slider and one does not exist but it sure feels like it should.