MLB The Show 25

MLB The Show series celebrates 20 years this year. San Diego Studio is celebrating by using the same graphics engine they have used since the beginning of time. While I maintain that this is the best sports game series on the market, there is no denying that it needs to change. This was something that the NHL series also suffered from for a long time, but has thankfully moved on to something new. The studio's homegrown graphics engine needs to be updated because when I watch a video from the 10-year-old MLB 15: The Show (which still had a PlayStation 3 and Vita version), there aren't any huge differences. Is it ugly? Nope. But, can it be improved? Absolutely.

But so what when there's so much to like here. Especially when it comes to the most important thing of all: baseball. On the field, the game is unchallenged. Year-by-year, small changes are also made to the gameplay to make it more and more like what you can see in real life. This year, there are lots of new animations for the players, which makes everything flow better than before, fielding feels more responsive with faster reactions, and a new meter when you throw your balls from one player to another makes a big difference. Landing your meter in the red and the receiver would have had to be four metres tall to catch it. Plus, computer-controlled players feel smarter, especially when it comes to their hitters. I'm someone who tends to rely on my fastballs to get a third strike with a slider or ball outside the zone. This year the AI has learnt to adapt, so if you throw the same sequence too many times, you get penalised.

Perhaps the biggest new addition to the pitch is something called "Ambush Hitting". We previously had the "guess pitch" where you could guess what type of pitch was coming and in which of the six different zones (i.e. low left, high centre, etc.) the ball was delivered. If you guessed correctly, the ball got a boost if you hit it. This year, this has been reworked to have only two choices. Will the ball come on the left or right side of the zone? Move the right joystick to your guess and your aim, called the PCI (Plate Coverage Indicator), gets bigger, making it more likely that you will hit the ball. However, your aim will be smaller in the second zone, where it is more difficult to get a good hit. This is optional, so if you don't want to go all-in, you can choose to have an equal aim over the whole zone. If you don't have much knowledge of the MLB The Show series, the aim is something that you move around a marked zone and try to get it where the ball will eventually end up, which is easier said than done.

On grass, the feel is still excellent and while this year's additions don't revolutionise the series, they are always steps in the right direction. So, how do the improvements hold up in the rest of the game?

It's no secret that San Diego Studio, like any other sports game creator, puts the most effort into Ultimate Team-like game modes. In MLB The Show, this is called Diamond Dynasty, which is the best of these game modes, especially if you don't feel like spending any money. They'd probably prefer you to shell out for the card packs, but there are many different ways to earn good players by completing various challenges, and that's one of the reasons I enjoy Diamond Dynasty so much. There's always something to do and players to unlock, there are large board game-like maps to take over, mini-bosses to defeat, and offline seasons against computer-controlled teams.

Along with the 20th anniversary comes a brand new addition. It's called Diamond Quest and it's something that can be described as a mix of a board game and a roguelike. You roll a dice and move your character around on a grid. The goal is to make it to an arena, but each square can contain things like buffs, challenges, and mini-bosses. This is just another part of a great offline experience, but it's also meant to be played online, and along with ranked games, events, and drafts, SDS has now added a tournament, the Weekend Classic, which is played on the last weekend of each season. Should this become popular, I can see something being added every weekend in the future, like Champions in EA Sports FC. I tend to be negative about the greed in these game modes, but MLB The Show does it the right way, although it's still hard to get the very best players for free.

Only one of the other two major game modes has been updated, which is the career mode Road to the Show where it is now possible to play in both high school and college. In previous years, after the draft, it was straight down to the farmer's league and from there up to the senior team. This makes it feel more like your journey from start to finish instead of just being thrown straight into the part of the sport only a few players reach. Neither high school nor college are any long lasting stops though and the road to the show is pretty short. Still, I'm looking forward to how they can build on this for next year. What does it look like in Franchise, where you can take over a club and make all the decisions? Just like last year in principle. This is arguably the game mode that has received the least love. It's still okay for what it is, but this is the next thing that needs a major update, and the lack of online co-op is also disappointing.

One of the things that really sets MLB The Show apart from the rest of the sports games is their amazing documentary-like series Storylines. This is the third year they've chosen to tell the story of the Negro Leagues, which was a baseball league for black players before they were allowed to play in MLB. The first black player in the MLB, Jackie Robinson, played in the Negro Leagues before making the historic move. This year, the first set is three different players where we get to learn about each and the impact they had on the sport. It's all wonderfully narrated by Bob Kendrick, who is the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This is something I would really like to see in other sports. Imagine being able to retell the story of Pele's breakthrough in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden in EA Sports FC, playing through the entire Miracle on Ice from the 1980 Winter Olympics in the NHL, or seeing the life story behind how the deaf Matt Hamill made it all the way to the UFC. Small things that can mean a lot to those who truly love the sport.

After that opening paragraph, you might have thought that this was going to be a straightforward review. But no, it was just worth getting one of the very few things I dislike out of the way. MLB The Show has the foundation to be a great sports series. It's almost always been great on the field, but it's been quiet otherwise for quite a few years. However, the game's 20th anniversary with MLB The Show 25 brings it forward again, yet unfortunately, the Franchise mode still gets no love, but improvements in the other game modes along with the fantastic baseball feel make this the best game in the series in many years, and maybe even ever...