Powers Reviews

In honor of opening day, today we will be talking the newest installment of MLB: The Show 18. For years, MLB The Show has been the premier video game for baseball lovers around the world. For those who are new to the game, here is what you need to know. This game has many different game modes for you to play both online and offline. The online mode is called Diamond Dynasty, where you create your own 25-man roster from playing cards you can collect by playing the game and also buy with their in-game currency you earn from playing the game, or you can buy with real money. Inside Diamond Dynasty there are different game modes you can play such as conquest, where you try to claim territories from other teams by beating them in three inning games. You can also put your team against other player's teams from around the world in the head-to-head mode. Finally, you have Battle Royale where you draft a 25 man team and put that team to the test against other players. The more you win, the better rewards you get. The offline modes include Franchise mode where you choose a team to become their new general manager and you help build a world championship team. Also, there is "Road to the Show" where you create your own player and you work your way up through the minor leagues to have a shot at becoming a Hall-of-Famer.

For MLB The Show 18, the people over at San Diego Studios have revamped some of the most popular features of the game.

• Expansion of Road to the Show
• Dynamic crowds like Judge’s Chambers
• New unique home run celebrations
• Revamped hitting engine with improved physics
• Rewritten player tagging system
• Over 1,000 new gameplay animations
• More legends

For this year’s game, MLB: The Show 18 also updated "The Road to the Show" mode. To start, there are more diverse options than ever, in faces and hairstyles, to support a wider variety of ethnicities. One big change in this year’s game is you can no longer raise all your attributes to a 99 overall. You now must decide on what kind of player you want to be that will then lower the max level of certain attributes to shape your player into the type you wanted. However, if you were to import a player from The Show 17 with all 99 attributes your player will keep those to start. When you import a player, you are asked what kind of player you want to be and, eventually, your attributes will drop to their caps. Another major change to "Road to the Show" is you can no longer customize your attributes. This means you can no longer control which skills you improve. Now your attributes will increase based on how you perform in games. For instance, by getting base hits off a right-handed pitcher, you will increase your contact against righties. This system, however, works both ways. Failing to make plays or striking out causes your attributes to lower. All these updates were made to make the game seem more realistic. Unfortunately, realistic doesn’t mean more fun. Everyone knows that it takes a lot of hard work to work your way up from the minors to the majors, and video games are supposed to be more fun then hard work.

Since I am a baseball fan myself, I love to play these games. The downside is this game is brand new and they are still working on fixing online and server bugs. Once the servers get figured out, the online features have the potential to be some of the best ever.

Rating: 3/5