As a heads up this is the first MLB game I’ve played for PS4. I had 16 on my PS3 so some of the things I am enamored with may not be new. Even if they aren’t new, they’re still sick. To this point I have played exactly one season of Road to the Show and nothing else in the game. It’s the best game mode on any sports game. I may only ever play RttS.

Off-the-field:

The way to pick the player’s skin color is the best I’ve ever seen in any video game. The spectrum of reasonable skin colors which shows on the player as you move the cursor is amazing. Don’t settle for the closest skin color to the one you want ever again. I mean I’m white and my guy is just white, but still, I really like the feature.

I also like that finally, finally, FINALLY the game has long hair and beards that come off of their face. I took full advantage. Also, the spectrum for the skin is back. Excellent work. My guy looks like former professional wrestler Dr. Death Steve Williams. Look him up.

The name situation is the same as every sports game, sadly. They don’t have audio for the name “Ruffo” so while the jersey says “Ruffo” if you’ve only ever heard my guy play on the radio you would think my name is “Ruffin”. (Come on guys, just do it for me.)

Ok so I waited this long what the hell is this weird Nat Geo Wild voice that narrates the cutscenes. It’s weird. It doesn’t say what’s on the screen. I don’t like it at all. I hope it stops eventually because I would almost rather it just be silent.

I went back to school for four years and eventually got drafted by the Rangers, and sadly, for the 11th MLB The Show in a row, not the Pirates. I was placed in AA where was the starting 3B and my career began.

I had some early struggles, and the coach came to me and asked me to play 1B in order to free up 3B for one of the other good players. I said it was ok, I knew I was doing bad. In AA doing bad is unacceptable. I ended up doing well at first and the manager asked if I would like to stay there or end up going back to third. I thought that was very cool, especially so early in my professional career. When a player is so young and malleable I am sure that happens in the minors in real life all of the time. Little features like that are what keeps a mode like this, which is very similar every year, from getting stale.

I really like the perks that you can get by hitting certain rating thresholds. I think it’s a good way to keep players different despite the relatively few differences you can have between players.

I do not like that the only way to get the equipment is through the cards and packs you get from other things. I really feel as though it would benefit from something in the mode allowing you to get the gear and the boosts.

On-the-field:

Showtime throwing is the most fun and the best. Sadly, I don’t play right field but I bet trying to throw runners out at third or home is amazing. Showtime throwing is a new feature which puts the pressure on the player. When a throw will be close at the bag while the player is in the throwing motion the player must aim a target into a bullseye with R3 then throw with R2. If a runner is very fast it really makes you move quick, and if you don’t have a good arm it can be tricky. I didn’t understand it at first which is why I got moved to first.

Hitting is very fun. I really feel like they worked out home runs very well and are really keeping the ball in the park again. Similarly, there are more real and satisfying short blooper singles. I am kind of tired of getting 0-2 high 12-6 curve-balls. Get out of here no one will ever throw that.

My favorite part of Road to the Show every year is when you get to be rated about 72 overall in AA and you are Barry Bonds-McGuire-Ruth-DiMaggio-Aaron. I ended up leading AA in RBIs, doubles, slugging percentage, OPS, hits and was tied for first in home runs after my season. I had 18 home runs and 87 RBIs. It was very fun. Although, I did draw 0 walks. This was not my fault. Being in AA, drawing walks is actually impossible. If you never swung once all season you would not be walked once. They only throw meatballs. Granted, this is why it is so fun, but that zero was pretty annoying 100 games into the season. Then I did the impossible and got a base on balls. In my 105th game I draw one intentional walk. My on-base percentage was lower than my batting average. I thought it was a bug in the game. I had to look up if this was possible in real life. It can happen if a player gets more sacrifices than walks and reaching on an error. Ya learn something new every day.
I had a walk off hit in the last four series of my first season, including the last two regular season series, the playoff first round, and the championship. Then I got called up. This is as far as I have gotten, but I would say that they struck gold again. Road to the Show is my favorite every year. It’s so fun I have no idea how they do it every year, but they 100% did it again. The one imperfection I see with Road to the Show is the way that the “Next Appearance” feature from the post-game menu doesn’t work if the series you are in just ended. That means you can only use it once or twice at a time. It leaves me wanting to be able to use it every game.