MLB THE SHOW 25

CGMagazine

Issue #61 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I‘ve said this many times before, but a yearly title is a tough thing to make changes to.

One only has to look at the upgrades to a series like PGA Tour 2K to see the differences between 2K23 and 2K25 and see the quality that can come from a biennial release schedule. MLB The Show 25 appears to have broken that streak, however, with some quality updates over the previous game and some new feature additions that make the gameplay experience significantly better.

I know what you must be thinking: "It's baseball, David, how much can the gameplay change if the sport is the exact same?" Well, apparently, quite a bit. There are a few new mechanics in MLB The Show 25 that make hitting, fielding and running the bases a lot more fun while keeping the charm that baseball inherently has on its own.

Let's get right into the new gameplay mechanics, starting with a brand-new feature called Ambush Hitting. Ambush hitting is only available when you use Zone hitting settings and allows you to cheat a little bit by predicting where the pitch will be thrown ahead of time (either inside or outside), and if you predict correctly, you get a better chance of solid contact which could result in a hit or otherwise. It sounded great in theory, so I tried it out, even though I could never master Zone hitting (I tend to use Directional in Road to the Show and Timing in Diamond Dynasty).

You still have to move your PCI (the little reticle on the screen that you match up to where the ball crosses the plate to match your swing) to meet the ball as it crosses the plate, which requires a lot more coordination than I expected, especially when a lot of pitches tend to break late, causing me to misplace the PCI.