- March 29, 2016
- SCEA San Diego Studios
MLB 16: The Show
Simply put, MLB The Show 16 is the best baseball game available on any current-gen console.
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About
MLB The Show '16 offers the most immersive, authentic baseball game on consoles. This year The Show offers even more gameplay improvements, new game modes, and a greater ability to personalize your baseball experience.
- MLB The Show 16 features impressive visuals with stellar lighting effects and fluid animations, making it one of the best-looking sports sims available.
- The Road to the Show mode has been significantly improved, providing a snappy and addictive experience for players.
- The expanded Diamond Dynasty mode offers a wealth of content and new features, making it a highlight of the game for fans of card-collecting mechanics.
- The interface for career modes can be overwhelming and lacks engagement, making it difficult for players to navigate.
- The commentary is often dry and inaccurate, detracting from the overall immersive experience of the game.
- There is a persistent push for microtransactions in Diamond Dynasty, which may frustrate players who prefer a more traditional gaming experience.
graphics3 mentions Positive Neutral NegativeThe graphics in MLB The Show 16 are praised for their impressive visuals, detailed stadiums, and stellar lighting effects, showcasing a range of incremental improvements and enhancements. Players appreciate the small graphical upgrades in modes like Road to the Show and the overall visual quality that enhances the gaming experience.
“The visuals in MLB The Show 16 still look and feel great.”
“The game features a wide range of new options and incremental improvements, with impressive visuals, stellar lighting effects, and detailed stadiums.”
“Road to the Show is better than ever, with small graphical enhancements that are nice.”
Building a Diamond Dynasty
InterfaceThe Show 16 benefits from strong load times, but its career modes feature interfaces that are both boring and intimidating in the amount of information they throw at players.Lasting AppealRoad to the Show moves at a snappy pace and can be very addicting over a long period of time. Diamond Dynasty is the centerpiece, but your mileage with it will vary depending on your tolerance for monetization. It's better than most, but it's still there.SoundThe commentary does an okay job of adding continuity to franchise mode; but it feels dry and limited as well as inaccurate, with commentators pointing out that a roof is open when it's closed, among other issues. It's not a deal breaker, but it lags significantly behind other sims.VisualsMLB The Show 16 still looks and feels great. Its fluid animation system is unmatched by any other sports sim, and the ball feels just right when it flies off the bat. Certain stadiums now feature closed roofs.ConclusionFor better or worse, MLB The Show 16 focuses heavily on Diamond Dynasty this year. The on-field action is strong as ever, and the bullet time-like Showtime is interesting, but the bulk of the improvements are in Diamond Dynasty-centric additions like Captains and Battle Royale. If you're a curious newcomer who likes baseball, you will find an extremely strong baseball sim; but if you're a returning player, your mileage will probably vary depending on how willing you are to indulge in The Show's card-collecting mode.
80%MLB The Show 16 review
PS4’s biggest sports exclusive delivers a moonshot home run, thanks to perfectly balanced fundamentals, astonishingly lifelike presentation, and little details that few rivals – past or present – have come close to getting right.
90%MLB The Show 16
When Authenticity Isn’t Enough
80%
