When it comes to baseball video games, MLB 13 The Show is the king of the crop. For any baseball fan, this is a must-own game. And the reason why is that despite being an annual release, Sony continues to make changes and improvements to enhance the overall gameplay experience. As highlighted by the recently released fact sheet, there are a ton of new features and improvements being made in MLB 13 The Show. Before we get into the real details, here is a brief glimpse at the 50 enhancements coming in this year's version:
- Hitting engine improvements deliver more hit variety than ever before
- Wider timing window across all difficulty levels
- Improved ball physics (less ground rule doubles etc.)
- Over 250 new fielding and running animations
- Over 90 new batting stances
- Over 130 batting stance re-captures for players who changed their stances
- Over 50 new pitching motions
- Over 60 new HR swings
- New Defensive Positioning screen, view the whole field and watch your players shift on the fly
- Franchise Mode: Team specific player valuations, which affect drafting, trades, free agency, etc.
- Franchise Mode: Projected team budgets and free agents for the upcoming season
- Franchise Mode: Previous award winners and each team's Hall of Fame members will now be tracked and displayed
- Franchise Mode: Ticker in Franchise that displays scores, milestones, trades, etc.
- Franchise Mode: Top 50 Prospect icon, used to indicate the best up-and-coming minor leaguers
- Franchise Mode: Organizational Depth Chart which displays your starters at each level (AA, AAA and MLB)
- New CBA "Qualifying Offer" system included
- 7 New Minor League and Spring Training stadiums
- On screen Tutorials to help you navigate some of the more complicated screens
- New silhouette bat when bunting
- Back picks while a catcher in RttS
- Ability to assign swing animations when creating or editing a player… follow through, step in, etc…
- Big glove for catcher when a knuckle ball pitcher is on the mound
- Over 500 new presentations
- Pitcher Energy/Rotations for Online Play Now
- Mercy Rule for online games
- Twitter in The Show
- Ping indicators in online game rooms
- New online ranked game Play Now flow with game worth
- New post-game summary screen for all online ranked games
- Player photos updating with Roster updates
- In-game simulator when FF to the end of game
- PCI Appearance – There are 4 alternate PCI appearances
- Pitcher Batter Analysis will now display 40 instead of 25 pitches
- New Throwback uniforms
- More catcher animations on plays at the plate providing more exciting outcomes
- Enhanced CPU base running. Less predictable and more human like behavior
- New base running animations "around the bases". Allows for more control of your base runner
- New Pulse pitching, Meter pitching, and strike zone art
- New player accessories
- New online ticker design, more stats and information
- RTTS infielder’s pickoff request
- New more interactive user steal system
- Improved CPU pitcher substitution logic
- New player card
- Guess pitch evolution
- RTTS Removal of the “green-light” system
- Over 1,000 new RTTS-specific presentations
- New RTTS user catch option
- New RTTS On/Off options for ball halo and ball trail
- Over 15 new batting camera’s and 5 new pitching camera views
That's not all either. As we already mentioned, MLB 13 The Show will add a new "Post Season" mode that replicates an authentic playoff atmosphere and experience, cross platform online Home Run derby, and improvements to Diamond Dynasty.
Other changes that we didn't already know about is the addition of Steve Lyons in the broadcast booth and, of course, changes to many of the already established game modes like Road to the Show, Franchise Mode, and Season Mode.