Review - MLB 14: The Show
With MLB 14: The Show, that’s precisely the quandary that was faced by SCE San Diego Studio – do they attempt to reinvent the wheel on the PlayStation 4 or simply work on porting over the established gameplay mechanics of the PS3 series and fancy it all up with some shiny new visuals? While they’ve opted for the latter option here, however, they’ve still managed to craft what is easily the best baseball game ever created, and with incredibly strong foundations to build upon for next year’s installment, things are certainly looking very promising for the series’ future.It might disappoint some to learn that the differences between the PS3 and PS4 versions of MLB 14: The Show are practically non-existent in terms of gameplay modes and features but, for me, that would be unfair criticism, particularly given the quality of the last-gen version of the game. What the PS4 has allowed San Diego Studio to do is vastly improve the quality of the game’s visuals and presentation, and for a sport like baseball, that can make a genuine difference in the overall experience.It only takes a quick glimpse at each of the games to realise that there have been huge strides made here on the visual front. The PS4 version’s character models contain a level of detail that would be unthinkable on its predecessor, while the various stadia and crowd models are flawless in their execution, with more diversity than the series has ever managed to offer in the past.
