MLB The Show 22 (PS4, PS5, Xbox 1, Xbox Series X/S, Switch)

[Hammettf2b]

Online co-op confirmed

This has been asked for by many but I gotta say, I thought it could never work as it would seem too boring just sitting there doing nothing while your teammate pitches or what not. Wonder how it will be implemented.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

They're also having an online test run:

 

[John Price]

Online co-op confirmed

This has been asked for by many but I gotta say, I thought it could never work as it would seem too boring just sitting there doing nothing while your teammate pitches or what not. Wonder how it will be implemented.

Hammet Mike tag team!! this may make me pay 20 dollars a month for ps online!!

 

[Hammettf2b]

The Tech Test is live apparently. I will download when I get home.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Tech test is live but apparently it's not active yet outside of practice mode

Super early reports are saying it's easier to hit. Not sure if that means much since I'm like a 320 hitter offline.

I'm more curious to see if pinpoint was changed significantly

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Tech test is live but apparently it's not active yet outside of practice mode

Super early reports are saying it's easier to hit. Not sure if that means much since I'm like a 320 hitter offline.

I'm more curious to see if pinpoint was changed significantly

Thats good for me cause I suck at hitting. Swing at everything unless it’s 100% a ball

 

[Blitzkrug]

So i tinkered with custom practice a bit and have some thoughts:

- Pinpoint is still too easy to do mechanically but it looks like control matters now. A guy like Shohei can put the ball on the black the majority of the time whereas a flamethrower like Chapman will still miss the zone even with perfect input a decent amount of the time.

- Hitting timing feels a bit more loose. I cranked it up to legend and actually was able to hit some bombs off of fastballs lol. not kiddie pool level easy but a nice improvement

- The PCI anchor is such an enormous addition/QoL change. Now instead of having to move the PCI, you can lock it into place in one of nine spots in the zone. It's a little bit unwieldly to "lock in" but holy shit does it help a ton. I can sit middle in now high and in without having to worry about moving the PCI properly. I think it's going to add an interesting mind game to competitive play too since now it really means you can't hammer the same part of the zone anymore.

- Unconfirmed but it looks like Outlier might be dead. I took a lot of the usual suspects for a spin and got some surprising results; People on reddit seem to be seeing the same.

Chapman: 96-100 MPH range on his fastball. Hit 97/98 more than he did 100.

DeGrom: 98-102 mph on his fastball: Seemed to fall more towards the middle with the very seldom 102

Graterol: 97-101 MPH on his sinker, Seems to top out at 99 or 100 when thrown.

Just to confirm i went back to 21 for a sec and both Chapman and DeGrom threw 102 constantly even offline.

- 2 seamers have way more horizontal movement and sinkers seem to really well, sink when thrown low in the zone like they're supposed to. Could be a promising move towards more realistic pitching.

- Aaron Loup has a 97 mph cutter for some reason which i found hilarious.

Very impressed! Part of me wonders if they ditched outlier because of switch players likely being at a huge disadvantage with the lesser hardware/framerate against shit like that. Still feel bad for the franchise/RTTS guys since very little was said and likely done to improve those modes.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Played the online portion of the tech test. I think a major fault with this style of beta is the fact that it appears 22 is going to play different in some capacity but the game is using cards from 21.

Pinpoint is definitely harder contrary to my first obeservation. Had a tough time hitting perfect inputs and it led to more balls rather than the dot fest 21 was. Very good sign.

Stamina still doesn't drain properly. I faced a guy with Verlander's No-Hitter card and he still had a good amount over half a bar at like 65 pitches through 3 innings.

Outlier feels more busted than it did last year if they're bringing it back. All of those god cards (Ryan, DeGrom, Verlander, etc) were all here complete with their juiced stats and was absolutely miserable to face.

NOW TO BE FAIR; the purpose of the tech test is to test servers and show off the bigger features (online co-op in particular) and SDS's thought process of making it playable is taking all of the cards from 21 and dumping them here with no quirks makes sense. The seldom couple moments i faced live series pitchers it felt very, very good. I managed to hammer a guy on HOF difficulty and that's something i couldn't do outside of the early early days of 21 DD. 98-100 MPH fastballs don't feel like a blur anymore so i'm thinking they might have tweaked the timing windows a bit.

TL;DR - It's hard to tell if key sticking points have been changed because the cards being used exasperate those issues (specifially outlier perk and high stamina)

I still think this is will be better than 21 with the QoL changes (PCI anchor in particular) but it's hard to tell until we're actually playing 22 with 22's cards.

Edit: Can confirm the live series versions of the outlier boys (Chapman, DeGrom, etc) do not have the perk. Looks like they might be moving away from it.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Played the online portion of the tech test. I think a major fault with this style of beta is the fact that it appears 22 is going to play different in some capacity but the game is using cards from 21.

Pinpoint is definitely harder contrary to my first obeservation. Had a tough time hitting perfect inputs and it led to more balls rather than the dot fest 21 was. Very good sign.

Stamina still doesn't drain properly. I faced a guy with Verlander's No-Hitter card and he still had a good amount over half a bar at like 65 pitches through 3 innings.

Outlier feels more busted than it did last year if they're bringing it back. All of those god cards (Ryan, DeGrom, Verlander, etc) were all here complete with their juiced stats and was absolutely miserable to face.

NOW TO BE FAIR; the purpose of the tech test is to test servers and show off the bigger features (online co-op in particular) and SDS's thought process of making it playable is taking all of the cards from 21 and dumping them here with no quirks makes sense. The seldom couple moments i faced live series pitchers it felt very, very good. I managed to hammer a guy on HOF difficulty and that's something i couldn't do outside of the early early days of 21 DD. 98-100 MPH fastballs don't feel like a blur anymore so i'm thinking they might have tweaked the timing windows a bit.

TL;DR - It's hard to tell if key sticking points have been changed because the cards being used exasperate those issues (specifially outlier perk and high stamina)

I still think this is will be better than 21 with the QoL changes (PCI anchor in particular) but it's hard to tell until we're actually playing 22 with 22's cards.

Edit: Can confirm the live series versions of the outlier boys (Chapman, DeGrom, etc) do not have the perk. Looks like they might be moving away from it.

This alone makes me not want to buy the game. My entire approach at the plate was to grind out at bats and up the pitch count for my opponent. Not to mention it makes the bullpen useless. I really hope this gets fixed before launch.

 

[Blitzkrug]

This alone makes me not want to buy the game. My entire approach at the plate was to grind out at bats and up the pitch count for my opponent. Not to mention it makes the bullpen useless. I really hope this gets fixed before launch.

Yeah was really disappointed to see that. At first I thought it was maybe something to do with the cards since most of those high value WS/BR reward cards had stupidly high stamina and that was the reason.

And then I watched a basic ass live series Shane Bieber throw 50 pitches through 3 innings in an event game and still be green.

I've been following both the Reddit and forum to see if anyone has said anything smd it's infuriating how little attention it's gotten.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Ramone and company apparently claimed the tech test build is apparently "a few builds back"of the current version in that co op stream they did.

It would make sense honestly given it feels a lot similar to 21 in a lot of ways. Wouldn't surprise me if this actually was a Frankenstein'd version of 21 just to make sure the servers/co op works properly. There's too much of the same (off PCI homers, pinpoint being very similar in ease of use to 21, the stamina thing, etc) for it to be a coincidence

 

[Hammettf2b]

Ramone and company apparently claimed the tech test build is apparently "a few builds back"of the current version in that co op stream they did.

It would make sense honestly given it feels a lot similar to 21 in a lot of ways. Wouldn't surprise me if this actually was a Frankenstein'd version of 21 just to make sure the servers/co op works properly. There's too much of the same (off PCI homers, pinpoint being very similar in ease of use to 21, the stamina thing, etc) for it to be a coincidence

Thats what they said with BF2042. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Thats what they said with BF2042. I'll believe it when I see it.

Here I can actually buy it.

It's out of date enough where there's no DH rule in place for DD (should be since it's universal now), none of the other QoL stuff they touted like Ohtani being deployable like he is in real life and a bunch of other 21 specific jank still being there.


All that's new is the scorebug and the menus and there's no way anyone, even EA could pass off that type of laziness as a job well done.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Here I can actually buy it.

It's out of date enough where there's no DH rule in place for DD (should be since it's universal now), none of the other QoL stuff they touted like Ohtani being deployable like he is in real life and a bunch of other 21 specific jank still being there.


All that's new is the scorebug and the menus and there's no way anyone, even EA could pass off that type of laziness as a job well done.

I hope your'e right. Gonna play this weekend and give it a good go

 

[Blitzkrug]

Stamina definitely drains. After doing some testing i legit think it's something with the late game 21 cards are screwing with the game.

All-Star Shohei, which was a good but not elite card from 21 has a respectable stamina rating of 96. Faced him in a game and he was at yellow within 60 pitches in 3 innings. good

Milestone Chris Sale with his 110 stamina, 80 pitches through 7 = not tired

Milestone Kluber with his 121 stamina (i suck at hitting him) was at 70 through 7, still had well over half a bar

Milestone Goose Gossage (41 stamina) t00k like 60 pitches to get to yellow, presumably because 41 stamina is way above average for the rest of closers/relievers. Live series Liam Hendriks took 31 pitches to hit yellow with his 25 stamina.

I haven't had a chance to test with 22 live series SP cards because everyone swings at everything or quit within a couple innings. The early conclusion would be those milestone cards are totally busted and need to be reigned in for 22. Sure no-hitter cards are from guys going deep into games but giving them 125 stamina based on one game is stupid. They should have more than the average card for sure, but probably not to the point where they can throw 150 pitches without feeling any ill effects.

That seems...more reasonable? Especially with pinpoint being tougher.

Also nice to see fielders not being able to get to every ball within a 7 mile radius.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Played one game with 99 deGrom and went 100+ pitches for 9 innings. still in green. I get hes one of the best pitchers in the game but these juiced cards need a bit of a nerf when it comes to stamina drain. Not sure how I feel about the pci anchor yet. Need more time with it.

 

[Blitzkrug]

And then in BR reliever stamina is gone within a blink.

The only guys who can go more than like 8 pitches without turning yellow are once again, the 21 cards with stupidly high stamina.

It's the cards.

 

[Hammettf2b]

And then in BR reliever stamina is gone within a blink.

The only guys who can go more than like 8 pitches without turning yellow are once again, the 21 cards with stupidly high stamina.

It's the cards.

Hopefully this is a sign that SDS will realize that the way they juice some of these cards just isn't right.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Finished MLB 21 with a .256 lifetime BA. That's actually way better than I thought it would be lol.

Hoping the game is a bit more offensive in 22 and what I played of the tech test, I think it will be.

 

[Svechhammer]

Excited about those mini seasons and really hoping it’s an offline mode. Outside of conquest, there’s no offline content to use your created team currently. Hoping these mini seasons change that.

I use my created team and stadium in Offline Franchise Mode. You just have to rebrand an existing team.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Matt Vasgersian out as commentator.


The new guys:

 

[Hammettf2b]

I've always liked Matty V but it was getting a little stale. I think this is a turn for the better.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Man those face of franchise cards are juiced for day 1.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Launches tonight with early access. 12 am ET/9 pm PST

 

[Raging Bull]

Hopefully the servers are better for tommorow than last years launch.