

Gabriel Moss, March 13, 2020Īnother nice touch is that when you take your custom Road to the Show player into Diamond Dynasty or Franchise mode you can finally pair them with your own custom teams. That said, those who haven’t picked up an MLB The Show since 17 or 18 will absolutely find that MLB The Show 20 is the best place to pick the series back up. But even with the excellent new Showdown mode, longtime fans may be just a little turned off by the lack of big new changes. Developer Sony San Diego has tweaked and tightened everything that was presented in MLB The Show 19, and as a result, playing baseball on a console has never been this fluid. In what feels like a minor but noticeable update, MLB The Show 20 doesn’t break what wasn’t broken.

They’re in the menus if you want to find them, but it definitely isn’t as straightforward as last year, when you were still able to choose an archetype and specialize in your role early. There’s more emphasis on on-the-fly loadouts, and it’s actually harder to track the Programs that define your progression. Your character can be a hitter and a pitcher without you needing to create a new save file in order to switch between the two roles.The downside of no longer starting in a room where you define your archetype is that you are less connected to your character’s skills and development as a player. It’s certainly a neat addition that vaguely calls out your decisions on the field, but it still manages to fall flat in its delivery. The story in this year’s Road to the Show is still barebones, but if you’re playing on PS5 or Series X you’ll get video commentary on your performance from sportscasters like Ben Gellman. Eventually, anyway – you need to play several games before you’re even allowed the option to specialize the way you want, which is a little annoying. For starters, your character is a “two-way” player by default, meaning that they can be a hitter and a pitcher without you needing to create a new save file in order to switch between the two roles. Of the returning modes, the Road to the Show campaign mode has received the most significant changes from last year’s version.
