MLB The Show 22 flashes the leather, but needs to confront a few issues off the field – Review

gamepur.com:

It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means warm weather and — if you’re in the United States — baseball season. Every spring, Sony San Diego Studios servers up a simulation baseball game that attempts to replicate the Major League baseball experience. That is no different for this year, as SDS has officially released MLB The Show 22 for Xbox, PlayStation, and, for the first time, the Nintendo Switch.

But how does this year’s game feel? SDS touted a number of new additions to MLB The Show, and those additions do make the game feel a bit more fresh. Still, users who have been looking for a major shake-up might be a bit disappointed by what’s here for 2022.

MLB The Show 22’s gameplay engine is, by and large, very similar to 21. The PCI and its layout from The Show 20 & 21, as well as Pinpoint Pitching are among the features to return for this year’s title. In fact, it doesn’t seem like much in The Show has changed at all at first glance. But, a deeper look does reveal some positive changes.

For one, late timing does result in a higher success rate of getting base hits. Last year, a lot of balls with late timing were either weak fly balls, or grounders that were destined to be outs. On the other hand, early timing had a much better chance of resulting in a base hit. This imbalance has seemingly been fixed. Balls hit with late timing now seem to have a much better chance of getting past the defense for base hits. 

This was intended by SDS, at least based on what the development team said during the promotion of the title. However, the devs stated that this would only really have an effect on pitches hit on the outer half of plate. But based on my observations thus far, late timing on pitches have