MLB The Show 19

The great thing about sports video games is that they actually get people who aren't fans of video games but love sports, interested in gaming. This is why they are pretty successful usually, and very popular. MLB: The Show 19 is one of those games, but there's something unique to most MLB games compared to the rest of official sports games. But we'll get into that later on. Still, being a yearly released game is not an easy thing to do, as there's little room for new additions and scarce development time. So, if you love baseball, is MLB The Show 19 one the game for you? Well, let's talk about that.

About the game

There really isn’t much to say about this game that isn’t directly obvious from the name. It’s the official video game of the MLB, and that’s pretty much it. There’s a career mode where you can train your team and build it up, rising to the top of the league. And there’s also a new mode called March to October, that it’s basically a lighter version of the season mode.

You can get to keep this team from March to October, but there’s nothing really new in this part of the game this year. It’s pretty much the same we’ve seen the last few years, but hey, that’s not a bad thing tho. The major teams and famous players are all available in this title, so you can have fun building up your dream team and play all the most amazing matches ever made.

Why are MLB games different?

What's crazy about many sports games is that they literally come out in every console or gaming device available. Take FIFA 19 for example, you can play that game in everything in your house capable of running it. But the MLB titles are very different, as they are actually PlayStation exclusives. While this reduces greatly the sales on these games compared to the FIFA games, they count strongly in a sports gamer's decision on which console they should buy.

Still, it is hard to improve on a yearly basis, and this is clearly visible in both cases Fifa and MLB. But it's all about the little changes. And you know what they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Review

MLB The Show 19 is one of the biggest expressions of the expression we just mentioned. You can’t really blame them for not changing if the sport itself hasn’t changed that much in the past decades. The best they can do is stay up to date with the players that are currently in the league and the team formations. And they do this well, so that’s all you can ask from an official sports game.

• Graphics and visuals: The game looks great, the visuals have been upgraded from the last entry to make it more realistic and lifelike. It really does look great, and since it’s a console exclusive it is pretty well optimized.

• Gameplay: Getting a grasp of how to play the game can be a bit tough if you haven't played any of these games before, so there's a learning curve present here. However, it is pretty satisfying. There are some minigames in there too, which add a great deal to making the game more varied and fun, and that's to be appreciated.

• Sound: In terms of just pure sound, the game is alright. It doesn’t have the greatest soundtrack, but there’s nice music in there too. More than enough to cover the needs of a baseball game.