If you haven’t read Part 1 of my previews on MLB The Show 18, click below:

MLB The Show 18 Preview #1

All the small things… (tag line?)

Another week has gone by and another preview for Sony San Diego’s MLB The Show 18 is hot off the presses! I’ve watched the live stream, scoured the internet, taken all my notes, and I am now prepared to give you all the baseball goods. This week’s preview is going to cover the more intricate and small things that this year’s outing has to offer. So go ahead, grab your peanuts and cracker jacks, and come on back for more preview information on MLB The Show 18!

If there is anything that I can say for sure that Sony San Diego undoubtedly does well, it’s that they listen to their community. This year they have brought in one of the most requested features they’ve ever had, the custom batting stance creator! In MLB The Show 18 you will be able to create a custom batting stance for your created player or modify a current players stance. What if newly acquired Boston Red Sox slugger, J.D. Martinez, changes his stance during the season? You can go in and change his stance with ease to match his real life counterpart. Of course there will always be updates by the developers to update these stances but if you don’t want to wait, you don’t have to! When in the batting stance creator, you will be able to change different areas of the stance such as the hand offset, hand rotation, hips offset, and more by simply moving the analog sticks along the different X, Y, and Z axes. The game will stop you from creating such a ridiculous stance that the animations clip or parts of the players body move through others. Basically, it’s kept as realistic as possible. Now you may be wondering what if you create everyone’s favorite player, Lance SickNasty (not real), give him the most absurd batting stance you can think of, and want to share that with the world. Simple! Since everything has a numbered meter you can share these numbers with others and they can recreate the gloriousness that is the batting stance of Lance SickNasty. If you wanted to just have the same player added to your growing roster you could just go to the vault and download Lance SickNasty and that will also carry over his custom batting stance. You cannot upload a custom batting stance by itself to the vault. Sony San Diego has delivered a mode that will let your creative juices flow just like your home run swing.

The new batting stance creator lets your imagination run wild.

Wait… vault you say?! That’s right! MLB The Show 18 brings back the vault where you can find custom players with or without their own batting stance, logos, rosters, and custom game play sliders. No longer will you need to back out of the vault to go from one category to the next as the vault is now seamless and includes everything you want all in one. Should you want to create a custom team and already have everything except that logo that ties it all together? Just tab through screens of logos to find the perfect one without having to go back out and go back in. Maybe you already know the exact logo you’re looking for? Just hit the triangle button and you’ll be able to enter in exactly what you’re searching for. Just like previous games, you can always create your own which makes the options limitless for creators in MLB The Show 18. Everything is created to make your searching and customizing bigger, faster, and even more custom than ever before.

Customization doesn’t end with the batting stance creator and the insanely large vault. Sony San Diego has brought back the ever so popular universal profile system. This feature has become a staple in all things video games from first person shooters to fighting games. You will still have a name plate to display your PlayStation Network ID and an icon to accompany it. As you play MLB The Show 18 you will unlock universal profile packs that you can virtually rip open and unlock more nameplates and icons to add that flair that everyone wants. Each team will have at least two different specific nameplates that you can use and you’ll also find others that have other baseball related garb to show off. Sony San Diego has also included different country flags that will be unlocked from the start for you to use should you want some sort of customization from the moment you boot up your PlayStation 4. The Universal Profile system contains over 50 NEW nameplates and over 50 NEW icons for your pleasure. I fully expect mine to have a picture of my favorite baseball snack, sunflower seeds.

Players and profiles aren’t the only upgrades that Sony San Diego brings your way. Stadium upgrades are also plentiful in MLB The Show 18. This year you will find all new major corporate sponsors like Nike that will line outfield walls, scoreboards, and more nationwide. No word as to what every sponsor is at this time. To also make stadiums as realistic as their real life counterparts, MLB The Show 18 now has bleachers and bench seating. Stadiums that include these options in real life will also include them in their virtual counterparts. I wonder if virtual butts will get just as sore as those of us who have endured all nine innings sitting in the bleachers. We all know that you don’t spend the entire game sitting or standing where your ticket allows you to. Instead we check out what food and merchandise options these stadiums have to offer. That’s why Sony San Diego has included real life places inside stadiums across baseball just like The Chop House in Atlanta and the Hit It Here Café in Seattle. We don’t want to keep our virtual counterparts hungry while we serve up those delicious home runs!

Bleachers have been added to the stadiums that have them and realism is a welcome addition to this years game.

We all know these stadiums don’t stay clean and dry right? So does Sony San Diego and that’s why they’ve added all-new dynamic rain in this year’s game. Rain will no longer look like long white streaks that just fall down the screen. They’ve upped the amount of rain that can fall while making sure to make it more random and reflect the time of year more accurately. Rain delays are now possible and are also never the same. Rain delays will give you the choice to keep the pitcher in that’s been working up to this point or replace him with the fresh arm. It’s all in a choice that’s going to be based on how long the rain delay is. If it’s a shorter delay you may be able to keep the pitcher in, but if the delay is longer you’ll have to make a decision regarding the man on the mound. Confidence and stamina will be affected during each delay and it correlates directly to the amount of time the delay takes. While rain delays may happen you will not see games being postponed or double headers due to the weather. Games will always be finished and delays will end at some point.

Not everyone will be able to dish out home runs and strikeouts the moment they turn on MLB The Show 18. This means that you will need practice. “Practice? We’re talking about practice, man?” That’s right. Sony San Diego hasn’t forgotten those of us who need to brush up on our skills out on the diamond. An all-new practice mode has been added to this year’s game. In practice mode you can focus on batting, fielding, and running. Maybe you want to see how you’d do with bases loaded and a full count against the Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw? Practice mode will allow you to set up this very scenario and replay it, over and over again. Meaning you can change the count for the at bats and repeat the scenario without having to back out and try it again. The menus in training are seamless as well. Pick two teams, choose your options, and go. Then when you want to change the hitter at the plate, or the pitcher throwing you the ball, you just hit the menu button and change the player without any loading screens. At this time, Sony San Diego has said that you cannot dial in exactly where a ball is hit or how a situation plays out, but this will be hopefully be integrated in next year’s game.

All right, you’ve set up your universal profile and created your players and teams. You’ve done all the practicing you can. Now you just want one last thing and that’s to look good while doing it. Sony San Diego hasn’t taken their foot off the pedal just yet. Instead they’ve also added 19 all-new uniforms to baseball’s finest teams across the land. They’ve turned the web over time and time again to find some of the most requested unis out there. While adding 19 you’d think they’d have to drop a few here or there right? Nope! Every uniform in previous iterations comes back along with these all-new additions. Here are the 19 added uniforms that have been announced so far. I have put these in alphabetical order and any additional information I have found on these particular uniforms.

The Montreal Expos unis are too sweet and finally coming to The Show!

• Arizona Diamondbacks 2007 (Home/Away)
• Boston Red Sox 1931 (Home)
• Chicago Cubs 1929 (Home, Lost in the World Series)
• Cincinnati Reds 1947 (Home, had blue in the uniform)
• Cincinnati Reds 1975 (Home, Big Red Machine era)
• Cleveland Indians 1989 (Home/Away, Major League movie era)
• Detroit Tigers 1946 (Home/Away)
• Houston Astros 2002 (Home/Away)
• Los Angeles Angels 1975 (Home)
• Los Angeles Angels 1994 (Home, Angels in the Outfield)
• Los Angeles Dodgers 1944 (Road, Brooklyn Dodgers Powder Blues)
• Los Angeles Dodgers 1994 (Home/Away)
• Montreal Expos 1981 (Home/Away, Washington Nationals)
• Philadelphia Phillies 1949 (Home)
• Pittsburgh Pirates 1966 (Home, Roberto Clemente era)
• Pittsburgh Pirates 1994 (Home, Barry Bonds era)
• San Diego Padres 1998 (Not Specified, Lost in the World Series)
• Louis Cardinals 1927 (Home, 1926 World Champions on their jerseys)
• Toronto Blue Jays 1992 (Home/Away)

New uniforms aren’t just for the current teams you know and love. This year Sony San Diego has created three all-new legend teams. Each of these focuses on the era they are representing. So if seeing Ken Griffey Jr. go up against Jackie Robinson is your thing, have at it! These teams are the Mid-Century Groundbreakers, which consists of the best players from the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s; The Expansion Era Boomers, which brings us the best players from the 1970s and ‘80s; and we can’t forget the Long Ball Beasts that blasts us with the hard-hitting players from the 1990s and 2000s. No other information is available on these rosters or teams at this time.

Just like last year, you’ll be able to swing for the fences with “The Kid” Ken Griffey Jr.

I would like to bring attention to the sound in MLB The Show 18. Sony San Diego has increased the games soundtrack from 12 tracks to 18. Music can now be customized into three themes that can be broken down to having different music play when different scenarios happen. No longer will the same music play for each scenario after you set up a theme. It’s all based on what you, the player, want. If you are like me and stream the game live, or just like more sound than the traditional commentary, then you can also turn on the all-new music mode. Music mode will play uninterrupted music throughout the menus and game play. If you don’t like the track that’s on, just click the right analog stick and the next track will start up. It’s just that easy. I’ve also gathered up all the other statistics just like a baseball card displays on its back. Below is every little detail by the numbers, just for your reading pleasure!

• Over 10 different sets of finger animations just for the movement as they hold the bat
• 401 New Throws
• Over 266 New Catches
• Over 220 New Tags
• Over 202 New Transitions (what happens after a play is over)
• 188 New situational awareness animations (Not including new home run trots)
• Over 316 New personalized batting stances
• 93 New batting stances
• 190 Redone batting stances
• 5 New Hitting Cameras
• 40 New pitching motions
• 70 Redone pitching motions
• 21 New legend batting stances
• 10 New legend pitching motions
• 10 New Outfield celebrations
• 30 New Generic Medium and High Intensity Home Run celebrations
• 25 New Home Run Swings for MLB players
• 18 New Generic Home Plate celebrations after hitting a home run
• 24 New Generic Home Run celebrations in the dug out

This week’s legend announcement was none other than the Chicago White Sox great, “The Big Hurt” Frank Thomas. Frank Thomas was inducted into the 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s a former five-time All-Star, two-time MLB most valuable player, and won multiple other awards throughout his career. Look for Frank Thomas to bring the hurt to your MLB The Show 18 roster in March!

Sony San Diego is continuing their weekly preview of MLB The Show 18 that I will be covering here at NerdBacon.com. Do all of these little things coming your way excite you? Will you be taking the virtual diamond this year? Let us know and make sure you check out MLB The Show 18 Preview #1 if you haven’t already and stay tuned for next week’s preview. And as always, stay tuned to NerdBacon.com for all things video games and MLB The Show 18.

Ready for Part 3? Take me there!