MLB The Show 25

Rising through the amateur ranks in Road to the Show and the retirement of Sets and Season in Diamond Dynasty have brought much needed life back to MLB The Show 25.

MLB The Show 25 adds a number of impactful new features while tweaking its already excellent on-field action

Though it's almost expected that MLB The Show will have another solid outing, I still can't help but smile when, after my first few games, I realize that baseball is back and we once again have a terrific representation of that in video game form.

MLB The Show 25's refinements to Road to the Show and Diamond Dynasty make this another superb baseball sim. The on-field gameplay may feel largely familiar, but it's already so well executed that it staves off any feeling of samey-ness. Some great new modes and another enjoyable set of documentary-esque storylines round out a package that's still quite comfortably at the top of its game.

I have for years held the opinion that MLB The Show is the best of the annualized sport sim franchises. While it’s not without its faults, it’s pound-for-pound the best simulation of its real-life counterpart, while hosting a bevy of modes that feel thoroughly fleshed out and supported. It’s the most hours I’ve sunk into a new MLB The Show game in years, and it’ll probably be my go-to sports game for many months to come.

MLB The Show 25 offers several improvements to Sony's iterative baseball title. San Diego Studio continues to produce an excellent baseball game. Whether or not it's enough to replace your copy of The Show 24 or even 23 is a different story, as the additions are good but not so much to make last year's title a lame duck.

You can arguably say that Road to the Show includes the biggest additions the series has ever seen.

MLB The Show 25 doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it provides a feature-rich baseball simulation experience with strong core gameplay.

Not all sports franchises are created equal, and some are top-tier. In terms of both improvements and content, MLB: The Show 25 is the most complete installment the franchise has released to date and is already positioned as one of the best sports titles of the year. The Fall Classic is still a long way off, but it's certainly nice to be heading to the iconic World Series with a video game that delivers and exceeds expectations.

It’s not just the gameplay, but the presentation that looks stunning. Players will know it’s good when, for a split second, it looks like the real thing. Sometimes, the facial animations take a serious nose dive, but it’s only for a brief moment.