MLB The Show 24 Review: A Perennial Pennant Winner

The new era continues as MLB The Show 24 pushes an ever-growing franchise forward once again. Major innovations like the addition of female players stand out, but regular players are surely wondering how all of this year's game modes compare to past versions.

New players may be trying to decide if this is the year to dive in, and longtime veterans could still be on the fence about staying with a past release. From the expansion of storylines to the to their Road to the Show revamp and more, we'll break down all the strikeouts and moonshots in this MLB The Show 24 review.

MLB The Show 24 Review: Gameplay & Presentation

When it comes to pure gameplay and visual presentation, MLB The Show 24 continues a franchise tendency of being among the best in the genre. Not only have they delivered the best baseball game available, but the overall experience is better than any other major sports game. The big moments feel massive, from the crack of the bat to the statcast replay.

Almost every game mode saw some improvements, and the benefit of quality gameplay is that it trickles down across all the different places players spend their time. Stadium Creator and the Custom Team options are still fantastic and benefit from all of last year's stadiums and logos getting grandfathered into the online vaults.

There are still a few gaps, such as the complete lack of a tattoo system for created players and the inability to import or export custom team details and uniforms with Diamond Dynasty. The use of custom stadiums is also still occasionally triggering a crash in March to October, but so far these flaws haven't overtaken everything MLB The Show 24 got right.

Road to the Show & Storylines Move Forward

The most notable change in this year's game is the fact that, for the very first time, players can create a female ballplayer in Road to the Show. They've introduced a new narrative experience for female players where you and a best friend each break into the league at the same time, and it definitely cranks up the immersion and investment in career mode. RTTS also features a Draft Combine for the first time, as both male and female players get the option to participate or pass in hopes of impacting their draft stock.

The one primary flaw in the female experience is commentary, as best efforts by Sony San Diego to record varying commentary lines suffers from repetition. Commentary calling you groundbreaking works once or twice, but about the 15th time hearing the same canned line about how important you are during every single at-bat will only motivate you to turn off commentary in settings.

Fortunately, pretty much every other aspect of Road to the Show delivers on the career mode experience and benefits from their choice to disconnect it from Diamond Dynasty. You can no longer use your RTTS ballplayer in Diamond Dynasty, which prevents problematic meta strategies from taking hold and lets the career mode journey shine on its own.

We need to thank the pioneer that was Toni Stone for bringing female players into the game, as the developers no doubt took having to build her model for the Negro Leagues Storylines as a cue to include women in the game as a whole. Speaking of Storylines, it remains the historic highlight of this franchise.

Negro Leagues Season 2 offers up a new batch of heroes from that era as archival footage is mixed with top-notch interviews and narration from Bob Kendrick, the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. An additional Storylines experience looking at the top moments in Derek Jeter's career was also included this year, and both storylines will release additional content in the coming weeks.

Franchise Mode, March to October, and Diamond Dynasty

While it was a relatively quiet change, Franchise Mode got one major upgrade with the addition of game entry conditions. Players now have the option of streamlining some of the larger Franchise Mode experience by customizing when you get pulled into games for both full play and player-locked highlights. All the control of Franchise Mode meets the shortened games of March to October.

Speaking of March to October, it feels pretty much identical to last year's version. With the game mode still linked to Team Affinity in Diamond Dynasty, you still can't use custom rosters but have the option of customizing team details for any existing teams before you kickoff a March to October save.

Diamond Dynasty didn't get any sweeping changes this year, but they've notably shifted away from missions being central to the Season 1 XP Reward Path (and future seasons) and instead built chunks of XP into other programs and parts of Diamond Dynasty. You'll still get big chunks of XP for finishing specific programs or knocking out Conquest maps, but they've simplified that process. Diamond Dynasty still offers a great offline experience for those who enjoy the dream team and collection aspects but prefer not to play against others online.

Despite the glowing optimism, MLB The Show 24 isn't without flaws. Commentary struggles to stay fresh at times, occasional crashes can still occur, sleeves on curvy female player models can glitch in RTTS cutscenes, but none of these problems (most of which are fixable with post-launch updates) overshadow where the game delivers.

Just like any regular playoff contender, a few regular season losses won't stop MLB The Show 24 from seizing the pennant and World Series championship as the best sports game around.