MLB The Show 25: Great Offline, A Nightmare Online

Let me cut straight to the point: MLB The Show 25 is a tale of two games. Offline, it's a solid baseball experience with enough new content to keep you entertained. Online? It's a goddamn sweat fest that'll make you want to throw your controller through the TV and cancel your PlayStation Plus subscription on the spot.

The biggest addition this year is the expanded Road to the Show mode, which now lets you grind through high school and college ball before making it to the big leagues. It's a nice touch that adds some depth to the career mode, and honestly, it's one of the few things San Diego Studio got right this year. Diamond Dynasty also introduced Diamond Quest, a roguelike board game mode where you roll dice and complete challenges for rewards. It's a fun distraction if you're into that sort of thing, and it beats the hell out of dealing with the online matchmaking disaster.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the elephant in the room: online play is an absolute dumpster fire. The matchmaking system is either broken or nonexistent, because there's no effective separation between casual players and the no-life grinders who live and breathe this game 24/7. I'm talking about getting matched up on Hall of Fame difficulty against elite pitchers like Tarik Skubal when you're just trying to have a decent game after work. Unless you're one of those sweaty bastards who plays every single day, you're not scoring more than a run or two, and you sure as hell aren't having fun.

And don't even get me started on the pay-to-win bullshit. The shift toward Chase Packs and expensive cards has turned Diamond Dynasty into an EA-style cash grab. You want to compete online? Better open your wallet, because grinding alone won't cut it anymore. It's not baseball at this point; it's just chasing the meta and hoping you can afford the latest overpowered card before everyone else does.

Now, let's address the visuals, because they're nothing to write home about either. Despite being on "next-gen" consoles, the graphics feel like they're stuck in 2019. Player models and facial expressions are decent enough, but the textures are outdated as hell. The water features in stadiums look like aluminum sheets, especially at Kauffman Stadium, where the fountains look like someone slapped a shiny texture on a flat surface and called it a day. The engine is aging like milk, and it shows.

San Diego Studio did add hundreds of new animations with their ShowTech updates, which improves situational realism and makes the game feel a bit more polished. But let's be real: animations don't mean squat if the core online experience is fundamentally broken and the graphics engine is running on fumes.

Here's the bottom line: if you're a solo player who enjoys offline modes, MLB The Show 25 is worth picking up. Diamond Quest is fun, the expanded RTTS is a nice addition, and you can have a good time without dealing with the online cesspool. But if you're planning to jump into online play, save yourself the frustration and skip it. The matchmaking is garbage, the pay-to-win mechanics are insulting, and you'll spend more time getting your ass kicked by sweaty tryhards than actually enjoying a game of baseball.

I loved this game when I played alone. The moment I stepped online, it turned into a nightmare. If you're like me and you value your sanity, stick to offline modes and pretend the online component doesn't exist. Trust me, you'll thank me later.