"MLB 15: The Show" was, surprisingly, the last "MLB: The Show" game that I bought. After having owned every game in the series since 2009, my interest in it started to fade after 2015's entry. While part of that may have been thanks to the "sports games are the same every year" trope kicking in, a larger part of that was because 2015 was the year where I started really trying to beat more games and branch out my taste in gaming, instead of just having rhythm games, baseball games, and "Super Smash Bros." taking up all of my time. Thus, other games received my attention, while "MLB: The Show" received less attention. That's not to say that "MLB 15: The Show" was a bad time, though, because I still certainly had my fun with it.
"MLB 15: The Show" does everything you would reasonably expect this series to do, and it does those things well. As usual, the game features extremely realistic visuals and a stellar presentation that captures the sport fantastically. The gameplay also strikes the perfect balance in difficulty and has fluid controls that will make you want to come back for more, just as the numerous amounts of modes will do. The commentators also do a nice job capturing the action, and the game included one of the best new features of any entry in this franchise: directional hitting. It might sound like a minor thing, but I feel like I can never play another "MLB: The Show" game without this again, and being able to impact the direction of my hits just feels awesome.
I think my biggest issue with this game is that it really doesn't do too much differently from previous entries. I know that's what a lot of people say about sports games, but this was the first time in the "MLB: The Show" series that I really took note of it, and I think that contributed to me drifting away from the series for a bit of time. Also, I found that the performance was not the best here, and that the game was often prone to dips in frame rates, which is extremely inconvenient for a game centered around precise timing.
Overall, "MLB 15: The Show" was another solid day at the ballpark. Yes, it did feel similar to previous entries, but that fortunately wasn't the worst thing with how solid the series generally is. And as the last entry in the franchise that I sunk a lot of time into, it certainly did a good job, and it'll always hold a special place for me as a gamer, just like the many other entries I played so much of.
Final rating: 8 out of 10 "Great"