Hey baseball fans, Kirby St. John here to talk about the evolution of our popular Road To The Show mode in MLB 13 The Show. Our big emphases this year were to focus more on your player’s progress and achievements, and to better immerse you in the on-field action to give you the sense that you are actually on the field playing ball. Check out the video and then read on for more detailed information about the mode.

A few things that we want to make sure you are aware of:

The fielding and baserunning cameras have been completely revamped to give you a more accurate and realistic on-field perspective. New fielding controls have been added to give you more of a challenge (if desired) and more to do at certain positions. A new simulator screen has been added and will display in between your player’s appearances. You have the option to choose from three different simulation speeds, as well as power to skip, or “Complete,” the simulation to get to your next appearance instantly. You can even “Watch” the game from your player’s location, so if you want to jump in and watch your team from the dugout while they are rallying, you can do that.

We really tried to focus on the presentation in RTTS as you are now placed in a first-person audio perspective. What that means is you are no longer going to hear commentators during the play. Instead, you are immersed in the sounds around your player, including other on-field players, coaches, dugouts, umpires, the crowd, and your own player’s sound effects.

On the menu side of things, you now have the ability to fully customize your player’s batting animations in the Create/Edit Player menu. This means you can now choose things like his follow-through, walk-up, stride, home run swing, and more.

To give you a quick rundown of what wasn’t covered, here’s what else we added:

You will be given training points for certain major achievements in your career, such as your first Major League home run or if you hit for the cycle. Advancement Goals have been reevaluated in some cases to prevent some common complaints. For example, pitchers will no longer have any batting goals, and some statistical expectations have been lessened to make them slightly easier to achieve. If you are playing as a catcher, you will experience a much quicker and more streamlined pitch-calling system. Lastly, if you are watching the game from the dugout, the camera will no longer cut to the broadcast fielding camera when the ball is put in play. Instead, you will watch the play unfold from the dugout perspective, just like real life.

We are really excited about all of these additions and improvements to Road To The Show, and we cannot wait for you to play it yourself on March 5th.