Ah, the great American pastime. Once upon a time, all we needed to be entertained was a field, a ball, and a stick. It was a fantastic escape that allowed us to forget about the troubles that plagued our nation. When the Great Depression threatened our livelihoods, we had baseball. When the world was on the brink of being subjugated under Nazi tyranny, we had baseball. These days, we spend our time letting our lives be run by a series of tiny machines that are more powerful than the ones that took mankind to the moon. But we still have baseball, and despite all the relatively recent controversies that have tainted the legacy of the MLB, we can still enjoy it using those damned machines. MLB: The Show’s debut on the PlayStation 4 is as ideal as a first wave next-gen sports game can get. And knowing that this is only the beginning, that there’s still a great deal of improvement and fine-tuning waiting to be made, makes MLB 14: The Show a tantalizing sample for what is to come. It’s also a great baseball game in its own right.

Not having played any of the previous MLB: The Show games, I’m not the right person to go to if you’re looking for benchmarking notes; I can’t tell you how much better this game looks than it does on PlayStation 3. What I can tell you is that this is a fine-looking game. Though sports games are generally creatively restricted in the visual department, certain elements can be improved upon every year. Sure, only so much can be done to improve the look of grass and the diamond itself, but if you know where to look, you’ll see that a great deal of effort was made to make the illusion airtight. Crowds look diverse and dynamic, famous stadiums are painstakingly recreated, and most importantly, the animation work is stellar.

MLB 14: The Show deserves special praise for its commentary by Matt Vasgersian, Steve Lyons, and Eric Karros, and that’s a first for me. Usually when I’m playing a sports simulation, the chatter is overly technical, so much to the point that it loses me. This game had me taken aback at the kinds of things they say, from the criticism to the praise, to the almost scarily accurate observations. Sounds of the diamond are captured in all their glory; from the crack of the bat to the Mike Carlucci’s P.A. delivery, to the ballgame organ tunes. Wear a good pair of headphones and close your eyes. The only thing that will be missing is the sun pounding down on your head. Finally, the soundtrack is apt enough, with tracks by the likes of Broken Bells, Big Data, and Jake Bugg.

Until playing MLB 14: The Show, I had absolutely no experience with baseball simulation games. I was raised on Baseball (yes, THAT one), Super Bases Loaded, Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run, and Super Baseball 2020. These were not exactly known for their realism; after all, in what reality does being hit by a baseball cause you to explode? So, given the fact that I approach all sports simulation games with no small amount of trepidation, I was pleasantly surprised to find an experience that both plays to my history with arcade-style baseball and challenges it.

Road to the Show appears to be the headlining attraction in MLB 14: The Show. It's this game's version of the tried and tested modern sports game twist that has you assuming the role of an individual player. The result is an experience in which you get as much as you're willing to give. Playing a single role on your team of choice feels limiting; after all, it's a drastic departure from most sports game exhibition modes -- you know, the ones that have you cast as some sort of magic body-swapper who can jump between people at will. But this limitation is what players feel in real life; they aren't Atlas, holding up the world. It's a team sport, and part of it is being forced to accept what you can't control.

Other modes flesh out what's already a great game of baseball. Standard modes of play, both offline and on, give you the opportunity to jump straight into the action, but you can also partake in a few diversions. The Home Run Derby is the brutish counterpoint to the tense chess matches that make up most games, and it's cathartic to just smash every pitch that comes your way. And provided the community stays strong throughout this iteration's lifecycle, there should be plenty of user-created challenges to take on.

MLB 14: The Show is only as hard as you want to make it. If you’re a newcomer to either the series or simulation baseball in general, the game goes easy on you. Pitchers generally throw balls you can hit, fielders do their job with very little urgency, and batters are indiscriminate swingers. Crank the difficulty up, however, and resting on your laurels is verboten. The artificial intelligence is smart enough to capitalize on every opportunity you give it and it will pounce on every one you miss.

In all, the game has a very smooth learning curve and enough depth to keep you coming back to hone your skills. Take your game online, however, and there are no guarantees. My experience was rough, to say the very least. I haven't been placed in many matches that didn't involve me making a fool out of myself. But being a casual fan, perhaps my place is offline.

Complexity is not always a good thing in a video game, especially when the premise is simple. I’ve played all kinds of sports simulations in the last several years, and I’ve been frequently stunned at how complicated so many of them make their control schemes. Granted, I understand why they are the way they are; catering to the hardcore fans is and should be the developer’s main goal, and to that end, many of these games have been wildly successful. But the true hallmark of greatness in a simulation is flexibility; allowing a less-experienced gamer to pick up and play the game while giving all players the same opportunity to develop important skills that can ultimately give them the edge. MLB 14: The Show succeeds in this regard.

But the beauty of MLB 14: The Show’s control scheme is in the fact that it remains mostly simple throughout; you won’t ever have to contort your fingers like you might against a particularly skilled NHL or FIFA player. Baseball is slower, more deliberate, and at times, very psychological. The main tests challenge your decision-making skills under extreme pressure, and the controls do nothing to get in the way of that. If anything, they only enhance it.

Batting is as simple as a series of button presses, each of which has its own power levels, and therefore its own inherent risks and rewards. Again, it’s all about strategy; not every player is destined to smash homers in every at bat, and your goals may involve sacrifice in order to set up a future R.B.I.; the game knows this and is designed to keep things simple.

Pitching is similar to swinging mechanics in several golf games. Build your power on the way up, nail your accuracy on the way down. You can also influence the general direction of your pitch before letting go of the ball, provided your timing is spot on. And given the fact that each pitch type has a different rhythm to it, there’s a lot with which you need to acclimate yourself.

Fielding might take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to single button directional throwing. As the DualShock 4’s face buttons resemble a baseball triangle, the base throwing controls are mapped thusly. All you need to do is press the button corresponding to the base you wish to throw to, with the force and longevity of your press serving as the urgency of the throw.

Being in its infancy, the PlayStation 4 is starting to fill in the blanks on what its library needs, and in terms of baseball, that's one spot that it definitely has a leg up over its competition. This is one of the best baseball games on the market right now, and if you're a fan of the game, you'll be a fan of this release.