Nina Dobrev will call it quits after the current sixth season of The CW's supernatural drama, The Vampire Diaries.

The actress made the announcement via Instagram, writing that she always "wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure." Although the network has already ordered a seventh season of the popular series, it will now be returning without its female lead.

Nina Dobrev in The Vampire Diaries.

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The Star Wars Saga will soon be available on Digital HD.

Fans will be able to download the original trilogy and subsequent prequels from major digital retailers to their devices from April 10, either individually or as a collection. According to Collider, the original trilogy will be George Lucas' re-cut version; somewhat unsurprising considering that's what we got with its Blu-ray release.

Most excitingly, Disney detailed a clutch of brand new special features bundled with the films.

“We’re thrilled that fans will be able to enjoy the Star Wars Saga on their digital devices wherever they go,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy in a press release. “These films broke new ground in technology, design, sound, and visual effects, and we’ve created some very special bonus material which delves into the Saga’s rich history, including new and never-before-released conversations between legendary Star Wars artists – the masters who helped George bring his iconic universe to life.”

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Warner Bros. Television has released an extended trailer for the conclusion of season one of The Flash.

We know some of what to expect from the final episodes of The Flash season one, but there are even more surprises in store, according to this trailer.

You may want to look away if you're eager to avoid spoilers, but the trailer promises (more) time travel, a good cop turning bad and an all-CG villainous ape.

Nathan Lawrence is a freelance writer from Sydney who's cheering for Reverse-Flash. Run him down on Twitter.

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Square Enix has released new images of its upcoming Play Arts Kai Venom Snake figures based on Konami’s Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

Play Arts Kai, known for their highly stylized figure designs, will feature two versions of the Venom Snake figures – Splitter and Amazon Japan exclusive Gold Tiger—with different paint jobs, according to Toy Ark. Both figures will include interchangeable hands and heads, as well as a variety of accessories, including guns, a knife, and the iDroid case.

Venom Snake Splitter will release in May 2015 for roughly $82 USD. Gold Tiger is due to release in July for roughly $88 USD and can be pre-ordered on Amazon Japan.

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The Doctor isn't going anywhere.

Or so says showrunner Steven Moffat, speaking to The Radio Times on the tenth anniversary of the iconic British sci-fi show's revival.

"I thought it would last 10 years", said Moffat. "I didn’t think it would last 10 years with BBC Worldwide trying to get me in a room to talk about their plan for the next five years! It’s going to do a minimum of 15. I mean, it could do 26!"

Moffat's initial cautiousness was warranted; when he revived Doctor Who back in 2005, it had been off the air for 16 years following its cancellation in 1989. But ratings, Moffat revealed, have been steady for ten years.

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The Better Call Saul finale airs tonight on AMC, concluding its first season. Returning to Breaking Bad’s universe has been an absolute thrill, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.

With iconic characters from Breaking Bad’s universe getting some serious screen time in Better Call Saul, we got to thinking about which series had the better premiere season. Unable to come to a conclusion, we decided to take the question to Twitter and ask the IGN community: Do you like #BetterCallSaul more or less than the first season of #BreakingBad? Why?

@IGN More, it seems to be a little more consistently solid than BB season 1. And knowing what's coming helps.

— Michael Ratliff (@mwmike11) April 6, 2015

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Clone or homage? That Pillars of Eternity hews close to the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale formula can't be disputed. Its status within the ranks of its predecessors, however, is less obvious, given how slavishly devoted it is to a time when isometric role-playing games dominated players' imaginations. For all its complexities, Pillars of Eternity walks a narrow path already trod by the genre's greats, including the insurmountable Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II, which rightfully remain atop the computer RPG hierarchy.

As much as I can see how blatantly it pokes my nostalgia buttons, I still lost myself in Pillars, which sets itself apart--just enough to tip itself into the "homage" bucket rather than the "clone" one--with its original fantasy universe, as well as with combat details that reduce frustration and keep the tempo moving. It claws at Planescape and Baldur's Gate from beneath their perches, and while it never threatens to replace them, Pillars rises to greatness of its own accord. In those first few hours, however, it relies on nostalgia and familiarity to gain your interest. This isn't a Dungeons & Dragons game, but the influence is clear from the moment of character creation, during which you choose a race, a class, and a backstory for your leading man or lady. Old favorites like Elves and Dwarfs are joined by original races like the Godlike, whose elemental head adornments preclude the wearing of hats and helmets; Familiar professions like barbarian and wizard are supported by the cipher, who builds up magical focus by landing attacks with a standard weapon.

The world you step into is equally comfortable, using narrative and artistic variations to remind you that this is not, in fact, a place you have visited before. You and your fellow party members--up to six of you journeying at any given time--may equip pistols or arequebuses in addition to swords, rapiers, crossbows, and the like. The soundtrack reliably recalls composer Michael Hoenig's Baldur's Gate music, but the uberdramatic Carmina Burana-esque chants, and the wild woodwind arpeggios you hear during battle, help to differentiate it. You lead your party from an isometric view, navigating forests and meadows populated by wolves, ogres, and bandits, but you also contend with dark spirits and eerie ancient machines that belong only to Pillars.

The gods, too, are different in this universe, taking such names as Woedica, Berath, and Magran, and they hold great sway over their followers, who live and die by faith. Pillars of Eternity tells a cautionary tale of the gods' influence over their worshipers, planting its thematic seeds when your own character becomes a watcher--that is, an individual who can see and interact with disembodied souls. Watchers may also peer into others' pasts, a skill that reveals some of the game's finest tales, which are trapped within specially marked citizens on your map. These tales are optional and self-contained, gleaned by reaching into bystanders' souls and reliving their memories, but they greatly benefit from developer Obsidian's flowery language. There is the tale of the berry-picker who foils a would-be assassin, who "grabs the figure's wrist and falls onto his back, planting a leg in the center of the figure's chest." A story of a small boy hoping to be a wizard's apprentice describes the wizards pyrotechnics thusly: "The mage finishes his show soon after, a giant silver dragon descending through the crowd and a thousand stars exploding into nothingness." Short, vibrant stories like these paint color into the basic shapes the main plot draws.

The games that spawned Pillars of Eternity were wordy, but Obsidian takes narrative density to new heights, dumping heaps of lore onto the table and overwhelming its personal stories with long histories of war replete with fictional words like "Fonestu" and "ferconyg." The writing is lovely: "How canst I, so lowly and worn, speak words of proper adulation?" cries the author of a prayer so aching in its beauty that you might be convinced it is a Biblical psalm. But it's easy to lose focus when you're drowning in embellishment, particularly when the occasional voiceover highlights the script's need for editing. In Pillars of Eternity, characters speak not like people speak, but how writers write: in lengthy sentences that require the merely adequate voice cast to pause for breath multiple times. Voiceover may also begin before you can take in the descriptive stage directions included in dialogue panels--and for that matter, may not accurately reflect the stage directions themselves. (The writing might refer to an emotional state that the voice acting does not convey, for instance.)

Ultimately, Pillars of Eternity does not benefit from its inconsistent acting, nor do its characters inspire the same kinds of emotional connections that Dragon Age: Origins does. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by many of their stories, and the Grieving Mother's most of all. This cipher's history was as mysterious to her as it was to me, and as I unveiled her past, I was more and more moved by her devotion to the well-being of infants and their mothers. The game's plot heavily involves the birth of children without souls, empty vessels known as hollowborn. Grieving Mother gives the primary quest a personal touch it desperately needs, just as a personable fighter called Eder provides down-home charm in the midst of rising social distrust.

The world you step into is comfortable, using narrative and artistic variations to remind you that this is not, in fact, a place you have visited before.

A number of complicated game systems weave their way in and out of this god-filled world. You align yourself with the game's various factions when navigating choice-filled quests, for instance, irritating bloodthirsty druids when you don't take kindly to their sacrificial ways, or supporting a type of soul magic called animancy in spite of the sanitarium's questionable research methods. Pillars of Eternity can't always keep up with its own systems: I ended the game with several quests showing active even when I'd reached failure states, and in two cases, when the quest line inexplicably failed to update when I'd completed assignments, as if the game could not account for the variables I introduced. Yet there's joy in watching the world pulse as a result of your gravity, as if you are directing the social tides. Pillars wraps with a narrated epilogue that nicely condenses the results of your journey. Your decisions, it turns out, have ramifications beyond the game (and, Pillars implies, on a potential sequel).

It is in battle that Pillars of Eternity most excels. When you lead your party into combat, the game pauses (in default settings, anyway), and you pause-and-unpause your way through various tactical decisions, attacking your foes and commanding magic in Baldur's Gate fashion. In time, the chants you hear when battle begins becomes an emotional call to arms, catalyzing your brain into action, and marshaling your fingers into gear. You click from one party member portrait to the next, assigning targets to your paladin, blessing your companions with your priest, and calling for your druid to shoot a bee swarm from her fingers. You've done this before, but Pillars' pleasant interface keeps your attention on the tactics and minimizes the clicks.

It's the endurance system that makes Pillars stand apart from its peers. While you must manage each combatant's health, that's a long-term affair; endurance is the more pressing concern once battle is underway. Taking damage reduces the character's endurance levels, and should he run out, he is out of commission until the battle is over. He is not dead, however, presuming he still has health remaining, though the game is over should your entire party run dry. Odd difficulty spikes could turn the old RPGs into laborious cycles of saving and reloading; Pillars of Eternity's endurance layer keeps you moving forward, sending you back to town only when someone needs sleep, or when you run out of camping supplies that allow you to rest along the way. That doesn't mean that Pillars can't be challenging, or that its tactically deficient. In fact, as the game progresses, you earn more ways of delivering raw damage instead of endurance damage, granting you more methods of weakening, disabling, and ultimately downing your most troublesome foes.

You find some of those foes in the ruins beneath Caed Nua, your personal stronghold, which you earn several hours into your adventure. When you're first granted access, the estate is is a ramshackle one, and your keep is notable mainly for its state of disarray. As time passes, however, you may construct more and more improvements, until the library's spiderwebs are dusted away and merchants stand at the ready to sell you their wares. Caed Nua is also a portal to various hands-off activities in which you assign an unused party member to a pending mission, and she returns with a bagful of copper and maybe a few gems or knicknacks. Once you build a barracks, you can even recruit hirelings who defend your keep from hostile wanderers, which is simple enough with the click of a button.

The deep dungeon beneath it notwithstanding, the stronghold doesn't add much in the way of meaningful gameplay; it's presence is primarily cosmetic and atmospheric, and its purpose is to reflect your increasing influence. It is a digital snowglobe, meant to be noticed and appreciated, rather than a vital system. As far as audiovisual details go, however, it's a fine one, and Pillars of Eternity occasionally impresses in that regard. One of my favorite touches is such a small one, but it reveals a certain level of care that I greatly appreciate. You earn various cosmetic pets over time, and at one point, I switched out the miniature wurm I preferred to a happy yellow lab. Eder called out to it as we ventured across Brackenbury, and my heart was warmed, knowing that attention was given to this small but elegant touch.

Appreciation can turn to distraction when the details don't align, however. This may mean the dialogue misgendering you in a specific conversation, or a missing description when you click on a particular environmental identification icon, even when your party is standing right next to it. Other idiosyncrasies are annoying but easily overlooked, such as the lack of a buyback tab at merchants, which means you have to scroll through all the junk you've unloaded with the seller when browsing his goods. Larger bugs still can crop up, too, however. The biggest one to detract from my playthrough, which caused double-clicking inventory items to remove passive effects, has since been fixed. Labeling problems that cause one-use scrolls to look unavailable even when your lore attribute is well beyond the requirement, however, have not.

It's easy to lose sight of those issues when you're lost in a fantasy and captured by a game's rhythms, however, and Pillars of Eternity effortlessly ensnares you, both by reminding you of the places you've been, and by showing you things you didn't expect. It is not changing the future, but it is repackaging the past in a way that deserves praise while falling into a few old traps--and creating a few of its own--along the way. You can easily dodge these traps, however, and emerge victorious in a world where the gods show you both scorn and favor, and it's up to you to hew your own path.

Clone or homage? That Pillars of Eternity hews close to the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale formula can't be disputed. Its status within the ranks of its predecessors, however, is less obvious, given how slavishly devoted it is to a time when isometric role-playing games dominated players' imaginations. For all its complexities, Pillars of Eternity walks a narrow path already trod by the genre's greats, including the insurmountable Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II, which rightfully remain atop the computer RPG hierarchy.

As much as I can see how blatantly it pokes my nostalgia buttons, I still lost myself in Pillars, which sets itself apart--just enough to tip itself into the "homage" bucket rather than the "clone" one--with its original fantasy universe, as well as with combat details that reduce frustration and keep the tempo moving. It claws at Planescape and Baldur's Gate from beneath their perches, and while it never threatens to replace them, Pillars rises to greatness of its own accord. In those first few hours, however, it relies on nostalgia and familiarity to gain your interest. This isn't a Dungeons & Dragons game, but the influence is clear from the moment of character creation, during which you choose a race, a class, and a backstory for your leading man or lady. Old favorites like Elves and Dwarfs are joined by original races like the Godlike, whose elemental head adornments preclude the wearing of hats and helmets; Familiar professions like barbarian and wizard are supported by the cipher, who builds up magical focus by landing attacks with a standard weapon.

The world you step into is equally comfortable, using narrative and artistic variations to remind you that this is not, in fact, a place you have visited before. You and your fellow party members--up to six of you journeying at any given time--may equip pistols or arequebuses in addition to swords, rapiers, crossbows, and the like. The soundtrack reliably recalls composer Michael Hoenig's Baldur's Gate music, but the uberdramatic Carmina Burana-esque chants, and the wild woodwind arpeggios you hear during battle, help to differentiate it. You lead your party from an isometric view, navigating forests and meadows populated by wolves, ogres, and bandits, but you also contend with dark spirits and eerie ancient machines that belong only to Pillars.

The gods, too, are different in this universe, taking such names as Woedica, Berath, and Magran, and they hold great sway over their followers, who live and die by faith. Pillars of Eternity tells a cautionary tale of the gods' influence over their worshipers, planting its thematic seeds when your own character becomes a watcher--that is, an individual who can see and interact with disembodied souls. Watchers may also peer into others' pasts, a skill that reveals some of the game's finest tales, which are trapped within specially marked citizens on your map. These tales are optional and self-contained, gleaned by reaching into bystanders' souls and reliving their memories, but they greatly benefit from developer Obsidian's flowery language. There is the tale of the berry-picker who foils a would-be assassin, who "grabs the figure's wrist and falls onto his back, planting a leg in the center of the figure's chest." A story of a small boy hoping to be a wizard's apprentice describes the wizards pyrotechnics thusly: "The mage finishes his show soon after, a giant silver dragon descending through the crowd and a thousand stars exploding into nothingness." Short, vibrant stories like these paint color into the basic shapes the main plot draws.

The games that spawned Pillars of Eternity were wordy, but Obsidian takes narrative density to new heights, dumping heaps of lore onto the table and overwhelming its personal stories with long histories of war replete with fictional words like "Fonestu" and "ferconyg." The writing is lovely: "How canst I, so lowly and worn, speak words of proper adulation?" cries the author of a prayer so aching in its beauty that you might be convinced it is a Biblical psalm. But it's easy to lose focus when you're drowning in embellishment, particularly when the occasional voiceover highlights the script's need for editing. In Pillars of Eternity, characters speak not like people speak, but how writers write: in lengthy sentences that require the merely adequate voice cast to pause for breath multiple times. Voiceover may also begin before you can take in the descriptive stage directions included in dialogue panels--and for that matter, may not accurately reflect the stage directions themselves. (The writing might refer to an emotional state that the voice acting does not convey, for instance.)

Ultimately, Pillars of Eternity does not benefit from its inconsistent acting, nor do its characters inspire the same kinds of emotional connections that Dragon Age: Origins does. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by many of their stories, and the Grieving Mother's most of all. This cipher's history was as mysterious to her as it was to me, and as I unveiled her past, I was more and more moved by her devotion to the well-being of infants and their mothers. The game's plot heavily involves the birth of children without souls, empty vessels known as hollowborn. Grieving Mother gives the primary quest a personal touch it desperately needs, just as a personable fighter called Eder provides down-home charm in the midst of rising social distrust.

The world you step into is comfortable, using narrative and artistic variations to remind you that this is not, in fact, a place you have visited before.

A number of complicated game systems weave their way in and out of this god-filled world. You align yourself with the game's various factions when navigating choice-filled quests, for instance, irritating bloodthirsty druids when you don't take kindly to their sacrificial ways, or supporting a type of soul magic called animancy in spite of the sanitarium's questionable research methods. Pillars of Eternity can't always keep up with its own systems: I ended the game with several quests showing active even when I'd reached failure states, and in two cases, when the quest line inexplicably failed to update when I'd completed assignments, as if the game could not account for the variables I introduced. Yet there's joy in watching the world pulse as a result of your gravity, as if you are directing the social tides. Pillars wraps with a narrated epilogue that nicely condenses the results of your journey. Your decisions, it turns out, have ramifications beyond the game (and, Pillars implies, on a potential sequel).

It is in battle that Pillars of Eternity most excels. When you lead your party into combat, the game pauses (in default settings, anyway), and you pause-and-unpause your way through various tactical decisions, attacking your foes and commanding magic in Baldur's Gate fashion. In time, the chants you hear when battle begins becomes an emotional call to arms, catalyzing your brain into action, and marshaling your fingers into gear. You click from one party member portrait to the next, assigning targets to your paladin, blessing your companions with your priest, and calling for your druid to shoot a bee swarm from her fingers. You've done this before, but Pillars' pleasant interface keeps your attention on the tactics and minimizes the clicks.

It's the endurance system that makes Pillars stand apart from its peers. While you must manage each combatant's health, that's a long-term affair; endurance is the more pressing concern once battle is underway. Taking damage reduces the character's endurance levels, and should he run out, he is out of commission until the battle is over. He is not dead, however, presuming he still has health remaining, though the game is over should your entire party run dry. Odd difficulty spikes could turn the old RPGs into laborious cycles of saving and reloading; Pillars of Eternity's endurance layer keeps you moving forward, sending you back to town only when someone needs sleep, or when you run out of camping supplies that allow you to rest along the way. That doesn't mean that Pillars can't be challenging, or that its tactically deficient. In fact, as the game progresses, you earn more ways of delivering raw damage instead of endurance damage, granting you more methods of weakening, disabling, and ultimately downing your most troublesome foes.

You find some of those foes in the ruins beneath Caed Nua, your personal stronghold, which you earn several hours into your adventure. When you're first granted access, the estate is is a ramshackle one, and your keep is notable mainly for its state of disarray. As time passes, however, you may construct more and more improvements, until the library's spiderwebs are dusted away and merchants stand at the ready to sell you their wares. Caed Nua is also a portal to various hands-off activities in which you assign an unused party member to a pending mission, and she returns with a bagful of copper and maybe a few gems or knicknacks. Once you build a barracks, you can even recruit hirelings who defend your keep from hostile wanderers, which is simple enough with the click of a button.

The deep dungeon beneath it notwithstanding, the stronghold doesn't add much in the way of meaningful gameplay; it's presence is primarily cosmetic and atmospheric, and its purpose is to reflect your increasing influence. It is a digital snowglobe, meant to be noticed and appreciated, rather than a vital system. As far as audiovisual details go, however, it's a fine one, and Pillars of Eternity occasionally impresses in that regard. One of my favorite touches is such a small one, but it reveals a certain level of care that I greatly appreciate. You earn various cosmetic pets over time, and at one point, I switched out the miniature wurm I preferred to a happy yellow lab. Eder called out to it as we ventured across Brackenbury, and my heart was warmed, knowing that attention was given to this small but elegant touch.

Appreciation can turn to distraction when the details don't align, however. This may mean the dialogue misgendering you in a specific conversation, or a missing description when you click on a particular environmental identification icon, even when your party is standing right next to it. Other idiosyncrasies are annoying but easily overlooked, such as the lack of a buyback tab at merchants, which means you have to scroll through all the junk you've unloaded with the seller when browsing his goods. Larger bugs still can crop up, too, however. The biggest one to detract from my playthrough, which caused double-clicking inventory items to remove passive effects, has since been fixed. Labeling problems that cause one-use scrolls to look unavailable even when your lore attribute is well beyond the requirement, however, have not.

It's easy to lose sight of those issues when you're lost in a fantasy and captured by a game's rhythms, however, and Pillars of Eternity effortlessly ensnares you, both by reminding you of the places you've been, and by showing you things you didn't expect. It is not changing the future, but it is repackaging the past in a way that deserves praise while falling into a few old traps--and creating a few of its own--along the way. You can easily dodge these traps, however, and emerge victorious in a world where the gods show you both scorn and favor, and it's up to you to hew your own path.

Rites of spring come in many forms. Winter snows finally recede. Flying-V formations of geese arc overhead. Opening Day arrives for Major League Baseball. And the latest edition of MLB: The Show arrives to let us know once again how great a sports video game can be.

In an unsurprising case of deja vu, Sony has done its usual fantastic job with MLB 15: The Show in the decade-old franchise’s second release for the PlayStation 4. This is a typically brilliant depiction of the grand old American game that subtly refines the entire experience. It is not groundbreaking, nor a tremendous advancement in sports games, in part because the series has already been to the mountain. This has long been one of the most consistently great sports series of all time, so the refinements are valuable but subtle, like slightly improved pitcher-batter confrontations, new directional hitting mechanics, lifelike crowds, and the distinctive look of shadows as they creep across the field from April through October.

Though there are no stop-the-presses moments, MLB 15: The Show remains striking, mostly for its natural feel. This is baseball distilled to its purest form and spiked with just the right amount of big-league glitz, courtesy of the usual modes of exhibition; franchise (now with GM goals, so you can be canned for not getting the job done, and corporate sponsorships, so you can make money for your tight-fisted owner in the process); the always-compelling Road to the Show career simulation; and the revamped Diamond Dynasty option, which is loaded up with new card-collecting frills and annoying microtransactions. Real equipment has been added to the game for the first time this year: Say hello to the corporate thrill of seeing “Louisville Slugger” emblazoned on bats and gear sets where you buff skills with special Wilson gloves, Nike shoes, a range of real big-league bats, and even ritual good-luck totems. Yes, the role-playing influence is as cheesy as it sounds, but at least Sony has exercised some restraint, so you’re not kitting out a third basemen with the Spikes of Speed or a +5 Vorpal Bat.

Duels between batters and pitchers are incredibly tense, reflecting real life whether you’re familiar with being at the plate or on the rubber yourself, or are a couch potato seasoned from watching games on the tube every summer. Pitchers are smart, able to pick up on weaknesses and make you look like a fool by trailing stuff outside that you can never seem to lay off. At the same time, you can battle effectively, getting your bat on those annoying outside curves and changes so you can at least stay alive to see another pitch.

When I’m hurling, I’m doing everything I can to paint corners and make hitters whiff at stuff in the dirt. When I’m hitting, I’m all Ted Williams focus, locked so intently on to my TV screen that the house could burn down around me. I lost hours and hours of time as a budding third-baseman phenom in Road to the Show, which is made even more absorbing by the game’s realistic hitting. Alien abductees have clocked less missing time than I did during the week after MLB 15: The Show was released.

Significant changes on the diamond are tough to point out, however. Players now visibly dog it when they mess up at the plate. Swat a nubber back to the mound, and the batter regretfully lumbers down to first amidst a chorus of shouts to run it out, presumably from the first-base coach and the poor lunks in the stands who paid good money to see their heroes go all out at all times. As neat as this can be to watch, visually depicting ballplayers weakly sauntering down the first-base line doesn’t significantly affect gameplay, though it adds a couple of ticks to the realism meter (and maybe a couple of ticks to the real-life anger meter about how much big-league stars have lost touch with baseball’s roots).

Directional hitting produces more of an impact. The default hitting mode now includes the ability to try and send the ball in a particular direction. Simply move the left stick one way to pull, the other way to push, down to keep the ball on the ground, and up to send it into the air when you’re looking for a sac. The mechanics are simple enough; Getting them to work is another story. It’s difficult to put serious wood on the ball whenever you use the left stick to emphasize the point. This culminated in a spectacularly awful directional batting drill during Road to the Show where I hit three balls out of 20 to the requested zone of the field.

Swat a nubber back to the mound, and the batter regretfully lumbers down to first amidst a chorus of shouts to run it out.

Fielding has been adjusted so that there are few magic plays where the ball pops into a glove or a player contorts himself in Cirque du Soleil fashion. You can almost always see the ball go right into the glove on grounders, and then see said ball realistically transferred to throwing hand for a laser strike across the infield. This translates into smoother mechanics when you’re actually making plays, particularly when it comes to those aforementioned grounders. Fly balls remain a point of contention, however: It continues to be way too easy to get turned around, shuffle your feet, or moonwalk, and turn a routine pop-up into a heart-stopping adventure.

Visuals have been enhanced in a number of understated ways. Players look almost photorealistic, to the point where you can readily recognize just about every player in the majors from a distance. There are a few lingering exceptions, however. Jose Reyes’ beard--ugly at the best of times, anyways--looks like it was daubed on with magic marker. Shaggy hair tends to stand out on players, giving them an anthropomorphic Sonic the Hedgehog look from behind. Eyes can still have a disconcerting popped-up appearance, though you see this more with randomly generated players like the minor-league schlubs than when doing time in AA ball during Road to the Show. Stars like cover-boy Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, and Jose Bautista don’t suffer from this unfortunate fish-eye effect.

Animations are almost entirely lifelike, whether you’re looking for a realistic flip of the bat after a whiff or a big turn around first when digging in for a double. The only weirdness, again, tends to take place during fly balls. One moment you’re lazily settling under a ball, and the next you’re sliding back and forth like a zombie extra in Thriller. But for the most part, MLB 15: The Show looks like a real baseball broadcast. This is particularly noticeable between plays, with balls being casually tossed to one another underhand after force-outs. Something so minor doesn’t add a ton of value to gameplay, but it certainly adds a lot to the overall experience of playing a complete, lifelike MLB ball game.

Stadiums look incredible, with shadows that fall realistically on players’ shoulders and lengthen across the field as twilight descends on Mudville. Crowds are the best that I have ever encountered in a sports game, and I found myself frequently getting lost in my surroundings when playing a Road to the Show career. I eventually turned off base-running because I was regularly getting picked off as I daydreamed on first, looking around at the busy crowd, amazed at how lifelike the setting was. And not only do the fans look like real individuals, they act like real individuals, too: You observe everything from hardcore nuts waving flags, to bored kids, to a couple consisting of a woman who never stopped talking and a guy who was clearly watching the field and paying no attention to anything she was saying.

Crank up a good surround system and you are transported to ground level in a stadium, with cheers, random abuse and encouragement, and comments from other players all punctuated with the whoosh of fastballs giving you chills and the crack of solid hits echoing like gunfire. A new “Inside the Show” radio report feature has been added to keep you in the know about what’s happening across the Majors. It consists of a dry rundown of who’s hot, who’s not, who’s on the trade block, and so on. But it is also heavily detailed and just the sort of added immersion that keeps franchise play more involving. I particularly loved it because it felt old-fashioned, which appealed to the traditional baseball guy inside me who likes nothing better than listening to games on the radio even when I have the option of watching on a big high-definition TV. Matt Vasgersian and his booth crew may be as adrenaline-inducing as warm summer rain, but they provide information and atmosphere by walking the fine line between canned chatter and throwing out numbers.

I should mention the new ability to port saves from MLB 14 into the current game, which has been too long in coming. Also new is Diamond Dynasty mode, although it’s as fussy as these card-collecting modes of play in sports games tend to be. I was also disconcerted at how Diamond Dynasty emphasizes micropayments. The in-game Stubs currency is too hard to earn through in-game feats. I played for about six straight hours in one of my first play sessions, then dropped out to the menus to fool around with Diamond Dynasty and found that I still hadn’t earned enough points to buy even one lousy 1,000-Stub pack of cards.

MLB 15: The Show is starting to feel as familiar as that old pair of cleats you throw on every spring for another year of slo-pitch beer ball. That said, baseball is the most hidebound sport on the planet. If real life evolved as fast as the game that Abner Doubleday didn’t invent, we’d all still be swinging from trees, not for the fences. This slow-and-steady approach to game design makes each iteration of the game comfortable, but it also makes for fantastic baseball sims that you can always count on, and that are always improving in subtle ways. In gaming, in baseball, and in life, that’s rare and valuable, even if it does make for a predictable rite of spring.

Rites of spring come in many forms. Winter snows finally recede. Flying-V formations of geese arc overhead. Opening Day arrives for Major League Baseball. And the latest edition of MLB: The Show arrives to let us know once again how great a sports video game can be.

In an unsurprising case of deja vu, Sony has done its usual fantastic job with MLB 15: The Show in the decade-old franchise’s second release for the PlayStation 4. This is a typically brilliant depiction of the grand old American game that subtly refines the entire experience. It is not groundbreaking, nor a tremendous advancement in sports games, in part because the series has already been to the mountain. This has long been one of the most consistently great sports series of all time, so the refinements are valuable but subtle, like slightly improved pitcher-batter confrontations, new directional hitting mechanics, lifelike crowds, and the distinctive look of shadows as they creep across the field from April through October.

Though there are no stop-the-presses moments, MLB 15: The Show remains striking, mostly for its natural feel. This is baseball distilled to its purest form and spiked with just the right amount of big-league glitz, courtesy of the usual modes of exhibition; franchise (now with GM goals, so you can be canned for not getting the job done, and corporate sponsorships, so you can make money for your tight-fisted owner in the process); the always-compelling Road to the Show career simulation; and the revamped Diamond Dynasty option, which is loaded up with new card-collecting frills and annoying microtransactions. Real equipment has been added to the game for the first time this year: Say hello to the corporate thrill of seeing “Louisville Slugger” emblazoned on bats and gear sets where you buff skills with special Wilson gloves, Nike shoes, a range of real big-league bats, and even ritual good-luck totems. Yes, the role-playing influence is as cheesy as it sounds, but at least Sony has exercised some restraint, so you’re not kitting out a third basemen with the Spikes of Speed or a +5 Vorpal Bat.

Duels between batters and pitchers are incredibly tense, reflecting real life whether you’re familiar with being at the plate or on the rubber yourself, or are a couch potato seasoned from watching games on the tube every summer. Pitchers are smart, able to pick up on weaknesses and make you look like a fool by trailing stuff outside that you can never seem to lay off. At the same time, you can battle effectively, getting your bat on those annoying outside curves and changes so you can at least stay alive to see another pitch.

When I’m hurling, I’m doing everything I can to paint corners and make hitters whiff at stuff in the dirt. When I’m hitting, I’m all Ted Williams focus, locked so intently on to my TV screen that the house could burn down around me. I lost hours and hours of time as a budding third-baseman phenom in Road to the Show, which is made even more absorbing by the game’s realistic hitting. Alien abductees have clocked less missing time than I did during the week after MLB 15: The Show was released.

Significant changes on the diamond are tough to point out, however. Players now visibly dog it when they mess up at the plate. Swat a nubber back to the mound, and the batter regretfully lumbers down to first amidst a chorus of shouts to run it out, presumably from the first-base coach and the poor lunks in the stands who paid good money to see their heroes go all out at all times. As neat as this can be to watch, visually depicting ballplayers weakly sauntering down the first-base line doesn’t significantly affect gameplay, though it adds a couple of ticks to the realism meter (and maybe a couple of ticks to the real-life anger meter about how much big-league stars have lost touch with baseball’s roots).

Directional hitting produces more of an impact. The default hitting mode now includes the ability to try and send the ball in a particular direction. Simply move the left stick one way to pull, the other way to push, down to keep the ball on the ground, and up to send it into the air when you’re looking for a sac. The mechanics are simple enough; Getting them to work is another story. It’s difficult to put serious wood on the ball whenever you use the left stick to emphasize the point. This culminated in a spectacularly awful directional batting drill during Road to the Show where I hit three balls out of 20 to the requested zone of the field.

Swat a nubber back to the mound, and the batter regretfully lumbers down to first amidst a chorus of shouts to run it out.

Fielding has been adjusted so that there are few magic plays where the ball pops into a glove or a player contorts himself in Cirque du Soleil fashion. You can almost always see the ball go right into the glove on grounders, and then see said ball realistically transferred to throwing hand for a laser strike across the infield. This translates into smoother mechanics when you’re actually making plays, particularly when it comes to those aforementioned grounders. Fly balls remain a point of contention, however: It continues to be way too easy to get turned around, shuffle your feet, or moonwalk, and turn a routine pop-up into a heart-stopping adventure.

Visuals have been enhanced in a number of understated ways. Players look almost photorealistic, to the point where you can readily recognize just about every player in the majors from a distance. There are a few lingering exceptions, however. Jose Reyes’ beard--ugly at the best of times, anyways--looks like it was daubed on with magic marker. Shaggy hair tends to stand out on players, giving them an anthropomorphic Sonic the Hedgehog look from behind. Eyes can still have a disconcerting popped-up appearance, though you see this more with randomly generated players like the minor-league schlubs than when doing time in AA ball during Road to the Show. Stars like cover-boy Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, and Jose Bautista don’t suffer from this unfortunate fish-eye effect.

Animations are almost entirely lifelike, whether you’re looking for a realistic flip of the bat after a whiff or a big turn around first when digging in for a double. The only weirdness, again, tends to take place during fly balls. One moment you’re lazily settling under a ball, and the next you’re sliding back and forth like a zombie extra in Thriller. But for the most part, MLB 15: The Show looks like a real baseball broadcast. This is particularly noticeable between plays, with balls being casually tossed to one another underhand after force-outs. Something so minor doesn’t add a ton of value to gameplay, but it certainly adds a lot to the overall experience of playing a complete, lifelike MLB ball game.

Stadiums look incredible, with shadows that fall realistically on players’ shoulders and lengthen across the field as twilight descends on Mudville. Crowds are the best that I have ever encountered in a sports game, and I found myself frequently getting lost in my surroundings when playing a Road to the Show career. I eventually turned off base-running because I was regularly getting picked off as I daydreamed on first, looking around at the busy crowd, amazed at how lifelike the setting was. And not only do the fans look like real individuals, they act like real individuals, too: You observe everything from hardcore nuts waving flags, to bored kids, to a couple consisting of a woman who never stopped talking and a guy who was clearly watching the field and paying no attention to anything she was saying.

Crank up a good surround system and you are transported to ground level in a stadium, with cheers, random abuse and encouragement, and comments from other players all punctuated with the whoosh of fastballs giving you chills and the crack of solid hits echoing like gunfire. A new “Inside the Show” radio report feature has been added to keep you in the know about what’s happening across the Majors. It consists of a dry rundown of who’s hot, who’s not, who’s on the trade block, and so on. But it is also heavily detailed and just the sort of added immersion that keeps franchise play more involving. I particularly loved it because it felt old-fashioned, which appealed to the traditional baseball guy inside me who likes nothing better than listening to games on the radio even when I have the option of watching on a big high-definition TV. Matt Vasgersian and his booth crew may be as adrenaline-inducing as warm summer rain, but they provide information and atmosphere by walking the fine line between canned chatter and throwing out numbers.

I should mention the new ability to port saves from MLB 14 into the current game, which has been too long in coming. Also new is Diamond Dynasty mode, although it’s as fussy as these card-collecting modes of play in sports games tend to be. I was also disconcerted at how Diamond Dynasty emphasizes micropayments. The in-game Stubs currency is too hard to earn through in-game feats. I played for about six straight hours in one of my first play sessions, then dropped out to the menus to fool around with Diamond Dynasty and found that I still hadn’t earned enough points to buy even one lousy 1,000-Stub pack of cards.

MLB 15: The Show is starting to feel as familiar as that old pair of cleats you throw on every spring for another year of slo-pitch beer ball. That said, baseball is the most hidebound sport on the planet. If real life evolved as fast as the game that Abner Doubleday didn’t invent, we’d all still be swinging from trees, not for the fences. This slow-and-steady approach to game design makes each iteration of the game comfortable, but it also makes for fantastic baseball sims that you can always count on, and that are always improving in subtle ways. In gaming, in baseball, and in life, that’s rare and valuable, even if it does make for a predictable rite of spring.