Emperor Charon

Speaking of Diamond Dynasty, don't forget to login daily (I need to figure out the daily "reset" time). As with the Ultimate Team modes EA offers, you get freebie stuff just for logging in daily. I am a fan of the changes to the mode, it emphasizes collecting player cards, and being able to use them, rather than the "create your own cards" mode from past installments.

Although I feel like I have been able to build a fairly damn good lineup thus far, in such a short time. Although getting a Canò (diamond level) and a Darvish (gold level) in my anniversary packs helped. I made around 65,000 stubs off of selling those two, alone, and have built up from that money (plus the 12,000 you get to start with).

19K

I bought the standard edition of the game so my Diamond Dynasty team is pretty lacking in talent. Matt Holliday (Silver) was the highest rated player I had to start with. He's 2nd best now since I picked up Yadier Molina (Gold) after a random game in RTTS. The game won't let me sell any of the players it started me with. And I didnt get any bonus money to begin with, so I'm just gonna have to build my lineup the hard way.

But I did win the one and only game I tried against a human opponent, so that's a plus. I'm assuming the game matches you to an equal quality opponent because I only recognized 1 player from the other team (Carl Crawford). We both had pretty lousy lineups to work with. We played a full 9 innings with no hiccups at all. I have no experience with the previous games, but I understand the online experience was bad? The one I just played worked great, so I guess that's a good sign.

The majority of my play time has been in RTTS with a starting pitcher, so needless to say I'm pretty awful at baserunning. I had a couple instances of 2 people on the same base, or advancing WAY too late and getting thrown out, or not advancing at all on easy scoring plays. The guy I was playing must have been laughing his ass off. I'm slowly getting the hang of all the different controls. Hitting seems to be the easiest part, which is kinda the exact opposite of what I was expecting going into this. I think I had 17 hits and only managed 4 runs.

Decker

Anyone pick up the Anniversary Edition? Is it worth the extra $10?

19K

I would say if you plan on playing Diamond Dynasty it's probably worth it. I had no idea what stubs or player packs were, so I got the standard edition. Kinda wished I got the Anniversary instead now that I know what the Dynasty mode is all about. The themes is what initially turned me off from it. I really didn't want or need 32 new themes. I suppose I could just spend the extra $10 and buy some player packs from store if I feel the need.

nickdawgy

I thought it was worth it. I didn't get any rare cards though.

19K

I don't know if it's network issues or just that people nowadays are poor sports, but so far I've played 4 games online and in two of the four the other player has quit on me.

Maxflier

I think that's the way it is in sports games now for the most part. I gave up even trying in NBA 2k because as soon as you go up by a few baskets people would always back out, with no consequences.

Jcheckel

Could be, but the game has been having issues since last night. I keep getting a lost connection to server message.

19K

Well at least in this game, when they quit you get rewarded with the win and new player cards and rank points if you're playing Diamond Dynasty mode. I personally haven't had any network issues yet, but I can't speak for anyone elses experience with the online stability. Regardless, I'm absolutely loving this game so far. My baserunning skills are still laughably bad, but I'll get it eventually.

Jcheckel

I haven't been able to do anything since last night remotely connected to online. It takes a good minute or so for the main menu to come up. Times out if I try to look at DD cards, can occasionally see a few teams before it just freezes for about a minute then says lost connection.

Maxflier

Man, this game is fantastic. It reminds me so much of '10, which I LOVED. And it looks flipping amazing too.

musick

indeed

Gooter

Unless you are in to the Diamond Dynasty mode, then I'd so no, save your $10. I was very disappointed in the themes. The White Sox one is lame. It's an image looking out into centerfield that shows the scoreboard (and not a high quality image to begin with), the Sox logo is on the bottom right, and there is another logo bar along the row where the PS icons for Trophies, System, Chat, etc are located. This logo bar is black (cuz the Sox colors are black) but it blocks out the PS logos. Also, even though I only downloaded the Sox theme, all of them show up in my Theme folder since they are in my library now (eg., available for download, similar to games).

Having said that, the game kicks major butt. I love it! Still suck at hitting. I've tried all of the hitting modes (zone, directional, analog stick). I'm pretty good at pitching. I had to remake my RTTS player as a pitcher since my 3B was batting 0-for-30 or something like that.

Maxflier

I recommend sticking with the default timing hitting, that's what I always use. If I had to rely on lining up the bat exactly where the pitch is then I would never get any hits.

Gooter

That is the 'directional' hitting option?

Zone is moving the stick/bat to where the ball is in the zone?

Maxflier

Pretty sure, yeah. Though I rarely use directional, I usually just hit x to swing.

19K

While you can just press X to swing, if you push the left stick in the general direction of the ball you get MUCH better results with the Directional setting (i.e. if the ball is low, just push down while you swing). It doesn't have to be exact like the Zone hitting option because you really only need left, right, up, down. You'll end up with more solid contact and hits for extra bases. I found when I was just pushing X, I ended up with a lot of foul balls, dribblers in front of the plate, or pop ups that didn't clear the infield. Since I started adding the direction to my swing, I've been ripping the ball all over the field. More home runs too. It made a big difference in my run production.

Directional is the default setting, so you don't have to do anything except get in the habit of using stick.

Gooter

I didn't think that is how directional is supposed to work, at least according to the manual. I thought you push the buttons (either X, Square, Circle) for swing timing and pushing the left stick only influences to which field (left or right) or elevation (up for flyball, down for grounder... though I may have these backwards) you want the ball to go.

I thought zone hitting is where you have to move the stick to match the location of the ball.

Setzer

Man, I didn't get any star players in my anniversary packs. This is the lineup I'm running right now:

Melky Cabrera
Brandon Crawford
Jorge Soler
Brian McCann
Wilin Rosario
Andre Ethier
Jedd Gyorko
Some guy at 3B I've never heard of
Pitcher

The best starting pitcher I have is Jeff Samardzija. Needless to say, my lineup isn't striking fear into my opponents.

Gooter

Yeah, same here. Nothing in those packs for me. One of the reasons why I'm not playing DD. I don't like/don't know most of the guys on my team.

19K

You're right, that's what the manual says. I'm pretty sure it also mentions that using the stick increases your chances of more solid contact. If a pitch is outside, chances are you're not going to pull it, so if you push the stick in the proper direction, yes you'll be influencing the ball to the the opposite field, but you'll be doing so with some stank on it.

Like I said, when I just used X, I still could make pretty consistent contact, but everything was weak and very poorly hit and usually resulted in an out. Aiming with the stick made a huge difference and the balls are hit much harder, finding holes, etc.

musick

yep, this is what I use as well
keep in mind there are other options other than X (normal swing) as well
square is swing for power and circle is swing for contact ... triangle for bunt of course

now if only I would get moved to a NL team so I (pitcher) can actually get some at bats

19K

That's why I switched to playing Diamond Dynasty more. Pitching was getting boring in RTTS and I needed some practice in other things (batting, fielding, etc). I think the DD mode is great. You can still play against the CPU if you want (and play on easier settings). Plus, you're guaranteed to get at least one new item after every DD game (including gloves, bats, ritual items that can be used in RTTS). The other modes seem completely random whether you get a reward or not.

Goat3001

For hitting: I agree that directional settings is the best way to go. On top of that don't forget to use the "guess pitch" feature. You have to guess the pitch and location. If you do so correctly, it will give you the location of the pitch. From there you can adjust your swing accordingly.

I always guess fastball and if I have a power hitter up I'll guess inside and if I have a slap hitter up I'll guess outside. If I guess right I'll aim for the seats with the power hitter and aim to hit it the other way with the contact hitters.

The default baserunning is terrible. If you dislike it as much as I do, switch to the classic. It may have a steeper learning curve but it's a lot better.

Maxflier

Eh...I don't believe in using guess pitch, it is too arcadey for my taste. And if by chance we have a league hopefully that will be turned off.
I do agree that classic baserunning is the way to go.