07:13 PM - February 13, 2015 by Steve_OSIf you missed yesterday's MLB 15: The Show livestream, and you don't wan't to devote an hour to watching the whole thing, here are some cliff notes detailing everything that was discussed:
Universal Rewards
- Returning users will receive a "Gold Loyalty Upgrade" pack upon starting the game for the first time, if their PSN profile played MLB 14: The Show. That pack includes one gold Diamond Dynasty card and three gold items. Most items can be used in Road to the Show, Franchise, or Diamond Dynasty.
- All users will unlock one bonus item every day that they log into MLB 15: The Show. Players can also earn a "standard" pack every nine days that they check in. The standard pack contains six Diamond Dynasty players and two items. The days don't have to be consecutive; the requirement is just nine total days per pack.
- Simply completing games (in any mode) also gives you a chance to earn bonus items. You can buy and sell these items in an online, user-to-user marketplace.
- The items that provide attribute boosts will allow you to push a player's ratings beyond 99, for the first time in MLB: The Show.
- Some items are sponsorships that you can apply to your Franchise team. You can select three sponsors total, and their logos will appear during replays and on various score bugs. Sponsors will bring in extra funds for your Franchise team, based on how well your club performs during games. These sponsorships only apply to the team, and won't override the individual equipment deals for each of your players.
- The stubs you've earned in MLB 14: The Show will not carry over to MLB 15: The Show.
- It took only 21 seconds to load into a Franchise game after setting the team lineups.
- New split-screen replays will appear during big moments.
- Stadiums' flag poles will be hanging the appropriate city and state banners this year.
- San Francisco's AT&T Park will include the new garden section in its outfield stands.
- Sony San Diego plans to release a complete walkthrough for every updated uniform and stadium.
- Gloves now have seven customizable parts instead of three. Additionally, you can choose from seven different webbing styles.
- Neon pink, neon yellow, and neon green are the three new equipment colors.
- Hitters' shin guards are less bulky and more form-fitting, plus you can choose whether or not to use a foot guard.
- Helmets without ear flaps are now available, which will make the older legends look more accurate to their time period.
- You can now choose from thin or long eyeblack styles.
- Necklaces are finally in the game. You can have thick or thin chains, and can also customize the chains' color. Necklaces have to stay tucked underneath your jersey, though, and will only be partially visible.
- Wrist tape, wrist bands, and arm bands now have multiple lengths.
- Baserunners can now wear wrist guards.
- A low stirrups option has been added.
- The catcher's leg guards and chest protector look more detailed and are now more form-fitting.
- All the retired legends' Diamond Dynasty cards will look like their actual baseball cards used to.
- There won't be any "throwback" versions of current MLB players (e.g. 2004 David Ortiz).
- None of your Diamond Dynasty cards will ever expire. To compensate for the fact that you'll be able to keep everything forever, gold and diamond players will now be extremely rare. The bronze tier will include some everyday starters, and the silver tier will have some All-Stars.
- You are now limited to only one fully customizable created player. He can play at any position (though he won't excel at all of them), and you will have to boost his attribute ratings by "feeding" him player cards. Your created player will improve based on the strengths of the players that you "feed" him. Cards that are used as "food" will permanently disappear from your collection.
- MLB players cannot be trained via feeding. But you can at least edit their equipment, if you like.
- Whenever you play a Diamond Dynasty game, it will randomly select a starting pitcher from your rotation. You cannot see which pitcher the game has chosen for you until the game has officially started. All of your pitchers' stamina will now be fully restored at the end of each game.
- Extra Innings matches now reward cards instead of team budget. Budget is a concept that no longer exists in Diamond Dynasty. You odds of obtaining rare cards after a game will increase if you play on higher difficulty settings. The marketplace is now entirely based on stubs, since budget has been removed from the mode.
- It's unlikely that you'll be able to transfer your existing team logos/jerseys from MLB 14 to MLB 15.
- The developers were also uncertain whether or not there will be new cards introduced to the mode throughout the year. It was confirmed, however, that all the Diamond Dynasty cards' ratings will be automatically updated alongside The Show's regular roster updates.
Sony San Diego's "most talented guys" have been working on improving the series' troublesome online play. Their goal is to achieve one-to-one parity with the input registration for online/offline gameplay. More information will come on this subject during a later stream.
Written by Jayson Young, follow him on Twitter.
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