There's always going to be a section of a sports game fan base who despise the "ultimate team" game model, that's fine, sadly that's where sports games are going.
As someone who enjoys the aspect of grinding games and opening packs whilst not spending the money I like the introduction of pro team. However, there are so many things wrong with the gameplay that there's really no point in them implementing the mode:
-Batting online is very bizarre, you either completely misread the ball and lose a wicket (-10 runs) or you time it well enough and hit a boundary. It leads to very monotonous gameplay, especially when you have to play 9 overs which means games take an hour.
- Everybody is given a pretty decent team from the start, players dont feel any different. In fact, when bowling, my 3 bowlers Hazelwood , khaleel Ahmed and Barry McCarthy are rated as 99 bowlers. So what's the point in me paying real money to make a better team, which is the whole ultimate team model
- the games vs AI and Vs human are 9 overs long meaning games take an hour to play. I rarely have time to put an hour aside to play a game that I can't pause and save so the model doesn't work. The beauty of FIFA ultimate team is I can play 2/3 games within an hour, do some SBCs and log off. On pro team I'm playing an 18 over match for an hour where I'll likely earn ~1500 currency. A "silver pack" costs 4700 currency. So I have to put around 5 hours of my time in to open a pack which will likely not improve my team.
I think the mode has potential but not sure it fits in a cricket game. Players don't feel unique at all which is something Ive found in the game anyway in my T20 franchise league. The online games are boring and long and there isn't any reward. I'll probably play this mode as there's no "manager mode" on the game to play. Hopefully this a base for cricket 26...
