Although (being in England) I haven't yet got the game, I've ordered it from NZL so hopefully sometime in the new year I'll be able to see what all the fuss is about...
Now I have to come to the defence of the producer at HB studios here as Cricket is IMHO not an east sport to simulate, he's been involved with all games from Graham Gooch on the Amiga which was horrendous for bugs, you just could'nt complete a match without a crash but the PC version was better, along with Lara '96/Warne etc...which I beta tested for them and BLC (Codemasters) too I actually did the teams for that game along with beta testing...not blowing my own trumpet here but I found BLC quite stable...Since then it would seem that since EA things have gone "pear shaped" I know that the HB producer is English and very knowledgable about cricket hence an accurate representation of the sport!!
So why the all the bugs ? well being honest do the beta testing guys (assuming EA are testing it) really know where to look ? do they look at different areas including the editor ? is it tested on different systems with different gfx cards etc ? I know I used to get a freeze up from between 15 - 25 overs on Cricket 2002 depending on resolutions and since installing nVidia's latest drivers & DX9a it has sorted the problem which makes it system issue not a game issue....Indeed BLC ran on a P3 800mhz 64mb RAM with a voodoo 3 but try running it on a 1.7Ghz P4 ....no go!!!
I was supposed to be doing teams for Cricket 2004 then I assume testing, but HB's producer never got back to me...his website and contact details I can't find and had he got back to me I'd have probably picked up on a lot of those problems...I agree it's down to money and timeframes but I feel the Cricket gameplaying public would be better beta testers than EA itself and probably a lot cheaper too!! add to that the editors and add ons on this site have extended Cricket 2002's interest up to now and probably beyond which have been done by the talents on this site would go to prove this...
I think it's a bit harsh to say Cricket 2004 is c**p, should be banned etc, it's just IMHO down to knowledge, system set ups and money !!!
Remember if HB's producer packed it in because of these remarks etc...where would your next Cricket game come from ?
Cheers,
Steve S.