R
ravid
Guest
This is an honest review of the game and I have only been playing for 3 hours. I will ensure review wont stop tonight but will continue over the next few days when I start playing a bit more over the weekend.
My first opinion :
---------------------
Got the game today, had a session (English county) and mixed reactions from me on this. I reserve certain comments on gameplay as of now given short of play. Just to aid my comments, here are my pc specs :
XP2100 AMD CPU, 768 MB DDR Ram, AGP Geforce Ti4200 128 MB Graphics card. Not the best but certainly way over what is recommended by EA.
A. Game Installation :
1. Piece of cake, no issues at all.
B. Game display settings :
1. 1028 x 1024 - 32 bits
2. video screens - yes
3. shadows - on
4. Force LOD - High
5. Texture Filtering - Trilinear
6. Pitch detail - On
C. Review on graphics (will be adding other parts of the game as and when I try it)
Animation sucks big time, sorry guys but BLC was just too polished compared to Cricket 2004. The players look absolute pooh and umpire is no good rather C2k2 umpire is Tom Cruise in comparison to this fella.
Bowler knows only one way of collecting the ball, over his head. A throw heading at knee high after pitching suddenly appears over his head.
The textures are very nice and the details are good.
Ball physics : Not present at all, its just too disappointing. A ball heading way over the diving Cover-point fielder appears in his hand from nowhere. Missing frames wont really explain how the ball came down perpendicular(bermuda triangle seems to have a hand here). Truly disappointing. At times the ball heading through the keeper's waist appears in the WK gloves out of nowhere.
I dont really want to explain much about batting animations as well or do you really want me to? Hows this for a sample, the bat is never held by the batsman but at times the shot execution looks pretty good.
The fielders and WK are either captured in Slowmo or sprinting. The wicket keeper and the fielders sprint in slowmo like on a treadmill, they take ages to get to the ball and they all look like they are overfed with pies and pints of beer. Dont worry about the height, weight and looks of the players, they all look ugly (we can live with this and surely there are many talented guys in this forum who can fix this).
Crowd is simply the old single dimension card boards who have no emotion or thrill watching a cricket game. They look worse and no surprises there.
The pitch and stadiums are of very high quality, the weather changes are evident although I might have played only around 25-30 overs. I might stand corrected on this after having a full game or two.
D. Sound and Commentary :
Guys the first thing you might want to do is turn off the commentary. It is no good and is a repeat of C2K2.
I have had only one game and there is not much to write about the ingame sound as well. They were not exciting but I agree I havent played enough to point out if the crowd sound is different in various venues.
E. Gameplay (The important one )
I played on hard mode.
1. Batting :
Feels a challenge as of now. For instance I used Vettori to heave the first ball he faced for six off a nicely pitched up delivery off Kasprowicz. I thought thats pretty much it, the game is a goner. From then on I tried big heaves and missed pretty much each one of them. The beauty of the confidence meter here was that it kept going down each time I mistimed a ball or was beaten. In the end I could not really hit anymore big shots and got out tamely hitting one to mid off. The batting looks promising for sure. Will keep you guys updated if you still arent asleep yet.
CPU bowling has improved quite a bit and it certainly doesnt bowl too many short ones as in C2K2. I had the ball meter on when I was batting maybe there is a way to turn this off. It will really help if we can turn this off and play, the ball does little off the seam and its not easy to pick. The bat isnt as broad (not meaning visually here) as in C2K2 and playing across the line to a ball moving away is dangerous(got bowled twice or thrice trying to glance like in C2K2). If we can hide the ball meter, it will make it that much more harder. If you are happy to defend you can bat for long duration without scoring much which I think is pretty realistic.
More to come if any of you guys are still interested and are keen to know my opinion.
2. Bowling
Not easy to bowl at first but with practice I could bowl line and length stuff. The CPU batting is good mix of caution and aggression although not always does it punish bad balls. Anything on leg is hit with disdain (this is good) the ones bowled full at good pace on the stumps or outside off for some reason was defended. I agree we cannot expect the CPU to bat like Lara or Tendulkar, maybe my expectation here is a bit too high. Inspite of bowling badly I could snare a wicket or two. There was a missed catch that went flying between the WK and the 1st slip. A funny looking run out and a catch to gully by the CPU batsman(it was a rank bad shot really, CPU was trying to late cut a length ball to a field which had 3 slips and 2 gully fielders). CPU batsman can be beaten although after having beaten the batsman you dont really feel like you have bowled a ripper. CPU certainly is lot intelligent than in C2k2 although I am not very sure how it will respond to targets.
Bowling changes are more on chance than on tactics from what I have seen. The CPU opened with two strike bowlers and changed the second bowler after 3 overs although he returned figures of 2/6 off 3.
More to come later.
Verdict :
C2K4 has come a long way from what BLC was in terms of gameplay and has gone way back in terms of graphics compared to C2K2.
Others like Johnsma2, Ragada are pitching in with their reviews and answers but if you like my opinion ou can ask me to answer your questions. Fire away your questions and I will try to answer as much as I can.
My next opinion
--------------------
This is just way too disappointing. I have had a hattrick in my first serious attempt in bowling. I got Tendulkar, Gangooly and Dravid as my hat trick scalps. After 4 overs India are on 19/5 with Tuffey snaring all 5 wickets. Please someone assure me this is a one off, the conditions are overcast but the batsmen have come out all guns blazing even after having lost 3 quick wickets. Kaif I think comes out and tries a huge heave and is caught at mid on. I will check to see if this is in hard mode indeed, as of now am sure it is but let me make sure it is.
I have indeed been playing in "HARD" mode and now India (CPU) is on 60/8 after 13 overs with Harbhajan (19 not out) scoring the highest runs. It is only matter of minutes he will be out.
Dreadful running between the wickets by the CPU, it just doesnt have a clue as to when to run. Guranteed if you keep a short mid off and short mid on, they will run themselves out. Also dont really get too excited about misfields, once every four times a fielder misfields the ball. It is okay to misfield very rarely particularly the Kiwi fielders but if the misfields are depending on law of averages then it gets to pathetic levels.
The stamina is making no difference to the bowlers as well. I have bowled Bond and Tuffey on the trot for 7 each and they are looking fresh as daisy. The bowling has not become harder nor the speed has reduced, as far as I can see there is no such thing as bowlers being tired in this game. Unless these issues mentioned above changes dramatically in my future games I would reckon it is blessing in disguise for you guys in UK as the game is released couple of months after NZ release. It will give you guys enough time to make a wise decision when its released.
My first opinion :
---------------------
Got the game today, had a session (English county) and mixed reactions from me on this. I reserve certain comments on gameplay as of now given short of play. Just to aid my comments, here are my pc specs :
XP2100 AMD CPU, 768 MB DDR Ram, AGP Geforce Ti4200 128 MB Graphics card. Not the best but certainly way over what is recommended by EA.
A. Game Installation :
1. Piece of cake, no issues at all.
B. Game display settings :
1. 1028 x 1024 - 32 bits
2. video screens - yes
3. shadows - on
4. Force LOD - High
5. Texture Filtering - Trilinear
6. Pitch detail - On
C. Review on graphics (will be adding other parts of the game as and when I try it)
Animation sucks big time, sorry guys but BLC was just too polished compared to Cricket 2004. The players look absolute pooh and umpire is no good rather C2k2 umpire is Tom Cruise in comparison to this fella.
Bowler knows only one way of collecting the ball, over his head. A throw heading at knee high after pitching suddenly appears over his head.
The textures are very nice and the details are good.
Ball physics : Not present at all, its just too disappointing. A ball heading way over the diving Cover-point fielder appears in his hand from nowhere. Missing frames wont really explain how the ball came down perpendicular(bermuda triangle seems to have a hand here). Truly disappointing. At times the ball heading through the keeper's waist appears in the WK gloves out of nowhere.
I dont really want to explain much about batting animations as well or do you really want me to? Hows this for a sample, the bat is never held by the batsman but at times the shot execution looks pretty good.
The fielders and WK are either captured in Slowmo or sprinting. The wicket keeper and the fielders sprint in slowmo like on a treadmill, they take ages to get to the ball and they all look like they are overfed with pies and pints of beer. Dont worry about the height, weight and looks of the players, they all look ugly (we can live with this and surely there are many talented guys in this forum who can fix this).
Crowd is simply the old single dimension card boards who have no emotion or thrill watching a cricket game. They look worse and no surprises there.
The pitch and stadiums are of very high quality, the weather changes are evident although I might have played only around 25-30 overs. I might stand corrected on this after having a full game or two.
D. Sound and Commentary :
Guys the first thing you might want to do is turn off the commentary. It is no good and is a repeat of C2K2.
I have had only one game and there is not much to write about the ingame sound as well. They were not exciting but I agree I havent played enough to point out if the crowd sound is different in various venues.
E. Gameplay (The important one )
I played on hard mode.
1. Batting :
Feels a challenge as of now. For instance I used Vettori to heave the first ball he faced for six off a nicely pitched up delivery off Kasprowicz. I thought thats pretty much it, the game is a goner. From then on I tried big heaves and missed pretty much each one of them. The beauty of the confidence meter here was that it kept going down each time I mistimed a ball or was beaten. In the end I could not really hit anymore big shots and got out tamely hitting one to mid off. The batting looks promising for sure. Will keep you guys updated if you still arent asleep yet.
CPU bowling has improved quite a bit and it certainly doesnt bowl too many short ones as in C2K2. I had the ball meter on when I was batting maybe there is a way to turn this off. It will really help if we can turn this off and play, the ball does little off the seam and its not easy to pick. The bat isnt as broad (not meaning visually here) as in C2K2 and playing across the line to a ball moving away is dangerous(got bowled twice or thrice trying to glance like in C2K2). If we can hide the ball meter, it will make it that much more harder. If you are happy to defend you can bat for long duration without scoring much which I think is pretty realistic.
More to come if any of you guys are still interested and are keen to know my opinion.
2. Bowling
Not easy to bowl at first but with practice I could bowl line and length stuff. The CPU batting is good mix of caution and aggression although not always does it punish bad balls. Anything on leg is hit with disdain (this is good) the ones bowled full at good pace on the stumps or outside off for some reason was defended. I agree we cannot expect the CPU to bat like Lara or Tendulkar, maybe my expectation here is a bit too high. Inspite of bowling badly I could snare a wicket or two. There was a missed catch that went flying between the WK and the 1st slip. A funny looking run out and a catch to gully by the CPU batsman(it was a rank bad shot really, CPU was trying to late cut a length ball to a field which had 3 slips and 2 gully fielders). CPU batsman can be beaten although after having beaten the batsman you dont really feel like you have bowled a ripper. CPU certainly is lot intelligent than in C2k2 although I am not very sure how it will respond to targets.
Bowling changes are more on chance than on tactics from what I have seen. The CPU opened with two strike bowlers and changed the second bowler after 3 overs although he returned figures of 2/6 off 3.
More to come later.
Verdict :
C2K4 has come a long way from what BLC was in terms of gameplay and has gone way back in terms of graphics compared to C2K2.
Others like Johnsma2, Ragada are pitching in with their reviews and answers but if you like my opinion ou can ask me to answer your questions. Fire away your questions and I will try to answer as much as I can.
My next opinion
--------------------
This is just way too disappointing. I have had a hattrick in my first serious attempt in bowling. I got Tendulkar, Gangooly and Dravid as my hat trick scalps. After 4 overs India are on 19/5 with Tuffey snaring all 5 wickets. Please someone assure me this is a one off, the conditions are overcast but the batsmen have come out all guns blazing even after having lost 3 quick wickets. Kaif I think comes out and tries a huge heave and is caught at mid on. I will check to see if this is in hard mode indeed, as of now am sure it is but let me make sure it is.
I have indeed been playing in "HARD" mode and now India (CPU) is on 60/8 after 13 overs with Harbhajan (19 not out) scoring the highest runs. It is only matter of minutes he will be out.
Dreadful running between the wickets by the CPU, it just doesnt have a clue as to when to run. Guranteed if you keep a short mid off and short mid on, they will run themselves out. Also dont really get too excited about misfields, once every four times a fielder misfields the ball. It is okay to misfield very rarely particularly the Kiwi fielders but if the misfields are depending on law of averages then it gets to pathetic levels.
The stamina is making no difference to the bowlers as well. I have bowled Bond and Tuffey on the trot for 7 each and they are looking fresh as daisy. The bowling has not become harder nor the speed has reduced, as far as I can see there is no such thing as bowlers being tired in this game. Unless these issues mentioned above changes dramatically in my future games I would reckon it is blessing in disguise for you guys in UK as the game is released couple of months after NZ release. It will give you guys enough time to make a wise decision when its released.
