An honest review

[ravid]

Originally posted by ccshopland@Dec 18 2003, 06:17 PM
Good stuff so far Ravid.? What I want off you is a complete review of all the areas as soon as possible.? I think you are kind of like me in that we can suss a game out quite quickly, don't pay any attention to the muppets who slag you off for criticising the game too much.? It's your opinion, it's probably the only opinion I'm going to follow because all other opinions seem to say things liike 'oow the clouds were nice...the gameplay wasn't good but 50 patches will make it better'.? Just stick to your guns and post a lengthy review.? I'll be waiting for it.? Cheers.

Cheers mate those words were helpful. I dont really have predetermined perspective about the game or the producers but its just that every now and then the game is hyped up and levels of expectations are up. Well eventually the game producers still come up with rubbish. There are few good things but again which game doesnt have few good points. Cricket 2002 had its moment of glory although not perfect but atleast there was some kind of a feel when you belt a ball over the infield. You could see the ball sailing over the boundary but with C2K4 I am just not able to get that feeling.

Notice the following screen, reckon seen such bowling changes before. Indeed you have in BLC as well as Cricket 2002, the opening bowler would bowl 10 overs on the trot inspite of hot humid conditions. This game was played at Port of spain on a hot day and on a hard pitch. The spinners are turning the ball a mile and the CPU chooses to bowl its opening bowler for 10 overs in a row. Guess what the manual says the fast bowlers will tire after 6-8 overs but in the game they fire away every lovely ball even after 8 over spell.

 

[ravid]

This is my second ODI bowling effort against the CPU on a hard pitch, now tell me why do you want me to say good things about this game. The CPU didnt last 20 overs in a world cup. This is a lovely joke really.

Also one another thing is that if you bowl a yorker the CPU tonks it around quite easily, fair enough. The amount of yorkers the CPU bowls inhard level is just staggering, yorkers again are the stock balls for CPU. The short ones are not too many and it does bowl one ocassionally which is not very easy to get away for runs which is fairly realistic. In an over you get at least 2 yorkers and even the spinners bowl yorkers at you. Either we can risk hitting it and letting the ball go through the gate or just dig it out and run a single while the WK will slide(not walk or sprint mind you) from behind the stump pick the ball up and throw to the bowler. Thats an easy single of a yorker, frustrating.

 

[andrew_nixon]

ALL screen shots go in the pinned thread, "Cricket 2004 Screenshots"

 

[nash]

Originally posted by andrew_nixon79@Dec 18 2003, 02:31 PM
ALL screen shots go in the pinned thread, \"Cricket 2004 Screenshots\"

sadly in this instance that rigid stance is inappropriate

The screen shot thread is surely for those people wanting to show off screens requested by members etc

In this instance, ravi posted the screenshots to help illustrate points he was making about gameplay. Some of his comments

e.g

Notice the following screen, reckon seen such bowling changes before

are rendered meaningless without the appropriate accompanying screenshot.

Perhaps a more flexible 'judge it on its merits' approach to screenshot posting other than in the screenshot thread, would be beneficial for the continued enjoyment of the members ?

 

[andrew_nixon]

This came after several requests both in the forum and by PM, to have a separate thread for screenshots.

I made a post in that thread saying that from that point, all screenshots go in this thread.

When a user is on a dial-up modem, it is very annoying to have to load a page with lots of screenshots. If screenshots go in just one thread, a user with a slow internet connection can choose not to look at screenshots.

 

[601731]

hey ravi,i want to know if the pitch changes in the course of the game.

 

[Blink Rule]

no wonder they were 9 for sixty cos its india and they suck. Not as much as aus at THE MOMENT. But if brett lee and magrath and warne were playing india would be 2-0 down.

 

[martyn]

Ravid, I think EA need to be brought to account for releasing games of the kind of awful standard which you are exposing. Bombard them with your evidence and make sure they have to get it right in the future. I mean, they should be hiring guys like yourself to playtest these games. It really does take the biscuit if the AI can't make a half decent score when you are bowling seriously for the first time. So, the physics, animations, gameplay and graphics are all easily criticised, the manual contains basic untruths and the AI is useless. Kind of sounds familiar. Wonder how much profit EA makes per year? Obviously not enough to make a decent simulation of one of the most popular team games in the world. It's time for a shake up at EA - for goodness sake make something worth playing and get the quality we all want to see into the series.

 

[dishin]

Personally, I felt the graphics aren't really special or a very big improvement over Cricket 2002. They've probably worked on some details more than they did for the previous game (such as stadia, most of all), but the faces are pretty sad.

And wishful thinking Blink Rule. I'd agree when you say the Aussies kinda suck at the moment, but the rest of it was B L A H.
We'll see what you have to say after Sydney, mate.

 

[anand99]

I think its no use complaining to EA. I still remember the volume of bug lists/wish lists and complaints on Cricket2002. After all that if EA can repeat the same mistakes again you really think they are listening? For once I wish there was a game shop out there that really listens to users and delivers what they want. EA is known for doing some silly things. Like why would you let a team go on a complete tour of another country but not allow it to host another team on its own turf? some moron is doing the thinking out there. Perhaps its HB that needs to clean up their act. Perhaps EA should be keeping a closer observation on HB. All said and done a lot of us are going to go out and buy the game. I only wish these jerks would read and understand the massive wish lists posted all over the internet.

 

[ravid]

Originally posted by andrew_nixon79@Dec 18 2003, 08:49 PM
This came after several requests both in the forum and by PM, to have a separate thread for screenshots.

I made a post in that thread saying that from that point, all screenshots go in this thread.

When a user is on a dial-up modem, it is very annoying to have to load a page with lots of screenshots. If screenshots go in just one thread, a user with a slow internet connection can choose not to look at screenshots.

I understand what you are saying but it would have been nice to have had those screenshots in context to what I had written. Personally I felt you could have let this go given the screenshot with my post post made more sense. I cant be posting again what you got rid but as far as I have made my point I am not stressed.

 

[ravid]

Originally posted by martyn@Dec 19 2003, 04:41 AM
Ravid, I think EA need to be brought to account for releasing games of the kind of awful standard which you are exposing. Bombard them with your evidence and make sure they have to get it right in the future. I mean, they should be hiring guys like yourself to playtest these games. It really does take the biscuit if the AI can't make a half decent score when you are bowling seriously for the first time. So, the physics, animations, gameplay and graphics are all easily criticised, the manual contains basic untruths and the AI is useless. Kind of sounds familiar. Wonder how much profit EA makes per year? Obviously not enough to make a decent simulation of one of the most popular team games in the world. It's time for a shake up at EA - for goodness sake make something worth playing and get the quality we all want to see into the series.

Hi Martyn, its not the first time they have stuffed up a cricket game remember EA Sports Cricket World Cup'99, they even released a game without a single left hander. They made all the left handers into right handers, can it get much worse than that.

They would have known and reported all these issues prior to releasing the game. They very well know there are people like us buy it inspite of all stuff ups. There are improvements for sure but they seem to not show any interest in fixing the stuff ups from the previous game. Once the game is released and the sales reported, they will just not bother to work on getting it right with patches. Our only hope is those smartster around the world to iron out the issues and eventually make this game playable. Lets pray and hope it can be done.

 

[narcist]

ravi & fellow smarties,

is it possible to mk the game work w/ chipsets (cud hb mk a patch or sumthin), or wud it be impossible due to game engine requirements, etc?

geez...NBA Live works lik a dream on Intel 82815...really dunno y this doesnt.