Review: Anyone else unsatisfied?

[grkrama]

As you say, it's a pretty subjective business, but I went back and played it when we were looking in 2005 and again in 2007 and even then it felt very dated visually. It had some crazy glitches. It was solid, but I do think there's a fair bunch of nostalgia behind it. Honestly, I don't think it was any better mechanically or technically than 2005 or 2009/2010. It had some good features the others didn't, but the others had some that 99 didn't. My personal feeling is that they were all pretty similar in terms of quality, and I'd throw DBC14 in there as well.

yes BLC99 had a lot of probs in terms of AI decision making, fielding etc even a few odd glitches, lack of batsman difference between tail and opener but what they nailed so well that not even dbc 14 had was the single best feeling in cricket a straight drive in that game you can feel the risk and reward of playing that wrt to delivery type and conditions, the physics, smooth animations for shots. This game had the best ambience till dbc 17, really good camera angles for a broadcast cams, conditions had great impact. There is one classic match in this game were sl have to chase 240 odd against aus after 12-2, the challenge the balance the feel you get playing that is unmatched, same can be told for another one were you have to play score 70 odd i think with tailenders to take wi overline. its not nostalgia i have played the game the same scenarios even in 2012 it held well and was challenging as ever bar graphics.

The inability of the following cricket games bar dbc's to even replicate that game's finer points is what showed their total lack of understanding of this segment of crowd.

If you make a great product you will earn money and build from there not the other way around.

 

[Mr Snrub]

what you have to understand is i was never derailing blocker or your feedback or experiences

What I have to understand??? I never said you were "derailing" anything.

only when blanket statements like only one guy can bat in this game while literally many others were enjoying the batting, this stance i took that the core batting BA have made is in-depth and really good bar a few niggles was necessary cause otherwise this was leading to an illusion that the whole batting system that BA built and refined with patch 3 was broken and crap which it is not as is most evident from your and blockers experience once you were able to experience it without that logo glitch.

Absolutely none of this is relevant to my post. I never said anything to do with any "only one guy can bat" stuff. I agreed that there was a problem for us. There was.

even with that glitch thing aside i do believe a few areas in batting can be improved like i listed in that other thread like cutting out the wrong anims, having better feedback, more tuning of certain BF shots etc

That's great, I agree totally on this.

Just to clarify 70+ percent of the beta team is not PC staff this including dutch a ex staff. While me or blocker may be able to put a feedback closer to the ears, mostly we are just testers before releasing to the broader PC community. Also i cant speak for others but from my point of view im favorable for the game, in the sense it has all the right stuff in there like you have mentioned, if it can be refined and improved would be a 1000+ hr game for me.But im also aware that this process of fixing and refining has to be definitely done otherwise the niggles and lack of certain features in the game really get in the way of immersion.

I've worked on a staff forum in the past myself as an admin with another site and I was pretty sure that there'd be pre-PC beta access. I'm sure if there are any fundamental problems with the game post-patch that PC staff will put their hands up for having missed them.

Also the argument we had in the forums isnt the best example of how blocker or I generally interact in the community either in beta or here. Things just got heated and words flew.

Didn't think it was how you two generally interacted. Totally understand that people can get heated for a short while. I was just pointing out that there was a discussion which pointed completely to a closed beta with staff access. Nothing untoward about that either, it's a clever idea. With the air-tight lack of reveals of anything that's been improved, it's obvious that the staff are being extremely co-operative.

 

[Mr Snrub]

what they nailed so well that not even dbc 14 had was the single best feeling in cricket a straight drive in that game you can feel the risk and reward of playing that wrt to delivery type and conditions, the physics, smooth animations for shots.

Absolutely spot on correct. The straight drive from that was much better than any I've seen since, particularly in relation to it working for you or not. The balance of timing required for a good lofted straight drive was awesomely well worked out. Also, the DBC games straight drive was not great in '14 and even in '17 you do tend to hit the stumps a little too much in comparison to real life, so it's not as good as Lara's/Warne '99 in that aspect for me.

 

[break1n]

Thoroughly fed up with the game at this point. Only playing the thing purely for fun and it's actually stressing me out. Just played a t20 needing 2 to win off the last ball and the bowler bounced me down the leg side and I got run out trying to sneak a single to the keeper. Not only was it almost a wide in itself, but this is down the legside which should be an automatic wide AND it was a bouncer that went way above head height. Simulated my bowling when the field kept resetting each ball and completely got fed up with it.

I'm not sure what has happened since the last patch, but from being a solid batsman having struggles converting starts into 50's I am completely unable to score 20's on a regular basis with some utterly ridiculous dismissals each time.

Something definitely seems to have tweaked up with the last patch batting wise as before the odd ball wouldn't go where intended, now it feels 2/5 balls are aimed completely the wrong way when I'm batting as well as random defensive shots/leaves when I'm trying to slog and countless on the floor shots when I'm trying to hit sixes. I've dropped the batting difficulty to easy from hard and the footwork is still abysmal when trying to play across my stumps leading to countless numbers of LBW/bowled regardless of how much I focus on stepping straight down the wicket. Don't even get me started on the fielding where 2 slips can cover the entire area whilst taking anything an inch off the floor. The most worrying thing for me is when I've gone to slightly alter the sliders and its though I'm playing Counter Strike on maximum sensitivity accidentally changing each value as I move down to the next option. How the fearsome tweak are we meant to bat with the same sensitivity?

I don't even understand the point of the straight drive anymore, you're just asking to miss hit it, walk out of the way and get bowled/lbw or get caught behind

God I bought this game expecting bugs but none of this is fun anymore. Needed to vent, and staying away until (if it ever happens) the next patch comes. Don't get me wrong here, I know the company isn't big and I had very low expectations but for me the bugs are what is making this game unplayable and incredibly unfun and it's totally unnacceptable to just ignore them for this long. Right now when I'm batting there doesn't even feel to be any work around the bugs to even pretend I'm playing a good game

 

[Deleted member 46200]

Thoroughly fed up with the game at this point. Only playing the thing purely for fun and it's actually stressing me out. Just played a t20 needing 2 to win off the last ball and the bowler bounced me down the leg side and I got run out trying to sneak a single to the keeper. Not only was it almost a wide in itself, but this is down the legside which should be an automatic wide AND it was a bouncer that went way above head height. Simulated my bowling when the field kept resetting each ball and completely got fed up with it.

I'm not sure what has happened since the last patch, but from being a solid batsman having struggles converting starts into 50's I am completely unable to score 20's on a regular basis with some utterly ridiculous dismissals each time.

Something definitely seems to have tweaked up with the last patch batting wise as before the odd ball wouldn't go where intended, now it feels 2/5 balls are aimed completely the wrong way when I'm batting as well as random defensive shots/leaves when I'm trying to slog and countless on the floor shots when I'm trying to hit sixes. I've dropped the batting difficulty to easy from hard and the footwork is still abysmal when trying to play across my stumps leading to countless numbers of LBW/bowled regardless of how much I focus on stepping straight down the wicket. Don't even get me started on the fielding where 2 slips can cover the entire area whilst taking anything an inch off the floor. The most worrying thing for me is when I've gone to slightly alter the sliders and its though I'm playing Counter Strike on maximum sensitivity accidentally changing each value as I move down to the next option. How the fearsome tweak are we meant to bat with the same sensitivity?

I don't even understand the point of the straight drive anymore, you're just asking to miss hit it, walk out of the way and get bowled/lbw or get caught behind

God I bought this game expecting bugs but none of this is fun anymore. Needed to vent, and staying away until (if it ever happens) the next patch comes. Don't get me wrong here, I know the company isn't big and I had very low expectations but for me the bugs are what is making this game unplayable and incredibly unfun and it's totally unnacceptable to just ignore them for this long. Right now when I'm batting there doesn't even feel to be any work around the bugs to even pretend I'm playing a good game

Your fed up but still playing for fun? Lighten up it ain't all bad must be down to technique, relax, don't do it, When you want to go to it.

 

[Nathaus]

@gkrama @Max Walker - my biggest issue with SWC/BLC99 how pre-canned everything felt. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly fun to play, especially local multiplayer, but there was no true freedom. It was all pre-scripted and the ball acted like a magnet to the bat. Example, you could play a pull shot to a short ball and the ball would magically not bounce but we perfect height for a pull shot. Exact same deliver and you play a hook shot, it would bounce more and magically come off the middle of the bat again. There were very few, if any, plays and misses. There was also only certain paths the ball could follow to the boundary, all pre-determined on the shot type. This works well enough, but led it's not really cricket.

I find DBC feels a lot less scripted, hopefully because it relies on real collision and ball physics, hence more plays and misses, more edges behind, more over throws, more of a true 360 degree feeling. SWC/BLC had no physics engine from what I could tell, the ball was put on a flight path (or ground path) and that's how it was.

 

[Waxx123]

What I don't like about batting in DBC 17 in DBC 14 you can easily get boundaries by playing regular ground shots if timed right. In DBC 17 not matter how nicely i time regular shots I never get boundaries. At most 2. Batting was soo good in DBC 14, Imagine a game with DBC 14 batting and DBC 17 bowling wow what a cricket game that would be. Also fielding is really poor in DBC 17 compared to DBC 14.

 

[blockerdave]

Thoroughly fed up with the game at this point. Only playing the thing purely for fun and it's actually stressing me out. Just played a t20 needing 2 to win off the last ball and the bowler bounced me down the leg side and I got run out trying to sneak a single to the keeper. Not only was it almost a wide in itself, but this is down the legside which should be an automatic wide AND it was a bouncer that went way above head height. Simulated my bowling when the field kept resetting each ball and completely got fed up with it.

I'm not sure what has happened since the last patch, but from being a solid batsman having struggles converting starts into 50's I am completely unable to score 20's on a regular basis with some utterly ridiculous dismissals each time.

Something definitely seems to have tweaked up with the last patch batting wise as before the odd ball wouldn't go where intended, now it feels 2/5 balls are aimed completely the wrong way when I'm batting as well as random defensive shots/leaves when I'm trying to slog and countless on the floor shots when I'm trying to hit sixes. I've dropped the batting difficulty to easy from hard and the footwork is still abysmal when trying to play across my stumps leading to countless numbers of LBW/bowled regardless of how much I focus on stepping straight down the wicket. Don't even get me started on the fielding where 2 slips can cover the entire area whilst taking anything an inch off the floor. The most worrying thing for me is when I've gone to slightly alter the sliders and its though I'm playing Counter Strike on maximum sensitivity accidentally changing each value as I move down to the next option. How the fearsome tweak are we meant to bat with the same sensitivity?

I don't even understand the point of the straight drive anymore, you're just asking to miss hit it, walk out of the way and get bowled/lbw or get caught behind

God I bought this game expecting bugs but none of this is fun anymore. Needed to vent, and staying away until (if it ever happens) the next patch comes. Don't get me wrong here, I know the company isn't big and I had very low expectations but for me the bugs are what is making this game unplayable and incredibly unfun and it's totally unnacceptable to just ignore them for this long. Right now when I'm batting there doesn't even feel to be any work around the bugs to even pretend I'm playing a good game

The problem you have is exactly that you put batting to easy, and the shot replacement kicks in.

It is the single worst design choice they've made because it doesn't help, it confuses. I found this myself.

Go up to medium and tough it out.

 

[grkrama]

@gkrama @Max Walker - my biggest issue with SWC/BLC99 how pre-canned everything felt. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly fun to play, especially local multiplayer, but there was no true freedom. It was all pre-scripted and the ball acted like a magnet to the bat. Example, you could play a pull shot to a short ball and the ball would magically not bounce but we perfect height for a pull shot. Exact same deliver and you play a hook shot, it would bounce more and magically come off the middle of the bat again. There were very few, if any, plays and misses. There was also only certain paths the ball could follow to the boundary, all pre-determined on the shot type. This works well enough, but led it's not really cricket.

I find DBC feels a lot less scripted, hopefully because it relies on real collision and ball physics, hence more plays and misses, more edges behind, more over throws, more of a true 360 degree feeling. SWC/BLC had no physics engine from what I could tell, the ball was put on a flight path (or ground path) and that's how it was.

I totally agree DBC's both versions are way ahead of blc 99, apart from a few of the things that game did. DBC 14 was the first game were i could properly play test cricket game taking 5 days.It was a drag for me in every other game before including blc 99.

Pre canned animations and that magnetism to ball to shot played was there in both codies and EA games too[ to a lesser extent with EA i think], i dont remember whether it was blc 07 or ac09 they to had this were you could pull of fulllength and the ball will bounce to bat. regarding 360 stroke variation i found it better than other games except may be heavily modded EA c07, purely from gameplay and immersion factor other games couldnt replicate the finer moments of blc 99 while having all its flaws.Blc 99 was flawed and had its issues, but it was still a gem among the other cricket games for atleast the next decade.

My whole point is that game is still standing its ground against every other cricket game bar DBC's and even with DBC's it trades blows in a few areas.Thats good for a two decade old game.

Absolutely spot on correct. The straight drive from that was much better than any I've seen since, particularly in relation to it working for you or not. The balance of timing required for a good lofted straight drive was awesomely well worked out. Also, the DBC games straight drive was not great in '14 and even in '17 you do tend to hit the stumps a little too much in comparison to real life, so it's not as good as Lara's/Warne '99 in that aspect for me.

Im personally loving the Dbc 17 straight drives and think they are better than blc 99, but agree they can be made a bit more better by reducing the collision to stumps and Non striker, think it was there in 14 too and was fixed later through patches.

 

[Acid Burn]

Baseball games generally sell 3 or 4 times the copies.

It's very tough when your only viable commercial markets are UK and Aus.

Sorry Chief but I got to disagree with this last bit .

In South Africa , DBC is selling big , and we probably have the second biggest Online presence as well behind Asian based players.

UK and Australian players has no presence on the Online side of the game , so I`m assuming the same could be said of the game in general.

 

[ABHIII]

Well well BLC 99 is about 17 years old. How bout dah..

 

[Deleted member 9102]

To be honest, I'm struggling to find motivation to play this now, and I feel that's probably unlikely to change...

The main reason being the bowling mechanics, I really dislike the new way of determining length, and as this is a design decision I can't see it being altered in any updates...

The rest of the game is not good enough to make up for that shortcoming either; visually it is (to put it lightly) below average, arguably worse than 14 in some aspects (lighting/colour palette), the AI batting doesn't provide a challenge (especially if they bat second) and overall it is really not what I expected as a sequel to DBC14. There are a few improvements such as the early marker when batting and the increased turn of spin bowling, but overall it's not as enjoyable and surprisingly much more rough around the edges and "unfinished".

It seems the main features such as the logo creator and gameplay sliders are better in theory than they are in practice too. The logos, especially up close, don't even look very detailed and even on high spec PCs look pixellated despite being vectors and on top of the lack of fidelity, there have been constant problems with this feature ranging from crashing to heavily impacting the gameplay. This feature also killed off the per-team modding that was introduced into 14, so even now that proper texture modding of 17 is getting going, it'll likely remain very limited.

With the sliders, nobody is really clued in on what does exactly what, how different values would compare to the default difficulties etc. so it needs lots of guesswork.

I love what BA did with 14, how they supported it, delivered on promises etc. but DBC17 frankly didn't deliver and although some of the criticism has been over-the-top and obsessive (e.g. Royce/Varun), the overall general negative reception is deserved.

 

[Chief]

Sorry Chief but I got to disagree with this last bit .

In South Africa , DBC is selling big , and we probably have the second biggest Online presence as well behind Asian based players.

UK and Australian players has no presence on the Online side of the game , so I`m assuming the same could be said of the game in general.

TRUE: SA is the only market outside those two that is worth anything. But it is usually a fraction of the UK/AUS sales - do you have numbers on SA sales for DBC?

 

[Bluebagger]

As usual @Madman hit the nail on the head, great post.

Honestly the two worst things I can say about this game above everything else is it's just straight up boring for me and playing on a pretty good PC the logo editor stuff just looks awful.

@gkrama @Max Walker - my biggest issue with SWC/BLC99 how pre-canned everything felt. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly fun to play, especially local multiplayer, but there was no true freedom. It was all pre-scripted and the ball acted like a magnet to the bat. Example, you could play a pull shot to a short ball and the ball would magically not bounce but we perfect height for a pull shot. Exact same deliver and you play a hook shot, it would bounce more and magically come off the middle of the bat again. There were very few, if any, plays and misses. There was also only certain paths the ball could follow to the boundary, all pre-determined on the shot type. This works well enough, but led it's not really cricket.

I find DBC feels a lot less scripted, hopefully because it relies on real collision and ball physics, hence more plays and misses, more edges behind, more over throws, more of a true 360 degree feeling. SWC/BLC had no physics engine from what I could tell, the ball was put on a flight path (or ground path) and that's how it was.

The game came out in 1998, how much freedom did you expect??

 

[blockerdave]

To be honest, I'm struggling to find motivation to play this now, and I feel that's probably unlikely to change...

The main reason being the bowling mechanics, I really dislike the new way of determining length, and as this is a design decision I can't see it being altered in any updates...

The rest of the game is not good enough to make up for that shortcoming either; visually it is (to put it lightly) below average, arguably worse than 14 in some aspects (lighting/colour palette), the AI batting doesn't provide a challenge (especially if they bat second) and overall it is really not what I expected as a sequel to DBC14. There are a few improvements such as the early marker when batting and the increased turn of spin bowling, but overall it's not as enjoyable and surprisingly much more rough around the edges and "unfinished".

It seems the main features such as the logo creator and gameplay sliders are better in theory than they are in practice too. The logos, especially up close, don't even look very detailed and even on high spec PCs look pixellated despite being vectors and on top of the lack of fidelity, there have been constant problems with this feature ranging from crashing to heavily impacting the gameplay. This feature also killed off the per-team modding that was introduced into 14, so even now that proper texture modding of 17 is getting going, it'll likely remain very limited.

With the sliders, nobody is really clued in on what does exactly what, how different values would compare to the default difficulties etc. so it needs lots of guesswork.

I love what BA did with 14, how they supported it, delivered on promises etc. but DBC17 frankly didn't deliver and although some of the criticism has been over-the-top and obsessive (e.g. Royce/Varun), the overall general negative reception is deserved.

I share your feeling about the length mechanics, though to be fair I don't believe it makes a big difference in the gameplay itself; only when you're looking at pitch maps. I think bowling in 17 aces 14 purely because of the edges alongside reasonably balanced gameplay. (It's about equal to 14 with the best iterations of franco's hack.)

The game is jekyll and Hyde sadly. Example being I'm currently in a very intriguing FC match (batting first I made 251, they scored 310 and I followed up with 349. Chasing 290 to win AI is 40-odd for 2 at the start of the last morning. It's been a good game where the pace of the match has been spot on, I've had to work hard for runs and wickets but they've come and the dismissals have been nicely balanced...

BUT - I've had to keep taking over the AI to bring on their all rounders and make them use their bowlers properly, I've faced the same fields whether new to the wicket or well set or even on 100, due the stamina I'm almost certainly going to lose as my bowlers are too tired to be effective.

It's just such a shame... a real missed opportunity there is a fantastic game in there somewhere.