Ashes Cricket 2009 v1.1 Open Beta 2

[Lee1981]

Latest patch beta has online.

any reviews of latest beta online play?

 

[molokoplus]

Does anyone else have the stamina problem again? Fast bowlers last 2 overs before they go brown.

 

[formula1man]

How hard is the bowling Vs AI now on Hard?

 

[Dutch]

How hard is the bowling Vs AI now on Hard?

Off-line I would say the game is pretty well-balanced now and hard is hard. You will have to stick around for a while, playing yourself in. Strauss was caught at slips playing a defensive shot to a climbing out swinger against India first ball first test! (I was in control of Strauss)

The gap between normal and hard has closed. On-line will need tweaking. lofted shots are way too easy to play and if someone wants a mega slog fest they are going to have a lot of fun and it doesn't matter how you bowl or where you put the field.

This one will definitely need looking at otherwise on line is going to become boring. Positive thing is that lag is virtually non-existent. I am in NZ and have been playing good games against UK players! No lag what-so-ever!

 

[alioz]

From what i read so far....everything else online is fine except the power of lofted shots. TG pleases look into this issue and release the patch for consoles. cant wait.

 

[Kirisute_Gomen]

Is there any way that the finished patch can include a few fancy options? E.g.

An "Aim for Owais Shah" option, where the batsman gets told where Shah is in the field, at all times. This allows for basic misfields, such as dropped catches, falling over, maybe an easy four as he chokes on his gum?

Cheers again Transmission and Codies for your continued work. I'm going on the PC players' reviews that it's a much improved game and can't wait for the 360 version. :]

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

I think a very hard mode should be added tbh. (Not so much for the human bowling though that seems hard enough)

 

[MasterBlaster76]

How hard is the bowling Vs AI now on Hard?

It's fairly tough. While the batsmen are playing themselves in, they'll make more mistakes and you'll have chances off edges, LBWs, play/misses, but as they get their eye in, the mistakes dry up, but still happen enough to make bowling enjoyable. When they get to 'fearless' though, they go for too many lofted shots, but even taking that into account, the game is still a huge improvement over what it was - if you feel like playing cricket (and can't gather a whole gaggle of friends/its bucketing down/you're crap at real cricket), then you'll boot this one up time and again for a game! It's just such a shame that there's not more content.

MasterBlaster76 added 0 Minutes and 59 Seconds later...

I think a very hard mode should be added tbh. (Not so much for the human bowling though that seems hard enough)

Why not?

I think some kind of nets mode is important for the next game as well, especially if they do introduce a harder mode.

MasterBlaster76 added 18 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...

@TG: Any chance of being able to save custom fields in the full patch, and save tests online as well? I think being able to play a proper online test against someone would be great fun, but not if you had to play it in one sitting...:doh

MasterBlaster76 added 0 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...

From what i read so far....everything else online is fine except the power of lofted shots. TG pleases look into this issue and release the patch for consoles. cant wait.

The power of lofted shots is improved in the beta 2 - if you don't time it properly, it might just loop straight to a fielder.

@TG: The backfoot coverdrive, or straight drive in some cases, looks exactly like a backward defensive - some animations must have been mixed up. It'd be nice if that's put right (I know, it's no real biggie...)

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Does anyone else have the stamina problem again? Fast bowlers last 2 overs before they go brown.

Don't be concerned with what the colour of the stamina bar is, be concerned with what it says when he's actually bowling - brown (gold?) can mean anything from fresh to weary.

Edit: Some people were exhibiting concern at how Flintoff blasted through the Aussie top-order the other day: have TG made the bowling too easy? No.

I've started my tests again (that series was dead in the water) and the Aussies are 59/0 and have looked very comfortable, so that was either an amazing bowling performance, bad batting, or a pitch that was misbehaving (or maybe all three). This is why we need detailed pitch reports in the next game - an option to get out there and look at the pitch yourself would be good. The problem is, the pitch looks exactly the same at any given ground, so you can't tell if it'll bounce more or spin more, or whatever. There is audio at the beginning of the match, but be honest, how many of you have skipped it and how many reckon it's actually got anything to do with how the pitch will actually play?

Also, it'd be good to be able to put fielders exactly where you want to.

Edit: After playing the beta 2 for quite a while, I think I'm getting a few too many bowled/LBWs, and not enough edges...before the beta 1, I didn't get any LBW/Bowled.. :laugh

Also, when 'fearless', it's clear the batsmen get some kind of advantage, maybe a bigger timing window, I don't know; what about the bowlers? What's their advantage when fearless, because I can't see any, especially for the seamers.

 

[MuchMore]

Can anyone with Beta 2 answer the following:

1) Any signs of bat-pad?

2) Do fielders still misfiled EVERY ball that comes their way?

Many Thanks

 

[formula1man]

Don't be concerned with what the colour of the stamina bar is, be concerned with what it says when he's actually bowling - brown (gold?) can mean anything from fresh to weary.

Edit: Some people were exhibiting concern at how Flintoff blasted through the Aussie top-order the other day: have TG made the bowling too easy? No.

I've started my tests again (that series was dead in the water) and the Aussies are 59/0 and have looked very comfortable, so that was either an amazing bowling performance, bad batting, or a pitch that was misbehaving (or maybe all three). This is why we need detailed pitch reports in the next game - an option to get out there and look at the pitch yourself would be good. The problem is, the pitch looks exactly the same at any given ground, so you can't tell if it'll bounce more or spin more, or whatever. There is audio at the beginning of the match, but be honest, how many of you have skipped it and how many reckon it's actually got anything to do with how the pitch will actually play?

Also, it'd be good to be able to put fielders exactly where you want to.

Edit: After playing the beta 2 for quite a while, I think I'm getting a few too many bowled/LBWs, and not enough edges...before the beta 1, I didn't get any LBW/Bowled.. :laugh

Also, when 'fearless', it's clear the batsmen get some kind of advantage, maybe a bigger timing window, I don't know; what about the bowlers? What's their advantage when fearless, because I can't see any, especially for the seamers.

when they get bowled are they those stupid ones where they play the wrong shot or are no where near the ball, or are they good?

 

[aussie1st]

Was happy to see reverse swing being available after the 31st over ODI, didn't a bit of damage early but the settled batters played it easily. Once the tail came in though there was stumps flying all over the place

 

[chathuwani]

Do we get play and miss now? rather than edge always miss time.

 

[Brook]

Also, when 'fearless', it's clear the batsmen get some kind of advantage, maybe a bigger timing window, I don't know; what about the bowlers? What's their advantage when fearless, because I can't see any, especially for the seamers.

I think the seamers bowl faster the more confident they are, pre patch anyway, a fearless Flintoff might be bowling 95 but a timid one might be bowling 80. Also do they get marginally more movement? Also this might be my mind playing tricks but do they get a slightly bigger yellow aiming area, so more balls are perfect?

 

[Dougie1]

Beta 2 patch makes batting a lot harder. The timing window has been reduced. Gonna make the game a lot more difficult when batting which is a good thing.

Makes the game a lot more interesting and I can see it will take a lot of practice to get a hang of the batting.

Thanks to all at Transmission for their efforts.

Still getting that annoying freeze though. This time :

Second Ashes test - I was batting as England, AI bowling as Australia. Offline One Player game on Normal level.

Brett Lee (AI) bowled to Pieterson (Player). KP hit the ball for a boundary along the ground and as the ball was reaching the boundary the camera angle changed and the game froze.

D