PlanetCricket
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- Joined
- Jan 13, 2010
The dust has started to settle on the release of Ashes Cricket 2013, with the few who have bought it on the forums enjoying it. Not because it’s a good game, but for the degree of hilarity in the ways in which wickets are taken and the players act. This game is laughable in every sense of the word.
Ashes Cricket 2013 has only been released on PC thus far – it’s clear why, the game in its current state – after four additional months of fixing and polishing since the delay to the game in July, is still utterly broken and unsuitable for sale. Bugs in the game are immediately apparent, occur in every match played and most are easily reproducible, things that can’t not have been noticed by the development team or publisher 505 games.
The only public communication we have received has been a very brief statement, making no comment on features such as online play and promised ‘DLC’ content such as the Decision Review System not being included in the PC release.
Some of the clear bugs in Ashes Cricket 2013
While most cricket games released have had some degree of bugs, in most previous titles, including Trickstar’s previous title International Cricket 2010 (to which AC13 shares nothing), which while having some fairly significant issues, they could be worked around or were just graphical glitches with minimal impact on gameplay. Even a common tactic of saving frequently and restoring to counter bugs isn’t possible in this game, with all saving being done automatically.
Without fixes for some of these significant issues – running between the wickets and fielding overthrows – to name just a few of the many issues that make matches impossible to complete without issue – the game should not be sold, let alone bought by consumers.
Those who have played the game or viewed the videos or screenshots may notice that there are PlanetCricket adboards in the game. These are a result of a few of our members and moderators being involved in the process of organising the statistics and ratings of players in the game. We never got an opportunity to test the game prior to release.
In a May interview with Stevivor Creative, Trickstar Games CEO Mike Fegan said the following to describe PlanetCricket’s involvement with the game,
PlanetCricket certainly welcomed Trickstar Games working with us earlier on with the game. One of our aims as a site is to make cricket games the best they can be, mostly that’s through post release modifications, but using what we learn from modifying games to trying to improve the original product is even better – because that way the benefit isn’t just to those who manage to find our site. Above all we are fans of cricket video games, we’d happily work with any cricket games developer to try and improve their product – we ask nothing in return (though the adboards were a nice bonus) than to hope that our efforts help get us closer to the ideal game.
However we also believe that’s a two way street and that the communication must continue after release so that bugs and issues that are found can be rectified. We would take this opportunity to urge 505 Games and Trickstar to again engage with the community, listen to our concerns with the game’s release and get working on fixing the issues with what is already out before considering a release on consoles. While it’s bad enough to release the game in its current state on PC – it would be truly unforgivable to take that after seeing all the issues that were found in a few days and try to release on consoles.
Until such a time that we start hearing word from the developers again, or patches start to be released that improve things, PlanetCricket strongly urges our visitors not to purchase the game, especially without being aware of exactly what it is you are buying. Reviews from members and general feedback is in our Ashes Cricket 2013 forum.
Article by Matt Whitehorn - Read More...
Ashes Cricket 2013 has only been released on PC thus far – it’s clear why, the game in its current state – after four additional months of fixing and polishing since the delay to the game in July, is still utterly broken and unsuitable for sale. Bugs in the game are immediately apparent, occur in every match played and most are easily reproducible, things that can’t not have been noticed by the development team or publisher 505 games.
The only public communication we have received has been a very brief statement, making no comment on features such as online play and promised ‘DLC’ content such as the Decision Review System not being included in the PC release.
?Despite the extended development schedule over the summer, we have continued to face challenges with the technology on which we have built Ashes Cricket 2013 for home consoles. Our developer, Trickstar Games have been unable to get the home console skus into a position where they are ready to launch simultaneously with the PC sku and with the start of the Australian series. We will advise on the release date of the console skus as soon as we are able.?
While most cricket games released have had some degree of bugs, in most previous titles, including Trickstar’s previous title International Cricket 2010 (to which AC13 shares nothing), which while having some fairly significant issues, they could be worked around or were just graphical glitches with minimal impact on gameplay. Even a common tactic of saving frequently and restoring to counter bugs isn’t possible in this game, with all saving being done automatically.
Without fixes for some of these significant issues – running between the wickets and fielding overthrows – to name just a few of the many issues that make matches impossible to complete without issue – the game should not be sold, let alone bought by consumers.
Those who have played the game or viewed the videos or screenshots may notice that there are PlanetCricket adboards in the game. These are a result of a few of our members and moderators being involved in the process of organising the statistics and ratings of players in the game. We never got an opportunity to test the game prior to release.
In a May interview with Stevivor Creative, Trickstar Games CEO Mike Fegan said the following to describe PlanetCricket’s involvement with the game,
I?d say that they are just passionate cricket fans and they?ve always been a great sounding board for us. Obviously, as far as we are concerned, they are our greatest ally and they are also our greatest critic. And you know we get great feedback from them.
They also contribute to the whole process and are heavily involved in tabulating the stats used in the game. Those guys sit there and work for hundreds of hours on spreadsheets to that because they love cricket. It?s kind of cool. At the end of the day, those guys know cricket and getting their feedback is really important. And I think that is reflected in the gameplay of Ashes Cricket 2013.
They also contribute to the whole process and are heavily involved in tabulating the stats used in the game. Those guys sit there and work for hundreds of hours on spreadsheets to that because they love cricket. It?s kind of cool. At the end of the day, those guys know cricket and getting their feedback is really important. And I think that is reflected in the gameplay of Ashes Cricket 2013.
PlanetCricket certainly welcomed Trickstar Games working with us earlier on with the game. One of our aims as a site is to make cricket games the best they can be, mostly that’s through post release modifications, but using what we learn from modifying games to trying to improve the original product is even better – because that way the benefit isn’t just to those who manage to find our site. Above all we are fans of cricket video games, we’d happily work with any cricket games developer to try and improve their product – we ask nothing in return (though the adboards were a nice bonus) than to hope that our efforts help get us closer to the ideal game.
However we also believe that’s a two way street and that the communication must continue after release so that bugs and issues that are found can be rectified. We would take this opportunity to urge 505 Games and Trickstar to again engage with the community, listen to our concerns with the game’s release and get working on fixing the issues with what is already out before considering a release on consoles. While it’s bad enough to release the game in its current state on PC – it would be truly unforgivable to take that after seeing all the issues that were found in a few days and try to release on consoles.
Until such a time that we start hearing word from the developers again, or patches start to be released that improve things, PlanetCricket strongly urges our visitors not to purchase the game, especially without being aware of exactly what it is you are buying. Reviews from members and general feedback is in our Ashes Cricket 2013 forum.
Article by Matt Whitehorn - Read More...
