Just thought I'd chip in and share my experiences in career... So far I'm actually quite happy with the game. I've just played through the first season of 3 day matches, now moving in to the 50 over comp. Beside the few quirks that have unfortunately been there since DBC17 (not sliding bat is one I would have thought would be very easy to fix, but ho hum), I haven't come across anything too game breaking, even the statistics are holding up ok (see below). I'm playing on Pro and just upped the batting and bowling difficulty to Hard. I have changed no modifiers, but have downloaded a lot of
@Llewelynf s teams, predominantly international and Australian domestic of all varieties. I haven't used any of them yet, so inetersting to see if actually using the teams causes issues, as it doesn't appear to have hindered my game simply by downloading. Also I always chose keep original for duplicates.
Batting:
Was finding runs too easy initially, but going up to hard seems to have added an element of risk in my stroke play - quite happy with the balance for now as I tend to get starts but fall victim of poor timing against bowling variation between 20 and 50 most of the time. Most of my dismissals have been edges behind, either caught by keeper or slips. I've had a lot of close play and misses, lucky not to be bowled, and a few close LBW shouts playing down the wrong line or late. Currently averaging mid 20s. Disappointingly, my most recent wicket came at bat pad to a solid full blooded on drive. Super human skills by the AI snared it out of no where. Especially in the context of the ball before where I nearly took his head off with a pull shot.
Bowling:
Enjoy bowling most of the time. The challenge is real. I'm a fast/med bowler and the majority of my wickets have been bowled or caught behind. I think I've seen 1 or 2 slogs to the infield, of which one I'm sure was a leading edge as it made the edge noise as it flew to the fielder. I tend to bowl mostly out-swingers to right-handers, with the odd cutter/straight ball in there. Averaging around 20 with the ball.
Stats:
While there are some lingering issues, there has been an improvement overall. Admittedly this should be an area with no leeway as stats are stats, but I'm fairly certain my player averages, total runs, total wickets, etc are all accurate. Just for some reason BBI/BBM don't seem to count the second innings.
Admittedly this is a very small sample of one particular game mode, but I think it's important to add balance to the general guff being posted around here that if you read in isolation would suggest this game is rubbish and worse than DBC. For me it's on par/slightly better as I certainly see less chip shots to the infield, stats are certainly 80% better than they were (not earned stats in the main menu, they seem completely broken). I have experienced edges both batting and bowling, and most of the time it's a challenging but rewarding game when you get things right.
A little imagination is required when the quirks happen, and hopefully some more fine tuning/balancing of gameplay occurs, but I'm quite happy with my purchase at this stage considering it only cost me about A$50 (almost half the price of DBC 17). I'll give it a solid 7/10 for career mode.