Cricket 2004 - Blowing off some steam!

[kirred]

I recently purchased a copy of EA Sports Cricket 2004, something that I had been looking forward too for quite sometime. To be blunt, it has been somewhat of a disappointment!

The primary reason for this disappointment is the numerous amount of ?bugs?, ranging in severity from trivial to major. Let me begin by telling you about the major ?bug?, every time I play a ?World Championship? tournament, I am unable to complete my first game, the same thing happens every time and that is the following.

I choose my team, my first game starts, the opposition win the toss and elect to bat or I win the toss and elect to field, I then do an autoplay until the end of their innings, then my innings commences with a total to chase, every thing then works (I almost said perfectly) fine until I am into an over greater than 30 i.e. 31, 32, 33 etc.. The over comes to an end and the ?End of Over? screen is displayed, it has some menu options down the left and the score summary on the right, the top menu item on the left is ?resume?, selecting that usually returns you to the game where you continue batting, emphasis on usually. Unfortunately when I select ?resume? it does sweet bugger-all, it makes the appropriate sound as if the menu option has been selected but it doesn?t return me to the game and I have therefore not had the joy of completing an ODI. I?d say, the fact that I cannot complete a one day game, makes this a pretty serious ?bug?, the ability to play one day games is a fundamental feature of the software.

Here are some of the other bugs I?ve noted :-

- during test matches, usually at the start of a over, while batting, some fielder decides to make the middle the pitch his fielding spot and he walks in (actually across the pitch) as the bowler approaches to deliver, the next ball he?s gone.
- quite often when a batsman?s score is displayed, the maths is somewhat wonky, e.g.
the batsman has hit four 4?s (4 x 4) and he has a score of 12 ???!!?!?
- I have on occasion simply played a block shot, started a run and then immediately cancelled the run, for the next delivery the batsman are swapped as if the run was completed, however the score doesn?t reflect an additional run.
- sometimes when running between the wickets and I press the button for an additional run (run a second or third), all the relevant sounds are made but the batters don?t complete the additional run.
- there?s probably a thousand things wrong with the commentating, they contradict one another when making statements about the same shot, they say things completely unrelated to what?s just occurred and for the large part its pretty much the same as 2002?s commentating.
- sometimes the keys don?t work, everything is pressed as per usual but the batsman doesn?t play a shot.

Is the quality of this software acceptable? The EA brand has been become synonymous with quality/value for money games, some of the best games ever made have come from the EA stable. Cricket 2004 tarnishes the EA image and leaves one wondering if EA?s standards are slipping.

What is immediately obvious is that Cricket 2004 was not tested, there are so many blatantly obvious ?bugs? it would impossible for a tester not to see them unless the tester was visually impaired.

I actually think Cricket 2004 was written for a PS2 console, and what we sit with is a really bad port to the PC platform, further aggravated by what appears to be a complete lack of interest with regards to testing. If this was/is the case then perhaps EA should take a feather from Rockstars cap, and look at GTA Vice City, to see how the job is properly done.

I am developer myself and I would never release software in this state, it would be embarrassing, I?d rather take the fallout for being late than deliver sub-standard software. If EA forced this out into the market to meeting marketing deadlines, then I think it was very short-sighted of them and perhaps they can learn something from Valve who irrespective of how late they are will not release Half-Life 2 until they are completely happy with it.

Just ranting and raving, wondering how long it?s gonna be before theres a patch?

Kirred

 

[brp8487]

hi kirred
no use critiizicing Ea for the game.they r just the publishers and distributors.
the game is developed by another studio HB. they r not pretty good i suppose.
Bye
rahul

 

[brp8487]

H kirred
why wait for a patch from EA.
if u r a developer why not try to improve the gameplay and graphics.
we would definitely approve ur expertise.
Bye

 

[Voltage]

Originally posted by brp8487@Feb 3 2004, 10:41 AM
hi kirred
no use critiizicing Ea for the game.they r just the publishers and distributors.
the game is developed by another studio HB. they r not pretty good i suppose.
Bye
rahul

It doesn't matter! They are a major company and it's their logo that's slapped on the game every where, so it's not as if they have nothing to do with the game. Is it HB studios reposibility to have made a better cricket game?...Yes, but EA as a publisher and distributor also shares an equal amount of responsibility in sending out a quality product into the market. So please don't give me that c**p about EA being completely irresponsible.

 

[Voltage]

Originally posted by kirred@Feb 3 2004, 10:20 AM
I recently purchased a copy of EA Sports Cricket 2004, something that I had been looking forward too for quite sometime.? To be blunt, it has been somewhat of a disappointment!?

The primary reason for this disappointment is the numerous amount of ?bugs?, ranging in severity from trivial to major.? Let me begin by telling you about the major ?bug?, every time I play a ?World Championship? tournament, I am unable to complete my first game, the same thing happens every time and that is the following.

I choose my team, my first game starts, the opposition win the toss and elect to bat or I win the toss and elect to field, I then do an autoplay until the end of their innings, then my innings commences with a total to chase, every thing then works (I almost said perfectly) fine until I am into an over greater than 30 i.e. 31, 32, 33 etc..? The over comes to an end and the ?End of Over? screen is displayed, it has some menu options down the left and the score summary on the right,? the top menu item on the left is ?resume?, selecting that usually returns you to the game where you continue batting, emphasis on usually.? Unfortunately when I select ?resume? it does sweet bugger-all, it makes the appropriate sound as if the menu option has been selected but it doesn?t return me to the game and I have therefore not had the joy of completing an ODI.? I?d say, the fact that I cannot complete a one day game, makes this a pretty serious ?bug?, the ability to play one day games is a fundamental feature of the software.

Here are some of the other bugs I?ve noted :-

- during test matches, usually at the start of a over, while batting, some fielder decides to make the middle the pitch his fielding spot and he walks in (actually across the pitch) as the bowler approaches to deliver, the next ball he?s gone.
- quite often when a batsman?s score is displayed, the maths is somewhat wonky, e.g.
the batsman has hit four 4?s (4 x 4) and he has a score of 12 ???!!?!?
- I have on occasion simply played a block shot, started a run and then immediately cancelled the run, for the next delivery the batsman are swapped as if the run was completed, however the score doesn?t reflect an additional run.
- sometimes when running between the wickets and I press the button for an additional run (run a second or third), all the relevant sounds are made but the batters don?t complete the additional run.
- there?s probably a thousand things wrong with the commentating, they contradict one another when making statements about the same shot, they say things completely unrelated to what?s just occurred and for the large part its pretty much the same as 2002?s commentating.
- sometimes the keys don?t work, everything is pressed as per usual but the batsman doesn?t play a shot.

Is the quality of this software acceptable?? The EA brand has been become synonymous with quality/value for money games, some of the best games ever made have come from the EA stable.? Cricket 2004 tarnishes the EA image and leaves one wondering if EA?s standards are slipping.

What is immediately obvious is that Cricket 2004 was not tested, there are so many blatantly obvious ?bugs? it would impossible for a tester not to see them unless the tester was visually impaired.?

I actually think Cricket 2004 was written for a PS2 console, and what we sit with is a really bad port to the PC platform, further aggravated by what appears to be a complete lack of interest with regards to testing.? If this was/is the case then perhaps EA should take a feather from Rockstars cap, and look at GTA Vice City, to see how the job is properly done.

I am developer myself and I would never release software in this state, it would be embarrassing, I?d rather take the fallout for being late than deliver sub-standard software.? If EA forced this out into the market to meeting marketing deadlines, then I think it was very short-sighted of them and perhaps they can learn something from Valve who irrespective of how late they are will not release Half-Life 2 until they are completely happy with it.

Just ranting and raving,? wondering how long it?s gonna be before theres a patch?

Kirred

I agree with you whole heartedly Kirred.....I've been saying what you've just said for a while now.

 

[HDBird]

I actually think Cricket 2004 was written for a PS2 console, and what we sit with is a really bad port to the PC platform

Well I've got the PS2 version, and I think it was written for PC and the PS2 versions a really bad port! At least you PCers can get a patch for it!

I e-mailed HB studios with a similar list of complaints. They did read it (2 weeks ago now) but not even an acknowledgement. Piss poor that.

 

[barmyarmy]

Yeah, this is the view of most the C2k4 community. The rushed release was to get it out for the xmas market.
Despite a comprehensive bug list being submitted to EA and HB requesting a patch to make the game playable, we haven't even received an acknowledgement from either let alone a reply. On top of this the game is much harder to edit and mod than Cricket 2002 which shortens the games life even more.

 

[rebelINS]

kirred, your major bug is caused, i think, because the pc bowler has gone over his over limit. It can be fixed with the program, SavTweak, by changing your team, changing the due bowler to someone with overs left, saving, quitting and then changing your team back to the original one. I know this really shouldnt have to be done, but at least you can play a full game.

 

[LilMaster]

the math bug u sed how it says 4 fours have been hit and only 12 runs....it might count a four hit on a no ball as a four for the batsman but not count it w/ his runs and counts it as byes....i dunno...jes proposing solutions...

 

[barmyarmy]

Unfortunately not, it's just wrong.

 

[sparky]

Agree with all you say, Kirred. What's really needed is someone else to develop a cricket game, like Konami did with Pro Evolution Soccer. It wasn't until EA's sales dropped that they improved the FIFA series.

There's a fix for the runs not being recorded when there's a third umpire decision as well (if you haven't had this already, you will do soon). Go to Planetcricket.net and download Sam's exe patch.

Has worked for me so far, although I noticed that the batsmen are still at the wrong ends!

Plus the CPU occasionally bowls some no balls now, which it wasn't doing at all before.

The maths thing's annoying but its livable with.

I only get the player on the pitch bug after a wicket has fallen.

As for the commentating, I just turn it off and pretend that the Test Match Special Team are doing it instead.

Ahh, roll on the summer!

 

[barmyarmy]

Check out Scatter's cricket project at Planetcricket when they're back up again.

 

[Slickmeister]

Let's all just hope that the british game is alot better than the watered down aussie version and seen as we are the home of cricket and they have had 3 months since the aussie 1 2 deal wiv complaints about the game and maybe the game will be updated wiv the mistakes corrected or they offer a deal where if you can supply evidence(Receipt) of purchase they will gave you say 50% off a patch that is if they release 1, i mean it is not far on PS2 fans cuz on the pc u can get plenty of patches 2 deal wiv all these needless mistakes on a PS2 u cannot, i feel that Ea Sports should have tested the game 2 as it is their reputation that will get hammered 4 this game, the problem is though that Ea is the only brand that will give us a cricket game, anybody got Codemasters number cuz i wouldn't mind the graphics in brian lara again as long as it was updated wiv the new players cuz the old 1 now has players who are not even playing anymore. The boy who mentioned all them mistakes, respect man. U said wot we were all 2 lazy 2 type.

 

[Sutts375]

I know this has probabley been said before, and developers may not even take an interest, but maybe members of the forrum could contrast a petition to present to Ea or another publisher for another cricket game/developer. At least this would show them there is a market for it. I know that there aren't enough people on this site to make a differrence, but if we could post one around the web I'm sure we could gayher quite a response? :saywhat:

 

[Slickmeister]

I can't see that working every game has it's disappointments lets face it but now they will just take this into account and make them changes hopefully for the 1 which will come out in 2/3 years, besides they won't care because at the minute the ea series of cricket games is 1 of a kind in the gaming market they will think that we cam make our disappointments known but what other game are we gonna buy? There isn't another game, good idea though mate.