there's one more page :-
One thing that was very clear to us was that Cricket 2004 was a significantly better looking game than its predecessor, and even at this early stage it looked better than Rugby 2004. HB Studios did a new round of motion captures for the game, something that Wilson says has led to the better visual style. "There's even more motion capture in the newer builds than has currently been seen; in the older builds there were missing frames, and it now runs much more smoothly and looks a lot better" he said. "The whole game looks better; if you've seen Rugby 2004, well, there's a lot more detail going into Cricket 2004."
Cricket 2004 features 75 stadia to choose from, although mum's back yard seems conspicuously absent.
Cricket 2004 also brings with it a factor that was present in Rugby 2004 in the form of a player editor. Given a certain well-known player's issues with diuretics earlier in the year, we suspect that there will be a fair amount of interest in this feature. In the build we saw, elements were still somewhat rudimentary, but again Wilson is confident that fans will appreciate the final product. "Our art team has finished the major models, and it's now working on the finer details for player creation." he said. "Time is always pressing on a project like this -- we'd love to get more and more content in, but the publisher will always need the game to be finished by a certain date. We're certainly getting more stuff into that area, in terms of models and extra attributes. Ultimately the final amount of stuff we get in there will be governed by time as we move into the final couple of weeks of development."
As any gamer knows, EA Sports tends to regularly update its game franchises -- in the case of its major franchises, on an annual basis. On that subject, Wilson is cautiously optimistic. "he Cricket market is a difficult market to work in, but I love it -- it keeps me employed!" he said. "It's always hard to predict how sales will go. Games are so expensive to produce these days, and I'm always trying to grow the Cricket market, so that we can build bigger and better games. I've definitely got business plans submitted for future Cricket & Rugby products, however, with a view to making them bigger and better titles moving forward."
We were able to spend some time with an early Alpha build of the game, and at this stage we can see why Andrew's so enthusiastic; while the game itself is still a little rough around the edges the improvements from Cricket 2002 are immediately evident. Our biggest complaint with the earlier game was the animations of fielders just stopping still like rockery statues, and while some frames were still a little dicey, it's clearly an area where HB Studios has put in a lot of work, as the game moves much more smoothly and realistically now. While some of the issues with visual appearance from Rugby 2004 are still present -- and the game certainly doesn't match up to, say, the visuals of a Madden or NBA Live title -- the small detail present from some camera angles is very good.
The build that we looked at offered 3 difficulty levels across the usual EA Sports style menu structure. So you can jump into a game with the usual 'Play Now' option, explore the options in Game Modes, tweak options in (what else?) the options screen and create players via what's currently called Team Management. Game modes include the obligatory one day and test exhibition options, as well as the challenges mode that sets you specific tasks. While some of these are quite simple - score a 6 or bowl a maiden over -- there are some that will take some endurance, such as playing a 200-run partnership. Thankfully, you can save mid-challenge, so the game shouldn't reduce your thumbs to worn stubs.
The player editor, while a little rudimentary in this Alpha build, allowed you to build players from 13 nations, with 11 different body types, 24 faces (which included skin tones). Further to this, players can have any of 13 different batting and 15 different bowling attributes, as well as fielding and miscellaneous attributes. If creating players doesn't interest you, the choices of teams is still quite extensive, drawn from the Australian, English, New Zealand and South African squads, Australian and English domestic teams as well as a number of special teams such as the Prime Minister's XI.
Without the umpire to pour scorn on, it just wouldn't be, well, Cricket.
From a control perspective the alpha build played remarkably like Cricket 2002, although as noted above we're promised more in this department. If you've not played the previous game, though, the nets are a good first berth; in-between deliveries they'll give specific help on improving your skills. As promised, the wicket keeper did indeed field intelligently, at least on automatic fielding; when we switched over to manual fielding things were a little worse, but that was more to do with our weak cricketing skills. On the subject of fielding, a large number of fielding deployments can be made, along with 5 custom settings that can be saved and re-used if you wish.
HB Studios is promising 3D stadium crowd sounds that react to the play, although this didn't appear to be present in the build we looked at. Richie Benaud and Jim Maxwell handle the commentary duties, although that too wasn't entirely completed in our preview build, with somewhat amusing results. As a placeholder for voice samples yet to be implemented, Richie says "HB Studios", which led to a line where he introduced a game between Australia and HB Studios, with the lead batsman being HB Studios. Naturally, HB Studios was doing the bowling as well. Alpha quirks aside, the commentary audio responded well to the onfield action and certainly adds to the authentic atmosphere of the game.
Cricket 2004 looks to be a very promising product, and that can only be good news for game-hungry Cricket fans. We'll have more on this title as it gets closer to release in early December, so stay tuned.
