Cricket 2004 News and Info

Originally posted by cricketfan1@Dec 2 2003, 01:37 AM
certain rumours tell me that the official site will be launched this coming week ( anytime this week being the first week of december ) also the? 'ea rep' claimed that all areas should be covered by friday ready for launch. before everyone asks where i heared these rumours - a mate of mine sent an e-mail to a webmaster link at www.ea.co.au and he recieved a reply saying they hope to have all basis of the site covered by friday and with a trademark ea reply the launch was then ' very soon '. He sent me the exact link to the mail which was genuine.

To me i expect the site to be another couple of weeks as ea claimed it would be covered by friday but then the launch would be 'very soon' hence that the game has been finished since the last week of October allegedly and the release well what more can i say........


Before i get a backlash of people claiming this is fake etc......
fair enough - your opinion is your opinion, but im just helping you guys out by sharing this info with you that got sent to me from a close mate who wouldnt waste time lying about such irrelevant terms, and bearing in mind i didnt have to share this info with any of you.
Im no fake who gets thrills out of giving false info im bigger and better than the likes of people who do that ( without naming anyone ) like some people who i have seen - i have better things to do with my time.

ill do my best to try and get some more info as i have sent numerous e-mails to easports recently with no word so far - but ill be sure to let you know if i get a reply. The only reply ive had to date was a couple of weeks back when another 'ea rep' claimed release was all on track for early DEC (ps2) which is obviously false information if this slip in release is correct.

even though i have contributed to this speculation about release and the official site etc... i think the best thing we can do is let 'ea' get on with it and take things as they come.
Plzz let us know when the site comes up
And will their be demo of the game??
 
I was just wondering if the format of PC games is the same in Oz as in the UK. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but I better check before ordering it from Oz!
 
I strolled down to EB today and they had Thursday (4th Dec) as release date for PC version in their system. Also the PS2 version release date in their system is on 11th Dec.

The salesman in EB had some good words to say about Cricket 2004 AI. Not sure if its true but he said if you had faced a bowler in a game and had got out to him, the next time around you face the same bowler the confidence level of the batsman will be less. This has not featured in any of the EA interviews; I am kinda surprised why they didn?t speak about this. Hopefully the EB salesman is right and the AI is better we shall hope.
 
Originally posted by ravid@Dec 2 2003, 07:25 AM
I strolled down to EB today and they had Thursday (4th Dec) as release date for PC version in their system.? Also the PS2 version release date in their system is on 11th Dec.

The salesman in EB had some good words to say about Cricket 2004 AI. Not sure if its true but he said if you had faced a bowler in a game and had got out to him, the next time around you face the same bowler the confidence level of the batsman will be less. This has not featured in any of the EA interviews; I am kinda surprised why they didn?t speak about this. Hopefully the EB salesman is right and the AI is better we shall hope.
thats a great feature! :thumbs:
 
oh no oh no....i tend to play alot of stupid shots...and most of me players will be low on confidence.... :wacko:
 
if it is true then it has to be one of the best featues of the game.
 
actually the confidence meter was mentioned in one of the interviews i read, cause he said how batsmen will have a better chance of playign big shots against bad bowlers cause their confidence will be higher. Whereas against the opening bowlers, the shots would be less impressive. I swear I read that somewhere in the EA interview!
 
everybody knows bout the confidence meter but we didnt know bout the avobe mentioned feature.
 
Guys,

I've found this interview on internet:


Cricket 2004 Preview
By Alex Kidman, GameSpot AU

Developer:
HB Studios

Publisher:
EA Sports

Release Date:
7/12/2003

By any measure, HB Studios' Andrew Wilson is a busy man. Fresh off the launch of Rugby 2004, he's busily pushing his team to go further and do one better, developing Cricket 2004, due for Australian release on December 7th. We caught up with Andrew via the phone from New Zealand, where he was finalising licensing details with the New Zealand Cricket Board, en route to the UK for the final burst of development and quality assurance for the PS2 version of the game. We were also able to spend some time with an early build of the game; our impressions of that are below.

Cricket 2004 will feature a batting confidence meter that could spell the difference between a blistering six or a duck.

Like Rugby, Cricket isn't as big a meal ticket for EA as their established FIFA and Madden franchises, and while the previous game in the series, Cricket 2002 was reasonably well received, there were still plenty of things that niggled with true cricketing fans, many of whom will be expecting big new things from the updated title.

On the subject of new content in Cricket 2004, Wilson was energetic in response. "The content changes are major, especially with the introduction of the Pura and ING cups, and the English county cricket, as well as the domestic seasons that are part of that environment" he said. "The player editor is another big content jump. There's a lot more gameplay in 2004 than in 2002. We don't get these games out every year, so we wanted to make sure that there was plenty for gamers to do. That was something that we took a lot of criticism for with Cricket 2002; that it was all over and done with too quickly."

"One of the bigger bits of feedback we got from Cricket 2002 was that the wicket keeper wouldn't field properly, that the AI wasn't there." he said. "It is now. We've also improved the rain, which was another area that people complained about in Cricket forums."

Cricket 2004 will feature a season mode in common with other EA Sports franchise modes. "Within the single player game you can choose what's now called the World League" said Wilson. "You have a team that you choose, let's say the QLD Bulls, or the NSW Speed Blitz Blues, and you can promote players, buy, sell and trade them, take them on tour for one day or test competitions. We want to give gamers a great deal of longevity in their gameplay. We're quite happy that we've managed to get so many options into the gameplay."

Wilson says that there is some content from Cricket 2002 that has survived into the current version, although, as the new title has been build using the Renderware engine, "the elements in there that were in Cricket 2002 have been modified and placed on top of Renderware." He's keen to point out his team's cricketing experience. "The base development team that's worked on Cricket 2004 have, first and foremost been a Cricket development team", he said. "They've worked on Cricket games for a long, long time, right the way back to the Brian Lara Cricket days, then to Cricket 2002 and now on Cricket 2004. Developing Rugby 2004 has allowed us to learn the Renderware platform, and combined with what we learned developing Cricket 2002 has allowed us to make Cricket 2004 a really cool game."

Wicket keepers in Cricket 2004 will now sport realistic AI. We're not sure if that will include sledging, though.

From our play session with an earlier Alpha build, it appeared to us that the control scheme for Cricket 2004 was largely identical to that of Cricket 2002, but Wilson promises more in store for Cricket fans in the control department. "There's a lot that we've implemented into the game in the current build, which is still in development" he said. "The one new thing that I love is the batting confidence meter. If you put a really good batsman against a really bad bowler, their confidence will be higher, and they'll tend to play really good shots. Conversely, a good bowler will cause the batsman's confidence to fall down and they'll play less impressive shots."

"We've done a lot with the game to make it feel more realistic in terms of timing and impact. It's a little hard to describe. There's a big thing, if you play a lot of cricket, about the sound and the feel as the willow hits the leather, and we've tried to focus on getting that feel into the game."

Cricket 2004 isn't just a PS2 exclusive, however. It'll be followed up by a PC version a few weeks later, although that title is still in final development stages. One thing promised for the PC version is the ability to save highlights, something that Wilson is coy about discussing. "The PC version is currently a little behind the PS2 version as far as development is concerned" he said. "The focus is on the PS2 version, and that allows the PC version a little more development time, given that we don't have the Sony approval stage to go through for that version. The amount of saving and exactly what that will entail is still a variable at this stage."
 
To say the least, am extremely excited abt this Confidence meter thingy. Just glad that Mcgrath wont smash a Tuffey or a Khan for a first ball six, unlike Cricket 2002 which relied on the principal- all for one, one for all!!! O wells...all these superfluous features are makin me a lil more phylosophical, so cant really help it ;D:

Any ideas on how a exactly a test tour wud work? whether we get to play warmup games aswell, or not?
 
well as i see it....they said u take a plane to the country and then u play warm teams followed by the actual test and odi series....or u can host it, i think, but they havent mentioned anything about hositing but i think that is something u dont haveto ask...it should be there
 
guys when is the official site of Cricket 2004 gonna come up
Only 1 week is left for release and still EA arent posting info
 
im hoppin to get crk 2k4 in oak we i go on dec 4 to jan 5th

hope i get it!
 
mani we r the developers of the game and we dont know when the website will coeme but i willa sk my boss :lol:

Relax mani...we wont know...we r asking the same questions and we really dont know the EA team
 

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