So finally played this game for the past couple of weeks now thats its on game pass. After seeing the initial reviews i opted out of paying full price.
My Initial thoughts
Batting felt a bit more natural in animations
AI Fielding seems to be much improved and more dynamic and keepers don't take a year to whip off the bails making running between the wickets more challenging and fun.
My biggest gripes.
Leg Side shots are Over Powered and AI Bowlers & AI Setting fields are not at all smart and thats been a long running issues in big ant games and honestly with all the "patchs" done its crazy how this hasnt been addressed and infact feels like its been untouched since cricket 19.
For context I play one Xbox One with my brother playing the Ashes and he uses arcade controls I uses pro controls, hes happy to bat 3 feet outside off stump and smash everything on the legside the AI bowling does nothing about this not one attempt even at a yorker on leg stump, just the same 4/5th stump line over and over again whilst we fly at 9 an over constantly on the HARDEST difficulty while minimal changes to block the scoring area.
My solution is if you can't make the AI Bowling smarter then they shouldn't be able to set 7/2 offside fields, should have a minimum of 3 occasionally but mostly 4 on the leg side at all times or make it more difficult to play across the line.
Or if you dont want to do that then add more options for customers sliders for off side, leg side, back foot, front foot shot difficulty just like they have for special shots.
also Arcade and Pro shouldn't be a controls setting it should be a game mode setting, because Aracde is so soo much easier than Pro its like like 2 people playing a different game. Batting is way too forgiving on Arcade.
One thing I think would be cool to see implementation is confidence playing a bigger part. things like
Low confidence - you have to be more precise with your footwork, timing windows are smaller and hitting gaps is way harder and as the the confidence meter increases those things become easier and more forgiving and creating more value of IN batters. And if you play and miss or get hit in the head or are close to a milestone that decreases confidence
I dont think the games actually that far off a really satisfying and challenging experience with a few tweaks But currently I think batting seems too easy, you can go at crazy run rates even on the hardest difficulty without pulling your punches.