Review Demo impressions thread

PC Demo -- AI pacing completely off?!

Has anyone else felt that the AI pacing in the PC demo is just completely off, esp. in comparison with the X360 demo?

By this I mean, in the X360 demo, playing on hard, if I make around 30+ in 3 overs, the AI almost always gets close. It even tied the game once off a four of the last ball...pretty neat.

However, in the PC demo, in the 4 games I've played so far on hard, the AI landed up making <10 chasing 30+ in each case! It was a lot more defensive and hardly looked like it was chasing my total. I was playing as Eng in all the cases. Anyone else had similar experiences?
 
Ahh, Finally got some time to give my impressions. So there you go.

Right after installation, i dived into Hard mode without playing a match in easy or normal. Result? A spanking by AI. Played some matches in easy then normal and then a lot in Hard.

Graphics: 7.5/10
Although graphics are not the strongest point of this game but they do their job. Infact there are some mocaps(read: motion capture) which look absolutely terrific. For example keeper diving forward to take low catch,running backwards to take skier, ponitg diving in point to take spectacular catches of cover drives. Although i was expecting a polished BLIC 07 with good gameplay but same animations but believe me the demo has shattered my that believe. Baring some shots, none of them look anything like BLIC 07. I'll talk bout this in a separate section below. Apart from bowling actions other mocaps looks good. Although it might be he case that to reduce the size they have used just one generic action in demo. Shadows are really good, infact i would dare to say that this game has graphics on the level on PES 09.

Audio/Ambient/Commentary: 6/10.
Nothing to write home bout, even big sports game like fifa had this problem. No matter how much commentary lines developers put in the game, we would have heard all of them by the months end. Moreover, commentary of a game cannot be judged by its demo. Demo commentary was just to give a taste otherwise how could Commentator miss to mention anything when Freddie was busy taking 4 wicket on 4 balls against me.
Crowd chants are nice and so are the ambient sounds.

Presentation: 10/10

It is better than FIFA. Yeah you heard me right. I dare say that the presentation of AC 09 is better than that LAME FIFA 09. Infact it is far far better than any other sports game in the market. Great translucent menu over slow mo video with a song which gives a feeling that something great is bout to happen. Perfect setting for a game like AC09. Scorecard is over the screen line which shows players score and then bowlers speed after the ball is delivered. First time we can select between wicket/score and score/wicket type scorecard. Great addition. The hawkeye and ball tracker are awesome and feel really like live broadcast.

Shots Available:

This time around there are far more shots then any other cricket game ever had. You would argue why is that as AC09's batting control scheme is almost same as EA Cricket 07? Well you would see the change when you play a batman with higher level of confidence and skill. What happens when you try to play a lofted hook of a fullish ball in EA?? You either miss the ball or get bowled. But in AC09 batsman walks across his crees and whip it on the leg side in a calypso style.(Similar shot which bloke named Rohit Sharma used to play in IPL). Same thing happens with sweep shot, if the ball is full enough you play sweep, but if the ball is slightly shorter then you play paddle sweep. There would be a lot of shots like this in the game ,its up to you to discover. I guess we all would be spending a lot of time in the nets.

Gameplay: 9/10
.I wont bore you now with the explanation of batting controls as it has already been discussed to death. In simple words batting is hard and very very realistic. Only perfectly timed shots or top edges would have any chance to reach the boundary. Sometimes even perfectly timed shot wont reach the boundary. Due to this, even a 4 feels as if we have earned it and hitting 6 is like bulls eye(is have played 20 Hard level matches but just 3 sixes). This introduce running quick singles and stealing runs using dive. I was disappointed to see that we cannot take more that 4 runs on foot as in real life it is possible in big grounds like MCG. Hate it or love it but the skills of players in the game are dynamic. They change based on performance. I Saw Pietersen had skill reduced to 77 after 4 matches in which i played him badly. In next few matches i played good and his skill was back up to 80. I checked this again and again with him and Bopara. Here are my findings: In the match if you perform well then your skill improve very quickly. Pieterson reached a level like 92 while batting once. But this 92 skill isnt carried. Computer calculates something and add a very small part to his standard skill level. Thus if he was 80 before match,92 while batting then in next match he would be 81 or 82. Same thing works with bowler. Swann had a rating of 69. Thus he cannot bowl a doosra which require 70. Bowl a double wicket maiden(thats what worked for me) to increase his stats and in next over you could bowl doosra. This function would work like charm in real game. Like if you wanna prevent Harbhajan from bowling doosra then attack him when he start his spell and decrease his skill. Even in real life he wouldnt think bout bowling doosra while he is being smacked all over the park.

AI:
AI is really strong while batting. I won some matches but i was never able to take more than 1 or 2 wickets. This should make those test match purist who wanna play the match all day while spilling beer all over the keyboard. If you have a problem with certain bowl then AI would continuously bowl you there. Grrrr! Freddie bowled me when i was late on his yorker, thus he kept bowling that and got a hattrick against me.

Physics: I dont know if they are using Physx or Havok but whatever they had used for ball physics and collision etc is a bloody gem. No more ball going right through the pads. Thus we get a lot of inside edges. Bal physics is awesome. Edges fly a little faster now.

Some Physics Magic Moments:
*Strauss was batting, Siddle bowled a good length shortish ball wide of off stump. I tried to pull it on the leg side but got a inside edge on to the left foot of Strauss. In a second strasuss was hopping in pain. Ridiculously realistic.

*Defending a short ball on the backfoot, ball came higher than expected and thus hit the top of the gloves and then helmet. Un-flippingly-believable.

*Needed 3 runs of last ball. Swann was on strike against lee. Lee bowled a fullish ball. I stepped out to whack it but got a thick inside edge just left to the keeper. Keeper dived full length to his left but couldnt reach and i got valuable 4 runs. I was like WTF just happened. WAs i playing a game or was it a real match. I saw the replay and it was really classic.Not only this as a inside edge but it has gone between batsman and leg stump.

*Everyones fav, Hit a perfect straight drive straight to cook who got hit on arm, Rubs it in pain.

*This isnt a Physics moment but is great one thus i would write. AI needed 4 runs of last 3 balls. Ponting came to bat. He defended first ball, then second ball. I thought i got the match in my hand. Then bang 6 on the last ball.
Cons:
Evil Camera angles just after hitting the shot.:doh
No Antialiasing
No streakers;)
No Cheerleader:banana2
As you can see i am struggling to find any con besides some cosmetic one which would surely be fixed in final build. Thus this is a must buy game of the summer

Overall Verdict: 9/10


I have a lot more to write bout but havta stop now. Would write more later.

Cheers
This is the most positive review of the demo and I loved it. Great work mate. I really loved the inside edge to toe and helmet strike thing. Lets hope full game is even better and some of the more annoying bugs like AI Runouts get sorted out. I am sure Transmission guys have been visiting these thread. Can they confirm that these things will be ironed out in the final game?
 
Yes this game is ridcously realistic I mean I remember I was playing and I scored over 35 runs in 3 overs yet the next match I GOT ALL OUT FOR 9! I was obviously playing on Hard and bowling is unbelievably difficult yet I have got the best wicket ever bowled it outside offstump at good length and Bopara (I was playing as the Aussies) goes for a strong drive the covers and I swung it in and it goes through both of Bopara's legs for a huge bowled.

Some say that it is simple to get sixes which can be true depending on the length and you have to be a consistintly good timer of the ball. To hit a six you must dance down the wicket to most likely a good length ball or sometimes even a short length ball. But most of the time I bat the team bowls a little bit fuller that good which means I cannot do that. I do get run out a lot along with the fact that I get nearly slip caught every other ball going for a four through the covers. I just do not understand how people can just say its so easy when its not.


BTW ummm idk if anyone knows this but if you are a silver member for XBL then the game is out cheers guys enjoy it! I downloaded it today and I'm lovin it hope you do!
 
Ok after finally getting my controller to work I can write a review based on the few games I played. This review is based on Normal mode.

Batting
Batting Zone
I usually don't use a controller for cricket games so my review might be a bit bias.
The batting system is awesome, in particular the 360 control which allows you to place the ball which I believe is a first for cricket games. You are rewarded for playing the shots manually rather than using the default Auto button from a smaller direction zone allowing you to place the ball more precise compared to the Auto button. The batters rating determines how big the placement zone is.

Front foot shots
Playing an attack front foot shot to the yorker length deliveries has resulted in numerous outside edges for me, some falling short, some going to hand. I will say the animation for this doesn't feel as realistic as it could be. The ball doesn't fly off the edge like it does in real life but rather seems to bobble which I wouldn't expect for an attacking shot.

I have managed to get the odd cover drive and straight drive away but most seems to find the fielder. The majority of my front foot shots have resulted in outside edges though. Also the outfield feels a bit slow (probably is realistic given the poor drainage system at this ground) as I timed a number of shots perfectly but either the ball would pull up or the fielder would get to it.

Back foot shots
Playing the pull shot and hook shot comes pretty easy on this level with most of my shots being either good or perfectly timed. A big change compared to my front foot shot where I usually got outside edges. I do like how they have allowed you more time to play the shot on the back foot compared to the front.

As I have mentioned before, I don't know about being able to pull full balls on the back foot. In saying that when they show the ball pitching from above it is a bit further back than it is shown from the default view. I didn't really try this out with the new controls though so maybe it was just cause I was playing with the keyboard.

Auto
The auto foot (front/back foot) seems to play most of the shots on the back foot. I have attached a picture which shows the AI playing the back foot for me on a ball that was hitting the stumps mid way up. Needless to say I found the reason why I was getting bowled out by Flintoff's full ball when playing an attacking shot! It wasn't because of my poor timing, rather the computer was picking the wrong foot for me.

AI
The AI keeps out the good balls and punishes anything loose. Still yet to see them hit a 6 against my wayward bowling but they place the ball very well with very few loose balls going to a fielder.

Bowling
Pacemen
So far I have bowled with Lee, Johnson and Siddle. Bowling as Lee I had my most accurate display forcing the AI to block the majority of the over conceding 6 runs. Enter Siddle, and suddenly the AI seems to want to hit me for 4. I failed to get a wicket for my run today although yesterday I managed to get a number of chances to catch the ball. I still haven't got an edge so my bowling needs work.

I can't tell if the ball is swinging but it certainly isn't much if it is.

Spin
As seems to be the problem with most cricket games, you feel you are hitting the normal spinner length when in actual fact you are bowling a bit too short and the AI is playing you comfortable off the front foot. I found it was better using the bowling cursor on default which brought the AI forward. Again I hardly noticed the spin, I was able to rotate the cursor but it didn't spin from the naked eye.

Still struggling to find how to flight the ball and how to bowl slower with a spinner. I hope I'm just missing the button for this as this is a major weapon for a spinner.

AI
The AI seems to have two lengths (I think they based this on Lee ;) These are the yorker or very full deliver and the short ball. I did see the AI pitch a few that were in the corridor of uncertainty but in general it was those two lengths.

Fielding
As mentioned I didn't get any catches during my matches today but I had a few yesterday. Some how I managed to catch a few even though I didn't know what button was catch! There was one time where the fielder juggled the ball and it looked like he caught it but it seems he dropped it.

I like the fact you can pick the end that you want to throw to.

One bug I noticed is the fielders take a while to notice that no one is fielding the ball when you hit it in a gap or if you edge a ball with no slips. One occasion I hit the ball to the outfield and I was running my 4th run before the AI noticed and sent the keeper. They stopped me at 5 runs but I could have run at least 2 more as the fielder was still no where near the ball.

Running
I don't know about this Queue feature they have as you don't know how many runs you have on queue. The dive feature is awesome and its good to see only the batsmen in danger dives rather than two batters diving for no reason.

AI running is a bit dodgy, they even wanted to run when the ball was next to the stumps :facepalm

Commentary
It is as dwell as it sounds from the videos posted. No energy in the box even when a wicket is taken. No flow what so ever and asking Warne to comment about batting is a bit silly.

Sound
I bearly noticed the crowd, they didn't seem to be very energetic and took a while to respond to wickets. So did the fielders for that matter, they seem to wait another second after they already caught it before they celebrate. And their celebration is all that ecstatic.

Graphics
The graphics look great as shown in the screenshots. I took a close up of the Aussie kit and you can see the detail in the kit. Some of the faces are way off real life but hopefully that can be fixed with patching. Stadium looks realistic enough although I haven't seen much of it. Its great to have the ground scoreboard working.

The menu is alright, TBH I probably preferred the BLIC07 one.

In summary, the game is a joy to play. You no longer can slog at will which is a good change and its not ridiculously hard like Cricket 07 where you had to get yourself in before you could time the ball. The bowling system is probably the best for a cricket game although I still need lots of practice on that aspect.
 

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I have noticed some differences in pc and 360 demo may be its just me as i have played the demo a lot on 360.
1.The game looks easier on Pc hard mode as compared to xbox 360 demo hard mode.
2. Camera angles have been fixed.
3. The graphics looked better on my pc than 360 on my 8600gts as i was able to see the ball in the outfield.
4. Players run little faster now towards the ball.

All changes are good except the game getting easier which i hope is my mistake, any one experienced these differences.
 
I downloaded this demo at 6 and finished at 11. It took me another 25 minutes just to load it. Anyway the menu was fantastic. I knew I had a crappy computer and game was two or one days old so I went to the graphics and lowered just the resolution and the Special Effects. I started the match and I got a framerate of 2 a second. I didn't know how to quit so I suffered 3 overs of horrible framerate.



Eventually I got to know that Shadows were the major cause of low framerate. It took me a while to get used to the controls - 3 hours in fact. :p The game's really fun; great graphics and gameplay. The ground was well made and the crowd was awesome. In batting, you have to get perfect timing to hit a four. Short deliveries are...rather easy. On fuller deliveries I usually get an outside edge. As usual I found bugs.



Sometimes one of the runner decides to stand in the middle of the pitch, his bat not in the crease and ends up being run out. Another running problem is that batsmen look for another run while it's extremely dangerous. This usually happens when the batsmen complete a run just before a fielder picks up the ball. Unlike EA C07, they actually cancel runs, look for a risk and dive rather then just take a two when there's time for a 3, take one when there's time for two, and take none when there's time for one.


The catching system is great but it's really laggy for me so I just smash Enter repeatedly. Flintoff looks like Siddle, Lee looks like Broad and Anderson looks like Johnson.


Well that's all that I can think up about now (and so ends my longest post ever. :p)
 
The sounds are pretty awful. They sound out of place, the appealing is hilarious. "Howzzzzy" lol who appeals like that?

The sound of bat on ball is not good either, hope they change it before the final build on console.

One of the most fun parts of the game is dropping the ball in the gaps for singles using the defensive shots. That feels like cricket!
 
Took me ages to get this one, it is P instead of Esc (as I'd been mashing)

Lol glad to know I'm not the only one. It took more than one round of mashing because I didn't think it would be a letter key. If I read the loading screen for the bowling controller I would have figured this out a lot quicker.

But if you do want to exit, alt + F4 works.
 
Lol glad to know I'm not the only one. It took more than one round of mashing because I didn't think it would be a letter key. If I read the loading screen for the bowling controller I would have figured this out a lot quicker.

But if you do want to exit, alt + F4 works.

that screen changes so quickly that I had to screenshot it just to read them!
 
I have noticed some differences in pc and 360 demo may be its just me as i have played the demo a lot on 360.
1.The game looks easier on Pc hard mode as compared to xbox 360 demo hard mode.
2. Camera angles have been fixed.
3. The graphics looked better on my pc than 360 on my 8600gts as i was able to see the ball in the outfield.
4. Players run little faster now towards the ball.

All changes are good except the game getting easier which i hope is my mistake, any one experienced these differences.

Thats interesting....they have made few changes to pc demo which means there might be few changes in the final product aswell. e.g camera angle etc. i hope hard on 360 doesnt change though. anyway, 13 more days to go for 360 users.....cant wait!:doh
 
Anyone here able to tell who are commentaters.sorry if this question is being answered.:)
 
i will purchase the game only if Tony Greig is one of the commentators!!
 
Right - finally got a few games in lastnight on the PC Demo

Must say I was impressed especially after a moment when i was batting with Bopara and Johnson bowled a jaffa of a delivery right in the corridor, I tried a booming cover drive away from my body and it resulted in a fine nick behind to the keeper. I thought wow as it just looked and felt realistic. I was waiting for moments like this in cricket games for a long time so hopefully this game turns out to be very promising although I need to play a lot more to get a general feel for the game. But 1st impressions are great :)
 

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