Don Bradman Cricket 17 First Impressions Thread

[villafan001]

Righty ho,

I've had a couple of quick half-test matches, one in England and one in India, to try and test the different conditions. Here's me thoughts, for what they're worth.

Edges. First two wickets I got on the greentop were BEAUTIFUL. Defensive shots, beaten by the swing, and feathered through to the keeper. Edges are sorted folks, exactly like Franco's excellent hack.

Spin. Playing on the dustbowl felt different to bowling on the greentop. It just did. The spin bowling mechanics - which are awesome - combined very well with the wicket. Again, this just FELT great, and more importantly - to me at least - it felt like different conditions.

Fielding mini-game. I was nervous about this, but I actually enjoy it. It's not too easy, but not so hard that you'll never catch anything.

So, all in all on the bowling side, it feels great, and in controlling terms it's the best on any cricket game by some way. You can bowl every delivery, and in different conditions and it all feels different. MASSIVE thumbs up from me, as this is the thing I've always wanted from a cricket game.

Batting. To me, batting doesn't feel massively different from DBC14, and I mean that in a good way. I enjoyed batting on that, and I'll continue to do so on 17. I love the new checking the field hub where you can see how good the fielders are.

Cameras. These felt a little bit jumpy initially (fielding wise - batting and bowling wise they're fine) but it took me less than ten minutes of play to get used to it.

Graphics. Looks great: similar to DBC14 but just taken up a notch. And being able to integrate custom images is so cool, it really helps the feel of realism.

AI batsman. This is the only real question mark so far, in that the AI batsman have given it away a bit too easily. Both matches I've had, the opposition have been five down for 40-odd, and some of the shots have been questionable.

HOWEVER:

• I was only playing on Pro difficulty
• I didn't realise that the imported players don't get imported into sensible line-ups. I.e, when I played India, Yuvraj was opening the batting in a test So I could have bowled out a team of bowlers without realising!
• The conditions were the two most challenging for batsmen: green seamer with cloudy overheads and a cracked dustbowl. I haven't played on a so called 'good' wicket yet.

Bugs/odd things. Four of them spring to mind, only two of which actually affects the gameplay (and one of which was hilarious).

1. If you fail the mini-game - which I've done a few times - it takes the nearest other fielder about five seconds to wake up and realise he has to go for the ball. This can usually leak a couple of runs, and is the only thing in the game so far that's genuinely annoying.
2. If you throw the ball to the keeper and the batsman gets in the way, it just cannons off him and another fielder has to get it.
3. (My favourite). If the batsman edges it, the mini-game starts for the keeper. However, if the ball then deflects onto the stumps, the mini game stops - because he's out anyway - but the slow-mo doesn't. So you get a brilliant slow mo of the keeper diving anyway while everyone around him celebrates. It tickled me, and I don't care if it stays in the game
4. If you field by the boundary, your throw will quite often reach another fielder on the circle rather than the keeper/bowler. Trouble is, if you press the same button again to throw it, he throws it back to the fielder on the boundary. Not sure what that's about!

OVERALL

This is a better game than DBC14 already, because it's given bowling the feel of being involved. You feel like you're able to get edges, and that you can set batsmen up. I need to play it a lot more at lots of difficulty settings (and on different pitches) to get a better view of the AI batting, but the mechanics of an outstanding game ARE there.

So, if you've not played it and other posts are making you worried that it's a complete disaster, ignore 'em. So far, so fun, as far as I'm concerned.

Very informative - thanks. On the edges front, are you getting ones going into the slips as well, or are they all feathers behind to the keeper?

 

[JimmysOutswing]

Yup! That's the cool thing. I've had a couple to the keeper, one to slip and one to gully

 

[villafan001]

Yup! That's the cool thing. I've had a couple to the keeper, one to slip and one to gully

Thanks, this is a real game-changer because it will stop the unrealistic "no slips because the ball never goes there" field settings - very exciting!

 

[cricket_online]

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks. When you get time, can you please check if swing/spin sliders work well - I would love to replicate the experience of batting on a dust-bowl against Ashwin and the likes with the ball turning square.

Based on the "Max Pace" and "Ball Marker" sliders they should as well. Changing the sliders makes a big difference. One more thing... earlier I thought you had to quit the match and start a new one for gameplay modifiers/sliders to be effective but I was wrong. You can tweak the sliders in the middle of a match by pausing and going into "Change Settings" menu and they take effect immediately.

I don't think you need to worry about creating your desired gaming experience. For me the two biggest things that need to be improved are the cover & square drives or lack thereof and extremely lax fielding. You can't drive between the arc ranging from extra cover to cover point and you can take ones and twos every ball. You can hit a ball straight to mid off/mid on/point/square leg/extra cover and take a run without much risk and 2s and 3s to the outfielder are pretty common. Combined with an extra cautious AI who takes only 1 when 2s and 3s are on offer does take away from offline matches against AI. I'm hopeful Big Ant will be able to address and patch these two items.

 

[cricket_online]

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE GAME AND CANNOT CATEGORICALLY STATE THAT WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING IS POST PATCH THE STFU!

If you have the game and have not patched it, but post about it anyway, then thanks for your support, but really....

Ross how do I know I've the latest patch? I purchased the game digitally on PS4 and assumed that the patch was included in the game download since I was never given an option to download/install a patch. Is there a way to confirm the same?

 

[UnknownSoul]

Go to the credits on main menu in settings tab

Ross how do I know I've the latest patch? I purchased the game digitally on PS4 and assumed that the patch was included in the game download since I was never given an option to download/install a patch. Is there a way to confirm the same?

 

[FiSh250505]

Based on the "Max Pace" and "Ball Marker" sliders they should as well. Changing the sliders makes a big difference. One more thing... earlier I thought you had to quit the match and start a new one for gameplay modifiers/sliders to be effective but I was wrong. You can tweak the sliders in the middle of a match by pausing and going into "Change Settings" menu and they take effect immediately.

I don't think you need to worry about creating your desired gaming experience. For me the two biggest things that need to be improved are the cover & square drives or lack thereof and extremely lax fielding. You can't drive between the arc ranging from extra cover to cover point and you can take ones and twos every ball. You can hit a ball straight to mid off/mid on/point/square leg/extra cover and take a run without much risk and 2s and 3s to the outfielder are pretty common. Combined with an extra cautious AI who takes only 1 when 2s and 3s are on offer does take away from offline matches against AI. I'm hopeful Big Ant will be able to address and patch these two items.

I'm currently using an India team I downloaded from the academy (not sure who made it, I'll check when I get time) but they've been very aggressive and have run 2's & 3's when the chance has come and even a 4 (in a test, not limited overs) but the England team I'm using were pretty cautious in similar situations so not sure if it's something in the player ratings, the AI with the default teams has been very conservative though.

 

[cricket_online]

I'm currently using an India team I downloaded from the academy (not sure who made it, I'll check when I get time) but they've been very aggressive and have run 2's & 3's when the chance has come and even a 4 (in a test, not limited overs) but the England team I'm using were pretty cautious in similar situations so not sure if it's something in the player ratings, the AI with the default teams has been very conservative though.

I've played with SA, Aus, Eng and NZ so far as they are the ones which were available with updated kits & logos and my experience of the AI has been the same with all of them. In one of the matches the AI could've taken 3 as my fielder had dived near the boundary and was lying down but AI only took one. In another instance AI batsman hit a powerful shot to a fielder in the deep and didn't take any run. Overall AI always take 1 run less than what they can just like they used to in DBC 14 before the patch was applied.

 

[Saeglopur]

I've played with SA, Aus, Eng and NZ so far as they are the ones which were available with updated kits & logos and my experience of the AI has been the same with all of them. In one of the matches the AI could've taken 3 as my fielder had dived near the boundary and was lying down but AI only took one. In another instance AI batsman hit a powerful shot to a fielder in the deep and didn't take any run. Overall AI always take 1 run less than what they can just like they used to in DBC 14 before the patch was applied.

Does this change at all on the higher match difficulty settings? Might be the AI letting you make a few mistakes without being punished on the lower difficulties?

 

[cricket_online]

Does this change at all on the higher match difficulty settings? Might be the AI letting you make a few mistakes without being punished on the lower difficulties?

I've played on harder/Legend difficulty levels as well and the experience has been consistent

 

[bharat]

I got the game for PS4. First thing I did was to download the highest rated teams for India, Australia & England(this by itself is great!). I haven't play a match yet. But I witnessed a AI vs AI match while having breakfast. I'll play a game after I come back from work in the evening.

So my first impression is not on gameplay but visual elements.

• The graphics are not bad at all like some people are complaining! A reviewer with NDTV India had even said this was PS3 level graphics which is nonsense.
• The player animations are smooth.
• The grass actually looks good! (I was one of those who complained about the grass).
• The game hasn't crashed so far for me, I've also downloaded the zero day patch.

The negatives:

• User made teams downloaded form the academy have low-res images on the kits and looks jagged.
• The stadiums looks jagged on the edges of it's roofs and advertisement boards. Maybe this is why a reviewer felt it looks like PS3 graphics. I'm not too keen on these as long as the game is fun to play.
• The switching of camera angles(from bowler's end to batsman's end cam) immediately after a shot is played is annoying.

 

[outbreak]

You meant incorrectly?

No i meat correctly. my average didn't appear to have had 2 50s added my games played was right too but i had 2 50s listed instead of 1. i still have that phantom 50 listed but havent had it repeat on future 50s not sure what happened at first i thought i must have somehow simmed a game but the games played matched.

 

[cricket_online]

Go to the credits on main menu in settings tab

Thanks! Checked and confirmed I have the patch

 

[Kiko_97]

Can somebody please tell me how to take an outfield catch. Dropped too many of them already

 

[Jerm]

Can somebody please tell me how to take an outfield catch. Dropped too many of them already

Point RS towards the ball -- if there is a ball marker on the field get to the centre of it still pointing right stick at the ball! (from the viewpoint of your fielder in the game that is!)