I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and bought a copy of Windows 7 to install on my fairly old (late 2009) Macbook, on the the off chance that Cricket Academy would work?and after much time and effort spent installing windows, installing drivers so it recognised the graphics card (Geforce 9400M) and downloading drivers so I could use my PS3 controller it actually worked! Obviously this little review isn't going to of interest to many as most have been creating players and playing in the nets for months, but I thought I'd share my view.
The interface is great. Very clean and just looks quality. The player creator?insane! I spent at least an hour creating myself and I'm sure there's more i could do. Quite overwhelmed by just how good it is. I had a browse through some of the teams done by members on here and there is some seriously good work - looking forward to download these when I get the game in March.
Now the important bit - nets. I set it up so it'd be fairly easy (or so I thought) and with the following on the bowling machine: fast, seam, over the wicket, random lengths?I sucked. It actually feels fast. I felt a sense of pride/relief when I managed to dead-ball a few deliveries down into the ground! I'm not sure if it was my computer lagging a bit, but the reaction time needed is bloody quick. On medium it was a touch easier, but I was still struggling, so i switched to spin. Much more my style! Decided to defend every ball thinking i'd 'stick around', but sadly not, fourth ball edged in the direction of 2nd slip and 9th ball a feather to the keeper. No pre-meditation or repetitive tactics are going to work it seems, which is of course a good thing.
What I like best is how they have captured the realism when it comes to playing strokes. With a spinner there is a greater time gap between foot movement and playing the stroke and this is replicated in the game - being able to kind of feel as if I'm doing this with the left and right sticks is great. And of course the opposite is true for fast bowling; there is very little time between foot movement and playing the stroke, which again is replicated well in the game by the need to have them within pretty much at exactly the same time. You feel hurried into playing.
Another thing I love are the little things that have been missing from cricket games: realistic edges and close catches. I popped up an easy catch to short leg from a mistimed backwards defensive to a fast, short ball a few times; popped up a catch in silly points direction after attempted a forward defensive to a ball that shouldn't have even been played at and edged behind to the keeper a few times as well as in the direction of 2nd slip and gully. It's little things like this make the game (in my opinion) and make it realistic. Of course I haven't played the full game but to see these in the nets is very, very encouraging.
Shot selection is varied - timing appears to make a big difference, which again makes it feel more realistic and gives you far greater control as if you were actually playing. I did try to play the same shot to every ball, but as i said above it didn't work to spin and it didn't work to pace either.
As for cameras - pro-mode was impossible! Close batsmen cam was ok, the broadcast cams didn't feel right but far batsmen was spot on. I'll definitely be using this one in game.
The only minor gripe I have is the movement of the batsman. In actual cricket all shots, except for advancing down the pitch, pretty much use the back leg as a pivot, so there shouldn't be too much lateral movement across the crease. However in the nets at times the batsman was suddenly shifted right across to one side or the other depending on which way i moved. In my opinion using the back leg as a pivot for movement, would be more realistic and give an even greater sense of control. For example, moving the left stick back/right and the right stick right - the batsman would step across with his back leg and cut the ball, without completely shifting the player right across, whereas sometimes this was causing the player to move right across. Any of that make sense?!
On the whole i am effin' impressed by it and cannot wait to play the real thing. Gonna go and play it some more now
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