Review: First Impressions of DB14 on PC

[inertSpark]

Still, it would be nice if we could at least move the keeper closer to the stumps in conditions where he seems to be often collecting it at his toes.

Definitely this. Coupled with a more realistic physical model for edge deflection, this would make the slip setup much more viable against the AI.

 

[dale0404]

Perhaps then it's just that the matches I've played so far have had pitch conditions which have led me to that conclusion.

Still, it would be nice if we could at least move the keeper closer to the stumps in conditions where he seems to be often collecting it at his toes.

It could even be that most of my pace bowling has been with my career mode player, who maybe extracts less bounce from the pitch due to low attributes? He is also 5ft10 (178cm) so not too tall for a pace bowler. Actually now I think about it those two factors are probably quite important although that said, I didn't notice a dramatic difference when using the England test side except getting significantly more swing.

Darren Gough used to generate enough bounce and he was 2 foot 6 by some accounts!

 

[zaff4444]

Darren Gough used to generate enough bounce and he was 2 foot 6 by some accounts!

2 foot 6

 

[Hooper]

2 foot 6

lmao. not literally. he was barely 5 foot 7 though!

ive added you on steam btw... keen on an online game in the future.

 

[inertSpark]

lmao. not literally. he was barely 5 foot 7 though!

It's all in the arm speed and the jump. Goughy had pretty powerful shoulders to drive those arms around, and he could get quite airborne during his jump phase

 

[Alberts]

Regarding edges, I've had quite a few of them in my career mode from my bowling to the CPU on Veteran difficulty, probably quite a nice frequency of them, but none have found the slips - they have all been really thin snicks which are comfortable for the keeper or just fail to carry to him.

They still look and feel much more realistic and satisfying though than in any previous cricket game, although there is room for improvement with a bit of tweaking.

I also think that perhaps pace bowling in general should carry through to the keeper with a bit more 'venom' if that makes sense. Apart from with bouncers it seems the keepers take everything very comfortably and at quite a low height. Not really being very specific/descriptive here but I'm trying to be constructive .

I'd also like to echo the sentiments of zim and Alberts on this page - this community interaction is excellent. To keep it up after release as well and take onboard so much feedback and continue to support the product is outstanding.

I think we should be able to set the distance our slips are away, but that's a whole other story.

On edges though, how often is a "good number" to you, since edges should make up about 4-5 out of 10 in Australian and English conditions.

 

[Wavelberry]

I think we should be able to set the distance our slips are away, but that's a whole other story.

On edges though, how often is a "good number" to you, since edges should make up about 4-5 out of 10 in Australian and English conditions.

I've had 3 edges so far in an innings of bowling and all 3 have led to wickets. One was a bonafide swinging ball outside edge to the 'keeper while two were top edges from a cut onto the stumps. No other edges in 61 overs of bowling.

 

[Alberts]

I've had 3 edges so far in an innings of bowling and all 3 have led to wickets. One was a bonafide swinging ball outside edge to the 'keeper while two were top edges from a cut onto the stumps. No other edges in 61 overs of bowling.

The most I've got is 6 in an innings, 4 were wickets, in 65 overs. That being the max. The rest are more around the 0-2 mark. Since 4-5 should be about average, the one of getting 6 being the odd one out seems a bit odd.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

I think we should be able to set the distance our slips are away, but that's a whole other story.

On edges though, how often is a "good number" to you, since edges should make up about 4-5 out of 10 in Australian and English conditions.

In career mode, I've had two wickets from edges to the keeper in an innings three times now, which seems about right to me for a single bowler although I've never had any go to the slips or fly between the keeper and slips for 4 etc.

I haven't really played entire first class innings as the whole team yet so as for how accurately the modes of dismissal occur in that regard I'm not in much of a position to say.

 

[dazzazzad22]

Only heard about DBC14 a few days ago, amazed at a cricket game getting good reviews. Having now played a handful of T10 games on amateur a few early impressions.

First up, the reviews were right. It's no NBA2k but compared to the low bar set by other cricket games, they've really excelled. It's fun to play, it plays like cricket and the menus and options feel modern.

A few early gripes, some of which may be attributed to the difficulty level.

1 - The ball speed after a shot is too fast. Has anyone run a 3 without an overthrow? It always races to the fielder. Taking a run to mid on/off is suicide whereas in real cricket if it's to his weaker hand and underhit a bit then you'd comfortably be able to take that run.

2 - Fielders throwing is way too accurate and powerful. Saw a guy do a reverse underarm from the boundary to the stumps.

3 - Dive to the boundary should result in a slide and pull back of the ball. Right now the guy slides over the ropes with the ball and it doesn't look great. Some of the interception angles are off as well. Fine leg should run along the boundary to intercept but he goes straight at the ball which then passes him by.

4 - More variety of shots would be great and more animations. Don't like seeing Morne Morkel drive the ball like Jacques Kallis. Also in my limited time I haven't felt much difference between batsmen. I do as well or even better with lower order batsmen.

5 - I can't get the batting/bowling hud to show up. Everything is ticked in the HUD menu options.

6 - Commentary is awful and inaccurate.

7 - Replays need to just show the best part. A replay never begins from the beginning of a bowlers run up. In the end I normally skip it because of impatience.

8 - The keeper and slips need work. The delivery either carries through too slowly or they are too far back because even a 140 kph delivery has the keeper coming forward to take it with the slip fielder having had time to move behind the keeper. Just doesn't feel like real cricket and also haven't seen any edges to slips yet.

9 - Speaking of edges, just played a game where my SA spinners got 5 edges caught by the keeper. Against India. At Newlands.

10 - Am I correct in saying right stick pressed down is a leave? Because quite often I play forcefully with the stick but the batsman does a leave instead of a shot.

I think that's about it. Makes it sound like I hate the game but certainly not the case, it's just that there's a long way to go for the cricket game of my dreams. I'm just thankful that the first proper step has finally been taken.

----------

Oh and...

11 - I have yet to see a no ball.

 

[Alberts]

In career mode, I've had two wickets from edges to the keeper in an innings three times now, which seems about right to me for a single bowler although I've never had any go to the slips or fly between the keeper and slips for 4 etc.

I haven't really played entire first class innings as the whole team yet so as for how accurately the modes of dismissal occur in that regard I'm not in much of a position to say.

That's one bowler, in 3 match. That is a insignificant sample size. Try a whole team (Human to AI) over the course of 10 or so matches at a minimum to start establishing a pattern. It should be around the 4-5 edged wickets per 10, it's not, something needs to be checked.

 

[Alberts]

Only heard about DBC14 a few days ago, amazed at a cricket game getting good reviews. Having now played a handful of T10 games on amateur a few early impressions.

First up, the reviews were right. It's no NBA2k but compared to the low bar set by other cricket games, they've really excelled. It's fun to play, it plays like cricket and the menus and options feel modern.

A few early gripes, some of which may be attributed to the difficulty level.

1 - The ball speed after a shot is too fast. Has anyone run a 3 without an overthrow? It always races to the fielder. Taking a run to mid on/off is suicide whereas in real cricket if it's to his weaker hand and underhit a bit then you'd comfortably be able to take that run.

2 - Fielders throwing is way too accurate and powerful. Saw a guy do a reverse underarm from the boundary to the stumps.

3 - Dive to the boundary should result in a slide and pull back of the ball. Right now the guy slides over the ropes with the ball and it doesn't look great. Some of the interception angles are off as well. Fine leg should run along the boundary to intercept but he goes straight at the ball which then passes him by.

4 - More variety of shots would be great and more animations. Don't like seeing Morne Morkel drive the ball like Jacques Kallis. Also in my limited time I haven't felt much difference between batsmen. I do as well or even better with lower order batsmen.

5 - I can't get the batting/bowling hud to show up. Everything is ticked in the HUD menu options.

6 - Commentary is awful and inaccurate.

7 - Replays need to just show the best part. A replay never begins from the beginning of a bowlers run up. In the end I normally skip it because of impatience.

8 - The keeper and slips need work. The delivery either carries through too slowly or they are too far back because even a 140 kph delivery has the keeper coming forward to take it with the slip fielder having had time to move behind the keeper. Just doesn't feel like real cricket and also haven't seen any edges to slips yet.

9 - Speaking of edges, just played a game where my SA spinners got 5 edges caught by the keeper. Against India. At Newlands.

10 - Am I correct in saying right stick pressed down is a leave? Because quite often I play forcefully with the stick but the batsman does a leave instead of a shot.

I think that's about it. Makes it sound like I hate the game but certainly not the case, it's just that there's a long way to go for the cricket game of my dreams. I'm just thankful that the first proper step has finally been taken.

----------

Oh and...

11 - I have yet to see a no ball.

I tend to get a lot of threes, the game actually records down how many, I'll have a quick look.

From the awards and stats pages, here are some numbers:

Three runs: 13 times
4s: 131
Byes: 0 times
Runs: 1219 First Class / Test

So I've gotten some. 3s aren't exactly that common in the shorter forms of the game though, particularly with the closer ropes. As for a rough estimate of normal numbers of 3s, let's just take a recent match, Derbyshire v India. First innings there were six 3s in 326 runs. Second was 3 in 341. Third saw 2 in 152. Fourth saw four in 137 and overall 15 in 956 runs or one 3 per 64 runs. So that's overall about a three per Mine is at 1 per 94 runs, so that's within reason, although more data would be interesting.

Slip catches: 1 time
Caught and Bowled: 8 times
5 wicket keeper catches in a match: 0 times
Stumping: 1 time
Hattrick: 1 time
Catches in the deep 8 times
Wickets: 74 First Class and Test, 27 T20

So what we can gather from that is that there's been one slips catch in 101 wickets. That's is a problem, a huge problem.

Also note that you can slide and knock the ball back.

9 - Speaking of edges, just played a game where my SA spinners got 5 edges caught by the keeper. Against India. At Newlands.

Were you the one bowling? What match type?

 

[dazzazzad22]

Interesting, how about singles to mid on/off?

The edge happy spinner game was T10 and I was bowling yeah. Might be down to difficulty level though.

 

[Alberts]

Interesting, how about singles to mid on/off?

The edge happy spinner game was T10 and I was bowling yeah. Might be down to difficulty level though.

Which difficulty?

Pushes into space can work if you only depress the trigger a bit. Can have it's uses.

 

[Lionden]

Only heard about DBC14 a few days ago, amazed at a cricket game getting good reviews. Having now played a handful of T10 games on amateur a few early impressions.

First up, the reviews were right. It's no NBA2k but compared to the low bar set by other cricket games, they've really excelled. It's fun to play, it plays like cricket and the menus and options feel modern.

A few early gripes, some of which may be attributed to the difficulty level.

1 - The ball speed after a shot is too fast. Has anyone run a 3 without an overthrow? It always races to the fielder. Taking a run to mid on/off is suicide whereas in real cricket if it's to his weaker hand and underhit a bit then you'd comfortably be able to take that run.

2 - Fielders throwing is way too accurate and powerful. Saw a guy do a reverse underarm from the boundary to the stumps.

3 - Dive to the boundary should result in a slide and pull back of the ball. Right now the guy slides over the ropes with the ball and it doesn't look great. Some of the interception angles are off as well. Fine leg should run along the boundary to intercept but he goes straight at the ball which then passes him by.

4 - More variety of shots would be great and more animations. Don't like seeing Morne Morkel drive the ball like Jacques Kallis. Also in my limited time I haven't felt much difference between batsmen. I do as well or even better with lower order batsmen.

5 - I can't get the batting/bowling hud to show up. Everything is ticked in the HUD menu options.

6 - Commentary is awful and inaccurate.

7 - Replays need to just show the best part. A replay never begins from the beginning of a bowlers run up. In the end I normally skip it because of impatience.

8 - The keeper and slips need work. The delivery either carries through too slowly or they are too far back because even a 140 kph delivery has the keeper coming forward to take it with the slip fielder having had time to move behind the keeper. Just doesn't feel like real cricket and also haven't seen any edges to slips yet.

9 - Speaking of edges, just played a game where my SA spinners got 5 edges caught by the keeper. Against India. At Newlands.

10 - Am I correct in saying right stick pressed down is a leave? Because quite often I play forcefully with the stick but the batsman does a leave instead of a shot.

I think that's about it. Makes it sound like I hate the game but certainly not the case, it's just that there's a long way to go for the cricket game of my dreams. I'm just thankful that the first proper step has finally been taken.

----------

Oh and...

11 - I have yet to see a no ball.

More batting animations? lol, easier said than done.

No, you aren't correct, you just have to press A for leaving the ball.

Commentary is not awful but is a bit dull and inaccurate sometimes.

HUD issues? never seen anyone else complain about that.

I agree with you on one thing though, direct throw from close distance is really easy. Just the filling meter thing is not good enough, they should add something more to it, different meters for accuracy and speed. Diving should be made manual, quick diving in the close fielding, e.g keeper dive etc. That'd make a great adrenaline rusher.