International Cricket 2010 Impressions Thread

[Robot Bowler]

My copy arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to play it! But has it lived up to my expectations?

The answer is absolutely yes! It is well and truly the most realistic and enjoyable cricket game I have played. For the first time in a cricket game I felt as if I was playing the game and not just simulating one. There is a lot of small details gone into the game which makes it so enjoyable. For example, the 3rd umpire decision screen, the stump animations and the bowler grunting on delivery!

I started a test match between England (me) and Bangladesh at Lords (hard mode). I won the toss, chose to bat and straight away from the first ball I notices a difference. The ball actually swung past the stumps when I left my first delivery alone! The AI bowling was also good and also testing. I then saved the game and went on to try a 20/20 match. I bowled first and restricted Pakistan to 175 all out from 19.3 overs. I noticed the spinners were very effective (especially Swann taking 4/35). I then went to bat and after loosing some early wickets (36/2) I managed to rebuild and put on a good partnership. I notices that the batsman confidence has a big impact on the timing of your shots. When a wicket fell, the new batsman would find it harder to time the ball so it is key to get your eye in. The game went down to the last over, needing 9 to win. I managed to win with 2 balls to spare in what was the bast console cricket match I have ever played! :happy

But however, there were a few elements of the game that could be addressed for future versions of the game:
In the test match I noticed that the stadium announcer spoke at the start of each over rather than when a bowler starts a new spell (not sure about ODI's). Also the AI was very indecisive on running between the wickets. They would run one, then a quarter way down the pitch and then go back. This happened very frequently. The fielders were also slow in getting the ball and the wicket keeping animations were still pretty unrealistic (one handed catches half a metre to his left). But there was no game spoiling bugs like in AC09 (as they were fixed by the beta patch that never came out on PS3).

But overall, IC2010 has been an awesome game so far. I can't wait to play again (now) and maybe play some of you online!

 

[sami ullah khan]

I have found this game to very tough against AI on Hard Mode and minimal HUD. I lost everything till my T-20 match (pak) against the netherland. I bowled them out for 92 and made a hash of it by losing early wickets. However I got there with two wickets in hand and seven bowls to spare. There is one thing I found annoying. I could take a single of every delivery by pushing it on off/on side, even if there were fielders inside the circle. Even when the bowler fielded the ball, I could sneak in a single pretty easily. I know we can avoid this by not doing this but it would surely ruin multiplayer. I would also like to mention a glitch that has been carried over to this game. I am talking about the backfoot cut over the third man for six of a yorker. I hated when AI was able to do it over and over again, when I bowled perfect yorkers. These are the only two gripes I have with this game so far. But this game is far superior to Ashes09 and is big step in the right direction for the franchise. They need to keep improving AI and add better animation for bowling, batting and fielding.

 

[pcfan123]

The single player against the AI is fantastic in Test matches, however online play is very bad.

The game is set on Normal and everything can be slogged once the batsmen are set. Expect scores well above 200 in Twenty20s online against decent players. The loft button is way too overpowered. If online could be set to Hard it would be a much more balanced experience.

 

[angad]

I think the developers need to increase the fielder's speed by 20%....atleast for the hard mode!! This would make the game perfect as it will remove the problem of taking easy singles and twos!


Edit: BTW....the best shot in the game has to be the 'Defence shot towards covers, with the action cam'! It seems exactly how it would look in real life !!!

 

[The_gas]

I have found this game to very tough against AI on Hard Mode and minimal HUD. I lost everything till my T-20 match (pak) against the netherland. I bowled them out for 92 and made a hash of it by losing early wickets. However I got there with two wickets in hand and seven bowls to spare. There is one thing I found annoying. I could take a single of every delivery by pushing it on off/on side, even if there were fielders inside the circle. Even when the bowler fielded the ball, I could sneak in a single pretty easily. I know we can avoid this by not doing this but it would surely ruin multiplayer. I would also like to mention a glitch that has been carried over to this game. I am talking about the backfoot cut over the third man for six of a yorker. I hated when AI was able to do it over and over again, when I bowled perfect yorkers. These are the only two gripes I have with this game so far. But this game is far superior to Ashes09 and is big step in the right direction for the franchise. They need to keep improving AI and add better animation for bowling, batting and fielding.

The single player against the AI is fantastic in Test matches, however online play is very bad.

The game is set on Normal and everything can be slogged once the batsmen are set. Expect scores well above 200 in Twenty20s online against decent players. The loft button is way too overpowered. If online could be set to Hard it would be a much more balanced experience.

I'd like to echo these sentiments.

I think the game is pretty decent.

Only a few things that annoy me. Playing back foot shots when holding down the front foot button. AI pulling and hooking in swinging yorkers for 6.

Online play is unfortunately the same as AC09 (tosh), hopefully they will patch it up to hard so we see more use of the block button and less of the every ball must go for 6 button.

 

[Wealey]

I think the developers need to increase the fielder's speed by 20%....atleast for the hard mode!! This would make the game perfect as it will remove the problem of taking easy singles and twos!

You can do this in customisation, skill, and increase their fielding speed!

 

[angad]

You can do this in customisation, skill, and increase their fielding speed!

Oh really?? Will look at it today and see if the AI can stop the easy tip-and-run singles I am able to take now even with a closed field setup! Even if they cant stop it, atleast convert it to an almost run-out chance !

 

[Wealey]

Oh really?? Will look at it today and see if the AI can stop the easy tip-and-run singles I am able to take now even with a closed field setup! Even if they cant stop it, atleast convert it to an almost run-out chance

Worth a try, obviously your have to sacrifice to some skill points elsewhere. Although most players who never bowl have some skill points wasted on their bowling!

 

[Brook]

This game has quite a long way to go in my opinion. There's some basic issues to do with power of certain things, certain things overpowered. I'd like to see a new way to miss the ball, because this timing thing doesn't quite work

 

[melucas]

I have now had the game for a couple of days and I am impressed so far. I have been playing tests in Hard mode minimum HUD using action cam for both batting and bowling with Divadinho's roster patch.

Graphics - Slight improvement on AC09 and I like the ability to see where the ball and fielder is when running
Bowling - Much better than AC09 bowler speeds better and a little more difficult to bowl in the same spot all the time. Spinners are not hit around the park at will
Batting - This is way better than AC09 when using action cam. Harder to hit the shot where you want and requires a lot more concentration.
Running between wickets - Different using action cam but I actually like it.
Fielding - Slightly harder than AC09 for catching. Fielders actually run to the ball now. One draw back is that fielders don't slide near the boundary which results in a few extra runs being made.
AI Gameplay - No longer do we have every ball piercing the field run off to the boundary. The batsmen don't go ballistic after a few wickets have fallen. The batsmen don't turn for suicide runs every time the ball is hit and I am yet to see a runout. The bowlers don't bowl an unusual amount of no balls. No longer do we have full overs of the same delivery although there are time when 2 or 3 balls an over in succession are the same. Field placings are a little better than AC09 but still nowhere near as good as some EA games in the past.
Player gameplay - No longer do we have to pick a bowler every over, the bowlers being used stay bowling until we decide to change them. Batting and bowling is so much better with action cam. It is still reasonably easy to hit big shots but there are more chances of mistiming now when using action cam and getting out.
Off the pitch - Editing has been changed from AC09 and is not as good. You can no longer change the name of your edited team. You cannot have Chris Gale or any player for that matter have long hair and like AC09 Dan Vettori doesn't wear glasses. The introduction of extra tournaments is a good thing as well as a few more grounds to play at. Stats is relatively the same as AC09 with a few changes but I am not too fussed about that. Although stats are a major part of cricket they don't hinder or enhance the gameplay. Commentary I can't comment on as I turn it off and listen to music and the sounds of the pitch when playing so this is a non event for me anyway.
Overall for me this is the best cricket game that has ever been produced. I know it is just a patched version of AC09 with a few extras thrown in but for those of us that only had the game on a console it is a massive improvement for gameplay. I was sceptical and only purchased because it was cheap (I am sure they will sell it in Oz when its released for 90 to 100 dollars as they are still selling second hand copies of AC09 for more than I purchased 2010) but I think this is a very good game and if codies and trickstar keep working on it then we will have a very nice game indeed in the next few years.

 

[angad]

Played a T20 match between India (me) vs England at lords on a 4th day weary wicket with overcast conditions! This was on Hard with minimum HUD!

Scores:

India:

326/8 off 20 Overs

England:

213/2 off 20 Overs


Now that I have played this game quite a few times, I am really disappointed with it now! Here is why:

- Batting in Test matches seems to be really enjoyable, but I dont know why the same timing windows were not carry forwarded to the T20 match!! Timing the ball in T20 was so much damn easier than test matches! I was hitting boundaries at will!

- AI drops too many damn catches! In this innings itself the AI dropped as many as 10 catches i believe! And all of them were easy ones!

- Its astonishing how backfoot 'pull shots' are played by AI (and maybe even human controlled players can do the same, though i did not try it) to bloody 'yorkers'!! It really is astonishing and frustrating to see that! You bowl a yorker, you would expect the batsman to either hit it in the 'V' or try risking a across the line shot, or just paddle it towards fine leg.....but in this game, the ball bowled as a yorker, magically jumps up to the batsman's head when it reaches him and they keep playing backfoot pulls and cuts!! It really is a game breaker for me! This has spoilt the experience of bowling, as its totally unrealistic and thus a game breaker for me!

- In T20 matches (atleast the one where you post big scores like I did), the AI batsman are either super-human or totally idiotic! First 10 overs I bowled how I would normally do in a real match! The AI dispatched all the deliveries to all parts of the ground (they were all bowled in green areas with meter at green as well)! Its fine if they do that, but when they play backfoot pulls and cuts to yorker deliveries as well, then you feel its almost like cheating!
But then I bowled a negative like, placing all leg side fielders on the boundary and no one at off side boundary, and then I bowled outside leg with a spinner! Here is where the idiocy of the AI came into play! They just kept on trying to play the shots towards the off side....ALL THE TIME!! They did not move towards the leg and try to hit towards off...nor did they come down the track! They stayed where they were, and thus missed the ball every single time as the ball was always 'a ft' away from their bat! They kept doing this for the full 6 overs I bowled this line and in these 6 overs I just conceded 20 runs, most of which were because i moved my line towards the stumps at many times trying to get a wicket as well!! Not once did they try scoring on the on-side....even on Free-Hits!!!

I am very disappointed with this game now!! Only thing I have enjoyed in it is batting in test matches!

I know HUD off is what everyone will suggest, but seriously, that mode is only good for playing shots down the ground or just moving towards leg and hitting ball on off! Not real cricket!

 

[Brook]

How is putting all the fielders on one side cricket?

 

[angad]

How is putting all the fielders on one side cricket?

I think you haven been watching a lot of cricket lately!! A lot of sides are putting all the fielders on leg side on the boundary these days!! And when I say all the fielders, I mean 5 as that is the max that can be put on the leg side!!

Now in cricket, in such a situation, the batsman does try to go on the off side, but first they get to the pitch of the ball instead of staying where they are and trying to hit a cover drive to a ball landing outside leg!! Infact not once did they try to get to the pitch of the ball by moving towards the leg side or coming down the track...nor did they try to score on the on side (even on free hits)..thus resulting in 0 runs in all such deliveries!

 

[TrevorByersCricket]

No Andy Blignaut in the Zimbabwe line-up?

 

[Top Score]

I'm very two minded about this game. It seems so random that it's hard to make a clear judgement about it. When I first got this game yesterday I played a T20 game against Kenya with Australia. I had Kenya 9/102 and the two tailenders started to have a slog and got to 149 which I chased down with 3 balls to spare and 4 wickets in hand. Thought to myself this is pretty damn good, a good battle with both bat and ball. The lbw I got with Hauritz was sensational. Two ripping offies then an arm ball and the batsmen played all around it.

However today I started a test match on hard with full HUD against the Windies in the Windies with Australia. I lost the toss and bowled and in the first over could see the swing and seam had greatly improved since AC09. In the second over got a LBW decision but this I fear is where it all went a little bit down hill.

Sarwan came in and from the first ball just tried to belt everything that came his way. I finally got him out and in came Chanderpaul and it got worse. Full pitched deliveries being hooked over sqaure leg or cut behind point then Gale started doing the same. It also seemed that the AI was able to hit the ball to any part of the ground it wanted. Everytime I made a field change the ball would go straight through that area of the field where the fielder came from.

Even if I bowled 5 foot outside offstump the ball would end up heading towards the vacant mid wicket. At lunch the Windies are 4/153 with Hilfy being the best of a bad bunch with 2/38 off 8.

Overall I think this game is so close to being a really fantastic game but just little things like pulls and cuts off balls pitching on the popping crease going for 4 or 6 just make it so you want to scream out loud.

I forgot to add one thing. Bouncers, whats the point of having a bouncer length if the ball doesn't bounce past stump high and Gale can just prod forward and bunt it back down the pitch lol