Is Cricket 2004 worth buying?

[AndrewC]

I've read mixed reviews of Cricket 2004 and am not sure whether to get it or not. All I want to know is how it compares with Cricket 2002? If it is better than I will get it.

And also, some other questions:

1 - Are there more edges to the keeper/slips?
2 - Do silly mid offs and mid ons take more catches close in, especially from spinners?
3 - Is the animation more fluent?
4 - Do the umpires make stupid LBW decisions?
5 - Does the game vary much? ie. there are all sorts of dismissals and all different ways to score?
6 - Are the scores lifelike?
7 - Has manual fielding been improved?
8 - Do different bowlers have different actions? Especially the spinners?
9 - Does the ball magically jump into the fielders hands even if they are a little bit away from the ball?
10 - Is batting and bowling equally as difficult?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[squiz]

1. Theres a few. (majority of my wickets in a test match goto the slips)
2. They take alot of catches
3. I dunno
4. Sumtimes, most times there right 60%-40%
5. yes
6. Hard Level is Easy and Medium aren't
7. Haven't tried
8. nope
9. yes
10. Bowling is harder IMO

 

[aldersley03]

i wood say get it. i have it and its great. its a thousand times better than 02.

1.yeh there are. they mostly go 2 first slip but the keeper dives in front of them and takes the catch. like gilchrist.

2.i have never got a catch there from fast bowlers. but spinners get them quite often. i got a hat-trick with macgill twice in 1 game and they wer all catches in close. but theres a bug were after they take the catch the game just stays there 4 about 5 seconds then the umpire gives him out. i think they were trying 2 b clever and make it that the batsmen was staying cos he thinks he didnt hit it. but it gets annoying wen it happens all the time.

3.the animation is smoother.

4. yeh there are some crap decisions but not all the time.

5.if u play on hard there is.

6.yeh they are sometimes. but ive got teams out for 50 on hard. but i did autoplay most of it and i was australia versing durham in a tour match.

7.ive never done manual fielding.

8.only each type of bowler. like fast bowler and medium bowlers have different actions. like lee and gillespie are both right arm fast bowlers and have the same action. the leg spin action is realy poor. but the off spin is good.

9.yeh that does happen. but not to often. once my keeper got hit right in the head and then it appeared right in his gloves. lol. but its alright most of the time. u realy only notice it in slow motion.

10. if u play on hard batting is really hard. u have to get singles and get ur batting confidence up before u can smash the ball. even then u sky the ball most of the time. but medium is to easy. u hit probably 3 or 4 boundaries an over without the power boost. bowling is hard. i usually bowl a few overs then autoplay for 20 overs then bowl again. i usually get a quick wicket and then they have a massive parteniship. there equally hard on hard but batting is alot easier on medium.

its a great game. the only thing that makes this game alot worse is that the game doesnt record ur stats as u play throgh the game. like if u make urself in the game and u score a century, it ses u have scored 1 in the hall of fame but in ur stats it ses uve never played a game.

 

[AndrewC]

Thanks for your answers. It sounds like it's worth getting. If it's any better than 2002 then I'll definitely get it, and I'm sure it is better.

 

[squiz]

yeh its way better than cricket 2002

 

[wallman2565]

in a test batting is harder IMO

on hard i feel i can get anyone out whenever i want but i dont try so often as i push for realistic scores

 

[squiz]

batting is good on Hard i get realistic scores like all out for 400. usually with Easy or Medium i get 0/400

 

[AndrewC]

OK, bought the game today. Initial reactions are good. Seems to be the best cricket game since the good old days of Alan Border cricket. But (on normal) batting does seem a bit easy. Perhaps because I practiced a lot before playing, but I seem to string together partnerships with ease. Having said that I am 1/60 in a test match but my dismissal was all my own fault. I hope the hard level is more difficult, but I'll see how I go with the rest of the match. The manual fielding is poor. Like for example a ball was hit and went past me and almost to the rope before I stopped it... and the batsmen didn't even run, perhaps anticipating I would cut off the single or it would go for four. But I am much more impressed with the graphics. Not really the pictures themselves, but how smoothly it runs. The FPS is very high when on highest details and resoultion whereas Cricket 2002 was very choppy. I also like it how now I can hit the yorkers on the stumps at least because in 2002 I always had to play a block shot or I'd be bowled... Anyway, off to play again. B)

 

[squiz]

you have to play block shot on hard level. Hard is way better for batting and bowling coz its more challenging. One Dayers are very hard on Hard, I got NSW out for 57 but could only manage to get 52 in my first One Dayer, and i was on 1/34 at one stage.

TIP: don't try to slog the ball from Ball one. Get ya confidence up and they hit big, but pick the right balls. I only hit one six in my whole innings, but it was a big one. Good Luck.

 

[hammudy]

in my opinion....c2004 is the best cricket game yet.....cant wait for the patchs though.....i sure they will eliminate all the bugs atleast most of them...

 

[destroyersachin]

Buy the game...

 

[Puma]

Bah it sucks that this game isn't sold in the US - I had my last game shipped to me from India. One weird thing i found was in Cricket 2002, it was way way easier to control the bowling patch with the gamepad than with the keyboard. Has anyone seen a similar behavior in Cricket 2004? I am talking about the PC versions of the game.

 

[AndrewC]

I've put it on hard mode... played a 10 overs match, scored 8/26 and then in return India made the target in less than 2 overs. :unsure: Now I'm playing a test match and I'm something like 6/80... so it's definitely more of a challenge and good to know I haven't mastered the game just yet.

But I still haven't been caught behind yet. A lot of swing and misses but never an edge on it.

 

[aldersley03]

u will get edges soon. just play on a green pitch. i get edges from around the wicket bowlers or lefties cos there angel.

 

[AndrewC]

I've got plenty of edges myself. In fact while bowling I got about 5 edges so no problems when I'm bowling. Though it is a bit easy because I bowled India all out for 130 on hard mode with my first real match. But when batting I don't edge the ball, apart from one from a tail ender which went to the boundary because of no slips. Maybe it's because I have good timing and don't hit it too late I don't know.