KK Review

[karolkarol]

Right, firstly, I am old. I don't mind admitting that. I am 31 and a console veteran. I have played every console and pc cricket game pretty much since Brian Lara Cricket first reared his head on Megadrive and seldom have I enjoyed a game more! In all honesty, I love cricket and I love to love cricket games.

Like various experienced gamers. we have gone through various incarnations of various cricket games made over the years by a seemingly unending stream of non cricket fans.....

Imagine my happiness then when Cricket Revolution was released.....a game made by cricket fans for cricket fans. I honestly thought this would answer all of the questions that the imperfect but playable EA Cricket 07 posed.

Firstly I would love to give a huge kudos to Mindstorm who have done an unbelieveable job given the resources etc..

That said, as an amazing an achievement as this production is, the pick up and playability is zero. You would need to be at least a county 2nd XI player or certainly a young expertish whippersnapper to get to grips with these complex batting controls!!!! I don't necessarily mean the range of shots (which is AWESOME and something a cricket game has been waiting for) but the sluggishness in which they seem to be implemented. There lacks a certain amount of realism when you need to begin you shot selection process as the bowler has yet to release the ball. This should be more intuitive and easier to implement. So many times have I found myself shouldering arms to a straight one because my down arrow decided to take a break that particular delivery.

I want so much to love this game. It has everything I have ever wanted in a cricket game...the realistic shots...the ability to avoid fielders with pushes and nudges...good AI...decent bowling actions and animations.

Why do I not love it then?

Batting is infuriatingly sluggish to control.
An inability to miss the fielders despite where the shot position arrow goes.
Too easy for bowler to build full confidence and bowl a delivery which does more than the Warne ball that bowled Gatting (remember that kids?)


But................

It is better than anything I have played since a heavily patched version of EA 2007
Cricket fans have no more choice

I will continue to persevere with this game, not because I love it but because I dont hate it. It does alot very well but it doesnt do it intuitively enough for my liking. Batting feels like taking an ezam with its array of complicated and sluggishsly implemented combinations and bowling....well its just a bit blah, a bit BLIC 96 a bit EA 07, bowling is bowling, a means to an end, functional but not enjoyable (when I play IRL I am a bowler so this breaks my heart).

To finish, I so want to love this game but I realise we will only ever be friends, not good friends, but friends nonetheless.

 

[Pat]

Thats a nice review! Agree with most of it! Good job...

 

[sarmad]

great review. Thanks

Can we say we have a game in hands thats finally made for bowlers ???

 

[FAZ007]

KK I agree with your honest review whole heartedly. When I first started to play CR I was in the same boat. 28yrs old, fed on gamepads and consoles, use to the same lame EA and Codies slug fest.
CR was very frustrating at first. the controls were not friendly and the timing as you mentioned a bit unrealistic. But once I went through the initial period and got to know the game mechanics, this game is a treat to all those who though every other cricket game is boring and easy. Now I can make runs online at 200 strike rate. The shot placement works perfect and a lot better with defensive batsman. It has its con's in online like lag and some weird tactics people use, but this is the most challenging game I have played in Cricket so far. The AI is very well done apart from some drawbacks. I hope this game becomes a success so that the company can thrive to make CR2 even better. They are bright and friendly people with bright ideas and I wish them success

 

[pcfan123]

Good review and I agree with most of it. Personally stopped playing this game, its just not cricket when Im trying to time the deliveries before the bowler has released the ball.

 

[FAZ007]

Good review and I agree with most of it. Personally stopped playing this game, its just not cricket when Im trying to time the deliveries before the bowler has released the ball.

I'll mention the timing issue to Moods (Rafey). Its hard to convince him at first but the next patch will hopefully be very fruitful to this game. I have a lot of confidence in those guys

 

[pcfan123]

I want them to do well also but honestly this game was doomed to fail. They did not market it at all and the keyboard only will be a big NO for most. Many will not know about xpadder or know how to use it.

The biggest setback was no release on console. Gaming is slowly migrating to console with more and more companies ignoring PC versions of their products. CR did the complete opposite!

I have given up on this game, patches or not. Will wait for the next CR and in the mean time still loving my AC09 online.

 

[angryangy]

Honestly, just because more and more emphasis is being put on consoles, it doesn't mean it is the right direction. Wii Fit is the best proof that sales don't mean a game is particularly good.

The best part of Cricket Revolution is that it scales up to and focuses on an online community, one that hopefully becomes quite strong within itself and if not a very large one, then at least a diverse one. Yeah, it's not a cricket simulation, but I have news: pressing a button with your thumb is not a cricket skill. Once you start thinking inside the game and working on the game's own skill set, it does start to feel like any popular first person shooter or strategy game.

Meanwhile, the weakest part of CR is the veneer and the learning curve. Again, if you're used to the way multiplayer PC games tend to work, steep learning curves are part of the challenge (albeit frustrating) and the missing production values just mean room to mod.

This is an honest PC game with no frills and decent value when you can get it off Steam. Make it a console game and I think you definitely break most of its strong points, but then the bits you add to the game don't really improve it. You need to wheel in the big licenses and simplify it for casual audiences. Straight off the bat, it becomes a little dishonest and I'm sure by the time it is a fully realised concept, it's a long way from home, a watered-down and short-sighted concept that is three times more expensive, but hey, at least it looks great.

 

[thedon5]

Very good review.

3/4 of the way through my download, so can't agree or disagree, but based on the demo, yes, I do think you are right . Either way, I'm already getting bored of FIFA 10 so I'm hoping this will take up my time until I get Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed II.

 

[karolkarol]

I see what you are saying AngryAngry, I am all for depth and longevity (phnaar phnaar oooer missus) in games. I have been a fan of Football Manager and prior to that Championship Manager back to the Amiga days and if there was ever a game to get lost in, its that.

I just feel there is no immediacy with this game, no snippets of satisfaction to be gleaned early doors, nothing to draw you in and make you play endlessly for hours. It really must take hours of practice to get to a decent standard, time I, at my age, don't have in spades (work, wife, baby). I think that, on reflection, is what disappoints me most, in the short blasts of the game I am able to get I am faced with frustration, an inability to hit the ball of the square without using the slog button, intermittant failures of my buttons to play the shot I want and that damn unrealistic timing.

I don't want to be blattering sixes all over the place, I want realism, I want immersion, I want to see progress in myself. Unfortunately I don't see any of these, even on easy mode the learning curve is just too steep. Could they not have chucked in a few more difficulty levels to just at least make one playable for newbies?

Anyway, to finish, it seems like Cricket Revolution and I, for all our flirting and our ups and downs are drifting apart. Just like your first love, when despite the early fireworks, you realise you don't have that much in common after all.

Bon Soir CR, bon soir.

 

[thedon5]

I see what you are saying AngryAngry, I am all for depth and longevity (phnaar phnaar oooer missus) in games. I have been a fan of Football Manager and prior to that Championship Manager back to the Amiga days and if there was ever a game to get lost in, its that.

I just feel there is no immediacy with this game, no snippets of satisfaction to be gleaned early doors, nothing to draw you in and make you play endlessly for hours. It really must take hours of practice to get to a decent standard, time I, at my age, don't have in spades (work, wife, baby). I think that, on reflection, is what disappoints me most, in the short blasts of the game I am able to get I am faced with frustration, an inability to hit the ball of the square without using the slog button, intermittant failures of my buttons to play the shot I want and that damn unrealistic timing.

I don't want to be blattering sixes all over the place, I want realism, I want immersion, I want to see progress in myself. Unfortunately I don't see any of these, even on easy mode the learning curve is just too steep. Could they not have chucked in a few more difficulty levels to just at least make one playable for newbies?

Anyway, to finish, it seems like Cricket Revolution and I, for all our flirting and our ups and downs are drifting apart. Just like your first love, when despite the early fireworks, you realise you don't have that much in common after all.

Bon Soir CR, bon soir.

Have some net practice for a while and perfect your shot selection and timing. It takes about an hour or two to really start getting used to how to bat. When I started in the nets, I was almost always either getting bad footwork or timing it badly. But I started to get more and more "good shot". The drills also help. However I think the bowling net practice isn't as good as practicing bowling in the real game. You should be able to play easy soon enough.

As for timing, try this. Play your shot when the ball comes out of the bowler's hands for fasties, play your shot when the ball bounces for spinners, and play your shot about a quarter or half a second after you would for a fastie for a medium. This is basic, of course a lot depends on the colour of the bowling marker.

Push shots are the only things I just can't play. A thing to note is that these are the only shots I didn't try out in the nets, so dosen't that tell you something about learning batting in the nets?