Review Playtest Review/Preview(Review Links, Updated in First Post)

[vishalsparadise]

Another thing I remembered, is that there is wind, and this apparently makes it harder to swing the ball against it, and easier with it, and also makes shots go further downwind.

wow , another good addition to the gameplay.they've added a few things few of us have never thought of.thats really good.its all attention to detail,ie,small changes which make the game feel different.

 

[AbBh]

C07 does have somewhat realistic physics for the projection of the ball. I was talking about flight when I said loopyness. The length will change if the angle of release is changed, so you have to change the velocity to get the desired length. Haven't seen this game so can't say much. If the bounce is the problem then it might be fixable if bowlers speeds are editable. The velocity would provide a way to trace the code where the motion of the ball is calculated and hence the bounce. Assuming that the coefficient of restitution is factored in during AI shot selection and making lbw decisions this wont cause any problems with the gameplay.

 

[ajdude]

2. More technical; any idea if the PC version will have the Starforce protection this time around? Last time I installed RP05, Vista didn't like it and wouldn't start up until I deleted 5 or 6 files in system32/drivers to do with SF.

Apologies for quoting myself, god-forbid, but before I go and stuff up my Vista again, if anybody has an answer, that would be appreciated.

 

[player786]

any of the aussie reviews in yet?

 

[Gilly Fan]

Should be in within the next half an hour.

 

[player786]

i hope they have something to say abt the AIs batting. its all good and well if the animations and other stuff is good but if the AI bats like in the 2007 version then the game is doomed.

who agrees with me?

 

[Radman]

I'm not too fussed about graphics but they look good and it is great that the gameplay seems to have improved but I would like to know if anyone has found out how well online play works.

 

[smssia0112]

I'm back from it, will probably post something bigger tomorrow, but some quick general thoughts:
-Graphics are great, faces, players models and stadiums are all fantastic.
-Gameplay is much improved, nothing like 07 except for the controls. Batting is similar but better, much harder to hit sixes. It was so hard that WHM couldn't even execute a well timed block in the tutorial.
-AI is good, they will go after you if you bowl poorly but overall it's pretty realistic. Certainly realistic enough, obviously if you go too far it becomes boring.
-The stupid little bugs are all gone. There were a few little things but definitely nowhere near as much.

There's plenty to mention but I don't have time today. Will say more tomorrow.

To sum it up, it's not the greatest game of all time, but it is easily the best cricket game so far, and is definitely a lot of fun.

 

[stevo1]

Yep, pretty much my thoughts above ^.

Was great to play and I thank the guys at Transmission, especially Heath & Rob.

I should be able to post a bit more up tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

lol someone has anger issues, dude no one said whether there are stats or not , so you might have your panties in a bunch for no reason

Of course there will be stats! The only thing I want to know about them is whether they're displayed regularly as popups, or whether they're hidden away in a menu (which is daft).

The fielding was good. There was plenty of diving about to stop the ball, and the occasional fumble if the ball was hit very hard. Not sure that a second fielder will ever pick up a fumble by another player, but that's a really minor point.

f1man, who be "you people" out of interest?

Are there several different diving animations and the like? Several variations would make the fielding very exciting to watch! Is there one for diving and then pulling the ball back from hitting the rope for example?

The loopyness problem could be because the ball is released a bit too early? If that's the case it could be rectified by the changing angle of projection. I've tried this in EA's game and it does make the ball a bit loopy if you change the angle of release.

That's true.

The ball is not loopy. The speeds are well scaled, as is the gravity, seemingly. The problem is the bounce seems a bit too high. If you changed the angle of release and left the speed and gravity the same, you would just change the length of the ball - basic physics.

The reason this may work in EA games is because they are a big pile of poo with no discernible realistic physics simulation.

Yes autoplay is in. Either one over, the innings, or the match.

Another thing I remembered, is that there is wind, and this apparently makes it harder to swing the ball against it, and easier with it, and also makes shots go further downwind.

If it is only the bounce, then even if they don't fix it, I'm sure one of you great modders will find a way. Still a little concerned about the AI's choice of front/backfoot shot.

I'm back from it, will probably post something bigger tomorrow, but some quick general thoughts:
-Graphics are great, faces, players models and stadiums are all fantastic.
-Gameplay is much improved, nothing like 07 except for the controls. Batting is similar but better, much harder to hit sixes. It was so hard that WHM couldn't even execute a well timed block in the tutorial.
-AI is good, they will go after you if you bowl poorly but overall it's pretty realistic. Certainly realistic enough, obviously if you go too far it becomes boring.
-The stupid little bugs are all gone. There were a few little things but definitely nowhere near as much.

There's plenty to mention but I don't have time today. Will say more tomorrow.

To sum it up, it's not the greatest game of all time, but it is easily the best cricket game so far, and is definitely a lot of fun.

The real game-killer for me is this:

When will I ever bowl a bad ball?
You can aim your delivery wherever you like, with no difficulty. This means you can essentially bowl perfect line and length every ball. You can bowl 'bad balls' by not getting into the light green section of the bowling 'goodness meter', but that just makes the ball easier to hit harder, rather than changing its pitch position (there is a good reason for this, which is that bowling a 'bad ball' would surprise the batsman and therefore make it a better ball). It would be nice if there was some degree of wobbling, latency or classic 'BLC99 floating' of the pitch point marker when aiming. Or at least have a bigger aiming circle for worse bowlers which then goes to a specific point at a time dependent on the bowler's ability (better bowlers should go to the specific point later on). There would then be some random element to the pitch point, which could be affected by skill, stamina, confidence, etc. At the moment the skill, stamina and confidence values only work with the 'goodness meter' to effectively give you a ball difficulty rating for the batsman to hit. This seems a little shallow to me. I'm sure it'll be worked on for the next version though.

But, according to the post Heath made earlier in the thread, this one has been dispelled, which is great news! One other thing, I've always noticed that in Cricket games if you want to get a few wickets, bring on a spinner and surround the batsman: it never fails. Has this been worked on for this game to make it more balanced? It'd be great if that no longer works as a 'fail safe' way to take wickets!

Thanks again to all reviewers.

 

[MattW]

Likewise I'll have a full review tomorrow, just got back home a few minutes ago and I'm too tired to write anything useful.

 

[deepuparayil]

Please someone participated in the playtest compare the ingame video released in the forum before with your gameplay experience.Thanks.

 

[stevo1]

Please someone participated in the playtest compare the ingame video released in the forum before with your gameplay experience.Thanks.

Ingame videos were nothing like what we played at Transmission, the gameplay experience was 100x better than the ingame footage.

 

[deepuparayil]

Thanks again Stevo1.

 

[Deleted member 11215]

were the shot animations jolty like on the videos or did they play fine?