I have played both Cricket 2005 and Brian Lara 2005 on PS2 for 3 months now and let me complement EA by saying that I have found Cricket 2005 to be a much better and more realistic game. Even though it takes quite a while to get hang of the game, especially batting, it's a must-have for any genuine cricket fan. I found Brian lara 2005 too arcadey and easy. However there are still a plenty of things that need to be improved in EA Cricket 2005 and here's my list :-
1. Some of the LBWs given during the game are plain not out... especially when the ball pitches outside leg.
2. Batsmen take ages to get back in case you cancel a run... in fact I have never made it safely after canceling a run. Maybe it shouldn't take such a long time for the batsman to return back to the crease... I have been playing the game for couple of months now and I still average 2-3 run-outs an innings!
3. Reduced file-save size. Currently a saved game takes a lot of memory... this is simply too much! Brian Lara 2005 only takes up 150 KB or so to save the game.
4. Batsman should be able to place the ball anywhere in a 360 degree arc. E.g. by using the analog controller on PS2's dualshock2 pad, a player should be able to guide the ball in the gaps, thus evading the fielders. Currently, a batsman can only hit any given shot in a pre-determined path. For example, a cover drive only has 2-3 paths to travel to the boundary and if those gaps are plugged by fielders, u can't find the gaps and get a boundary. In Brian lara 2005, by using the analog controller u can place the ball in a 360 degree arc and thus you have more control over shot placement and thus more chances of evading a fielder. Maybe you should look at Brian Lara 2005 for the same. Maybe there should be an attribute like 'Ability to find gap' for batsmen and better batsmen like Tendulkar and Lara should find it much easier to evade fielders as compared to tailenders.
5. Confidence meter simply takes too long to be filled up. Maybe the confience meter can be filled up at different rates for different batsmen - the better a batsman, quicker it should fill. And maybe the meter is partly filled up depending on how good a batsman is - it could be filled up to a high level for a batsman like Lara or Tendulkar and at a lower level for a player like Collingwood.
6. Too many run outs in the game... this aspect needs to be worked on.
7. Some gameplay glitches need to be fixed. For example a batsman usually edges a ball when on driving a full toss on leg stump to the wicket keeper (especially against spinners)! This never happens in a real match. There are other glitches as well and will post them as I remember them.
8. Fielding and animation should be improved. Brian lara 2005 is much better in this respect. The only aspect where Crkt 2K5 is better is in player similarities but in animation a lot of improvement is required. Sometimes fielders appear to moonwalk and animation of fielders throwing the ball without winding up their arms is plain weird!
9. I can't play against myself in Crkt 2005. For example I bat first in a odi and after the 1st innings I save my match. When I load the saved game I can't change my team to bat and chase the target. I can do this in BL 2K5. I wud love this feature to be included in Crkt 2K5 coz after sometime, when u have mastered the game, u can still play the game against yourself. Unfortunately can't do so now. I should be able to save a match and choose any side (batting or fielding) when I load the game.
10. Timing in the nets is not the same as actual gameplay. Maybe the nets need to reflect the timing in the real match.
11. Commentary is simply pathetic! Commentators are generally wrong about most of the things - the direction in which shot was played, the no. of balls it took to reach a milestone (50 or 100) and other stats.
12. Run rates and reqd run rates are not calculated accurately.
13. When a team wins a match while chasing, the commentator announces that the chasing team won by 1 run. This should be corrected to reflect the number of wkts by which the chasing team wins.
14. The game is a bit too slow as compared to Brian Lara 2005. It takes a longer time to finish a 50 over odi in Crkt 2005 as compared to Brian Lara 2005. Maybe you can speed up things a bit.
15. Occasionally the controller doesn't respond at all - sometimes when you want to cancel a run, the game doesn't respond to the button press for a while. Same thing happens sometimes while taking leg byes... the batsmen refuse to run even though you press the 'Run' button.
16. Batsmen can't take a run when bowlers appeal... this costs plenty of runs and is unrealistic.
17. 'Autoplay' feature doesn't generate a reasonable score in tests. Most of the times, for a team like Aus the score is between 200 and 300 which is not realistic at all - I found these results when conditions were ideal for batting on 'normal' pitch and on a 'sunny' and 'warm' day.
18. AI shouldn't choose back or front shots on 'Easy' mode for you. The only difference between 'Easy' and other modes should be that the timing should be easier but you should be able to choose which shots you want to play (back foot or front foot). This in fact creates a lot of confusion and thus I moved to 'Medium' mode and am sure 'Easy' mode is of no use because of this 'auto-shot-select' feature of the game. Please note that gamers want to judge line and length for themselves and don't require too much of spoon feeding.
19. Some of the shots are way too tough to time like 'Hook', 'Square Drive', 'Square Cut' and 'Glide to 3rd man'. Trust me, I have tried to successfully play these shots but have simply failed! I agree that some shots shouldn't be too easy but surely pulling a long-hop off a spinner or a medium pacer shouldn't be too tough for most batsmen. Similarly, shots on the off side are way too difficult to time, even for a good batsman, and most of the times gamers rely on 1 or 2 shots to get runs. In fact I get 99% of my runs on the leg side playing on drive, glance or sweep. I don't use any othet shot at all and maybe you can look at this feature a bit.
20. The help book or tutorial should have some hints on timing of a shot. Maybe something like this will do... For on-drive, press direction button (right and down for a right handed batsman) and 'X' just before the ball hits the pitch. Most of the times I had to rely on fellow posters to tell me the exact timing of a shot as Nets are simply no help at all. This way people don't have to go to various forums instead of playing the game
21. There are a few cheats like getting batsmen out by bowling with a medium bowler and bowling short with no pace. This way you can get a good team like Aus out for 0 with players getting out bowled or LBW. I am sure there are other cheats as well and all of them need to be addressed.
22. AI's bowling changes are plain weird! Sometimes it doesn't bowl a specialist bowler like Warne and keeps on bowlers like Clarke & Katich on for ages. Also, it doesn't change bowlers even if a bowler is taken apart. Generally, a bowlers is taken off if he's taken apart 2-3 overs in succession by batters.
23. AI doesn't change the field too much and sticks with the same standard fields. AI should change the field depending on batsmen's abilities, the way he is scoring in the match and taking context of the match in general. E.g. if batsman is making most of his runs through on side, AI should plug the gap. Or if the batting team needs just 4 an over to win in the last 10 overs, instead of having a spread field that allows batsmen to take easy singles, AI shud have more fielders close-in to stop the batsmen from taking singles and to take more risks like going over the top.
24. It doesn't make much of a difference even if I play 11 batsmen and not even a single specialist bowler. I played a few matches with 11 batsmen and selected 'AutoPlay' option. The AI batsmen still scored the same amount of runs they do against specialist bowlers!!! Even Aus scored just 275 against a team having no specialist bowlers and it's plain ridiculous! AI shud score depending on the quality of bowlers and 'Autoplay' should generate innings taking the strength of bowling into account. This is especially true for odis.
25. While playing tests, the new ball is not offered to the bowling team after 80 overs, as it should. Currently, the bowling team is offered a new ball at a random point in time, which I can't fathom. ometime it's after 70 overs, sometime 110 and so on. Also, if bowling team declines to take a new ball, it should still be available to the bowling team and they should be able to take it whenever they want, once it's offered. Currently, once the new-ball offer is refused, bowling team can't claim the new ball and has to continue with old ball forever.
26. Scoring with 'Advance down the wicket' shots is too easy and confidence and quality of a batsman has no bearing on it. I can hit McGrath out of the ground with a tailender who is new to the crease!!! Maybe the distance the shot travels with advance shots (especially lofted) can be dependent on the quality of the batsmen and confidence. Thus a batsmen will have to get enough confidence before hitting 6s else he can be caught in the boundary. This will ensure that people try to play lofted 'Advance down the wicket' shots only when fielding restrictions apply and not when fielders are manning the boundary. Please make this shot a little more difficult to play in the next version and ease off on the other shots.
27. There should be classic matches and challenges like in Brian Lara 2005.
28. AI should be more realistic in run chases. Currently, it scores very slowly even if it's chasing a 300+ total. In real life, we generally see teams going all out in the initial overs when fielding restrictions are in place.
29. Currently the difference between timing a shot and mistiming it even slightly is huge. This shouldn't be the case. A well timed shot should go for a 6 but even a shot that's mistimed, just a liitle bit' should carry a long way. Worse the timing, less distance should it carry. I don't see it happen currently as any mistimed shots (slight mistime or a botches shot) result in looping the ball skywards.
30. Sizes of stadiums should differ and should be factored in gameplay. It should be easier to hit 6s in New Zealand and Faislabad as compared to Eden Gardens (Kolkatta) or australian grounds. Thus even slight mishits should get you 6s on smaller grounds but even well timed shots could be caught on the boundaries on larger grounds. This will force the players to bat according to ground sizes - if side boundaries (leg & off) are shorter as compared to straight boundary, people will go for more horizontal shots as compared to straight shots and vice-versa.
31. Add 2 more modes to the game other than Easy, Medium & Hard - 'Slog' mode where you can time the shots easily and 'Ultimate' mode where you have to be perfect to beat AI. Slog mode will allow users to get a hang of shots and even help lure people who go for Brian Lara 2005 coz it's easy. Ultimate mode can have a perfect AI where even small mistakes by a player are punished. E.g. an over pitched delivery is mostly hit for 4, bouncers are hooked for 6 and AI hardly bowls any loose balls. This will help folks like me interested once they have mastered the game.
32. Make bowling a little more fun... do whatever you want to but make it fun. Right now, I hardly bowl as it's too boring and I prefer to us 'Autoplay' option.
33. Have a shot for 'nurdling' or simply placing a ball in gaps and taking a single. This can be played by pressing 'L2' key on PS2, similar to pressing 'L1' for lofting the ball. Nurdling can be easier to play as it's only placing the ball in a gap for single and users can play this shot to get the confidence up for playing bigger shots. Right now there is no 'place and run' shot in the game. This shot will simply place the ball slightly to right, left or short of a fielder, thus allowing a batsman to pick up a single and will be useful in odis or when batsman is out of form and low on confidence.
34. Crowd shouldn't act the same way for you and your opponent. If you are playing away, crowd should quieten down if you do well and occasionally boo you and should act hysterically if your opponent do well. Opposite should happen when your team is playing at home. Thus, if you hit a 6 or get a wicket away from home, crowd should pipe down.
35. I haven't seen any rain interruptions so far (in odis). Maybe they can be added in odis as this will liven up odis as batting team will have to readjust to the modified target based on Duckworth-Lewis or any other system you have in place.
36. Include some bizzare interruptions like boorish crowd behavior taunting opponents and holding up play by throwing bottles & cans to show displeasure, lighting firecrackers or torches, streaker running on to the field, someone walking across a sight screen and so on. This may not happen in every match but it will simulate the real thing and I am sure genuine fans will really love it
37. There's no difference in gameplay even when bowlers differ their bowling speeds. Playing a a 150 KPH ball feels same as playing a 125 KPH ball. In fact while playing an advance down the wicket shot, I can hit a 6 without even caring about the bowling speed. If you press 'O' (advance shot) just before the bowler bowls the ball, you will time the ball irrespective whether it was a slow ball (102 KPH) or a snorter (151 KPH)
38. Have an option for displaying bowling speeds in KPH or MPH.
39. Allow batsmen to move till the time bowler reaches the bowling crease. In real cricket, players improvise and make room to play shotd even when bowlers are about to bowl, so there's no reason why same cannot be done in the game. This will allow players some time to make adjustments, especially for playing shots on the off side.
40. Add a bit of sledging, batsman's reactions at hitting 4s & 6s, missing a shot or getting beaten. Bowling & Fielder reactions at beating a batsman. Sledging between batsman, bowler & fielders, bowler unhappy with a decision and chatting with umpires and so on. Maybe a bowler throwing the ball at a batsman or a batsman initially colliding with bowler while taking a run can be added. This would make the game lot more fun and realistic.
41. Ability to play odi matches with white kit. I prefer white kit, maybe I am too traditional, to colored clothing.
42. Night matches to start in the evening/afternoon and gradually flood lights taking over as night falls.
43. Release a NTSC (US) version of the game. Believe me there are plenty of cricket fans in US and Canada!
44. Keeping track of created players statistics throughout. Whenever I switch off the console, I lose stats of my created and other players. Stats are only stored for a tournament or a tour but I want it to be tracked for all saved matches.
45. Ability to clear off stats for any player so that they can be tracked from the start (for created or any other player).
46. Difference in gameplay as the match goes on, especially in tests. Wear & tear appears on the pitch for tests but it plays the same - the only difference is visual. It would be great if pitch can start behaving differently. E.g. an occasional ball spinning viciously after pitching or a few balls shooting off from a good length spot or keeping extremely low on days 4 & 5. The nature of the pitch should become more unpredictable as time goes on.
47. LBW appeal button while bowling.
48. Sometime a wide is called even when it hits a batsman and rolls off!!! Calling of wide should be consistent.
49. The AI should automatically adjust the height of cut, pull and hook shots to the height of the ball to a certain extent. Users should only concentrate on timing of the shot. Off course if a player plays these shots to an overpitched or medium balls, they shudn't be able to hit it. But now, even if the ball is short, you can't connect it as somehow the ball doesn't bounce as much. Height of the shot should be automatically adjusted.
50. Leg glance shot (-> or right key for right hander) never goes to the boundary.
51. Most of the standard shots ('X' - front foot and 'Triangle' - Back foot) don't have enough power. Users have to rely on 'advance down the wicket' shots ('O') to score runs and to generate enough power to beat the field. Standard shots, if timed well, should also carry the same punch and power and the ball should rocket to the boundry rather than sliding along the turf to a fielder 20 metres from the bat. Please enhance the power of standard shots so that they can be used to score runs and pierce the field in odis.
52. Ability to pick your opponent's playing XI. This option can be very handy if you are new to the game and want to practice against an all-pace or an all-spin attack.
53. There should be a variation of sweep shot against pacers. After all do you really see Lee being swept by a batsman? Maybe a 'fine glance' shot can replace sweep, which looks similar to leg glance but plays the ball a lot finer.
54. Post match presentation - Man of the match, man of the series and so on can be added at the end of the match.
55. Ball swinging like crazy in windy, overcast and helpful conditions. Or balls stopping on batsmen and bouncing awkwardly on damp & dusty pitches respectively. Sorry, but I don't see it happening now and I can easily score runs in all sorts of conditions. Similarly, ball should cut a lot more on green pitches. Make some conditions more challenging for batting and scoring runs.
56. Batsmen to get injured occasionally and not able to bat. Currently the ball hits batsmen on the head with no ill-affects.
57. Allow batsmen to move till the time bowler reaches the bowling crease. In real cricket, players improvise and make room to play shotd even when bowlers are about to bowl, so there's no reason why same cannot be done in the game. This will allow players some time to make adjustments, especially for playing shots on the off side.
58. Some of the shots like Square Cut off the back foot, glide to 3rd man, square drive and hook/pull are way too hard to time and as a result most of the folks rely on a couple of shots to score the runs. Please make it easier to play the shots. I agree that you shouldn't time all the shots all the time but surely smashing (pull shot) a half tracker from a spinner shouldn't be as difficult as it is now!!!
59. Allow users to track stats of career players at least throughout the game. Right now only stats for tours or tournaments are saved and can be tracked.
60. Allow 'single user mode' while playing the game in career mode for playing domestic season or international tour. Example allow users to control only their career player(s) on the tour or domestic season rather than play for all the players on the team. This way I will only bat or bowl when my career player is in the middle rather than bat or bowl for my team-mates, just like in real cricket
61. Have a career mode similar to the one in games like 'Top Spin' and 'Fight Night', i.e., a acreer player starts at club level and as he gets better, he gets points which can be used for improving his game. As the players game improves, he rises through the levels/ranks and progressing from club level-> district level->state/county level->zone level->national 2nd XI or Under 19 XI->National A team->International. Basically the level of competition improves as the career player's game improves in the game.
I hope somebody at EA reads this post and incorporate a few things from the list.
P.S. - Please release a NTSC version of the game :upray Trust me, there are plenty of people who will buy the game in US/Canada
1. Some of the LBWs given during the game are plain not out... especially when the ball pitches outside leg.
2. Batsmen take ages to get back in case you cancel a run... in fact I have never made it safely after canceling a run. Maybe it shouldn't take such a long time for the batsman to return back to the crease... I have been playing the game for couple of months now and I still average 2-3 run-outs an innings!
3. Reduced file-save size. Currently a saved game takes a lot of memory... this is simply too much! Brian Lara 2005 only takes up 150 KB or so to save the game.
4. Batsman should be able to place the ball anywhere in a 360 degree arc. E.g. by using the analog controller on PS2's dualshock2 pad, a player should be able to guide the ball in the gaps, thus evading the fielders. Currently, a batsman can only hit any given shot in a pre-determined path. For example, a cover drive only has 2-3 paths to travel to the boundary and if those gaps are plugged by fielders, u can't find the gaps and get a boundary. In Brian lara 2005, by using the analog controller u can place the ball in a 360 degree arc and thus you have more control over shot placement and thus more chances of evading a fielder. Maybe you should look at Brian Lara 2005 for the same. Maybe there should be an attribute like 'Ability to find gap' for batsmen and better batsmen like Tendulkar and Lara should find it much easier to evade fielders as compared to tailenders.
5. Confidence meter simply takes too long to be filled up. Maybe the confience meter can be filled up at different rates for different batsmen - the better a batsman, quicker it should fill. And maybe the meter is partly filled up depending on how good a batsman is - it could be filled up to a high level for a batsman like Lara or Tendulkar and at a lower level for a player like Collingwood.
6. Too many run outs in the game... this aspect needs to be worked on.
7. Some gameplay glitches need to be fixed. For example a batsman usually edges a ball when on driving a full toss on leg stump to the wicket keeper (especially against spinners)! This never happens in a real match. There are other glitches as well and will post them as I remember them.
8. Fielding and animation should be improved. Brian lara 2005 is much better in this respect. The only aspect where Crkt 2K5 is better is in player similarities but in animation a lot of improvement is required. Sometimes fielders appear to moonwalk and animation of fielders throwing the ball without winding up their arms is plain weird!
9. I can't play against myself in Crkt 2005. For example I bat first in a odi and after the 1st innings I save my match. When I load the saved game I can't change my team to bat and chase the target. I can do this in BL 2K5. I wud love this feature to be included in Crkt 2K5 coz after sometime, when u have mastered the game, u can still play the game against yourself. Unfortunately can't do so now. I should be able to save a match and choose any side (batting or fielding) when I load the game.
10. Timing in the nets is not the same as actual gameplay. Maybe the nets need to reflect the timing in the real match.
11. Commentary is simply pathetic! Commentators are generally wrong about most of the things - the direction in which shot was played, the no. of balls it took to reach a milestone (50 or 100) and other stats.
12. Run rates and reqd run rates are not calculated accurately.
13. When a team wins a match while chasing, the commentator announces that the chasing team won by 1 run. This should be corrected to reflect the number of wkts by which the chasing team wins.
14. The game is a bit too slow as compared to Brian Lara 2005. It takes a longer time to finish a 50 over odi in Crkt 2005 as compared to Brian Lara 2005. Maybe you can speed up things a bit.
15. Occasionally the controller doesn't respond at all - sometimes when you want to cancel a run, the game doesn't respond to the button press for a while. Same thing happens sometimes while taking leg byes... the batsmen refuse to run even though you press the 'Run' button.
16. Batsmen can't take a run when bowlers appeal... this costs plenty of runs and is unrealistic.
17. 'Autoplay' feature doesn't generate a reasonable score in tests. Most of the times, for a team like Aus the score is between 200 and 300 which is not realistic at all - I found these results when conditions were ideal for batting on 'normal' pitch and on a 'sunny' and 'warm' day.
18. AI shouldn't choose back or front shots on 'Easy' mode for you. The only difference between 'Easy' and other modes should be that the timing should be easier but you should be able to choose which shots you want to play (back foot or front foot). This in fact creates a lot of confusion and thus I moved to 'Medium' mode and am sure 'Easy' mode is of no use because of this 'auto-shot-select' feature of the game. Please note that gamers want to judge line and length for themselves and don't require too much of spoon feeding.
19. Some of the shots are way too tough to time like 'Hook', 'Square Drive', 'Square Cut' and 'Glide to 3rd man'. Trust me, I have tried to successfully play these shots but have simply failed! I agree that some shots shouldn't be too easy but surely pulling a long-hop off a spinner or a medium pacer shouldn't be too tough for most batsmen. Similarly, shots on the off side are way too difficult to time, even for a good batsman, and most of the times gamers rely on 1 or 2 shots to get runs. In fact I get 99% of my runs on the leg side playing on drive, glance or sweep. I don't use any othet shot at all and maybe you can look at this feature a bit.
20. The help book or tutorial should have some hints on timing of a shot. Maybe something like this will do... For on-drive, press direction button (right and down for a right handed batsman) and 'X' just before the ball hits the pitch. Most of the times I had to rely on fellow posters to tell me the exact timing of a shot as Nets are simply no help at all. This way people don't have to go to various forums instead of playing the game
21. There are a few cheats like getting batsmen out by bowling with a medium bowler and bowling short with no pace. This way you can get a good team like Aus out for 0 with players getting out bowled or LBW. I am sure there are other cheats as well and all of them need to be addressed.
22. AI's bowling changes are plain weird! Sometimes it doesn't bowl a specialist bowler like Warne and keeps on bowlers like Clarke & Katich on for ages. Also, it doesn't change bowlers even if a bowler is taken apart. Generally, a bowlers is taken off if he's taken apart 2-3 overs in succession by batters.
23. AI doesn't change the field too much and sticks with the same standard fields. AI should change the field depending on batsmen's abilities, the way he is scoring in the match and taking context of the match in general. E.g. if batsman is making most of his runs through on side, AI should plug the gap. Or if the batting team needs just 4 an over to win in the last 10 overs, instead of having a spread field that allows batsmen to take easy singles, AI shud have more fielders close-in to stop the batsmen from taking singles and to take more risks like going over the top.
24. It doesn't make much of a difference even if I play 11 batsmen and not even a single specialist bowler. I played a few matches with 11 batsmen and selected 'AutoPlay' option. The AI batsmen still scored the same amount of runs they do against specialist bowlers!!! Even Aus scored just 275 against a team having no specialist bowlers and it's plain ridiculous! AI shud score depending on the quality of bowlers and 'Autoplay' should generate innings taking the strength of bowling into account. This is especially true for odis.
25. While playing tests, the new ball is not offered to the bowling team after 80 overs, as it should. Currently, the bowling team is offered a new ball at a random point in time, which I can't fathom. ometime it's after 70 overs, sometime 110 and so on. Also, if bowling team declines to take a new ball, it should still be available to the bowling team and they should be able to take it whenever they want, once it's offered. Currently, once the new-ball offer is refused, bowling team can't claim the new ball and has to continue with old ball forever.
26. Scoring with 'Advance down the wicket' shots is too easy and confidence and quality of a batsman has no bearing on it. I can hit McGrath out of the ground with a tailender who is new to the crease!!! Maybe the distance the shot travels with advance shots (especially lofted) can be dependent on the quality of the batsmen and confidence. Thus a batsmen will have to get enough confidence before hitting 6s else he can be caught in the boundary. This will ensure that people try to play lofted 'Advance down the wicket' shots only when fielding restrictions apply and not when fielders are manning the boundary. Please make this shot a little more difficult to play in the next version and ease off on the other shots.
27. There should be classic matches and challenges like in Brian Lara 2005.
28. AI should be more realistic in run chases. Currently, it scores very slowly even if it's chasing a 300+ total. In real life, we generally see teams going all out in the initial overs when fielding restrictions are in place.
29. Currently the difference between timing a shot and mistiming it even slightly is huge. This shouldn't be the case. A well timed shot should go for a 6 but even a shot that's mistimed, just a liitle bit' should carry a long way. Worse the timing, less distance should it carry. I don't see it happen currently as any mistimed shots (slight mistime or a botches shot) result in looping the ball skywards.
30. Sizes of stadiums should differ and should be factored in gameplay. It should be easier to hit 6s in New Zealand and Faislabad as compared to Eden Gardens (Kolkatta) or australian grounds. Thus even slight mishits should get you 6s on smaller grounds but even well timed shots could be caught on the boundaries on larger grounds. This will force the players to bat according to ground sizes - if side boundaries (leg & off) are shorter as compared to straight boundary, people will go for more horizontal shots as compared to straight shots and vice-versa.
31. Add 2 more modes to the game other than Easy, Medium & Hard - 'Slog' mode where you can time the shots easily and 'Ultimate' mode where you have to be perfect to beat AI. Slog mode will allow users to get a hang of shots and even help lure people who go for Brian Lara 2005 coz it's easy. Ultimate mode can have a perfect AI where even small mistakes by a player are punished. E.g. an over pitched delivery is mostly hit for 4, bouncers are hooked for 6 and AI hardly bowls any loose balls. This will help folks like me interested once they have mastered the game.
32. Make bowling a little more fun... do whatever you want to but make it fun. Right now, I hardly bowl as it's too boring and I prefer to us 'Autoplay' option.
33. Have a shot for 'nurdling' or simply placing a ball in gaps and taking a single. This can be played by pressing 'L2' key on PS2, similar to pressing 'L1' for lofting the ball. Nurdling can be easier to play as it's only placing the ball in a gap for single and users can play this shot to get the confidence up for playing bigger shots. Right now there is no 'place and run' shot in the game. This shot will simply place the ball slightly to right, left or short of a fielder, thus allowing a batsman to pick up a single and will be useful in odis or when batsman is out of form and low on confidence.
34. Crowd shouldn't act the same way for you and your opponent. If you are playing away, crowd should quieten down if you do well and occasionally boo you and should act hysterically if your opponent do well. Opposite should happen when your team is playing at home. Thus, if you hit a 6 or get a wicket away from home, crowd should pipe down.
35. I haven't seen any rain interruptions so far (in odis). Maybe they can be added in odis as this will liven up odis as batting team will have to readjust to the modified target based on Duckworth-Lewis or any other system you have in place.
36. Include some bizzare interruptions like boorish crowd behavior taunting opponents and holding up play by throwing bottles & cans to show displeasure, lighting firecrackers or torches, streaker running on to the field, someone walking across a sight screen and so on. This may not happen in every match but it will simulate the real thing and I am sure genuine fans will really love it
37. There's no difference in gameplay even when bowlers differ their bowling speeds. Playing a a 150 KPH ball feels same as playing a 125 KPH ball. In fact while playing an advance down the wicket shot, I can hit a 6 without even caring about the bowling speed. If you press 'O' (advance shot) just before the bowler bowls the ball, you will time the ball irrespective whether it was a slow ball (102 KPH) or a snorter (151 KPH)
38. Have an option for displaying bowling speeds in KPH or MPH.
39. Allow batsmen to move till the time bowler reaches the bowling crease. In real cricket, players improvise and make room to play shotd even when bowlers are about to bowl, so there's no reason why same cannot be done in the game. This will allow players some time to make adjustments, especially for playing shots on the off side.
40. Add a bit of sledging, batsman's reactions at hitting 4s & 6s, missing a shot or getting beaten. Bowling & Fielder reactions at beating a batsman. Sledging between batsman, bowler & fielders, bowler unhappy with a decision and chatting with umpires and so on. Maybe a bowler throwing the ball at a batsman or a batsman initially colliding with bowler while taking a run can be added. This would make the game lot more fun and realistic.
41. Ability to play odi matches with white kit. I prefer white kit, maybe I am too traditional, to colored clothing.
42. Night matches to start in the evening/afternoon and gradually flood lights taking over as night falls.
43. Release a NTSC (US) version of the game. Believe me there are plenty of cricket fans in US and Canada!
44. Keeping track of created players statistics throughout. Whenever I switch off the console, I lose stats of my created and other players. Stats are only stored for a tournament or a tour but I want it to be tracked for all saved matches.
45. Ability to clear off stats for any player so that they can be tracked from the start (for created or any other player).
46. Difference in gameplay as the match goes on, especially in tests. Wear & tear appears on the pitch for tests but it plays the same - the only difference is visual. It would be great if pitch can start behaving differently. E.g. an occasional ball spinning viciously after pitching or a few balls shooting off from a good length spot or keeping extremely low on days 4 & 5. The nature of the pitch should become more unpredictable as time goes on.
47. LBW appeal button while bowling.
48. Sometime a wide is called even when it hits a batsman and rolls off!!! Calling of wide should be consistent.
49. The AI should automatically adjust the height of cut, pull and hook shots to the height of the ball to a certain extent. Users should only concentrate on timing of the shot. Off course if a player plays these shots to an overpitched or medium balls, they shudn't be able to hit it. But now, even if the ball is short, you can't connect it as somehow the ball doesn't bounce as much. Height of the shot should be automatically adjusted.
50. Leg glance shot (-> or right key for right hander) never goes to the boundary.
51. Most of the standard shots ('X' - front foot and 'Triangle' - Back foot) don't have enough power. Users have to rely on 'advance down the wicket' shots ('O') to score runs and to generate enough power to beat the field. Standard shots, if timed well, should also carry the same punch and power and the ball should rocket to the boundry rather than sliding along the turf to a fielder 20 metres from the bat. Please enhance the power of standard shots so that they can be used to score runs and pierce the field in odis.
52. Ability to pick your opponent's playing XI. This option can be very handy if you are new to the game and want to practice against an all-pace or an all-spin attack.
53. There should be a variation of sweep shot against pacers. After all do you really see Lee being swept by a batsman? Maybe a 'fine glance' shot can replace sweep, which looks similar to leg glance but plays the ball a lot finer.
54. Post match presentation - Man of the match, man of the series and so on can be added at the end of the match.
55. Ball swinging like crazy in windy, overcast and helpful conditions. Or balls stopping on batsmen and bouncing awkwardly on damp & dusty pitches respectively. Sorry, but I don't see it happening now and I can easily score runs in all sorts of conditions. Similarly, ball should cut a lot more on green pitches. Make some conditions more challenging for batting and scoring runs.
56. Batsmen to get injured occasionally and not able to bat. Currently the ball hits batsmen on the head with no ill-affects.
57. Allow batsmen to move till the time bowler reaches the bowling crease. In real cricket, players improvise and make room to play shotd even when bowlers are about to bowl, so there's no reason why same cannot be done in the game. This will allow players some time to make adjustments, especially for playing shots on the off side.
58. Some of the shots like Square Cut off the back foot, glide to 3rd man, square drive and hook/pull are way too hard to time and as a result most of the folks rely on a couple of shots to score the runs. Please make it easier to play the shots. I agree that you shouldn't time all the shots all the time but surely smashing (pull shot) a half tracker from a spinner shouldn't be as difficult as it is now!!!
59. Allow users to track stats of career players at least throughout the game. Right now only stats for tours or tournaments are saved and can be tracked.
60. Allow 'single user mode' while playing the game in career mode for playing domestic season or international tour. Example allow users to control only their career player(s) on the tour or domestic season rather than play for all the players on the team. This way I will only bat or bowl when my career player is in the middle rather than bat or bowl for my team-mates, just like in real cricket
61. Have a career mode similar to the one in games like 'Top Spin' and 'Fight Night', i.e., a acreer player starts at club level and as he gets better, he gets points which can be used for improving his game. As the players game improves, he rises through the levels/ranks and progressing from club level-> district level->state/county level->zone level->national 2nd XI or Under 19 XI->National A team->International. Basically the level of competition improves as the career player's game improves in the game.
I hope somebody at EA reads this post and incorporate a few things from the list.
P.S. - Please release a NTSC version of the game :upray Trust me, there are plenty of people who will buy the game in US/Canada
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:hpraise 
