Have played about 45mins on hard mode and these are my thoughts.
PROS:
- Much faster menu loading times
- Now much harder to bat which is excellent. As Sureshot said, if you lose concentration you'll lose a wicket.
- I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that playing across the line often led to leading edges to gully or cover.
- Bowling speeds are now realistic.
- Realistic bowling lengths and realistic bounce.
- Bowling requires skill and intelligence. Managed to set up Watson to edge to 3rd slip when attempting a cut shot.
- Realistic run rates.
- Spinners don't get smashed. I got hit for one 6 when using Swann. The rest of the time any ball on the stumps was generally defended.
- I haven't had a single run-out! (Although the AI seems almost over cautious now, but it's much better that way)
CONS:
- Stutter and frame rate drop when the camera pans out after the batsman has hit the ball.
- The game froze (and stopped responding) when Shane Watson fielded the ball at third man. I was left with a close up of him grimacing as he released the ball...it wasn't pretty.
- Ponting smashed his 3rd ball for 6 off of Jimmy, when the ball wasn't even that bad - just slightly wide and overpitched. The next over he also hit Swann for 6, but then calmed down.
- When batting, aggressive shots, even if poorly timed, seem to be able to go for 6 or at least a 4. But that might be a tweak of sorts because they do go extremely high in the air as if they were a steepler which just seems to have carried.