Don Bradman Cricket 17 First Impressions Thread

[DAP]

I wanted to play proper cricket as much as I can. So, I do not run hitting the ball straight to fielders inside the circle or run crazy to steal extra run at every possible opportunity by sprinting and diving. The club games are all T20s, so can't just rely on glances and drives. I need to score at a decent pace and that is when I get out either pulling a shot ball into the hands of the fielders, edge spinners to keeper trying to play a non existing shot in the game, get caught inside the field trying to clear the circle etc etc.. Still cant get enough of the game mode and repeat the process. Stormed into my 4th season in no time expecting to improve game after game to no avail.. Hopefully, patch 3 gives us more shots and opportunities to find gaps more regularly..

Oh you are a console user, sorry about that! I am speaking for the PC Version

 

[SMIFFYLFC79]

Hi all,

I am new here found site by chance the other day and its great, downloaded many new things thanks to all the great creators within this site.

Loved DB14 and I am absolutely loving DB17 even with the few teething issues

Just wanted to share this vid as it made me laugh when I realised what had happened, I thought it was absolutely brilliant

 

[Saeglopur]

^ They all count!

Just playing my first match at the moment - just a simple Five5 (and being smashed all over the place at the moment)...My first observation is - does anyone else think that the replay controls feel a bit...clunky? Getting the camera to the right place seems much more complicated than necessary. Maybe I'm just too used to the old system, but LB/RB for zoom feels particularly strange after using the stick last time, and it seems we can't zoom in as far or get the same kind of subject tracking as easily as last time. It's a minor grumble but just seemed a bit frustrating. I like the option of a free roaming camera but I kind of like a simpler option for quick viewing.

 

[Scott Clague]

You are right, i also felt the same and vented that out(not so rudely) in forum,but the CEO dont have the right attitude to take it forward

They had the right attitude when they fixed DB14 so why should this differ now? Patience is the key and with small developers releasing the game must be the way to get the bugs ironed out, although they'd save a lot of criticism by explaining this before release.

 

[Scott Clague]

Well its all fine and dandy with them fixing the game. My main grouse is how can someone miss so many glaring bugs? Can you give me any one logical reason why did they release an half-baked game? And no its their responsibility to fix the game cos they have to if they want their customers come buy the next iteration. It's called customer service. I am a rep for Verizon and we know how paramount is the happiness of the customer. Forget Verizon you if you are in the business of dealing customers then no matter what you have to yield to the old adage Customer is always right.

Erm....patch 3 is coming mate. Read some of the posts above yours...about 2 or 3 above yours in fact

 

[Scott Clague]

So have bought the game on PC too(shh dont tell wifey). Played for 2 hours straight and WOW! What a big difference from Xbox version that I have now that things are sorted.Cover drives,square cuts backfoot shots all are in. We now have required run rates, projected scores all displayed while playing. So people who were whining see???? You nicely ask things and you will have it

This game has surpassed DBC 14 and is now the best ever cricket game. Wish they released the console version like this at start and there would have been zero negative publicity

This is great news mate! Nice 1! Put this comment on every post in these forums!

 

[Scott Clague]

Hi all,

I am new here found site by chance the other day and its great, downloaded many new things thanks to all the great creators within this site.

Loved DB14 and I am absolutely loving DB17 even with the few teething issues

Just wanted to share this vid as it made me laugh when I realised what had happened, I thought it was absolutely brilliant

Haha! Brilliant mate!

 

[Deleted member 46200]

My first impressions with the PC version:

Very, very, very impressed.

As I didn't play the console version I can't speak to the improvements to the game. What I can say is that 17 is a huge step forward compared to 14. Yes, the commentary is still rubbish (no, seriously, it's terrible, with now James Taylor saying those sacred words - "he gives it a big tweak". They also seem to be watching a different game than what's actually being played. But if you're buying 17 for the commentary than you have a weird fetish though I'm not judging).

Anyway, playing career mode with an 18 year old all-rounder who's playing for Carlton.

Batting is tough. But tough in a good way. Late last night I ground out 44 runs in my second year for the Blues and it felt like a major achievement. What's brilliant is that unlike 14 it's not to your advantage to plant yourself on the front foot and clip everything to leg. Because the ball marker gives you some idea of the length of the ball before the delivery is bowled you have time to choose front or back foot. I'm actually playing cut shots. I also love the precision modifier. Also, you can hit the ball 360 degrees. Actual straight drives.

The bowling is also enjoyable. The flight / bounce option is great. And I'm even noticing some slight turn... as I've just started it makes sense that I'm not spinning them square. The preset fields aren't great and the captain picks fields that make little to no sense (so hopefully that will improve) but overall bowling is fun. Oh and there are edges. And I got a stumping! Because the keeper actually responds in time.

I have some minor quibbles. The AI batsmen still aren't aggressive enough later in the game when they need two runs a ball. It's not that they block, but there's no feeling of urgency. And I would like more stats. But that's because I love stats.

Another quibble is based around performance. While I might have chosen to be an opener my batting is poor and the captain should have dropped me down the order - to 7 or 8 (my bowling keeps me in the team). Having me still open makes little sense. Maybe this sort of thing happens in the domestic and international parts of the game.

Still, I'm loving this. Well done to the team at Big Ant.

Top stuff thanks.[DOUBLEPOST=1484844772][/DOUBLEPOST]

Erm....patch 3 is coming mate. Read some of the posts above yours...about 2 or 3 above yours in fact

Haha! Brilliant mate!

This is great news mate! Nice 1! Put this comment on every post in these forums!

Thanks save me time poring scorn on these doubters.

 

[karolkarol]

Right, first impressions, are we all sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

Put simply this game is chock full of little nuggets of joy to be gleaned from small victories, each different to the last and in my opinion BA have captured the essence of cricket right there.

I'd expected the batting to be the more frustrating side of this game given the console gamers reviews but I found it a complete joy with the new patch, I'd say my batting skills are more limited than the batting mechanics so I'm probably not the world's best judge but even I found that generally I could score in the areas I wanted to, off the appropriate balls it has to be said, some wonderful looking square and cover drives (@cricket_online) being a particularly nice addition from the dead zone in the demo.

I thought I'd start with a casual first class match, Essex vs Yorkshire at Sharjah. Early doors I couldn't lay bat on ball, Willey and Brooks were bowling challenging lines to excellently set fields, hooping it around and Browne got his 16 exclusively in singles. There really is something to be said for patience, seeing off the new ball and playing long form cricket how it should be played. It was only when Bopara and Foster were 20 or 30 and we were 40 overs in that scoring opportunities started to crop up and they could be put away. I thoroughly enjoyed that batting innings, I felt that every wicket that went down was because I'd done something wrong and that, in its own way, was particularly satisfying.

My only niggle on the AI side was that Yorkshire only used 4 bowlers for the entire innings. I'm not sure if it's because I had Rashid batting at 6 in the lineup that they didn't bowl him but that did disappoint me a touch.

I'm a bowling guy, always have been and it's never been more enjoyable than DBC17. Sure there are niggles like the field settings, the slight lack of AI match awareness and the cheap feeling chipped catches but they're more than worth it for those little nuggets of joy from an inswinging yorker or a catch at gully. The depth here I think is pretty amazing and whether it's coded or just in my head I often got the feeling that I was outfoxing the batsman, a few inswingers then the one going straight on or the odd surprise bouncer thrown into the mix. I tolerate the catching minigame, it's not difficult and I'd like to see a toggle in there to allow you to turn it off but quite honestly I'm just enjoying having edges in.

As regards the Academy, I think @blockerdave hit the nail on the head, there are just too many clicks needed to do stuff. I'm sure it'll be refined in future iterations and my goodness what an amazing tool it is.

Is the game perfect, hell no, it's nowhere near perfect, it's massively frustrating in places but overall my goodness it's fun. A lot of us are along for the ride, for richer for poorer, we accept the niggles and recognise that 17 is part of a franchise on a journey. I can see that the console version was far far from the finished article and I understand a lot of the disquiet out there but I can only comment on what I have played and I'm loving it.

 

[Saeglopur]

I tolerate the catching minigame, it's not difficult and I'd like to see a toggle in there to allow you to turn it off but quite honestly I'm just enjoying having edges in.

If you're not bothered about the other bits of fielding, you can set fielding to 'Fully Assisted'?

Also, isn't the 'Yorkshire only used 4 bowlers' thing a bug of some kind? I'm sure I remember hearing about that, in the same way that in limited overs, the AI just chooses 5 bowlers and lets all of them complete their spell? I'm really hoping that's something that will be sorted out in the next update, whenever it comes along. Though after my incorrect 'stumping' dismissals earlier, there are clearly other things that require attention, haha!

 

[blockerdave]

@karolkarol top review.

As @Saeglopur touches on, there is a bug where all rounders or batting all rounders get underbowled or ignored seemingly irrespective of ability.

AI bowling changes and field sets are the main remaining areas for improvement from a gameplay perspective.

I think the weather being not controllable and rarely anything but fine is an issue too. However having been one thing not changed even a little from DBC14 we probably have to accept that as a design choice and it's not likely to change.

 

[francobaldo1]

If you're not bothered about the other bits of fielding, you can set fielding to 'Fully Assisted'?

Also, isn't the 'Yorkshire only used 4 bowlers' thing a bug of some kind? I'm sure I remember hearing about that, in the same way that in limited overs, the AI just chooses 5 bowlers and lets all of them complete their spell? I'm really hoping that's something that will be sorted out in the next update, whenever it comes along. Though after my incorrect 'stumping' dismissals earlier, there are clearly other things that require attention, haha!

if you are interested the fearsome tweak mod allows to disable the minigame, it's in the academy subforum

 

[cricket_online]

@karolkarol top review.

As @Saeglopur touches on, there is a bug where all rounders or batting all rounders get underbowled or ignored seemingly irrespective of ability.

AI bowling changes and field sets are the main remaining areas for improvement from a gameplay perspective.

I think the weather being not controllable and rarely anything but fine is an issue too. However having been one thing not changed even a little from DBC14 we probably have to accept that as a design choice and it's not likely to change.

This should be addressed once the core gameplay is nailed and probably in the next iteration of the game. And I would have more comprehensive stats, especially in the career mode, as one of the items to be fixed along with Field presets & AI Fielding.

Oh yeah forgot one other item... AI running between the wkts. AI batsmen consistently take one run less than what's on offer. Even if they hit to the side of the fielder in circle, they refuse to take a single. Similarly they refuse to take 2nd when it's on offer in the deep and they only take two when three runs are very much doable. I know aggressive running between the wkts by AI was patched in by Big Ant for DBC 14. maybe something similar could be done in DBC 17 as well. Currently it takes away from immersion, especially in shorter formats, when you see AI batsmen refusing runs and watching them play dots or just 1s towards end of the innings. @MattW maybe you can look into it.

 

[blockerdave]

This should be addressed once the core gameplay is nailed and probably in the next iteration of the game. And I would have more comprehensive stats, especially in the career mode, as one of the items to be fixed along with Field presets & AI Fielding.

Aye I left stats out only as I don't see them as gameplay per se. That is not to say they are not important- stats and their tracking is obviously crucial to cricket and the enjoyment of it

 

[cricket_online]

Aye I left stats out only as I don't see them as gameplay per se. That is not to say they are not important- stats and their tracking is obviously crucial to cricket and the enjoyment of it

Especially in career mode. And i updated my previous post to mention another gripe of mine - lack of aggressive running between the wkts by AI (especially in shorter formats).