To Buy or Not? A Casual fan discussion

[bestbrother]

Let me start by saying ive read reviews on Steam and on the web. Ive been on these forums reading threads for the past week and ive taken in Streams/Videos as and where possible.

However even with all that, as a casual fan, ive still questions that need to be answered.

I will be looking to get this on PC (Steam) and although the price point is something that initially puts me off, im looking past that and in to what the game can give me back.

So first off, Cricket itself. Im a casual fan at best, probably more into it in my younger years, so I dont know too much about all the players and definitely very little about foreign teams. However I enjoy the sport and understand it all, so thats where my intrigue piques on this.

Onto the game itself, my biggest questions revolve around the game modes and in particular the career option.

What I want to do is take control of 1 team ie Essex, play all their games... County, 1-day, T20 etc in a season, manage the players and whatever else is in the game. Then take that on season by season... for comparison sake like the GM modes in Madden / NHL / NBA 2K etc

So firstly is that possible? 2nd is it any good as a mode, ie stable, enough there to keep you interested with the AI investing into their teams and not just me developing mine? How many seasons can you play? Are there goals? What competitions are available and do they follow their real life counterparts?

Basically anything about this mode, I want to know as much as possible.

Second and probably less important to me is the gameplay. Now it looks good and fun to play from what ive seen, however 1 thing bugs me... the fielding camera. Now there could be others out there, but it just feels weird watching it and it would put me off. So my questions are, can you turn fielding to the AI and if so is it a viable way to play? Or if not, can I have a normal camera, ie still in the view you get when you bowl and not angling off with all the lines etc

This video sort of shows it

If you see at that time, after the bowl, the camera hangs around the bowler and it just looks weird to me.

Anyway hope someone can help, im sat here with my card ready to buy.... just need so re-assurance I suppose that ill be able to get what I want from the game (career mode wise) in order to bite the bullet.

 

[cricket_online]

If you're planning to go for the PC version my recommendation would be to go for it as Big Ant are known to push out improvements via patches regularly, especially on the PC version where the patch rollout is not dependent on platform holders (MS, Sony). Content-wise you can download the latest teams & players so no issues there. As for career mode I've always focused on individual career mode so can't say how good or bad a team based career mode is.

But regardless I've to mention that if you are expecting a career mode similar to what you experience on NBA, NHL or Madden, you may be disappointed. Career mode is fun and quite engaging but you have to understand that likes of Madden, NBA, NHL etc. took years and multiple iterations to get where they are backed by huge budget. DBC 17 is barely in its second iteration. I'm not saying the game or career mode is bad but I simply want to level set your expectation coz if you go expecting a NBA or Madden sort of experience you will be setting yourself for disappointment.

Career mode spans 20 years and you will play bilateral series, tournaments such as World Chamionship and intl T20 tourneys like Big Bash, IPL etc. along with domestic tourneys of the nation you belong to as well as other nations e.g., county cricket, Aus domestic and so on. Again I only have knowledge about the individual career mode and don't know how the team career mode differs from the individual one.

Regarding camera angles and fielding, there are multiple angles to choose from and there's an option to set fielding to 'Automatic', 'Semi Automatic' or 'Manual' depending on how engaged you want to be on the fielding side of things. Personally I prefer the 'Semi Automatic' option but if you don't care about it at all probably 'Automatic' setting would be better for you.

 

[bestbrother]

Thanks for your reply.

I suppose my big concern then with career mode is how the AI works over the 20 years? Are they stagnant or are they aggressive in making a team that can compete with yours? I mean I know in games the human generally has the edge, but still, id like the AI to at least attempt to improve their teams and not roll over.

It sounds as if this game is more geared toward being an individual as part of a team, rather than controlling the whole lot... in respect of career mode at least.

 

[Bluebagger]

Honestly I think you're better off buying DBC 14 and getting familiar with Franco's hack

 

[cricket_online]

Thanks for your reply.

I suppose my big concern then with career mode is how the AI works over the 20 years? Are they stagnant or are they aggressive in making a team that can compete with yours? I mean I know in games the human generally has the edge, but still, id like the AI to at least attempt to improve their teams and not roll over.

It sounds as if this game is more geared toward being an individual as part of a team, rather than controlling the whole lot... in respect of career mode at least.

I think I would agree with this statement.

 

[bestbrother]

I think I would agree with this statement.

Thanks for your honesty, appreciate that.

Looks like ill give it a miss then, but ill be following the game with interest and hope that down the line something like this can be part of the games future.

 

[cooks1st100]

Honestly I think you're better off buying DBC 14 and getting familiar with Franco's hack

From what I've seen from the video's DBC17 is DBC14 with slightly better graphics and far better ball movement.

The same issues that were present in the former version are still there and it would appear that there has been no attempt to fix them. Issues such as highlights for every no-ball, yet not for wickets, highlights that begin after the ball has passed the batman, no difference between defensive minded and attacking minded players, bowlers bowling 155kmh balls from the very first ball, yet losing 15/20 kmh of pace a couple of overs later, complete lack of match awareness by the AI, etc.

DBC14 was a completely frustrating game because of these, yet within it were moments of complete magic, far better than any other cricket title has managed, but I still don't think anyone has captured the essence of Test cricket as well as BLC99. I feel that DBC17 has only made a few slight improvements and has actually gone backwards in some areas, so all in all I'm fairly disappointed with what I have seen thus far..

 

[cricket_online]

Thanks for your honesty, appreciate that.

Looks like ill give it a miss then, but ill be following the game with interest and hope that down the line something like this can be part of the games future.

Well the problem is that cricket, especially international cricket, is not geared to a true "team career" sort of a mode given there's no concept of managing salary cap, trading players, drafting players, contracts etc. the way other games such as Madden, NHL or FIFA are. These games are centered more around professional leagues where managing a team, franchise or club makes sense.

Unfortunately in international most of these concepts don't apply. You may get a similar mode but that would be more for T20 sort of leagues, such as IPL or Big Bash where you have to sign players, manage draft and salary cap/budget. IMO we are still a few years away before franchise based cricket really takes off and "Franchise mode" shows up in cricket video games.

 

[bestbrother]

Well the problem is that cricket, especially international cricket, is not geared to a true "team career" sort of a mode given there's no concept of managing salary cap, trading players, drafting players, contracts etc. the way other games such as Madden, NHL or FIFA are. These games are centered more around professional leagues where managing a team, franchise or club makes sense.

Unfortunately in international most of these concepts don't apply. You may get a similar mode but that would be more for T20 sort of leagues, such as IPL or Big Bash where you have to sign players, manage draft and salary cap/budget. IMO we are still a few years away before franchise based cricket really takes off and "Franchise mode" shows up in cricket video games.

So for example you cant manage say an English County such as Essex... and play all their domestic games, pick their team etc, sign players? develop younger players? and let that evolve season after season?

I dont care for the International game, I mean if that sims alongside a domestic career then fine, but ive not interest in playing as England for example.

To give an example, would I play in the:

County Championship and it have the correct 2 division format with promotion/relegation?
Royal London One-Day Cup and again with the correct format?
Natwest T20 Blast as above

So id manage and play the games in those competitions for Essex... pick the team and lineup for each game, maybe sign a player, deal with retirements, contracts, develop younger players etc

All of that, whilst the AI runs the other teams and tries to be competitive. Complete with standings, stats and all that stuff.

I dont expect all the extra gumpf you get with Madden or NBA such as Tweets, or league news etc as I appreciate this is a new concept here. But id love all the competitions to be configured correctly with that small management aspect to give the game a bit of life and control from me.

 

[scampy]

Career mode is the career of your selected player only. Whilst you can opt to play as the whole team for each of the matches that your player is involved in that would be as much as you could do initially. (If your player got dropped due to poor form then a host of matches could pass that you would have no involvement in.)

ie: no player signings, no picking the team (although you can do once making captain in your second or third season), no development of the other squad members.

This mode is definitely not football manager for cricket.

Hope that helps clarify.

 

[cricket_online]

So for example you cant manage say an English County such as Essex... and play all their domestic games, pick their team etc, sign players? develop younger players? and let that evolve season after season?

I dont care for the International game, I mean if that sims alongside a domestic career then fine, but ive not interest in playing as England for example.

To give an example, would I play in the:

County Championship and it have the correct 2 division format with promotion/relegation?
Royal London One-Day Cup and again with the correct format?
Natwest T20 Blast as above

So id manage and play the games in those competitions for Essex... pick the team and lineup for each game, maybe sign a player, deal with retirements, contracts, develop younger players etc

All of that, whilst the AI runs the other teams and tries to be competitive. Complete with standings, stats and all that stuff.

I dont expect all the extra gumpf you get with Madden or NBA such as Tweets, or league news etc as I appreciate this is a new concept here. But id love all the competitions to be configured correctly with that small management aspect to give the game a bit of life and control from me.

The career mode from team perspective is not there yet. Team career mode is quite basic in the sense that you can control the whole team for which your career player plays but you don't have control over signings, retirements, develop players/teams etc.

 

[bestbrother]

OK cheers, appreciate the clarification.

What to buy now instead for the weekend

 

[Deleted member 9102]

The Cricket Captain series has all of that stuff like signing players, managing contracts, developing youth etc. from season to season with a county side in all the competitions (and international as well if you want) but is purely management/strategy without interactive gameplay (like Football Manager). The game has seen pretty much zero innovation or significant improvement in the ~20 years it has been around though, so if you have an old version you may as well just play that instead of buying the new one!

 

[francobaldo1]

i'd say buy it, Big Ant is releasing patches and i hope also there will be a big patch/mod from the community, like the one in games
like Skyrim. The game is a very good sandbox, i hope many things can be added.

 

[bestbrother]

The Cricket Captain series has all of that stuff like signing players, managing contracts, developing youth etc. from season to season with a county side in all the competitions (and international as well if you want) but is purely management/strategy without interactive gameplay (like Football Manager). The game has seen pretty much zero innovation or significant improvement in the ~20 years it has been around though, so if you have an old version you may as well just play that instead of buying the new one!

Yeah ive seen that, but I fancied something like this as you can control and play the games yourself.

Im still tempted, just to be able to do that T20 competitions. I assume you can play them as a team in a separate mode to career? But in all honesty, deep down, I just dont think it will have the longevity I want if its a case of replaying individual tournaments against the same teams and players without them developing.

I mean the Rugby League 3 game is quite barebones on the career front and thats a Big Ant game. But at least you can control the whole club and its direction as such, so maybe one day Don Bradman will get that sort of mode in the next release.