Review: First Impressions of DB14 on PC

Not as dissapointed as i upon discovering the multitude of glitches and shocking ai

Nah, I think you underestimate how good the other posts are relative to yours.... most disappointed :p

Lol - just saw you joined in December - well after the date was known to be 2014.
 
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The best cricket game, but you're disappointed.

To be fair; it is possible to like a game but be disappointed with it. Like I like Civ 5 and think that its a good game: but I was disappointed because Civ 4 + expansions was a much deeper game and its really only with the latest dlc that its starting to get close to it. Although the vanilla game was good, the fact that stuff like religion and covert actions were literally not existent (until they later appeared in paid DLC, fancy that!) was very disappointing.
 
Some fantastic creative decisions taken with this game. Brilliant interactive replay, the incredibly deep creation system, the 'be a pro' career mode, the manual appeal and review system, the option to simulate, confidence and fatigue systems, the fantastic online options, the ability to save during a match, to play at 1440p, etc...

I almost feel guilty to ask or say this, but it would be great during replay if when you hide the menu you could also hide the orange circle the indicated which player is selected. I only say this as someone who likes to take a lot of screenshots, so I'm probably the only person who would want something like this!

But the interactive replay systems is top regardless :)
 
Some fantastic creative decisions taken with this game. Brilliant interactive replay, the incredibly deep creation system, the 'be a pro' career mode, the manual appeal and review system, the option to simulate, confidence and fatigue systems, the fantastic online options, the ability to save during a match, to play at 1440p, etc...

I almost feel guilty to ask or say this, but it would be great during replay if when you hide the menu you could also hide the orange circle the indicated which player is selected. I only say this as someone who likes to take a lot of screenshots, so I'm probably the only person who would want something like this!

But the interactive replay systems is top regardless :)

It's a good idea - I was looking through the Screenshots on Steam and they'd be better for not having HUD.
 
After playing for another eight hours - nearly leading to divorce and my kids forgetting who I am - I can categorically say that this is the best cricket game ever developed. Yes, better than Brian Lara 99 and Cricket 2004 etc. It's addictive. It's as close to realistic as I've seen. And it feels like cricket.

I'm playing on career mode (pro) and finding so much joy in playing a crisp cover drive and beating the batsman through the gap with a ball that drops. Wonderful stuff. My batting average is rubbish, but I know I can improve.

However, it's not perfect. I've spoken previously about the caught and bowled situation so I won't repeat it here, suffice to say that it doesn't annoy me now that I know that the straight drive is a risky shot unless the ball is very full.

I play most shots on the front foot. I'm too old and uncoordinated to determine both my footwork and shot selection. Kudos to those that can. However, I still think that even playing on the front foot a short ball that's pulled or cut should not, as default, be played in the air. The batsman should at least be making an attempt to hit it on the ground. And yet each time I play these shots, even if perfectly timed, are playing uppishly. I've only been caught once on the cut - a diving catch at point - but it's annoying that when not pressing the aggressive button shots still go in the air.

The default fielding in one day matches and T20s is also flawed. I've just played the Big Bash and because the default fields are mostly attacking in the first five overs, there's always men around the bat. I have never seen a T20 game with men around the bat. I have seen a one day game with a bat pad - for about an over - but even there short fielders are a rarity. And yet the game defaults to these "Test Match" fields. To be fair, the AI, when I'm batting, for the most part chooses sensible fields. Mostly.

Obviously I can just change the field. So it's no deal breaker. The issue here is that most of the options early in a one day and 20 over game are attacking and therefore have fielders around the bat. From memory there's only one balanced option.

So, if I was fixing the game I would do the following:

(1) Fix the cut shot and pull shot so that they're not default played up in the air - unless the ball is poorly timed.

(2) Fix the straight drive as pre above

(3) Have different field options for the T20 and One Day (yes, I know this is difficult and so is unlikely to happen anytime soon).

(4) Better access to the BARS system so you can look at where the ball pitched etc. Especially for First Class games where there's no review option

(5) Reduce the amount of time fielders hit the stumps.

And that's about it. The game is brilliant and if I wasn't married and didn't have to go to work and eat etc, I don't think I stop playing it :-)
 
After playing mainly career.. All i can say atm is the AI still bowl a little too much on middle & leg much better than before tho. AI fields need a little tweaking I see alot of cover+Deep Cover/mid on+Long on.... But everything is much improved on the PC, Few tweaks here or there certainly isn't anything hugely wrong/game breaking.

I happen to really like what you've done with the pull shot going more aerial but can keep down if both triggers are used. I don't cut that often so can't comment on that. Since playing on PC i find the both trigger shots are a bit easier to time i don't know if its just me.. on 360 i'd nick them all the time. Love the new replay angles used, Very nice indeed :thumbs

Overall, Loving the gameplay experience on PC so far. Thank you everyone @ BA :)
 
After putting around 28 hours mostly in career, i can say for sure the game has surpassed all my expectation.
The amount of little touches in the game is really nice.I witnessed a hat-trick from the non strikers end as a career player unable to do much as the opposition bowler blew off the lower order, the little walk to the pavilion after successfully handling a session, being included in the celebrations if you perform well etc.

The only few things i would like to see improved to make this game perfect are as been told by lot of others.

1.Field settings according to match type.

2.straight drive needs to be fixed a bit as in the ball always going up and getting dropped by the bowler, as playing in the V is vital to cricket and lot of us also have practiced straight hitting in nets and here the bowler stops it all, but the thing that he drops it also makes it feel like im having a lot of reprieves in my innings and feels like cheating.

If this can be bettered somehow so that the ball bounds of the pitch first it would be cool and more realistic as shots of srt and ponting can be replicated, if there's a chance of this shot getting exploited may be timing window and power can be reduced, so only in perfect cases perfect straight drives are manufactured and in other case just gets stopped or rolls on.

3. Ai batting feels pretty good according to situation mostly, only thing missing is more edges.

If Bigant can make changes to these in the patch 3 this game would become absolutely perfect.
 
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After playing mainly career.. All i can say atm is the AI still bowl a little too much on middle & leg much better than before tho. AI fields need a little tweaking I see alot of cover+Deep Cover/mid on+Long on.... But everything is much improved on the PC, Few tweaks here or there certainly isn't anything hugely wrong/game breaking.

I happen to really like what you've done with the pull shot going more aerial but can keep down if both triggers are used. I don't cut that often so can't comment on that. Since playing on PC i find the both trigger shots are a bit easier to time i don't know if its just me.. on 360 i'd nick them all the time. Love the new replay angles used, Very nice indeed :thumbs

Overall, Loving the gameplay experience on PC so far. Thank you everyone @ BA :)

So by playing the pull and cut with both triggers pressed will I keep the ball down?
 
hang on....I thought these fielding issues were fixed in Patch 2. Am I missing something? (besides Patch 2 to test it on the xbox). Also, have they fixed the superhuman pace bowlers? ie. the ability to hit a drive straight back past the bowler is a key weapon for batsmen but this silly ability of pace bowlers to field (and even catch) well hit drives had been identified and, I thought, fixed in this patch.

Please tell me I'm wrong....someone....anyone???
 
Im playing PC version which is fully patched, i haven't play the console versions so cant give comparisons, regarding general fielding i don't find any issues except for field settings, the fielders themselves behave good and are not super human.
The bowler on the other hand is able to get his hand on all things, but what they have done i think is make the bowler drop most of the chances at-least upto veteran difficulty.

The prob arise from not being able to ground the straight drive, all the straight drives go straight of the bat without bouncing on the pitch, if this can be toned down, then i think there wont be need for bowlers to be super agile to stop the balls from going to boundary and hence wont be a exploit.
 
there is a steam update as i log in today what was that update all about?
 

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