I know you what mean, but I'd at least say it's nice that all games have been released as proper games and not just sold as 'early access'. Honestly I think they've been a victim of their own success since releasing DBC 14, that had flaws but didn't have the issues the subsequent games had. DBC 17 felt like a case of the ambition to improve and expand resulted in a lot of disappointments in terms of the simple stuff. Then with Ashes aspects of it seem rushed, possibly to do with the license and the desire/need to get the game out at a certain date.
There are things I think with broader, more thorough beta testing would have been picked up. That's not a slight on the testers or BA, but there are things that I can't believe would have been missed (and I can quite accept that they were spotted but not fixed) with more time or more focussed testing. I don't know how focussed it was, if fully testing the game in multiple formats, multiple difficulties was done or if it was just a case of 'here's the game give us your feedback. That AI field settings in limited overs need work can be seen by playing two matches. I can live with bugs being present and being missed but it's things like that which are frustrating.
For dbc14 I often used to say the game was like making out with a stunning lingerie model and then suddenly realising she's got a bigger Adam's apple than you... in today's world that may be considered "transphobic"* so let's say it's like eating a sublime meal and suddenly finding there was a worm in it... all 3 games have been identical in that respect, they've just had different worms.
Yesterday I had a fantastic moment in a tough chase. Having recovered from a jittery start chasing 438 I'd posted a 100+ 5th wicket partnership, when there was a huge shout for lbw that I thought looked stone dead, given not out. No reviews in my format but I went to ball tracking, hit just inside the line and taking out middle and off. Checked the replay, and I've been saved by a thin edge off the inside bottom corner of the bat... phew. What a moment, what a game.
That player, in the 60s or 70s at the time went on to make an unbeaten 228* and take me to a tense 1 wicket win. Amazing.
Except... the 4th inns bowling AI is utterly broken. They change the field much more often than than first 3 inns, often every ball. Worse, they don't attack even with 438 on the ball. Worse, they start attacking when your batsman passes 25 and keep attacking when he's passed 200 and there's 30 to win. He was facing a more aggressive field when 130-odd than a batsman who'd just come to the crease after the fall of a wicket. And batting is definitely much much easier - sure it was a favourable batting track and I certainly got some edges (including the one that saved my lbw!) but you never felt there was one with your name on it like in 14 and 17. It was a sense of concentrate, accumulate, and you'll chase this down. (I was 9 down in part thanks to 2 stupid run outs, and other mistakes like playing back to a full ball and getting castled, and deciding a first ball slog made a lot of sense.)
I've been banging on about the broken 4th innings AI since dbc17 and all through the beta. As
@Dutch said there is little or nothing people are bringung up that wasnt discussed or flagged in beta, often at great length.
*2014 - simpler time.
