First Impressions and User Reviews - Cricket 19

[cricket_online]

Starting a new thread so it's easier for folks on the fence to make a call on getting the game instead of going through bunch of threads & posts to get the information they are looking for. Hopefully others can share their initial impression on the game. Here's mine...

I've been a long time supporter of the franchise and of video gaming cricket in general. But when I heard about the new iteration of the DBC/Ashes franchise being launched just before the world cup kickoff, my initial reaction was skepticism. I had doubts about the quality of the game and the progress made since the last iteration and thought it more on the lines of DBC 17/Ashes Cricket than DBC 14. After being burned by DBC 17 and Ashes Cricket where the issues persisted across iterations (incorrect stats being the major one), I waited for the first couple of days to see what the initial reaction to the game was. When majority of the folks, especially @Rhone (who I knew was a big stats guy like me) had a positive opinion about the game, I decided to get the game and I must say it wasn't a wrong decision.

This game is the true successor to DBC 14. Though there are still a few things to work on, the game plays quite well out of the box (after the Day 1 patch of course) which wasn't the case with earlier games in the series. At least for offline mode you don't have to wait for a patch to fix some game breaking bug. Here are my initial impressions about some of the areas about the game...

1. Menu Display and GUI
The overall layout and GUI is a lot crisper and shaper than the earlier games. I found it similar to EA Madden in how the menu tiles are laid out and how you need to get to a particular menu item you are interested in. By the way I found the Australian theme more appealing than the England one and be sure to try it out by changing the Theme setting.

2. Customization
The one thing which struck me was the sheer number of options available! You can alter the game any way you want, right from the player/user settings to how the AI plays, along with all the other Physics related attributes that have been there since DBC 17. And when you factor in the Scenario Creator/Designer, this truly is a cricket sandbox or a simulator. Literally everything under the sun on a cricket field can be customized and tuned as per your requirements. I'm not even going to talk about the Cricket Academy and about the ability to design players and stadiums since it's a given for the series at this time. I can see everyone ranging from "pick up and play" to a hard core cricket gaming fan being satisfied with the game.

3. Music and Commentary
Improvements to the choice of in-game Music was another plus similar to the menu layout. It's lot more fresher and you won't need to turn it down Day 2 like with the previous games. Commentary is similar to Ashes Cricket but I don't care about it much since no matter how good the commentary is, you will eventually get bored of it. The only way you can keep commentary fresh is by adding more content via commentary patches/tuners the way EA does it with Madden but IMO it's a waste of resources. I would rather Big Ant focus on the gameplay than worry about commentary.

4. Gameplay
Finally we get to the most important item - Gampelay. Keep in mind that these are still the initial impressions and things could change with future patches or in case a bug is encountered which rears its head once you've spent significant time in the game (say career crashes after Year 8). But for the moment things are looking great. I'more inclined towards batting and so far I'm loving the experience. I started off with AI at Legend and Batting on Hard but had to turn down the batting to Medium as I was struggling with the timing. The key positives related to batting and gameplay are:
- The batting feels more intuitive and you can place/hit the ball to more areas of the ground compared to the prior versions.
- Some of the shots, such as backfoot cover drive and running the ball to 3rd man off the backfoot look gorgeous.
- AI bowls much better line & length and getting a loose delivery and nailing it feels quite satisfying.
- The field sets are better than any iteration of the series. They still need improvement but aren't that poor.
- New cut scenes, animations and broadcast style presentation is quite impressive and leads to an immersive experience.

Areas of Improvement
That being said there are a few things still to sort out and there are a few areas of improvement and hopefully @MattW and beta folks can look into these as a candidate for future patch...

1. Leg side pull shot to good length deliveries and a lack of Backfoot glance. My biggest gripe is the leg side shots, especially the pull shot which is played way too frequently. Most of the times the pull shot gets played even if you select Backfoot and you hardly get to see Backfoot glance which looked so elegant in DBC 14. This ugly looking pull shot is played for good length/green deliveries as well which are barely going over the stumps. Maybe Big Ant can take a look at the leg side shots and have the backfoot glance animation triggerred for deliveries which are up to waist/abdomen height, and anything higher than chest area can trigger the pull/hook animation. Backfoot glance was my favorite shot in DBC 14 and pity it's no longer there and is replaced by ugly pull/hoick thingy. The leg glance, flick off the legs works well to the pitched up or fuller deliveries but anything over stump height generally leads to a pull shot.

2. Straight drives going in the air. Straight drives go in the air way too much and playing a grounded straight drive is quite a challenge at the moment and maybe something to look at. Was caught and bowled 3 times in an innings and eventually stopped playing straight drives.

3. AI Fielding in the circle and easy 1s and 2s for user player. AI Fielding in the circle is a concern as you can easily take a single when bat touches the ball as no matter where the ball goes, you can be sure you won't be run out thanks to lax fielding within the circle. An extension to the problem is that more often than not you can take 2 runs to fielding positions at the boundary, such as Depp Fine Leg or Deep Cover where you generally get only a single in real-life cricket. These easy 1s & 2s needs to be looked into.

4. AI batsmen not aggressive while taking runs. AI batsmen leaving runs on the field and not taking 1s and 2s where they should. Combined with 3, this creates an imbalance between AI and the user. Where you may run 2, the AI ocasionally doesn't even take a run.

But overall the game is a must-have for cricket gaming fans and cricket fans in general, and is definitely a step up from Ashes Cricket based on limited amount of gameplay I've experienced so far.

Update (Jun 2nd, 2019): Found out that User Stats are not tracked and recorded accurately. If correctly tracked stats are a "must have" and a deal-breaker for you then hold off on purchasing the game for the time being. Have reported the bugs and keeping my fingers crossed that they are fixed. Will update the post when there's any change on the stats front. based on what I've heard so far, the career mode stats are working fine and the stats issue is limited to User Stats.

 

[Dutch]

Nice to see you mate and a good post, as always!

With your permission ( I have done it anyway! ) I have stickied this thread and changed the title slightly so that others can post their reviews and impressions too.

Please avoid all discussion in this thread: use the main thread for that. Will be deleting any post that doesn't meet the criteria of a written review or impression.

 

[passarapin]

Finally managed to play my first game for the new game. I know i shouldn't base the entire game off one incomplete match, however here is my first ever match report (in progress)

Teams - NSW vs Tasmania
Format - 3 Day Match
Conditions - Green, Hard Pitch - Scattered Showers & Overcast.

Day 1.
Tasmania won the toss and elected to bat first, which is a decision i was happy they made! I was eager to see if bowling first on a Grassy Hard Pitch would make a significant difference. There were also some drizzly showers occuring.
Well, suffice to say, the conditions must definately make a difference. As i had Tasmania bowled out for about 160 odd. Mostly from seamers, with Nathan Lyon picking up a couple of tail enders.

When i came on to bat, i too struggled early - finding myself at around 4 for 60. From there however, I'm not sure if i just got better, or if the pitch was starting to become more batsman friendly. I was able to put on some large middle order scores. I ended up declaring with a 150 run lead (to make things a bit interesting!)

However this is where things get interesting.

Day2
SUNNY.
As the showers cleared, and the pitch now seemingly a batsman's paradise. Im struggling to get any wickets at all! Tasmania are currently 1 for 175, with no where near as many edges as the first innings. The only wicket coming courtesy of spinner Nathan Lyon.

It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the match plays out. But this is something i always wanted from a Cricket game, to see the conditions really make a difference in how the match plays out. really interested so far! Can't wait for the eventual PC release also!

 

[ambar_hitman]

Presentation and overall look is much improved.
Gameplay wise I don't see much improvements over Ashes 17. Maybe once I play more I will notice.
Still not a fan of Batting camera. I prefer broadcast style camera. But its still too far. Maybe someone point me towards a camera setting that is as close to what happens on TV?
Academy creations are great but somehow even after downloading, I was still getting the bootleg players and not the downloaded ones. Tried downloading them 2-3 times and it finally worked. Maybe a bug?
The crowd is still not good enough. They look gigantic compared to the player when he is near the boundary. Its just weird. They look fine in other cutscene camera angles.
The small cutscenes after each ball and the replays are perfect. They added the much needed presentation. The score card is nice too.

The game menus need work. Better than Ashes but still long way to go. Reminds me of PES menus which are very bland.

Overall game looks quite promising. Can't wait to play more.

 

[Pinch hitter]

My first thought during playing this game is 'it is tough to master it and it feels totally different compare to Ashes Cricket'... When I played Ashes Cricket, it feels so easy (even in harder difficulty) I just put the game away after month of playing it... Even after several updates, it never interest me to play it again... But what I feel during playing my first match in Cricket 19 is there are lot of things to explore and with AI modifier we can make and play better cricket all day without getting bored...

At negative note, game has lot of small irritating bugs which makes frustrating at time... Academy still little buggy, can't able to link individually download player... AI fielder's giving easy singles in inner circle... Custom tournament crashes... Looks like BA ruin the Indian domestic set up by making the state teams as clubs and they didn't added them in the academy to edit...

But hoping this type of irritating bugs and error will vanish soon and game still completing his first week, so I am confident there will be plenty of updates to come to make this game solid...

 

[ShamiLoverGlipGlops]

Please Note - This review is solely based on playing one Five5 match and an entire 50 over match between India and South Africa in World Championship mode.


The game came out on a perfect week, it was a long weekend here in USA (Memorial Day). Although I did not buy the game until today and what a day to buy the game. The XBOX patch arrived and I got play the latest build. As soon as I started the game, it looks brilliant. The intro screen with Eoin Morgan, Joe Root was awesome. The menu although a bit dark(probably because of English theme as compared to Aussie theme) is a good change. I did download the academy on PC so was familiar a little bit.

I straight away went to Academy to download teams but kept on hitting error that Academy Sharing Is Not Available. I was searching for @Llewelynf's team and was searching for Friedlele. I however was able to download his teams by just searching Frie or Fri. It showed me his teams and that interface is much better when compared to previous editions vertical scrolling for teams. Again I was not able to open the teams to view as I hit an error but was able to Quick Download. Post downloading I saw that it was not linked which was a first and not sure if its a bug or has been kept purposely, I had to go through @passwordistaco 's video and thanks to him was able to Link the team. I still have not understood how to use the Australia CWC and England team.

I meanwhile played a Five5 game between England and Australia since I was constantly hitting Academy Sharing not available. The loading time was too much according to me but I can understand the since a lot of new graphics and new cut scenes would be loading behind the scenes.

The highlight cut scene, the national anthems, the toss everything feels fantastic. I did see videos of others but when you play it yourself its a different feeling all together. I use the classic controls and not the Ashes 2009 kind of controls. Scored 16 runs and lost 5 wickets playing as Australia with Finch and Stoinis playing few good shots. The graphics looked amazing. Playing at Lords that to a licensed version is another feeling altogether. Seeing how England plays IRL, chased down the 16 runs in 1.4 overs.

Next up was India vs South Africa World Championship game. I loved how you can play as A team or how you can play as ALL team. I chose A team option and selected India obviously. It was amazing to see that you have to announce your 15 men squad for the championship game.

After starting the match I got goosebumps hearing the Indian National Anthem. Amazing feeling and kudos to @BigAntStudios for introducing this. This alone along with the various cut scenes gave me enough reason to buy Cricket 19.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. Quinton de Kock started off nicely and Amla being the more careful one. South Africa were crusing along nicely at one stage with them being on 50 odd runs for a wicket in 10 overs. This is when the ball started doing a lot, seaming, swinging, bouncing and staying low at times. This is when Rassie van der Dussen decided he will block any and everything. Qunton kept playing some shots but got trapped LBW. South Africa kept loosing wickets and scoring ones and twos when they could. Meanwhile Indian bowlers were creating havoc by just bowling in perfect rythm.

Once good thing I noticed was that Mohammad Shami who was hit by Quinton at the start did not get the rythm at all but Bhuvi, and other bowlers who kept it tight at start had the same rythm continued and bowled beautifully and were tough to hit through.

Also another thing to definitely give kudos on is that even though all SaF batters batted defensively, Andile Phehlukwayo who was batting at 10 runs from 30-35 odd balls decided to start slogging in the last 5. He eventually scored 32 runs in 60 deliveries and South Africa went from 130/8 in 45 overs to 169 all out in 49.2 overs. Impressive aggressive turn around from the lower order.

India started well and Steyn picked up a wicket straight away. Dhawan was able to hit the bowlers out of the park and scored a quick 30. Andile high on confidence along with Tahir who hit a few boundaries suddenly took few wickets and I was struggling at 60 for 4. With sweaty palms with a dream to win the first WC match, Hardik Pandya and Kartick kept rotating strike and even tually stayed unbeaten.

Before this in the last 3 iterations I had never played a 50 over match completely. Always used to get bored and simulate, CRICKET 19 made me stay hooked to my seat for 163 minutes. I bowled 49.2 overs and batted 30 overs and it took me 163 minutes The match had a perfect BigAnt script with Africa struggling to scoring well in the end to getting wickets to India chasing with 5 wickets remaining.

Best part about this game is the cut scenes, national anthem and the graphical overlay of scorecards. FANTASTIC looks so clean and amazing.

Few things to note

1. There is a lot of flicker, higher graphic means you see the flicker more.
2. While chasing it shows projected score. That is a little immersion breaker but can be easily fixed.
3. Highlights is such a nice addition, I wish we could see highlights of both innings and were able to save it.
4. Loading times are insanely high.
5. Manually linking the teams is a little pain.
6. Hopefully the Academy issues sort out.

Love it and will be playing this game a lot. 5/5 for efforts as usual, 4.5/5 for overall game.

 

[saulman55]

So I'm impressed and dissatisfied in equal parts. Batting remains strong with shot animation being beautiful. The new presentation and highlights packages were a great idea but the highlights are choppy and unstable. Bowling is a huge disappointment to me. There no reward for bowling a good line and length in tests. A perfect Jimmy Anderson outswinger will get clobbered away repeatedly the batsmen will then manage to play a foot inside the line of a leg stump half volley. Utterly immersion breaking. It gets to the stage where if I'm facing a well set batsmen I can't dry up the runs and keep an end tied down because 6 great deliveries are just as likely to be dispatched as 6 poor ones. Another minor gripe is the academy issues.

The game isn't a disaster but I had such high hopes and it hasn't delivered. 6.5/10

 

[rizwanahmaduk]

So bought cricket 19 for £50 and first thing I noticed are as follows.

Normally big ants cricket games are top notch but not sure what’s happened here. Maybe they wanted to release in time for World Cup, however, these are some of the things I have noticed...

1. Cricket academy doesn’t connect most of the time . Says try again later
2. The one time it did connect, I went to downloading ‘get best’, it downloaded player names but none of the likeness or logos were downloaded.
3. No music at the end of overs/wickets etc?

Help here would be great...

 

[DAP]

So bought cricket 19 for £50 and first thing I noticed are as follows.

Normally big ants cricket games are top notch but not sure what’s happened here. Maybe they wanted to release in time for World Cup, however, these are some of the things I have noticed...

1. Cricket academy doesn’t connect most of the time . Says try again later
2. The one time it did connect, I went to downloading ‘get best’, it downloaded player names but none of the likeness or logos were downloaded.
3. No music at the end of overs/wickets etc?

Help here would be great...

1. That’s fixed, it was a problem that had come yesterday night and was already fixed in the morning
2. You’ll have to individually download. Get best is not the best idea.
3. Not sure what you’re referring to?

 

[fezza]

Great game but have a feeling it was rushed out for the world cup. Based on several first class matches so far:

- pitch wear doesn't seem to work
- little visual deterioration of ball in longer games
- new ball sometimes not offered after 80 overs
- leg glances very rare
- ball still passes through bat sometimes
- run outs given that aren't out
- soft pitches have too much bounce
- fewer editing features in the Academy for both grounds and players
- domestic licensed team content limited to Australia (although this is very good)
- major English grounds like Trent Bridge missing, none from outside UK /Australia (disappointing given all those grounds in EA cricket all those years ago)

Overall worth buying but not a great step forward from Ashes Cricket - unfortunate as this is now the 4th iteration of basically the same game. Looking forward to the 5th...

 

[gkvarma18]

Great game but have a feeling it was rushed out for the world cup. Based on several first class matches so far:

- pitch wear doesn't seem to work
- little visual deterioration of ball in longer games
- new ball sometimes not offered after 80 overs
- leg glances very rare
- ball still passes through bat sometimes
- run outs given that aren't out
- soft pitches have too much bounce
- fewer editing features in the Academy for both grounds and players
- domestic licensed team content limited to Australia (although this is very good)
- major English grounds like Trent Bridge missing, none from outside UK /Australia (disappointing given all those grounds in EA cricket all those years ago)

Overall worth buying but not a great step forward from Ashes Cricket - unfortunate as this is now the 4th iteration of basically the same game. Looking forward to the 5th...

And also bat and ball contact sounds are very low as it makes tennis ball sound

 

[AnkitC]

So got the game yesterday. Played a full T20 and started with a Test Match.

My reactions are mostly positive for the game.

- Custom Difficulty Option is a Master Stroke.
- The AI is competitive.
- The new shot options against Spin were much needed.
- Cutscenes and Music add a lot to the game.
- New Animations and Graphics as a whole are a lot better.
- So played a Test Match at Lord’s with Overcast conditions and I have never seen a Cricket game being this Atmospheric. It was wonderful.
- Most importantly though it’s the tiny additions like the Keeper throwing the ball over to the Slip guy. The bowler diving to save a run. The Batsman keeping their eyes on the ball. These improvements here and there make the game a lot more enjoyable.

But apart from the ones mentioned earlier I have noticed a few problems too.

- What is wrong with the Ball Trail? I have a 55 inch TV and can barely keep my eyes on the Ball while bowling, till the batsman hits it. Ball is just not Visible while on the Pitch. Especially when the conditions are overcast. Talking about the White ball.

- Powerplay is applied on the first Inning of a Super Over. Can’t imagine nobody noticed this. I guess this bug has been inherited from Ashes.

- Batters still play Inside the line to an In swinger and get bowled(Veteran AI may fix it maybe?)


- Slow mo catching bug on PS4 Pro.

Have a look at the Scorecard from the Tied T20 Match:

 

[Deleted member 185125]

So got the game yesterday. Played a full T20 and started with a Test Match.

My reactions are mostly positive for the game.

- Custom Difficulty Option is a Master Stroke.
- The AI is competitive.
- The new shot options against Spin were much needed.
- Cutscenes and Music add a lot to the game.
- New Animations and Graphics as a whole are a lot better.
- So played a Test Match at Lord’s with Overcast conditions and I have never seen a Cricket game being this Atmospheric. It was wonderful.
- Most importantly though it’s the tiny additions like the Keeper throwing the ball over to the Slip guy. The bowler diving to save a run. The Batsman keeping their eyes on the ball. These improvements here and there make the game a lot more enjoyable.

But apart from the ones mentioned earlier I have noticed a few problems too.

- What is wrong with the Ball Trail? I have a 55 inch TV and can barely keep my eyes on the Ball while bowling, till the batsman hits it. Ball is just not Visible while on the Pitch. Especially when the conditions are overcast. Talking about the White ball.

- Powerplay is applied on the first Inning of a Super Over. Can’t imagine nobody noticed this. I guess this bug has been inherited from Ashes.

- Batters still play Inside the line to an In swinger and get bowled(Veteran AI may fix it maybe?)


- Slow mo catching bug on PS4 Pro.

Have a look at the Scorecard from the Tied T20 Match:

View attachment 222022

The super over bug is indeed carried over from Ashes.

 

[doranto]

So got the game yesterday. Played a full T20 and started with a Test Match.

My reactions are mostly positive for the game.

- Custom Difficulty Option is a Master Stroke.
- The AI is competitive.
- The new shot options against Spin were much needed.
- Cutscenes and Music add a lot to the game.
- New Animations and Graphics as a whole are a lot better.
- So played a Test Match at Lord’s with Overcast conditions and I have never seen a Cricket game being this Atmospheric. It was wonderful.
- Most importantly though it’s the tiny additions like the Keeper throwing the ball over to the Slip guy. The bowler diving to save a run. The Batsman keeping their eyes on the ball. These improvements here and there make the game a lot more enjoyable.

But apart from the ones mentioned earlier I have noticed a few problems too.

- What is wrong with the Ball Trail? I have a 55 inch TV and can barely keep my eyes on the Ball while bowling, till the batsman hits it. Ball is just not Visible while on the Pitch. Especially when the conditions are overcast. Talking about the White ball.

- Powerplay is applied on the first Inning of a Super Over. Can’t imagine nobody noticed this. I guess this bug has been inherited from Ashes.

- Batters still play Inside the line to an In swinger and get bowled(Veteran AI may fix it maybe?)


- Slow mo catching bug on PS4 Pro.

Have a look at the Scorecard from the Tied T20 Match:

View attachment 222022

what was your custom difficulty settings which made AI competitive?if you please share your settings.. Thanks.

 

[TemPSaad]

10/10 best cricket game ever period.