Cricket Coach 2011 Full version Review By Dutchad

[PlanetCricket]

Review Cricket Coach 2011 by Dutchad December 8th 2010​

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Before starting this review it needs to be said that this is a review of the full version of the game, updated December 2010 (version 4.20).
Secondly I want to state that I am a player of these kind of games who likes to get on with it. I want to play cricket with it, albeit in a particular form that is characteristic of this kind of management style game. I don’t necessarily want to edit all kinds of things or make things unnecessarily complicated. This means of course that some of the features have not really been thoroughly researched by me.
Thirdly pictures speak a thousand times more than words and there are plenty of screenies showing off the many possibilities with the game. A demo version is available so that one can for themselves see what the possibilities are and what it all looks like. However I will touch on a number of these features as there are plenty of people who crave those possibilities.

What I love about Cricket Coach 2011 is its statistical depth. The amount of statistics and cross references to other statistics you can pull up and keep and look at now and then is truly amazing and a great joy! Cricket is to a certain extent all about statistics. No other sport analyses statistics as much as cricket. Do they really mean anything? That is open to debate, but that we love looking at them and drawing our conclusions from them is one of the joyful things about the sport and Cricket Coach 2011 is a true heaven for those who love their stats!

For those who love to edit things, this game is as editable as anything out there. Everything is editable: players, tours, competitions, grounds histories,every single statistic imaginable. If you want to create leagues or re-organise all the domestic leagues and competitions in a given country, you can do so! Do you want to create a new team, a new ground, a new competition? Here is your chance to do so! If you are such a megalomaniac you can even create a team where you are in every single position, with the highest possible abilities in the history of the game!

Of course that is fun but we all want more than anything realism. Does Cricket Coach 2011 deliver that? In terms of players and competitions, definitely. The 2011 database is fully updated although it is an ongoing task to ensure that it is truly reflective of current circumstances. Being highly editable it is easily corrected anyway. A new feature this time round is the ability to play with and against historic teams. You can set up a series or a match against teams who have graced the field of cricket in the past and see how they get on with each other. Want to re-live those classic West-Indies against England battles of the eighties. Now you can. How would the England team of the nineties fair against the great Australian sides of the 1930′s and 1940′s fair? Give it a go!

This is all very well, but what about when actually playing the game, whatever players and statistics you use? What about the cricket itself? One of the criticisms of Cricket Coach in the past has been the unstable engine that produces the results. Freak results and situations would occur at alarming intervals and regularity, spoiling the realism for many.

My own experience is that the game is smoother and more realistic and much more dependant on my input as a player rather than randomness or utter predictability. Somewhere choices have to be made between these two extremes and it is difficult to get it exactly right to everyones taste. As we see every time we watch a cricket game or play ourselves, out of the ordinary things happen. Unexpected things. This game incorporates that well whilst still providing a stable engine to produce your more average cricket scores. And of course as it should be it is my input as a captain at various points of the game, whether it be in the preparation of my team or the strategies developed in the game itself, that will have a crucial effect on the outcomes, good or bad.

Once you are ready to play some cricket the fun begins. With this game you will need to have a grasp of cricket captaincy of course and be prepared to learn the ropes. Of course you can also play by just hitting the button and it will do it for you but you will always have a feeling that you are not in control, which is a shame because this game really gives massive depth of control and to really think about the game.

Cricket is essential a thinking game, especially for the captain and the coach. What is the pitch like? What is the form of my players? What is the form of the opposition? Who should I select to take full advantage of the weather, the pitch, the weaknesses of the opposition? Around the wicket, over the wicket? Bowl full, bowl short? Bowl on the stumps, bowl wide? How often? Where am I being attacked? Where do I spot a vulnerability? How to stem the flow of runs? How to score more quickly? How to pace my own batting innings? Which targets am I setting for a given part of play? When to settle for a draw? When to go all or nothing? What field to set and when?

One of the features I love toying with is the bowling plan. If you want to really think about who you are bowling to, what the wicket is like, what the strong and weak points of the batsmen is then here is a paradise of possibilities. Many people shun this possibility because it all seems too complicated and takes up too much time. However if you notice your bowler is leaking runs you can toy with the bowling plan to counter the batsmans strategy.

I will say however that I think this whole concept needs a rethink. In another game of this ilk it is quite easy to change line and length and from which side of the wicket you want to bowl from and the field all with simple clicks of the button. You average player is not going to sit and toil and click through various fields to come up with solutions. I think this game needs to learn from the other game in this regard and think of a way to make the bowling plan and field changes more accessible without losing the brilliant depth to detail that this game offers.

These are the questions we love to toil with as cricket fans. And this game puts you right in the driving seat as you can answer each of these questions with a definite clear action. Of course in real cricket we dont always have the time to set things up perfectly. It is very intuitive. However it is a great joy to play with these things and to see if it makes a real difference or not. I find that I can play with the parameters and get results. Sometimes not of course. Like real life I have to think of something else!

After the match I can analyse every aspect of the game. I can pull up a mass of statistical information that will allow me to see whether my thinking was correct. Where were the most runs scored? How have my bowlers done their job? Did I read conditions right? Do I need to adjust things for the next match? Guiding your team through a season, choosing players, getting rid of players, contracting players etcetera, etcetera give this game a long, long shelf life.

Nothing beats preparing for the next game, comparing all the stats with the upcoming opposition and conditions! You have to like that kind of thing of course.

One of the areas that this game really falls down with is of course the actual playing visuals. We see dots for players and repetitive sounds that make the viewing of the actual play very unsatisfactory indeed. This is a great shame as the game offers so many other possibilities but will turn a lot of people off because of this. When I play another similar type of game I feel I am immersed in the actual game and that the decisions I am making, although quite limited in comparison to this game, are visible to me on the screen. We are beings that need the visual and auditive to really immerse ourselves in our activities. This game lacks that and must be a priority in any future releases to be able to gain more popularity amongst cricket fans.

However if I am to compare the two games that are available at this moment (and I have played both for a number of years extensively) I would always choose Cricket Coach because of its shear depth and the fact that I can edit so many aspects of the game, and that I can play as any country in the world striving to get to the top.

We have to realise, whether we like it or not, that Oli Norwell, the developer of the game, is basically a one man operation and the resources and man-hours available are therefore limited. Of course when someone asks for money for a product I expect it to work and to work well and give me enjoyment.

Personally this game gives me great enjoyment and immersion. The innovative features that are being worked on and being continued to be developed make each new version of this game worthwhile. Of course the lack of visuals as I have already stated will be a dampener for many people but would I just pay good money for the same basic game year after year just because the visuals improve? Well we know the answer to that one. We do. Every time a cricket game comes out we buy it in the hope that this time it will be the Valhalla. Is this game the Valhalla of its ilk? Well there are areas to work on, no doubt, but as far as depth and possibilities and statistics is concerned this game is truly in a league on its own. I look forward to the continuing development of this game. Oli has already stated that he is continually working on new features and stabilities. Features that are already available but didn’t make it to the final game yet because of stability and time issues.

So in summary:

What do I like about this game:

1. statistical heaven
2. massive, massive choice of teams and countries to play with
3. massive game control giving real input to every aspect of the game of cricket both on and off the field
4. huge edit-ability
5. historic teams
6. long shelf-life
7. ongoing development and real innovation in each new version

What do I not like about this game:

1. game engine can still be erratic sometimes (is being worked on!)
2. animations and sounds need to be drastically improved! (A similar type of game shows how it can be done!)
3. bowling plan editing, field changes need to be more readily avaialable and more user friendly.

In conclusion, Cricket Coach 2011 is a brilliant piece of software that will give the addict plenty of enjoyment and intense involvement. Well worth the money. Try the demo and see for yourself. The game is an ongoing endeavour by Oli Norwell and I can honestly say that his real commitment to the game and those who buy it is second to none. You will not meet a more helpful, more involved game developer anywhere. If only Codemasters were like his company!

Here are my scores based on my time with this game:

Score Overall: 81 (Would be higher if in-play graphics were better!) Game-play 95: excellent variation both on and off the pitch and detail depth is amazing Longevity 90: editable ad infinitum Development and Support 90: continual support and patching and new innovations Graphics and sound 40: in game graphics really lets the otherwise superb layout down. Have a look for yourself at: www.cricketcoachgame.com

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