Great review mate - detailed and honest. Thanks! Some questions:
Did Swann get the wickets due to the off-spin bug? If so, and there were 3 more wickets due to the run-out bug, then maybe it wasn't the AI pacing that was bad, but the bugs that caused it to get all out so early?
Three of his five wickets were with this bug. Nah, they were still going far too aggressively to achieve an innings run rate of 5.85.
Can't the over-aggressiveness of batsmen such as Ponting, Clarke and Hussey, which was a problem in your test match, can be adjusted by the player skill ratings?
Well, it could possibly make a difference with some players. You can't touch the skills of English and Australian players in the in-game editor.
One big question I have is what makes this game moddable, when previous iterations of the BLIC series were not because of the opaque game design? I haven't followed all the developer Q/As etc, but did they mention that this game would be more amenable to modding/patching by the community? If so, that is great news.
Well, we don't know it is. But, TG have said they've built it from scratch, so it isn't a part of the BLIC series, per se. Although the same publisher. No, I doubt any dev/publisher would say how easily moddable their game is by third parties.
One other question: did reverse swing, pitch wear&tear have any effect on the gameplay?
Yes. Pitch wear and tear has an affect. Although the 2nd day pitch looks hideously over worn. Reverse swing is there, can't say I ever got to a point in an innings where it was available though. Not many test innings lasted more than 55 overs by the opposition.
I didn't know about the duck. It's quite daft, that 1) they couldn't give you the option to duck, as there are spare buttons available on the controller, 2) it's not mentioned in the manual, HUD or legends coaching.
If the AI didn't have it's random moments, which I found completely destroyed a lot of the experience for me, it would be close to an 80% game. But remember, this is my review and is just my opinion from playing the game extensively for 5 days. Not everyone will agree with me, I've just put in to the review all my thoughts about the game since Saturday.
As mentioned by
vishalsparadise I didn't give a proper opinion on the bowling system. I'll add it here. I also forgot something rather important from the batting POV. I'll put them in the review too.
Bowling system
This is a well implemented part of the game. You can get a lot of variations, and these can be bowled based on a bowlers skill, confidence and even fatigue. I like the ability to change the delivery based on what button you press. So, if I start off with a outswinger, I can turn it in to a slow ball, in-swinger or straight one. This could be deadly on-line! The inability to bowl at most bowlers proper speed, is a poor contribution to this side of the game. Anderson feels so non-threatening bowling at low 70s. It is a put off. Apart from that you can use a guide to tell you when you can bowl a particular delivery. If Swann isn't high on confidence then he can't bowl the doosra. By using this preview guide, it will tell you why you can't bowl a certain delivery, with reverse swing deliveries, It will be because the ball hasn't been worn enough. Another issue I found with bowling, was the bowlers stamina. My best example was playing against New Zealand and Iain O'Brien's stamina bar was "weary" after 3 overs!
One major disappointment from batting, was that leaving the ball caused the batting confidence meter to drop ever so slightly. This was prevalent in BLIC 07 and was a major annoyance within the game to many users. From what I remember of that problem, this time around it seems to affect the confidence meter less. I had scored 32 from 64 with Cook, and 7 from 45 with Strauss. Except Strauss had twice the confidence of Cook.
MasterBlaster76 said:
68%? That doesn't sound like the kind of score most of the guys in the 'retail impressions' thread would give.
Also, if anyone finds an 'insta-wicket' ball/field setting, keep it to yourselves, eh? If we find it ourselves, fair enough, then it's our decision whether to use it or not, but otherwise, we don't need to know. It just spoils the fun of the game a bit if you know about 'insta-wicket' balls.
I've seen some guys saying they would take the game back, I also know others who have refrained from being honest about the game for fear of other members moaning. This review is my opinion, others will give different reviews. Some better, some worse. Just look at other reviews on here, I was scouring through some for Cricket 05, and the index shows scores varying from 2.5-8+.
As for keeping it to myself. This is a major issue, it's a standard line from a spin bowler. Everyone would find it for themselves within a couple of overs. It was my best example at explaining how bad the AI, from my experience, is in certain parts. To spin bowlers, the AI is shocking. You can see that from my run rates with Swann varying from 6-8 in test matches, and 6-11 in ODIs. Yet, he will always get wickets. In fact, wickets in general are easy to come by.
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. I have still got to try the game but my hopes are nowhere as high as they were before this damning but honest review. Great job mate 
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