Ashes Cricket Review/Impression Thread

[balkeet]

A good day to leave the ball!

 

[Deleted member 46200]

Let's face the truth this is a huge leap forward from DBC 17 feels so very different and more complete a little bit of work and tweaking (that's all) and it'll be a great game but in it's current form more playable out of the box than previous.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

-I'm going to do a full review once I play more but at the moment something that stands out big time is how buggy the batting is, in a way it's unacceptable as it's one of the core parts of gameplay and what I mean is the amount of times I'm chosing a shot say on the leg side and my batsmen is doing a cover drive? What is going on here? It's like there's not enough animations or the animations are all completely out of sync and it's happening very often. I noticed this in people's gameplay vids when I didn't own it and thought it looked odd but it happens way too much.

-The second thing which isn't really a game breaker but can someone tell me how is it that when the CPU bats and hits shots the ball bounces off the pitch beautifully as it does in real life, but when we humans do it it always just rolls on floor?

-Also I seen a lot of people saying it's hard for humans to nick the ball, but I've gotten a healthy amount of edges whilst batting and CPU bowling. Anyhow will keep you updated the more I play and do a full review!

 

[Pat]

-I'm going to do a full review once I play more but at the moment something that stands out big time is how buggy the batting is, in a way it's unacceptable as it's one of the core parts of gameplay and what I mean is the amount of times I'm chosing a shot say on the leg side and my batsmen is doing a cover drive? What is going on here? It's like there's not enough animations or the animations are all completely out of sync and it's happening very often. I noticed this in people's gameplay vids when I didn't own it and thought it looked odd but it happens way too much.

From my personal experience, I think this issue is only for the backfoot lofted cut shot which ends up in mid-off region. Other shots seem fine to me?

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

@Pat Not at all, I play straight drive and cover drive comes out even on drive and cover drive is coming out just really weird shot animations, it's like any old animation comes out but the ball still goes in the direction you want and I usually play front foot shots about 80% of the time unless forced to play a bouncer or something!

I'll list all the instances it happens when I do full review!

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

Sorry for the double post but can some explain to me this shot CPU practically played against me non stop, it's like a defensive block but it makes the sound a proper stroke would and gets them boundaries/runs frequently all along the offside and even really fine?

Sometimes it looked like they were edging the ball but it wasn't a "genuine" edge per-se as in it still made the sound of a shot but the trajectory was of an edge, very confusing stuff! As of right now seems the shots you can play are quite limited? I'm playing the same few shots over and over

 

[riteshagl]

@Pat Not at all, I play straight drive and cover drive comes out even on drive and cover drive is coming out just really weird shot animations, it's like any old animation comes out but the ball still goes in the direction you want and I usually play front foot shots about 80% of the time unless forced to play a bouncer or something!

I'll list all the instances it happens when I do full review!

There are animation issues with straight drive. I have posted this couple of times earlier. I was told by one of the beta testers that it is being looked at.

 

[bumba]

Ross said that since Ashes Cricket 17 is solely Big Ant's Home production he will fully support it with future patches so trust him. New Year will see new patches that will fix the issues like AI field settings and so on. Once these are fixed then it will be a super game.

 

[Pat]

Ross said that since Ashes Cricket 17 is solely Big Ant's Home production he will fully support it with future patches so trust him. New Year will see new patches that will fix the issues like AI field settings and so on. Once these are fixed then it will be a super game.

Yes, they will support but at some point in future they will to put their foot down and stop working on the game. The point I am making is there will always be a few issues, tweaks which will be requested no matter how many patches they release. Their resources are not unlimited. I just hope they can resolve the following without introducing any new issues -

- AI Batting in limited overs, especially when chasing
- Improvement in Field Settings by AI
- Gameplay modifiers - issues related to batting Difficulty
- Various lags / stutters
- Back to crease not working at times
- A couple of shots end up with the ball going in the wrong direction

 

[bumba]

As I said no game is perfect. Have a look at Fifa even after pumping so much money it still has flaws. Cricket is a complicated sports to make so appreciate what you have rather than cribbing. No company in the world can satisfy gamers. Core gameplay and physics wise this game is cut above the rest.

 

[Jerm]

As I said no game is perfect. Have a look at Fifa even after pumping so much money it still has flaws. Cricket is a complicated sports to make so appreciate what you have rather than cribbing. No company in the world can satisfy gamers. Core gameplay and physics wise this game is cut above the rest.

Fifa is a bit different, they only pumping in a fraction of last years profits in the next version (and us suckers keep buying it!) - still pissed off I cannot play online 1 to 1 with any friends in SA! Fifa 18 se ma se!

 

[bumba]

yeah and see even using the most advanced game engine there is no weather variations in FIFA 18. If you can only plat tiki taka you can win matches, crap. Fifa 18 sucks and its gud there will be no FIFA 19...

 

[Ho3n3r]

Looks aweseome. Can't wait to afford this one day.

 

[Nathaus]

Just thought I'd chip in and share my experiences in career... So far I'm actually quite happy with the game. I've just played through the first season of 3 day matches, now moving in to the 50 over comp. Beside the few quirks that have unfortunately been there since DBC17 (not sliding bat is one I would have thought would be very easy to fix, but ho hum), I haven't come across anything too game breaking, even the statistics are holding up ok (see below). I'm playing on Pro and just upped the batting and bowling difficulty to Hard. I have changed no modifiers, but have downloaded a lot of @Llewelynf s teams, predominantly international and Australian domestic of all varieties. I haven't used any of them yet, so inetersting to see if actually using the teams causes issues, as it doesn't appear to have hindered my game simply by downloading. Also I always chose keep original for duplicates.

Batting:
Was finding runs too easy initially, but going up to hard seems to have added an element of risk in my stroke play - quite happy with the balance for now as I tend to get starts but fall victim of poor timing against bowling variation between 20 and 50 most of the time. Most of my dismissals have been edges behind, either caught by keeper or slips. I've had a lot of close play and misses, lucky not to be bowled, and a few close LBW shouts playing down the wrong line or late. Currently averaging mid 20s. Disappointingly, my most recent wicket came at bat pad to a solid full blooded on drive. Super human skills by the AI snared it out of no where. Especially in the context of the ball before where I nearly took his head off with a pull shot.

Bowling:
Enjoy bowling most of the time. The challenge is real. I'm a fast/med bowler and the majority of my wickets have been bowled or caught behind. I think I've seen 1 or 2 slogs to the infield, of which one I'm sure was a leading edge as it made the edge noise as it flew to the fielder. I tend to bowl mostly out-swingers to right-handers, with the odd cutter/straight ball in there. Averaging around 20 with the ball.

Stats:
While there are some lingering issues, there has been an improvement overall. Admittedly this should be an area with no leeway as stats are stats, but I'm fairly certain my player averages, total runs, total wickets, etc are all accurate. Just for some reason BBI/BBM don't seem to count the second innings.

Admittedly this is a very small sample of one particular game mode, but I think it's important to add balance to the general guff being posted around here that if you read in isolation would suggest this game is rubbish and worse than DBC. For me it's on par/slightly better as I certainly see less chip shots to the infield, stats are certainly 80% better than they were (not earned stats in the main menu, they seem completely broken). I have experienced edges both batting and bowling, and most of the time it's a challenging but rewarding game when you get things right.

A little imagination is required when the quirks happen, and hopefully some more fine tuning/balancing of gameplay occurs, but I'm quite happy with my purchase at this stage considering it only cost me about A$50 (almost half the price of DBC 17). I'll give it a solid 7/10 for career mode.

 

[hammadahmed88]

My impression is that this is a pathetic attempt as a third title. My advice would be for those who have a previous title to stick with their games and update their rosters and players on it. Gameplay as it was was far better (for me) in 14, but even for those who believe this is an improvement on that front somehow can't argue with the fact that it's not enough of an improvement to buy a whole new game, full price. Elementary stuff like shot animations, leaving deliveries, pacing an innings by AI are still very much broken. 14 was sensational. Since then though, for some reason, there has been a regression with each title. No real inroads since then. Graphics are much better this time around, and the crowd noises are also improved significantly. As a whole game however, stick with your earlier titles in my humble opinion.

Having said that, I still remain hopeful for future patches. I will definitely retract my impression and post an updated one (not that it matters) if that happens. Minor details are just that, but the 'cricket' part of it needs to be flawless in my opinion. Batting, bowling and fielding should be spot on. Unfortunately that is not so as we stand today.