Cricket 2004 Q&A - the official answers

[zimrahil]

The Producer of EA Cricket 2004 Andrew Wilson, has kindly answered some of your questions regarding the game. The answers appear below.

Hopeefully we will have 3-4 more questions I have put to him answered soon.


Presentation/Features
1 What Editors will be there in Cricket 2004 - can we adjust the height, weight,s kills, & faces for players etc ?
THERE WILL BE A FULL PLAYER EDITOR THAT ALLOWS GAMERS TO CREATE A PLAYER FROM SCRATCH. CHOICES INCLUDE, FACE, HAIR, BODY TYPE, HEIGHT, WEIGHT ETC. IN ADDITION TO THIS THERE IS A VERY INDEPTH PLAYING ABILITIES EDITOR. BE PREPARED TO BURN SOME TIME ON THIS FEATURE.

2 How many players will be there in each team and will the squads be up to date ?
THERE WILL BE 20 PLAYERS IN EACH TEAM AND THE SQUADS WILL BE THE ONES SUPPLIED TO US BY OUR LICENSORS.

3 How many tournaments & stadiums will there be and will they include Test and ODI season modes (can you name any tournaments) ?
HARD TO SAY HOW MANY TOURNAMENT THERE ARE AS MANY OF THEM ARE INTERTWINED IN SEASON MODES. HOWEVER, KEY TOURNAMENTS ARE INTERNATIONAL TEST AND ONE DAY ALONG WITH DOMESTIC TOURNAMENTS IN ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

4 Will classic & domestic teams be included ? If yes to domestic teams please can you name which countries ?
DOMESTIC TEAMS WILL BE INCLUDED FOR ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

5 Can you create custom teams, players and tournaments ?
YOU CAN CREATE CUSTOM PLAYERS AND THEN IMPORT AND EXPORT FROM TEAM TO TEAM.

6 Who are the commentators going to be ?
RICHIE BENAUD AND JIM MAXWELL.

7 Will there be online play and if so how will this work (eg tcp/ic etc) ?
THERE WILL NOT BE ONLINE PLAY THIS TIME AROUND.


Gameplay
1 How has the AI been improved for this years version and is it harder to bowl yorkers as this was an easy way of getting wickets against the cpu in previous version ?
THERE HAS BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF WORK PUT INTO THE AI INLCUDING A LITTLE MECHANISM THAT MAKES IT HARDER TO BOWL YORKERS TIME AFTER TIME.

2 Can fast bowlers swing the ball and if so does this include reverse swing ?
YES.

3 Will there be rain in this years release ?
YES.

4 Is there going to be detailed player attributes (e.g. injury rate, speed, strength, stamina) that will have an effect on gameplay ?
DEFINITELY.

5. What are the bowler types and are there more shots available for batsmen?
BOWLING AND BATTING HAS MORE BEEN REFINED SINCE 2002 THAN IT HAS BEEN RE-ENGINEERED. THE INTRICACIES OF THIS ARE DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN WITHOUT THE GAME IN FRONT OF YOU.


General
1 Please provide the currently scheduled release date of Cricket 2004 for the consoles and PC - and
when can we expect a demo ?
WE ARE LOOKING AT DECEMBER IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. THERE HAVE BEEN NO OFFICIAL DATES SET YET AS TO RELEASE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. IT WILL MOST LIKELY COINCIDE WITH THE START OF THE UK SEASON.

2 When can we expect to see theC ricket 2004 website come online ?
SOON : )

3 Is the game scheduled for release on Xbox ?
NO, JUST PS2 AND PC.

 

[tutsipoppy2]

these features loof GREAT !!!

but one question......can we play a 2 player game from one keyboard itself.....i mean many of us don't have a joystick or gamepad.

 

[jonah]

Yeah, very promising. Looks like there'll be a big improvement in the game from c2k2 if these answeres are anything to go by.
I notice there isn't a definitive answer on the stadiums though?
And re the yorkers, will this 'mechanism' stop the cpu bowling too many yorkers too?

 

[T20]

Good work Zim in getting the answers from Andrew..thanks to him from PC as well.
Good to see features like player editor, domestic tournaments, rain (finally) . I think many of us wished for change in commentators though :o and as always hoping for a better AI.

 

[Radaga]

Thanks a lot to Zim and Andrew, that cleared a lot of things up!

 

[Ste]

yeah well done zim. That info makes the game sound really promising.

 

[barmyarmy]

THERE HAVE BEEN NO OFFICIAL DATES SET YET AS TO RELEASE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. IT WILL MOST LIKELY COINCIDE WITH THE START OF THE UK SEASON

Hmm, that's April 2004!!!

 

[Rangeela]

well done Zim

 

[mani_gamer]

Originally posted by jonah
Yeah, very promising. Looks like there'll be a big improvement in the game from c2k2 if these answeres are anything to go by.
I notice there isn't a definitive answer on the stadiums though?




there r gonna be 75 highly detailed stadia
look at the topic cricket 2004 info and packshot in cricket 2004 forum for more info

 

[jonah]

OK thanks mani. 75 stadiums sounds great...

 

[cricket_tiger]

wow:cool: 75 stadiums

 

[thebigsteak]

Originally posted by barmyarmy
Hmm, that's April 2004!!!

I don't think that they'll wait that long to release it in England, because it's coming out here is December and it would be common sence to release it before christmas everywhere.
But the only problam with common sence, it's not that common.

 

[bomber]

Thanks for all that Zim, it's positive information.

 

[zimrahil]

Some more questions answered...........


Will there be strike retention logic employed by cpu when specialist batsmen are playing with the tail in test matches ?
I AM NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT IS MEANT HERE. HOWEVER, I AM THINKING THAT YOU ARE WONDERING WHETHER THE AI WILL CHANGE STRATEGY DEPENDING ON THE FLOW OF A MATCH PARTICULARLY AT THE END OF A MATCH. THE ANSWER HERE IS THAT EACH PLAYER HAS PRE-DETERMINED STRATEGY INCLUDED IN THEIR STATS. THIS AFFECTS HOW THEY PLAY AT ANY GIVEN POINT IN THE MATCH.

Do we still have fast, med fast, swing and spin bowler types and will different batsmen have different shots available to them depending on theirs kill etc
YES ALL OF THE BOWLERS ARE STILL AVAILABLE AS WELL AS THE ABILITY FOR A FAST AND MEDIUM BOWLER TO SWING THE BALL. BATSMEN WILL HAVE A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT SHOTS AVAILABLE TO THEM?INCLUDING THE REVERSE SWEEP.

Is bowling line and length on a consistent basis more likely to get a wicket (e.g. edge behind, bowled etc) than wayward bowling ?(I.e.bowling full tosses, followed by long hops, short and wide balls etc)and in favourable bowling conditions will there be plenty of playing and missing ?
YES A BOWLER WILL BE REWARDED FOR CONSISTENT LINE AND LENGTH RATHER THAN WAYWARD BOWLING. YOU WILL ALSO SEE BATSMEN PLAY AND MISS AND EDGES PRODUCED FROM GOOD DELIVERIES. WE HAVE INCREASED THE OCCURANCE OF THE ?EDGE? IN THIS VERSION.

 

[jonah]

Thanks Phil...sounds promising. Sounds like the cpu batsmen will play the same way throughout their innings though? Probably the old aggressive/moderate/defensive styles.