Cricket2004 released

[barmyarmy]

It seems to have been released - no publicity or anything (EA Sports don't have a clue).
Can someone who's got the game post some thoughts or screenshots here please?

 

[sumoNYR88]

They've got the game? Cool. Could someone please post some information on it? It would be appreciated...

 

[barmyarmy]

This was posted by a gamer on another forum: (cricket2002.tk)

Here is my review so far.
The game is very similar to Rugby 2004 in regards to creating players and adding them to the database.If you create a player you can only add him to his own nation i.e Australia - England - India etc.. but also you can add him to any county or state side.Amazingly there is no Shane Warne in the game.He doesnt even play for Victoria.The game modes are incredable.These include - Ashes tour Australia - Ashes Tour England - Long Tour Australia - Short Tour Australia - Long Tour England - Short Tour England - Subcontinent Tour - Carbbean Tour - New Zealand and Zimbabwe Tour - South African Tour - One Day Cricket Tour as well as Test Series - World Cup - World series - Knockout - Australian State - English County.All these modes include a full calender and it will take you for ever to complete it. You start a tour by playing either state teams - county teams - PM's XI - Minister XI or other sides including Australia A - New Zealand A etc.. Even if you tour New Zealand you play Canterbury and N.Districts from there. You get to select your squad from about 50 odd players and players can get injured on tour.
Gameplay has improved with fast bowlers swinging the ball heaps. You play and miss alot and I've been caught behind with little nicks which looks and feels real. The shots available have changed and gets alot of getting used to. On a hard Pitch it is hard to Cut the ball because it bounces to high. The run help icon has changed as well and is quite difficult.
Everything has been included in 2004 but i am yet to have a bowler bowl a no ball against me.They bowl plenty of wides though.The confidence meter could be better.It goes up when you hit a boundry but if you dont score one for a while it goes down.One batsmen i had scored 60 runs with meter at about half then i scored another 20 runs in ones and twos and meter came down to about a 1/4.I thought it might stay up if you faced about 80 plus balls but it doesnt.
Great game and amust have.Beats 2002 hands down.

 

[wackojacko]

wow... i was told by Harvey Norman that it will be realesed later, but WHO CARES, IT SOUNDS GREAT!

 

[Nauman]

I am going to the market.

 

[wackojacko]

do you know if the PC version is out yet?

 

[barmyarmy]

Apparantly.

 

[barmyarmy]

Some more reviews (courtesy of Planetcricket):

Ok it is way better than 2002. This is a quality game.
ALL PLAYED ON HARD LEVEL
Gameplay
the good:
-On hard level it is really hard to bvowl consistantly on a good length, and it is inconsistent, so every game is different. which is great.
-Batting is hard, the confidence metre, is awesome, u have to play ur way in, and its hard. Scoring is hard early, very realistic.
-Graphically this game is very good. Most players are fairly recognisable. Especially tendulkar and gillespie in the mathc i am playing. Stadiums are amazing, and alot of them.
-Id say three times better than 2002.

the bad:
-You cant edit players already in the game, so while u can edit a team u control and create players, if ur opponent is out dated u cant change them.
-the easy and medium levels are too easy. can bat easy and get wickets at ease. Also on these levels there was a gliutch run out and a glitch catch which werent out, but havent happened on hard level.
-So far I cant figure out where the season mode is. Sure there is tours everywhere, u can pick a long or short tour to any part of the world, as in short being just tests or ODI and long including first class warm up games,. but i cant find a season mode where u play all over the world over several years.

In the end- Look its a great game, I have omnly played 2 hrs on a tesyt between australia and india but it is very good. If i find any glitches in ODI ill post them.

 

[barmyarmy]

and another one:

"THIS GAME ROCKS!

I picked up this game late yesterday afternoon, Electronics Boutique @ Tuggerah (NSW Central Coast Aust) , dont know how they got it early dont care. In the rush for NRL everyone left Cricket 2004 on the shelf.

And man am I glad I got me a copy. We have waited 2 years for this and I don?t think anyone will be disappointed. This review has been written after only 4hrs play. I may have missed some stuff, so email me if u like to ask anything.

Graphically ive never been fussed with the whole ?lifelike? if it meant playability sucked. Well I can say BOTH are great, players play shots like real players, they tend to look somewhat ?gamey? but every game does. There are ALL the official 14 ODI nations, ALL Australian domestic, ALL English county, an ALL STAR Team, ALL the A teams(yes I can still be Australia against my nephew).

56 official teams, 1000 real players, and u can create your own of course with a new bewt editor, even down to the bat type u want , and u can draft yourself into the national or domestic team.

61 stadiums around the world, graphically awesome, (Cairns was great or maybe u like Lilac Hill?) the disc is DVD Rom so there is huge room for improvement over 2002.

Now gameplay?.. it?s the same concept as 2002, batting uses either the stick or the pad, BUT, its a lot harder and much much more realistic, I enjoyed playing 50 overs.
U have to really concentrate on strokes and on placement. The shots look so life like and I love the clip off the pads down to fine leg. The new ?confidence? meter rocks, u cant really slog form ball 1, u need to get set and as u do the meter goes up, when Symonds got ? of the way up the meter, balls flew out of the stadium in the final few overs.

Do yourself a HUGE favour, go to the nets and practice batting, u get great game tips from Jim Maxwell, u need them to know what length to hit from. etc.

Bowling is a lil different as far as who and how, FAST, MED, OFF, or LEGSPIN, mediums bowl swing, fast bowls cutters(and they freaking cut and swing too). The meter is similar but curves around the ball and the better the bowler the easier to target on pitch.

Pitch has a lot to do with the game, it really does gets better as the game goes on or worse depending on the conditions, pick your team wisely u may regert not taking that extra bat.


So many options I cant recall right now, im still in 7th heaven. Change of batting order, no fat controller ump, trophy cabinet, stat tracker, dozens of Tours and tourneys, Ashes, World Cup, World Series, Short foreign tours, long foriegn tours?oh and autosave so u dont get screwed on losing options. You do need over 3800KB to save so delete some crap off that memory card b4 u start.

Bad points- if i had too, and many of you want to know, id say maybe commentary is a lil repetative, alot of the same old stuff from 2002, but i dont give a crap, so if thats the bad bits ill take it.

On and on and on, this game has LONGEVITY????if you LOVE Cricket like I do?????????GET IT NOW!!!!!!

 

[barmyarmy]

and a negative one: (courtesy of cricket2002.tk forums)

hello
very pleased to say that I have Cricket 2004, got it today from EB for 99.95 but i am pretty disappointed
the graphics are pretty strange, and personally i prefer Cricket 2002s, because the bowlers have the rong numbers and they look very big when they run in. The confidence meter, dunno what the hype is about, doesnt excite me that much, for my game, McGrath still got one of the highest scores, though he missed a lot of balls. Controls, bowling is easy as, way easier than 2002, bit confusing though, cause as you start to roll your arm you gotta click and the running bolwing actions look strange.
replays are also very strange to watch cause often you see the ball just stop mid air during a delivery and then go again and you get replays of fours every ball but you look at the crowd and its all one big bad looking blur. Nothing special there.

the stadiums, yes look very good and the whole presentation and menus are wonderfully better than Cricket 2002.
Now i'm a huge cricket fan and i had my money saved up for this for ages, but I must so not completely happy.
Funny to see though, there are so many teams on offer. Including like Prime Ministers XI and Canada and everyone. Happy bout that, and all the Australia Domestic teams like the Speed Blitz Blues and the rest all have their logos and stuff.

Batting is annoying, the controls are exactly the same but the timing is pretty annoying. Its suicidal to sweep and yorker in this game and the no yorker thing every ball that was mentioned in the interview has not to be found as my friend bowled yorkers every ball.

All the characters are there, and it seemed very strange with slips and keeper wearing huge black glasses. Seemed weird!

The Team Management was cool, making players, theres like 7 pages i tihnk to go through, time consuming, but you have to delete players to do that. You cant just make a new team,name it whatever, you gotta delete players and teams. Looks like bye bye Prime Ministers XI or something. Or any team thats colours look like my cricket team.

Its good though, having all the new options, tours etc, so many options. ING Cup, County Cup and Pura Cup. Has all the A sides and strange unknowns before now teams, as well as All Star.

Well i give the game 6/10 cause its still pretty impressive, and if you dont already have a cricket game, then get it, but if you already hav 2002, 99.95 is a lot to play to get a game, that although has alot more options, plays a bit worse than 2002.

Sorry to put it down, i'm still gonna play it forever, just a bit annoyed with it but!

 

[barmyarmy]

Looking good... (screenshots courtesy of cricket2002.tk forums)

 

[barmyarmy]

 

[andrew_nixon]

The screenshots look unreal to me... Just wondering... Does it have Canada's ground??? Toronto Cricket and Curling (or was it Skating) Ground

 

[andrew_nixon]

Both skating and curling..... the most strangest combination of sports for one ground.....

 

[sumoNYR88]

That would be awsome if it had the Canadian ground...i just might with 75 stadiums...

61 Stadiums

I sure hope you didn't unlock any of the other 14 stadiums, or else EA have broken their 75 stadiums promise...

And what about Career mode? I've been hearing that people can't seem to find it, what's with that? Another broken EA 'promise'??