PlanetCricket
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- Joined
- Jan 13, 2010
If there was ever a game that is made by a single feature, International Cricket 2010 is that game. I speak of the Action Cam, which single-handedly turns the game in to something absolutely fantastic and a joy to play. Making the mistake of thinking this is just the Cricket 07 behind the batsman cam with a new name and dismissing it as meaningless distractory graphical stuff to cover over gameplay faults is something no cricket gamer should do. Let me state it very simply, Action Cam is fantastic and makes this game the most genuine representation of cricket yet.
The action cam gives you a close in third person view, very similar to what you see in third person shooters, it reminded me a lot of a game I didn?t like, Gears of War. But unlike shooting where the first person view is ideal, the close in behind the batsman shot is surprisingly natural for the game and adds a brilliant new dimension to gameplay, well for batting at least.
Why is it good? I?m glad you asked. For starters, it brings you a new definition of timing, you watch the ball out of the bowler?s hand and play the shot in what is a very natural way, point the stick in the direction you want it to go, pushing the stick the distance you want to push the ball through the gap and when the time?s right, swing. █It just makes you feel in the action, deciding exactly how and where to place the ball, at the same time as making it much more straightforward to play your shots.
Running between the wickets is something that?s interesting to say the least, you have to press the buttons to look around you while running, it defaults to watching the ball?s position, but you?ll not know exactly where the crease is, nor where your partner is unless you press the view toggle. This adds some depth in to what is one of the more mundane aspects of batting, and also results in some stunning camera angles, the side on dive into the crease as the ball comes flying in is done brilliantly.
However, I the Action Cam for bowling isn?t quite as good, it makes bowling very odd, in the angle you have to try and bowl from, it makes it very difficult to set the right pitch-point, and thus makes you rely way to heavily on the improved colour marker, which now also tells you the region you are bowling in as well as the quality of the delivery. The game?s idea of length is now spot on, and at the end of the over you get a much more realistic grouping.
However bowling does have significant improvements control-wise, the aiming is now much more difficult and intuitive than the point and click bowling in AC09. Bowling works by moving the stick to the point on the pitch and then pressing the delivery type button. It is very difficult to hold the ball in things like the yorker position, but it?s rather easy to get a middle of the road dark-green good pitch position ball. This in my view will be most helpful online and make it much more difficult for bowling continuously in the same spot, but it certainly adds a lot to the offline play modes.
I would however steer clear of the bowling Action Cam, you have the choice of using it just for batting and it really is the best option, though there is a halfway point of a semi-raised over the bowler?s head Action Cam which may suit some players, but I didn?t feel that the bowling camera added as much to the game as the batting camera did, and think it may require a bit of further work in order to create a more natural bowling presentation.
Fielding is as it was in AC09, with the terrific catching system wholly in place. The AI fielders are noticeably smarter, and will dive for the ball and use teamwork in the outfield. I did have one occurrence while testing of the fielders just standing there while the batsman ran, but unlike the utter inability of fielders to pick the ball up the first go in AC09. The AI fielders will also plug gaps much more readily, a few shots in one area will usually see a fielder in there.
One of the supplementary additions is the HUD off mode, it builds best on the Action Cam to deliver a very tough contest. With nearly all visual aids gone, you need to turn the batsman?s head to see the fielders, place the ball and power just by knowing where you?re pointing your stick. To add to this, you need to watch the pace and direction of the ball out of the bowlers hand, you get a split second view of the pitch marker, at a point that?s too late to play anything really attacking. This is again good for batting and less so for bowling, it is absolutely impossible to bowl without the HUD, the odd angle is added to by not having any pitch point feedback and no timing gauge, you need to judge the ball?s pitch by feel and the timing by the bowler?s arm. This will take a lot of practice and patience to see it through.
There is a happy medium on the ?minimal? HUD option, which as the name suggests shows only the bare minimum of HUD to help you along. I suggest this is the best way to enjoy batting in IC2010, and Minimal with the Broadcast Cam for bowling. This way you get a challenge when batting and bowling, but not a frustrating impossible one. But of course, I?m rather bad at timing the ball, so many of you reading this will be able to dive right in with it all off, but even then I would think you?ll still get a much greater challenge then you have ever gotten out of a cricket game, which is certainly a good thing.
Unfortunately while you can play with the HUD off online, there?s no way to force the other player too, or to check. This is a fairly poor thing not to have included, because it would have opened up a very good path for the better online players. Though if you play with people you trust, I think you?ll get some good games out of playing with HUD off online.
Further to the online play issues, not all that much will have changed. There was a bit of work on stability, but mostly the improvements come from the player rating system, which shows a 5 star ranking of disconnects, so you can see who the quitters are. There?s also a win-loss-draw chart, rather than the tables of rather useless info in AC09.
Lloyd is brilliant as a commentator, the few seconds got to hear of him were about the most entertaining cricket commentary has been since ?hit straight to the fielder? was a new line. Unfortunately for most of the time you are stuck with the fairly limited and repetitive stuff from the rest of the commentary team. While the changes to commentary are broadly disappointing, there?s been a lot of attention to the sounds on the pitch, though I got sick of the player?s grunting very quickly, I?m a bit happier with the concept of hearing the mashing of the grass during the run up.
The stumps are the main point where the changes in animations jump out, though this is largely to do with some really good new stump physics, gone are the days of a slight nudge of the stumps making all of them go out of the ground. A edge down on to the left bail was one of the best ways I?ve ever gotten out in a cricket game and edges are fairly common, even the AI gives a few away.
While I certainly didn?t have enough time with the game to give a real conclusion, test matches should be vastly improved due to the changes in the AI?s tactics. I managed to get quite a good run going after getting the hang of bowling, I felt like I was in there with a chance, but the AI were willing to hit the balls that were there, and leave alone the rest. The real test will be chasing down targets, but they did do a good job of that in a 5 over match I played, so I hope it will carry through.
To quickly cover some of the commonly asked questions: There is no rain in the game, but I was satisfied with their reasoning for not including it, rain has a huge flow on effect in the game, they could have easily added rain itself, but they wouldn?t have been able to include all the other essentials to make rain have it?s true cricket impact, rather than rain just being a way to have one less session in a test. There is no option to sim by chunks of overs, only one at a time, an innings or a match. Stats tracking I?m told is in the game, but only within tournament and tour structures. So stats are kept within a ?Champions Cup? campaign or a series of the Imitation Premier League (the 20 Overs Superleague), but not kept between series and from one off matches, I think this is an okay compromise if the stats tracking is good enough, but that?s certainly something I didn?t have time to look into.
The addition of game modes will certainly add something to the game, being able to do a proper World Cup Trophy again is great and the IPL-like mode should be good (at least after a long time in the player editor). The character limits on editing players do remain, and you can?t edit England and Australia beyond the line-up.
So negatives… well oddly nothing was standing out as horribly wrong. TrickStar weren?t ambitious with IC2010, on the face of it they?ve just added a new camera and some extra options in the menus. They have done something that Codemasters just haven?t done, stick with a developer and build on the base and fine tune the game into something great. International Cricket 2010 is not a huge step forward in any way, it is a lot of minor tweaks around the edges, and they add up to be a fantastic cricket experience.
I hate being positive, the cynic in me makes me want to think this all can?t be true, there has to be a catch, good cricket games don?t exist. I expect you to be cynical as well, I was fairly wrong with my play-test review of AC09, it turned out to be not near as good as the initial excitement I had coming out of that day. But really, I cannot see what they could have gotten wrong here, yes a few players will be able to tonk the AI in HUD off on Hard and bowl them out for ten, but even those players will do it in a much more engaging and entertaining environment with greatly improved controls. The downfall may well be the shortcomings online, not being able to force the HUD off for both players means that despite the efforts with the sportsmanship rating, you will still be at the mercy of trusting the other player to play fair, which is a shame when it?s a tiny thing to implement, unlike understandable omissions like online saving.
But anyway for me the bottom line is simple ? it is 25 quid and you better believe it is worth every penny.
International Cricket 2010 releases later this month in the UK and in October in Australia and is available on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Article by Matt Whitehorn - Read More...
The action cam gives you a close in third person view, very similar to what you see in third person shooters, it reminded me a lot of a game I didn?t like, Gears of War. But unlike shooting where the first person view is ideal, the close in behind the batsman shot is surprisingly natural for the game and adds a brilliant new dimension to gameplay, well for batting at least.
Why is it good? I?m glad you asked. For starters, it brings you a new definition of timing, you watch the ball out of the bowler?s hand and play the shot in what is a very natural way, point the stick in the direction you want it to go, pushing the stick the distance you want to push the ball through the gap and when the time?s right, swing. █It just makes you feel in the action, deciding exactly how and where to place the ball, at the same time as making it much more straightforward to play your shots.
Running between the wickets is something that?s interesting to say the least, you have to press the buttons to look around you while running, it defaults to watching the ball?s position, but you?ll not know exactly where the crease is, nor where your partner is unless you press the view toggle. This adds some depth in to what is one of the more mundane aspects of batting, and also results in some stunning camera angles, the side on dive into the crease as the ball comes flying in is done brilliantly.
However, I the Action Cam for bowling isn?t quite as good, it makes bowling very odd, in the angle you have to try and bowl from, it makes it very difficult to set the right pitch-point, and thus makes you rely way to heavily on the improved colour marker, which now also tells you the region you are bowling in as well as the quality of the delivery. The game?s idea of length is now spot on, and at the end of the over you get a much more realistic grouping.
However bowling does have significant improvements control-wise, the aiming is now much more difficult and intuitive than the point and click bowling in AC09. Bowling works by moving the stick to the point on the pitch and then pressing the delivery type button. It is very difficult to hold the ball in things like the yorker position, but it?s rather easy to get a middle of the road dark-green good pitch position ball. This in my view will be most helpful online and make it much more difficult for bowling continuously in the same spot, but it certainly adds a lot to the offline play modes.
I would however steer clear of the bowling Action Cam, you have the choice of using it just for batting and it really is the best option, though there is a halfway point of a semi-raised over the bowler?s head Action Cam which may suit some players, but I didn?t feel that the bowling camera added as much to the game as the batting camera did, and think it may require a bit of further work in order to create a more natural bowling presentation.
Fielding is as it was in AC09, with the terrific catching system wholly in place. The AI fielders are noticeably smarter, and will dive for the ball and use teamwork in the outfield. I did have one occurrence while testing of the fielders just standing there while the batsman ran, but unlike the utter inability of fielders to pick the ball up the first go in AC09. The AI fielders will also plug gaps much more readily, a few shots in one area will usually see a fielder in there.
One of the supplementary additions is the HUD off mode, it builds best on the Action Cam to deliver a very tough contest. With nearly all visual aids gone, you need to turn the batsman?s head to see the fielders, place the ball and power just by knowing where you?re pointing your stick. To add to this, you need to watch the pace and direction of the ball out of the bowlers hand, you get a split second view of the pitch marker, at a point that?s too late to play anything really attacking. This is again good for batting and less so for bowling, it is absolutely impossible to bowl without the HUD, the odd angle is added to by not having any pitch point feedback and no timing gauge, you need to judge the ball?s pitch by feel and the timing by the bowler?s arm. This will take a lot of practice and patience to see it through.
There is a happy medium on the ?minimal? HUD option, which as the name suggests shows only the bare minimum of HUD to help you along. I suggest this is the best way to enjoy batting in IC2010, and Minimal with the Broadcast Cam for bowling. This way you get a challenge when batting and bowling, but not a frustrating impossible one. But of course, I?m rather bad at timing the ball, so many of you reading this will be able to dive right in with it all off, but even then I would think you?ll still get a much greater challenge then you have ever gotten out of a cricket game, which is certainly a good thing.
Unfortunately while you can play with the HUD off online, there?s no way to force the other player too, or to check. This is a fairly poor thing not to have included, because it would have opened up a very good path for the better online players. Though if you play with people you trust, I think you?ll get some good games out of playing with HUD off online.
Further to the online play issues, not all that much will have changed. There was a bit of work on stability, but mostly the improvements come from the player rating system, which shows a 5 star ranking of disconnects, so you can see who the quitters are. There?s also a win-loss-draw chart, rather than the tables of rather useless info in AC09.
Lloyd is brilliant as a commentator, the few seconds got to hear of him were about the most entertaining cricket commentary has been since ?hit straight to the fielder? was a new line. Unfortunately for most of the time you are stuck with the fairly limited and repetitive stuff from the rest of the commentary team. While the changes to commentary are broadly disappointing, there?s been a lot of attention to the sounds on the pitch, though I got sick of the player?s grunting very quickly, I?m a bit happier with the concept of hearing the mashing of the grass during the run up.
The stumps are the main point where the changes in animations jump out, though this is largely to do with some really good new stump physics, gone are the days of a slight nudge of the stumps making all of them go out of the ground. A edge down on to the left bail was one of the best ways I?ve ever gotten out in a cricket game and edges are fairly common, even the AI gives a few away.
While I certainly didn?t have enough time with the game to give a real conclusion, test matches should be vastly improved due to the changes in the AI?s tactics. I managed to get quite a good run going after getting the hang of bowling, I felt like I was in there with a chance, but the AI were willing to hit the balls that were there, and leave alone the rest. The real test will be chasing down targets, but they did do a good job of that in a 5 over match I played, so I hope it will carry through.
To quickly cover some of the commonly asked questions: There is no rain in the game, but I was satisfied with their reasoning for not including it, rain has a huge flow on effect in the game, they could have easily added rain itself, but they wouldn?t have been able to include all the other essentials to make rain have it?s true cricket impact, rather than rain just being a way to have one less session in a test. There is no option to sim by chunks of overs, only one at a time, an innings or a match. Stats tracking I?m told is in the game, but only within tournament and tour structures. So stats are kept within a ?Champions Cup? campaign or a series of the Imitation Premier League (the 20 Overs Superleague), but not kept between series and from one off matches, I think this is an okay compromise if the stats tracking is good enough, but that?s certainly something I didn?t have time to look into.
The addition of game modes will certainly add something to the game, being able to do a proper World Cup Trophy again is great and the IPL-like mode should be good (at least after a long time in the player editor). The character limits on editing players do remain, and you can?t edit England and Australia beyond the line-up.
So negatives… well oddly nothing was standing out as horribly wrong. TrickStar weren?t ambitious with IC2010, on the face of it they?ve just added a new camera and some extra options in the menus. They have done something that Codemasters just haven?t done, stick with a developer and build on the base and fine tune the game into something great. International Cricket 2010 is not a huge step forward in any way, it is a lot of minor tweaks around the edges, and they add up to be a fantastic cricket experience.
I hate being positive, the cynic in me makes me want to think this all can?t be true, there has to be a catch, good cricket games don?t exist. I expect you to be cynical as well, I was fairly wrong with my play-test review of AC09, it turned out to be not near as good as the initial excitement I had coming out of that day. But really, I cannot see what they could have gotten wrong here, yes a few players will be able to tonk the AI in HUD off on Hard and bowl them out for ten, but even those players will do it in a much more engaging and entertaining environment with greatly improved controls. The downfall may well be the shortcomings online, not being able to force the HUD off for both players means that despite the efforts with the sportsmanship rating, you will still be at the mercy of trusting the other player to play fair, which is a shame when it?s a tiny thing to implement, unlike understandable omissions like online saving.
But anyway for me the bottom line is simple ? it is 25 quid and you better believe it is worth every penny.
International Cricket 2010 releases later this month in the UK and in October in Australia and is available on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Article by Matt Whitehorn - Read More...
