Bubblyjubbly
School Cricketer
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2010
- Online Cricket Games Owned
I'm new on here, which is not to say I am new to codemasters cricket games, in fact I am VERY high up on some of the global leaderboards on Ashes Cricket 2009, but would like to keep my PSN ID private. I thought this topic deserved a separate thread as intial impressions and and the overly-optimistic reviews or pseudo-reviews seem way off the mark for me and a little bit of realism needs to be bought back into the equation.
I haven't tried the online yet, but if the single player is anything to go by, I'd rather not bother. The game is virtually identical to Ashes Cricket 2009 and in a number of ways, even worse. The individual player animations are MARGINALLY better, but everything else (graphics) is more or less the same. For the current generation of consoles, the graphics are a disgrace and it's no excuse to allow it for it being a cricket game - every other game manages it and but for the resolution, this is nothing more than PS2 standard.
IT IS A PATCHED ASHES CRICKET 2009, only it is a BAD patch. The main issues are as follows:
1) Correct me if I am wrong, but there still won't be voice/video chat - a year later they seem unable to add that when even some cheapy PSN have it - and this is in a game for which this option, especially for test matches, is an absolute neccessity.
2) The gameplay is just as buggy and surprisingly stuttery (FAR WORSE THAN AC09), you still see the ball going past a fielder for it to suddenly reverse and go back in his hands. However, when batting and bowling, the ball often 'jumps and skips' forward and the frame rate suddenly drops or increases or freezes momentarily, and full length balls often suddenly skip into beamers - its a joke, and it gets worse the better you are at the game, it's as if the AI resorts to 'cheating' to make the ball do things that are impossible i.e. the ball teleporting forward. Who knows what will happen online if it is this bad online ?
3) The crowds, pitches and camera movements are identical to AC09.
4) The movements of the players, bowlers and batsman, seem even less responsive and more jerky than those of AC09.
5) 'Action Cam', especially behind the batsman, is a waste of time. First-person view would be the only thing worth bothering with in this regard. However, the slightly fuller 360 degree controls are a welcome measure.
6) The HUD off mode is a potentially welcome move, but is so poorly implemented with regard to the lack of responsiveness of the controls that it ruins it. The reticule sometimes appears and not having the field placings shown seems a bit pointless here - you can see the fielders through peripheral vision in reality so what is the point of showing the field at the start of the over and then hiding it ?
7) Why have the D-Pad direction controls been de-activated, the batsman now moves slower than my dead grandparents ?
8) Gameplay: Essentially, the batting has been made slightly more difficult, not better though. The sweet spot of timing is now slightly earlier than on AC09, but the timing is no longer 'intuitive' and all the pace bowlers are almost the same speed now, which kind of defeats the purpose. The consequence of this is now that as the sweet spot is slightly earlier, the slower balls are almost deadly in the right hands, not only the that, they often 'pee-roll' along the ground.
The result of making the ball carry more has resulted in the regular ability to hit poorly-timed balls over the keeper/slips for six. In addition, the carry is often so excessive that shots that would normally be well timed end up flying to a fielder that they should never have gone anywhere near - this seems to be part of the cheating AI, there is no physics to this, it's all part of a large number of preset animations/routines. The ball also hits the batsman too regularly.
The spinners are still easy to spank, but there seems greater risk to it, which would be good, but any timing that is slightly off the good results in a 'treacle-like' effect where the ball just doesn't do what a normal ball would, almost going nowhere rather than up in the air. The timing of shots to pace bowlers is particular inconsistent and erratic, particularly to pitched-up deliveries, in addition to the problems of 2) above. This will result is a lot of 'cheesing' when online for the bowlers.
As far as the bowling is concerned, new controls are open to abuse online i.e. letting go of the reticule and seeing the ball ping back into a bouncer at the last minute which, given the poorly responsive batting controls, would not be welcome - I preferred the old system.
Whilst the new modes are welcome, it would appear that in trying to be clever with the gameplay, they have made it worse, especially when basing the game on the old codebase of AC09, it literally is just a patch - instead of trying to sort out the underlying mechanics in an organic fashion, they have resorted to a number of band-aids or shortcuts to produce their desired effect and it has produced an unprofessional result. But for the bugs, AC09's gameplay was much smoother.
If this is the result of a year's work then I am truly disappointed. I will not be buying another Codemasters cricket game unless it is built up from scratch. I know Australia isn't at the forefront of technological innovation, but this is a poor effort from them and in complete contrast to their performance on the pitch.
I haven't tried the online yet, but if the single player is anything to go by, I'd rather not bother. The game is virtually identical to Ashes Cricket 2009 and in a number of ways, even worse. The individual player animations are MARGINALLY better, but everything else (graphics) is more or less the same. For the current generation of consoles, the graphics are a disgrace and it's no excuse to allow it for it being a cricket game - every other game manages it and but for the resolution, this is nothing more than PS2 standard.
IT IS A PATCHED ASHES CRICKET 2009, only it is a BAD patch. The main issues are as follows:
1) Correct me if I am wrong, but there still won't be voice/video chat - a year later they seem unable to add that when even some cheapy PSN have it - and this is in a game for which this option, especially for test matches, is an absolute neccessity.
2) The gameplay is just as buggy and surprisingly stuttery (FAR WORSE THAN AC09), you still see the ball going past a fielder for it to suddenly reverse and go back in his hands. However, when batting and bowling, the ball often 'jumps and skips' forward and the frame rate suddenly drops or increases or freezes momentarily, and full length balls often suddenly skip into beamers - its a joke, and it gets worse the better you are at the game, it's as if the AI resorts to 'cheating' to make the ball do things that are impossible i.e. the ball teleporting forward. Who knows what will happen online if it is this bad online ?
3) The crowds, pitches and camera movements are identical to AC09.
4) The movements of the players, bowlers and batsman, seem even less responsive and more jerky than those of AC09.
5) 'Action Cam', especially behind the batsman, is a waste of time. First-person view would be the only thing worth bothering with in this regard. However, the slightly fuller 360 degree controls are a welcome measure.
6) The HUD off mode is a potentially welcome move, but is so poorly implemented with regard to the lack of responsiveness of the controls that it ruins it. The reticule sometimes appears and not having the field placings shown seems a bit pointless here - you can see the fielders through peripheral vision in reality so what is the point of showing the field at the start of the over and then hiding it ?
7) Why have the D-Pad direction controls been de-activated, the batsman now moves slower than my dead grandparents ?
8) Gameplay: Essentially, the batting has been made slightly more difficult, not better though. The sweet spot of timing is now slightly earlier than on AC09, but the timing is no longer 'intuitive' and all the pace bowlers are almost the same speed now, which kind of defeats the purpose. The consequence of this is now that as the sweet spot is slightly earlier, the slower balls are almost deadly in the right hands, not only the that, they often 'pee-roll' along the ground.
The result of making the ball carry more has resulted in the regular ability to hit poorly-timed balls over the keeper/slips for six. In addition, the carry is often so excessive that shots that would normally be well timed end up flying to a fielder that they should never have gone anywhere near - this seems to be part of the cheating AI, there is no physics to this, it's all part of a large number of preset animations/routines. The ball also hits the batsman too regularly.
The spinners are still easy to spank, but there seems greater risk to it, which would be good, but any timing that is slightly off the good results in a 'treacle-like' effect where the ball just doesn't do what a normal ball would, almost going nowhere rather than up in the air. The timing of shots to pace bowlers is particular inconsistent and erratic, particularly to pitched-up deliveries, in addition to the problems of 2) above. This will result is a lot of 'cheesing' when online for the bowlers.
As far as the bowling is concerned, new controls are open to abuse online i.e. letting go of the reticule and seeing the ball ping back into a bouncer at the last minute which, given the poorly responsive batting controls, would not be welcome - I preferred the old system.
Whilst the new modes are welcome, it would appear that in trying to be clever with the gameplay, they have made it worse, especially when basing the game on the old codebase of AC09, it literally is just a patch - instead of trying to sort out the underlying mechanics in an organic fashion, they have resorted to a number of band-aids or shortcuts to produce their desired effect and it has produced an unprofessional result. But for the bugs, AC09's gameplay was much smoother.
If this is the result of a year's work then I am truly disappointed. I will not be buying another Codemasters cricket game unless it is built up from scratch. I know Australia isn't at the forefront of technological innovation, but this is a poor effort from them and in complete contrast to their performance on the pitch.
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