Be Excellent To Each Other

All the cricket game stuff from the cricket thread has been stripped out and put here.

First impressions with the Ashes Cricket 2009 demo are promising.

Pros:

• You no longer lose confidence by leaving the ball, making Test match cricket finally possible
• Hard mode is actually quite hard as there is little room for error with shot selection and timing (I managed 11/1 off my 3 overs)
• STATS! Glorious stats! Lots of them!
• Menu interface a lot slicker
• Bowling is reasonable (although it'll never be as fun as batting, but that's cricket) and it colours the reticle depending on what length you're bowling
• Fielding is now automatic (although I didn't see if you could toggle it in the menus), so no more annoying QTEs
• You no longer get prior warning of a no-ball until the umpire says it, meaning pre-emptive slogs are out of the question

Cons:

• While the graphics are generally good, some of the players likenesses are rubbish (Flintoff is the biggest culprit - they've given him a big Jewish nose)
• Hawkeye is a bit odd. When it shows the over bowled, it takes an absolute age to show the line of each ball, and they speed up after they bounce
• Sometimes the camera doesn't follow the ball properly if it's going to the boundary. Can be quite hard to work out if it's gone for four or not
• The commentary. Just Jonathan Agnew and Shane Warne on it this time, and a lot of Agnew's stuff has been lifted from previous versions. Warne is as wooden as Woody McWoodifer, Woodtown, Tennessee

I'm keeping my pre-order on the strength of this. More thoughts after I've played another match.

Most anti-semitic review evuh. And there is no Woodtown in Tennessee.

I struggle to play cricket games for more than a week or so without getting bored of them, I don't think they could ever make one that could keep my attention for longer than that however well designed it was.

I've just stuck the difficulty back down to Normal and decided to slog it about and see what happened. I managed to get to 35-2 after 3 overs, and I survived a catch. If you're too early you're more likely to inside edge it, and if you're too late then you'll outside edge it. It was interesting to see that my AI opponents decided to chase down the target by hitting aggressively too. They scored the four runs they needed to win off the last ball.

Sounds promising. I'll just downloa - oh.

Question - would you say it's possible to play and enjoy this, if you don't (like me) understand every tiny rule of the actual sport? See I know the gist of it, and enough to enjoy watching it on the telly and that, but I don't understand all the position names etc, etc.

I'd say so. I found that playing cricket games actually helped teach me the positions and whatnot.

Just had another bash. Experimented by putting Monty in to bat once I'd lost a wicket, and he at least could hold a bat properly, but his confidence started out extremely low, and didn't increase much after an over of blocking.

I've had one catch so far, but didn't really know what I was meant to be doing. I think you have to press the A button when the word 'CATCH' flashes on the screen, but I haven't had one since so I can't be sure. I've also worked out what the camera is doing. It follows the ball for a bit, then pans out to the nearest fielder. I've just never had a cricket game do that before, so it's a bit disconcerting.

Ta. I think I shall try the demo of this at some point.

I downloaded this.

It's ok, I can see it being alot better with more overs to play with, as you kinda need to go for it on every ball with only 3 overs.
Batting is harder, takes more skill in timing, which takes a while to get the hang of.

If I had the money I'd probably get the game, It'd be fun to actually grind out a test match I think.

Am I right in thinking that Ashes 2009 is based on BLIC 2007?

Some animation stuff seems to be shared, but it's a different developer and just seems a lot less rushed and more polished than BLIC 07 (which was largely rubbish).

Excellent. Will try the demo.

My god. It's like you're in the game!

That's not what you said at the time, you bummed the living daylights out of it!!!! Don't re-write history!

No, I bummed BLIC 2005, which was an excellent game.

BLIC 2007 was a decent game, apart from the 2 or 3 (or more) completely game breaking flaws.

Cor, doesn't time fly when you're slog-sweeping.

(That was a play on words with a popular cliche)

Oooo, my copy of 'The Bigs 2' turned up this morning. So if any one fancies a game, drop me a line.

Rounders for boys doesn't belong in this thread.

Quite, Morte. This thread is rounders for girls.

I've noticed something quite annoying with this.
If you advance down the pitch to hit a shot, and miss, you have you press back for the batsman to get back in the crease as he just stands there being out unless you do so.

That's been in cricket games for as long as I can remember. Basically, don't dance down the pitch unless you're sure you're going to hit it. You'll be stumped otherwise (as in real life).

Indeed. Actually, I thought bringing in a return to crease button so that you can avoid a stumping is a step forward.

Downloaded and tested Ashes 2009 Demo.
Buying Ashes 2009.

It's a bit good isnt it

Thank God the real cricket starts up again soon...

Very realistic too. Mitchell Johnson is shit.

This looks Whoreable, although some work will be needed

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/ashes-cricket-2009/achievements/

4 wickets in a row!

300 runs for one batsman!

That'll be ridiculous!


How much is this going to be? I get first set of dole money on the 10th

4 wickets in a row is easy. Just bowl 4 slow full tosses right at the stumps. When Myp is batting.

Im not very good at the bowling.

Can't bowl a decent line or length

Full toss it is then!

If those achievements can be done in co-op then it looks pretty easy to whore...

The game helps you a lot with your line and length. Do you see the way the colour of your reticle changes slightly as you move it around? Lighter green means it's a good ball, I think.

Interestingly, I managed to keep the Aussies down to 10 from their three overs last night. I had seven from my two, then Johnson kept bowling yorkers every ball for the last over and I only just managed to get the four away I needed on the last ball. The AI definitely seems a lot better than in 07.

I played two games on normal. Least said about the first one the better. In the second game I was 27/1 off my three (helped by 6 Johnson no balls in his over) and thought I was looking good. However, given the low target, the Aussies were playing risky shots and scampering extra runs almost every shot, which definately wouldn't have happened on 2007.

Oh, and how did I forget this? Lords has The Slope.

Not sure whether it actually affects things or is just a graphics feature.

I want this game now. Why is it not out yet?

I know. I want to get fucking with Bells stats.

Haha, you cunt. I'm going to get Pietersen's average up to 100 so he's better than Bradman.

I think its going to be easier to get Bell to a 10 average than Pietersen to 100.

Did you know that confidence carries from game to game with individual players? So for example, if you take 10 wickets with one player in the first test of the ashes series, he'll be on fire in the second.

I didn't know that. I'm excited now!

I seem to remember all the semi-decent teams doing that quite a lot in 2007, actually.

I need to give this demo a whirl.

No, the AI in 2007 would play the same in every match no matter what the situation was (ie T20 style biffage). From what I've read, they've really sorted this game out so you can play proper Test matches.

I hope they've changed it so that full tosses are no longer the hardest ball to hit, and that you can't just bowl yorkers/full tosses all day and win handily.

When does this game come out? Hopefully my XBox will be on its way home by then.

4th August I think. Whichever is the nearest Friday to that.

I thought the colour represented the best pace to bowl at.
ie: the yellowy colour on the bar when it's yellow on the reticle.....Im not sure tho.

I managed to get 37n.o on easy with one batsman.
Just advancing and and lofting it over the off-side works a treat.

Really? I doubt it. I could be wrong, though.

I suppose we'll find out when it comes out.

Just like setting fire to a tank and shooting it kills it quicker!

Yeah, but you don't bowl a ball slower in real life depending on the length you're bowling. You want your fast bowlers to always be bowling as quickly as possible (except for the slower ball, of course).

No you don't.

Ok, as quick as they possibly can be whilst also remaining accurate. Stop nitpicking.