Don Bradman 14

[Maximas]

I think it's about time to accept that a truly good cricket game will never be made, just like another Zelda game as good as Ocarina of time or Majoras Mask will never be made

 

[OverratedSanity]

I think it's about time to accept that a truly good cricket game will never be made, just like another Zelda game as good as Ocarina of time or Majoras Mask will never be made

Already got one

 

[GuyFromLancs]

The earlier EA Crickets games (03 -04) seemed to adequately respect the laws of cricketing physics, whilst unfortunately failing to marry them with any real sustainable excitement.

As far as the older systems go, Brian Lara 99 for the PS1 was respectable. And at least had a token nod to reality, as opposed to its ludicrous successor on the PS2, on which I knocked 6 sixes off Murali with the sublime batting talents of Rikki Clarke

 

[sledger]

EA Cricket 99 on the Ps1 was hilarious. Pothas to confirm.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Ive never understood why it is so difficult.. I mean all the action happens in the same place, as opposed to football where anything can happen in any given part of the pitch..

Surely playing a certain shot to a ball in a certain area will produce differing outcomes with differing probabilities.. There are obviously a lot of combinations, but it isn't rocket science

I read that the engine used for EA Cricket was actually taken from a Rugby game.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

EA Cricket 99 on the Ps1 was hilarious. Pothas to confirm.

I don't think I played EA 99. Brian Lara was a Codemasters game IIRC

 

[sledger]

Apologies, was thinking of EA Cricket 2000.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Apologies, was thinking of EA Cricket 2000.

My first exposure to the EA franchise was 04 on the PS2. And this was after playing Brian Lara 99 for the PS1 (which pound-for-pound and taking into effect the ravaging effects of time) was a good game; and then Brian Lara 05 for the PS2 which I flat-out didn't like.

My first impressions of EA were that they were well-intended, but clunky. Anyway, a few years later, I recall reading an article with one of the developers who was saying that they felt like they could make a really great game, but didn't have the budget, and were therefore forced to adapt the match engine from either a previous EA Football or Rugby project - hence the 'difficulties'.

 

[sledger]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was adapted from another engine to be honest. Not only were the EA games from that era very stodgy, but the animations of the players just didn't look right. The batsman's default stance just looked terrible (iirc the head was not straight, they'd lean over their bat like a golfer leaning over when making a putt), and the animations for the shots were poor as well - I distinctly remember the cut, square drive and pull/hook shots looking absolutely dreadful, like the batsman was trying to slap the ball rather than hit it.

The bowler animations were awful as well, especially the pace bowlers.

Edit: In fact, the animations for a slog down the ground looked rubbish as well, it was like watching a golfer make a big drive.

 

[nightprowler10]

A lot of the time you suspected that the game was coded by people who didn't really understand the sport.

I think this has been a problem with almost all of the titles so far.

Overall, there always seems to be a disconnect somewhere in other sports games as well and it takes years of evolution before you have an acceptable game that feels like the actual sport. Most of these franchises have huge budgets as well. Perhaps cricket games never experienced that evolution because no one allotted the proper time or the money required to make a good cricket game. Or perhaps no one quite figured out how to translate the cricket experience from real life to a game. Other sports games were eventually able to figure this out.

I am quite excited about the bowling mechanism for DBC 14. I've never quite understood the obsession with using ball markers, it just seems like a lazy strategy by the developers so they don't have to put any real thought into the process. Apparently there will be no ball marker system in this game and your delivery will depend on how you handle the left and right sticks to control line and length (and perhaps seam position? not sure) on your controller. It could be a huge change tbh, like when basketball games started using the sticks for free throws instead of lining up crosshairs (not that this was a huge change, but it just seemed so obvious).

 

[nightprowler10]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was adapted from another engine to be honest. Not only were the EA games from that era very stodgy, but the animations of the players just didn't look right. The batsman's default stance just looked terrible (iirc the head was not straight, they'd lean over their bat like a golfer leaning over when making a putt), and the animations for the shots were poor as well - I distinctly remember the cut, square drive and pull/hook shots looking absolutely dreadful, like the batsman was trying to slap the ball rather than hit it.

The bowler animations were awful as well, especially the pace bowlers.

Edit: In fact, the animations for a slog down the ground looked rubbish as well, it was like watching a golfer make a big drive.

Not to mention everyone looked like a rugby player...

EA Cricket 2004 was the best if you used a couple of mods. As guyfromlancs alluded to, the game looked like a cricket game much more so than it's later editions, but the AI logic was horrible, which was easily fixed with some great mods from the PC community. I actually remember playing a 3 Test series against England and each match lasted at least 4 days. To this day no one seems to have been able to achieve this seemingly simple feat without tons of mods.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Finding programmers who really understand cricket is clearly a hurdle. And another hurdle is having them simulate well within the parameters of the system in question.

Funnily enough, i believe cricket games largely went backwards. Early Codemasters games made good use of their limitations. Then, when in possession of more programming power, they sold out the physics of the sport for gimmicky tricks.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

The worst offender IMO being Ashes 2009 for the Wii. I know the Wii isn't a proper gaming console, but that game is astonishingly bad.

Not even a token physical connection to the cricket universe. Nothing worked as it should

 

[nightprowler10]

The worst offender IMO being Ashes 2009 for the Wii.

Never played it on Wii but it was pretty bad on the PS3 as well, while being a step up from 2005. Fun fact, Transmission games (Ashes 09 developers) were working on a patch that was due out later that year. A couple of the admins at PC had even installed it for the computer version to test it and were very happy with it (I missed out as I was on PS3). They were supposedly making good progress on the patch until all the key people were laid off.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Never played it on Wii but it was pretty bad on the PS3 as well, while being a step up from 2005. Fun fact, Transmission games (Ashes 09 developers) were working on a patch that was due out later that year. A couple of the admins at PC had even installed it for the computer version to test it and were very happy with it (I missed out as I was on PS3). They were supposedly making good progress on the patch until all the key people were laid off.

My biggest gripes with A09 were completely unrealistic shot selection (yorkers pulled for 6 among others) and the ball never carrying to the keeper.

In fact, it was just poor top to bottom

 

[GuyFromLancs]

I think this has been a problem with almost all of the titles so far.

Overall, there always seems to be a disconnect somewhere in other sports games as well and it takes years of evolution before you have an acceptable game that feels like the actual sport. Most of these franchises have huge budgets as well. Perhaps cricket games never experienced that evolution because no one allotted the proper time or the money required to make a good cricket game. Or perhaps no one quite figured out how to translate the cricket experience from real life to a game. Other sports games were eventually able to figure this out.

I am quite excited about the bowling mechanism for DBC 14. I've never quite understood the obsession with using ball markers, it just seems like a lazy strategy by the developers so they don't have to put any real thought into the process. Apparently there will be no ball marker system in this game and your delivery will depend on how you handle the left and right sticks to control line and length (and perhaps seam position? not sure) on your controller. It could be a huge change tbh, like when basketball games started using the sticks for free throws instead of lining up crosshairs (not that this was a huge change, but it just seemed so obvious).

Football games had the same issue in the 90s. Pretty much until Pro Evo on the PS1 gave us a match engine worth its weight in matchsticks.

I thought the early FIFAs were terrible

 

[sledger]

I think Pro Evo 1 on the PS1 (and the PS2 version) stands up pretty well to this day to be honest.

It's obviously been surpassed by other titles which have come along since, but there was something about the original Pro Evo that captured the sense of "fun" one gets from playing/watching real football so well, which more recent titles, despite being better in essentially every way fail to capture.

 

[nightprowler10]

So basically like BLC 99, except cricket games stayed at about the same level?

 

[sledger]

Cricket games probably regressed, if anything.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

I think Pro Evo 1 on the PS1 (and the PS2 version) stands up pretty well to this day to be honest.

It's obviously been surpassed by other titles which have come along since, but there was something about the original Pro Evo that captured the sense of "fun" one gets from playing/watching real football so well, which more recent titles, despite being better in essentially every way fail to capture.

Agreed.

Pro Evo was the perfect template for a great football game. It still stands up well because its mechanics remain broadly preserved and built upon in later games.

Cricket hasn't really had this IMO.