Cricket 2004.... Dec to Feb.....(PS2)

[triplejapp]

PS2

I got my cricket 2004 PS2.....the game is very good....but it has few annoying bugs:

1. Keeper will not pick up the ball even if it is 1 metre away from him, he will wait for the fielder to throw the ball to him. (very minor can be ignored) [gameplay unaffected]

2. Some fielding actions are unreal....example, when a fielder takes a catch...the ball seems to go past him....but somehow it sticks to his hand ( again very minor, understandable and can be ignored) [gameplay unaffected]

3. When a fielder takes a catch at the boundaryline and throws it in the air....if the ball crosses the boundary....it is given FOUR! (difficult to ignore and is annoying but since catches are taken rarely at the boundaryline this maybe ignored) [ gameplay affected ]........................anyway if your opponent fielder does the same thing at the boundaryline....you get Four runs too! so there is balance

4. This i havent tried yet...but read from reviews..that during tour your team line-up changes (can be ignored) [gameplay unaffected]

5. Commentary can say nonsense sometimes...like when you are bowling a shortball he says it is a yorker.....(i dont care for commentary so i ignore this bug) [ gameplay unaffected]

6. I read from review that multiplayer mode is not that good ......(i ignore this bug and just assume that there is NO multiplayer mode) [ gameplay unaffected ]

7. I read from review that when your fielder overthrows and no one catches the ball at the other end....then the ball just stays there or something like that and the opponent keep scoring runs. But it is said that you can counter this by pausing the game and going to optioins menu....when you resume the game....it should be fine (can be ignored, since you know how to counter this bug) [ gameplay unaffected ]

Hmmm...when i look at the bugs mentioned above, only one bug is a bit serious which is no. 3(but happens rarely).........not bad.....but these bugs are sooooo minor.....WWWHHHHHHHHHHyyyyyyyyy! Oh Why! cant the HB-studios play this game for a while and take note of these bugs and just correct them......Cricket 2004 game came so so close to perfection, it would have been like winning eleven 7, which it is almost now........sigh.....Hey but CHeer Up! these bugs are very minor and few and

1. the gameplay is very realistic
2. Crowd noise and atmosphere very realistic
3. has statistics
4. bowling is ingenious....at first i thought bowling sucks, then i got the hang of it....bowling is like playing dart....the marker is the dart.........this prevents you from bowling same deliveries everytime
5. i feel tensed and my heart beats faster during batting.....i havent felt this way before, cos the game is that realistic and the opponent can bat well too
6. graphics is realistic

Right now i have PES3 and cricket 2004.....my urge is to play cricket 2004.....this itself should tell you how cricket 2004 rates with me

If you do not have this game......dont wait anymore...have no doubt about this game....it ROCKS.... btw iam talking about PS2 version.......

Iam sure the next release of cricket 2005/ 2006.......will be ultimate....

I believe that i have given the basic info on cricket 2004....Never written a review like this before.......got to go now...time for the adrenaline rush!8D

you dont know him
you dont know cricket....

 

[justnotcricket]

one of the most frustrating things with cricket 2002 was, as a bowler u rarely got any 'glenn mcgrath' style 'caught behind' dismissals. I have heard cricket 2004 still also has this problem.

What are the views of those who have played it ?

 

[triplejapp]

downside

Well this game has couple of serious downside though....

1. There is no swing or spin, the bowlers just keep bowling straight....this makes fielding boring and unfair but the com bowlers can put swing or spin on the ball.....

2. I havent seen a catch taken at the slip or by the keeper

You can use 'Autoplay' to let the com do the fielding and bowling for you, while your participation in the fielding is zero!! .....................Hb- studios had 18 months for developing this game and- (sigh)

Batting is realistic though....Still a must have game for any cricket fan

The game is almost done to perfection....just a few bugs only....if Hb-studios and EA fail to correct these few bugs in the next release of cricket game (cricket 2005/2006).....then EA and HB-studios will look stupid to me....

One last message to EA and HB-studios " OPEN YOUR EYES:O WHILE PLAYING THE GAME!!"

PEACE!!

 

[Gaijin-san]

Re: downside

Well this game has couple of serious downside though....

1. There is no swing or spin, the bowlers just keep bowling straight....this makes fielding boring and unfair but the com bowlers can put swing or spin on the ball.....

You're bowling wrong.

2. I havent seen a catch taken at the slip or by the keeper

I have.

 

[triplejapp]

So how do you get the ball to swing or spin ?

 

[Gaijin-san]

First of all you want the right conditions for swing and spin. I'm guessing you know at what ages a ball will swing/spin and on what type of pitch etc so I will spare you that.

Beyond that have a look in the manual it should help you out.

 

[James90]

Spin...firstly bowl a spin bowler...move the counter and put less speed on the ball...dunno what more i can say

Swing...not much as a fast bowler except maybe on a green pitch with overcast conditions or if you're a medium

Edges...leg cutters usually do the trick

Keeper not pickin up the ball....happens sometimes can be frustrating in a close match

Catches taken when ball isn't near hands...doesn't really bother me

Fieldsman throws the ball over the boundary line...hasn't occured yet but when he's standing on the rope it's annoying

Team lineup...haven't seen the actually squad changed during a tour but the team during the match happens in every single game I save and quit...that's annoying when the computer decides to play Bevan in a test

Commentary errors...mainly in the nets where you play a square drive outside offstump and JM says that you should play a defensive shot when it's on the stumps or when you bowl a wide down the offside and JM says"you can't get away with anything down the legside cos the umpire will call you for a wide"

Multiplayer...multiplayer is great especially when you're on the same team...only bad things i've seen is when i batsman is just standing there after playing a shot and the fielder runs him out...wtf can you do?

Overthrows...I'm lucky because it's only ever happened when i'm batting...like i'd runs three the guy would pick it up and run over the rope before throwing...bowler wouldn't touch it...ball would stop and I'd keep running...outcome you get 7 runs!

 

[Cloete]

Re: Re: downside

You're bowling wrong.

I have.

Most of my wickets with pace bowlers are eithe rbowled or caught behind or at sli[s. If their on the slo gsometimes they mistime them and it goes to mid off/mid on and deep fine leg gets catches etc. but mostly it's behind if you're bowling accurately.

And you can't swing it too much with pace bowlers, you can see slight movement depending on their rating. But with medium pacers you have to be blind or doing something wrong not to see swing. Same with spinners. The slower you bowl it the more it turns, but if you bowl it fast it will still straighten. But you have to actually put swing/seam/spin on the ball with that little marker in the bowling display thing.

 

[Cloete]

Fieldsman throws the ball over the boundary line...hasn't occured yet but when he's standing on the rope it's annoying

Team lineup...haven't seen the actually squad changed during a tour but the team during the match happens in every single game I save and quit...that's annoying when the computer decides to play Bevan in a test

With the boundary thing, this rarely happens because some of the fielding positions(e.g straight) are a bit inside the boundary. Also it happens once out of 5 times or so that you get a boudnary catch (pretty rare in itself unless their on the slog). Because the fielder sometimes throws the ball forwards and sometimes he doesn't even throw it. It's only when he throws it back that it happens.

Team lineup only changes if you save the game and exit(which i do alot) that's annoying. But it's easily overcome, just set aside a decent amount of time to play the game. An ODI/OD game of 50 overs normally only takes me 1 hour- 1 1/2 hours. And the squad never changes (well hasn't ever for me).

 

[James90]

I often just decide for a fun, quick 10 or 20 over match. So I put in a deep extra cover put it in the right spot and they're often caught. I've got a lot of wickets like that. A couple of time he's been standing on the rope and it's given six but I've never seen it been thrown back over the rope

 

[triplejapp]

Correction

Well this game has couple of serious downside though....

1. There is no swing or spin, the bowlers just keep bowling straight....this makes fielding boring and unfair but the com bowlers can put swing or spin on the ball.....

2. I havent seen a catch taken at the slip or by the keeper

Well i would like to make corrections to what i posted before....

1.
a) Catches are taken at the slip and by the keeper in a ' 50 overs match '. Before i usually play 10 - 20 overs match and i never (i repeat , i never!) saw a catch taken at the slip or by the keeper.

b) In addition to this, the match is very realistic in a 50 overs game, in terms of, run rate, the way your opponent plays the game and the way you are required to play the game too. In addition to this, lets say you are scoring a lot of runs in one particular area of the field, then your com opponent will place a fielder there to cut down your scoring.

c) There are basically four types of shot, front foot, back foot, advance shot and a sixer......On medium level i can score 120+ or more runs in 10 overs or so and i avoid using the advance shot, simply because it requires far better timing, must know when to use it, and it is a bit risky (just a bit).....Now as the score says 120+ runs in 10 overs or so, is unrealistic for me. So i switched to 50 overs match and initially was very frustrated cause i simply found it hard to score runs, making me to go for the sixers. I managed 1 or 2 sixes but mostly it goes for a catch and was getting scores like 56 all out!....Thats when i started practicing on the advance shot and once i got the hang of it...the game became as real as possible. I can score runs at a reasonable rate.
Currently iam playing for India against Australia and my score is 139/1 in 30 overs, shewag 51 out(caught by keeper bowled by lee)...Tendulkar 31 and so on.....I tell you it is as real as possible.

2. Regarding bowling, yes there is spin and the med bowlers can swing. Not much swing can be seen by the fast bowlers....Whatever...currently iam not into fielding yet, iam just using autoplay for the moment and the opponent scores are realistic....iam just focusing on batting at present. I will keep posting my opinions on this game as i play.:P

 

[barmyarmy]

I haven't seen any swing by fast bowlers, only seam.

 

[Glenn Stiemens]

Packshot

Also noticed that Planetcricket are claiming a release of 5th March for PC/PS2 after Gameplay and Amazon changed it to this on their websites. They also seem to have been told this date by EA Technical Support.

 

[Neil Pickup]

The 5th of March? :O

D'oh.

 

[barmyarmy]

Yeah, both PC and us have had e-mails confirming this. We can only hope they're using the extra time to fix some of the bugs...

 

[triplejapp]

Well the match Ind vs Aus (i posted above) 139/1 at 30 overs....sh!t man! i only managed 186 all out...i went for big hits in the end with wickets in hand...but all my shots went for a catch....bad luck..

Anyway the next match i was able to get Aus out for 162....and Ind won the match comfortably 163/6 in 26 overs, Runrate was above 6 per over....HAhaha! ...i could have got 163 for 3 wickets only, but i chose to go for big hits for fun...but ended up losing 3 wickets...anyway i won, what a controlled match by India...i enjoyed every bit of it.... ...mind you iam playing at hard level

anyway Aus all out for 163 sounds like a bug thing to me....hey wait! iam not saying its a bug...it just seems so....if i keep getting my opposition out for low scores then i have to switch to autoplay, to let the opponents put a decent score on the board...

 

[triplejapp]

which is better?

i dont have Brian lara cricket/swc99......

which game is better? BLC or cricket 2004?

 

[Jono]

^ It feels like an eternity since I last played BL/SW Cricket 99. I enjoyed that game but Cricket 2004 is by far the best cricket game I have ever played, even with it's bugs...

Speaking of bugs, I am also experiencing some of the bugs that have been mentioned. The catch and throw over the boundary by the fielders is definitely the most annoying one. I have only played 10 and 20 over matches and have never had an edge behind so I must try a 50 over match.

If they fix the minor bugs by Cricket 2006 (just following the pattern) the next game will be as close to perfect as you can get.

 

[triplejapp]

Aus - 241 (used autoplay for fielding)
Ind - 242 for 6 in 49 overs [tendulkar 117 out]

game played in hard mode


It would be nice if people posted their scores too....( hard mode )

 

[zimrahil]

Yeah, both PC and us have had e-mails confirming this. We can only hope they're using the extra time to fix some of the bugs...

That's the best laugh I have had in ages Colin. I think EA's motto of profit before playablity will win the day