Review: Playtest Review/Preview(Review Links, Updated in First Post)

[lazy_chesnut]

Blimey. Hold your horses you lot. I have another browser window open in which I am writing my bit. It's coming - don't worry.

[rlfan82]

take your time mate, its the only time these lot have been happy, theyll be slatin it again shortly

[vishalsparadise]

Originally Posted by lazy_chesnut

Blimey. Hold your horses you lot. I have another browser window open in which I am writing my bit. It's coming - don't worry.

no problem , take your time.
nice to know your spending your valuable time to give us an insight about the game.

[hMarka]

thanks a lot, waiting eagerly!

[lazy_chesnut]

Intro
Firstly, I would like to say thanks to Jamie, Andy and [Brand Manager's Name] (sorry I can't remember but I do remember you were very tall, if that helps) as I know they all genuinely read this forum. EDIT: The brand manager's name is Richard for those who might want to know that sort of thing.

I played for a couple of hours in 1v1 on the XBox 360 and then about half an hour or so vs CPU. I only played Test matches on the hardest difficulty - so no mention of ODIs or Twenty20s from me I'm afraid. This also means that I didn't have time to get good at the game, and therefore there may be problems with the game being too easy or whatever, that I didn't come across.

Rather than writing a full review, I'm just going to mention things that stuck out, both good and bad, in no particular order.

EDIT: Actually, I'm going to post them bit by bit, starting with the batting.

Batting
Front and Back Foot Shots
Front/back foot shots are chosen automatically by the computer, unless you hold one of the left trigger buttons. The top one (I forget its name on Xbox, but it's L1 on PS3) means you play front foot shots, and the bottom one means back foot shots. It works as you would expect.

Shot Placement
Exactly the same as BLIC, except that choosing FF/BF for yourself makes the aiming cone thinner. I don't really know why, but it does.

Shot Choice
For the first time in any cricket game I've played, you can actually play shots to balls in an inventive fashion. For example, if the ball is full outside off stump, and you choose to play a FF shot to square leg, the batsman will stick his foot outside off stump, and calypso it through square leg. This is bloody awesome. I would imagine it would work with pulling short balls outside off stump too, but I didn't try this out.

Similarly, you can play paddle sweeps from outside off stump if your brave enough. Sometimes, if the ball is a little bit shorter and therefore bounces a little too high for a normal sweep, the batsman will play a high sweep shot, from pretty much face level. This also looks awesome.

Defending
Continuing from BLIC having the best defensive system around, allowing you to play defensive shots in specific directions, you can, unsurprisingly, do this in AC2009. The power of these shots seems slightly higher than before if you time them, and the ball bounces nice and high if you play the ball hard into the floor, rather than just rolling along the ground.

You can most definitely get edges from defensive strokes. I think, however, that they are less powerful than edges from attacking shots, and the amount by which the power is reduced is a little too high. But it's a start.

Ground Strokes
These can now go in the air and you can be caught. This is a massive improvement on BLIC 2007 and BLIC 2005. You really do need to keep an eye on your timing when playing attacking shots. Also, it's far harder to get the ball to the boundary than other games. You really have to have a bad ball or a good bit of timing to get it right. And it's far more satisfying when you do - a bit like scoring a screamer on PES is more rewarding than scoring a screamer in FIFA.

Running between the wickets
This is a HUGE improvement, and is probably the most well-rounded thing in the game. I can't see that any improvement whatsoever is needed in any future game. You can do the standard press a button to run, press another to cancel that we all know very well. Now also, there is the dive/slide-bat-in button. This means that if you have a tight run, you need to press the dive/slide button to avoid being run out. It takes a little getting used to but really works well. It feels really good to steal a tight single, running your bat in, and getting home by way of the 3rd umpire.

Also, one thing I noticed which showed a great attention to detail in this game (regular readers will know I prattle on about attention to detail like it's going out of fashion) is what happens when you cancel a run having just set off. Instead of the batsmen doing the 'slow-from-sprint-turn-round-and-run-again' animation, they turn straight round and stretch for the crease with their bat. It sounds minor, but it kind of shows a little bit of extra thought has gone into the game design.



I think that sums it up for batting. I can't think of anything else at the moment. I'll now start writing up the bowling.

[max_dillon2007]

Watching 4400 Season3 since this morning while checking every half hour for any news on the game. I have now watched 5 episodes, hopefully your review would came out before sixth episode finishes

[max_dillon2007]

Just another question regarding batting: Does the game has hawk-eye this time around too?? And please tell me umpire doesn't nod his head before giving out like last time around which was weird.
For Bowling:How many different bowling action you saw?? Try to sum them up by comparing with international bowlers.


Did you get any info on release date??

[KP-Nuts]

Thanks for that Chesnut ... very very positive comments.

Looking forward to reading what you thought of the bowling.

[max_dillon2007]

DID YOU GET ANY PIC??? Or they didnt allowed you to take any?

[hMarka]

sounds promising so far, just one quick question. How were the graphics? and what type of TV was it on. 1080 or 720 etc

[duded64]

Chill people, let him finish writing up and give him a day or two before you start bombarding him with countless questions that he'll probably answer anyway in the preview.

[KP-Nuts]

Another quick question about the diving ......

Would it be possible to mistime your dive and fall short of the crease?

This would be annoying to do yourself but bloody funny to see happen to someone else ...lol

[Spraggy]

New member hear The batting sounds so much better that any other cricket games Anything on the release date ?

[khan31]

sounds pretty good so far. keep up the good review matey!

[vishalsparadise]

you havn't said anything bad about the batting.so its really well implemented i guess.!
your preview on the game excited me more.

hoping to get my hands on the retail version next month or maybe the month its released