Exclusive Justin Forrest Interview (C2007 Producer)

[Ste]

PlanetCricket has conducted an EXCLUSIVE interview with Cricket 07 Producer Justin Forrest about the new game giving the best insight yet on what to expect when it is released later this month. Some of the questions are from PlanetCricket members while some are from PlanetCricket staff. Questions are in the red text

Justin Forrest (left) with Audley Harrison

Presentation

What will be the key features of the game and what major changes have been made from the previous instalment?

There have been plenty of major changes from the previous rendition of EA Cricket. Many of the features have focused on increasing the authenticity of the cricketing experience whilst ensuring that the game is more accessible to new or non-hardcore cricket fans … the best of both worlds so to speak. Precision batting control significantly evolves the title in that shot power, shot direction, shot selection, and shot timing are all controlled through the analog stick rather than the traditional use of face buttons. This is a huge move forward and I have never felt closer to actually wielding the willow in gameplay than in any previous cricket game.

The general flow of the game has also been improved dramatically and it’s a much quicker experience now. For those fans who wish to revert to the slower more realistic cricket experience … changing the game speed in the options menu will allow for this. You can now change your field setup dynamically on the fly without having to access the field editor through the pause menu. We have also added quickswitch functionality to the bowler approach making it very easy to change the angle from over to around the wicket in-game.

With the much anticipated Ashes Series coming up … EA Cricket 07 has catered for this by giving the user a real authentic Ashes experience. Re-live the 2005 Ashes series through a full tour, or play the 2006/7 Ashes series down under as it happens! We have also produced an Ashes Challenge mode that places the user into the key moments of last year’s momentous Ashes series. With 20 scenarios to play through, all introduced with real Ashes footage from the 2005 series … this will be a really rewarding challenge for fans of the great sport of cricket.

From a gameplay perspective, the game is much better balanced now, with an easy transition into the game and the new control system on the easier difficulty levels, and a more simulation experience on the harder difficulty levels for the experienced and hardcore cricket gamers. Field settings and fielder AI have been much improved, and this is clearly evident when playing either limited or unlimited overs cricket.

The addition of Mark Nicholas to the commentary team whilst retaining the Australian voice of cricket Richie Benaud has produced a far superior commentary system, and adds a well known English voice to the gaming experience. This certainly improves the authenticity of the game, and the addition of fully licensed equipment in the form of bats and balls makes this experience all the more real.

The overall presentation has changed dramatically from EA Cricket 2005. The default cameras have been refined and changed, and have a far more gamer friendly look whilst being based on true broadcast cameras. The Behind Batsman Camera is now fully playable for the first time as we have added semi-transparency to the batsman so that the bowling cursor position is always visible. Try the new Flip Cam for a very new perspective that adds a lot to the title. In addition to the re-worked and improved cameras, the HUD and overlay systems have also been overhauled. More action is shown in the Picture in Picture display, the batting timing meter is accessible in gameplay now for timing feedback, and the state of the match display is constantly updated at the bottom of the screen allowing the user to make more educated tactical decisions without having to leave the match. In addition to this, we have added in a new Cutscene system and have updated the stadium lighting, textures, with particular attention paid to the different pitch types available in game.

Overall … a very different and much improved title from EA Sports Cricket 2005!

How many grounds and stadia are in the game and please state how many grounds each country has?

36 updated stadiums with new lighting conditions.


What domestic teams will there be, or will it be just British and Australian leagues?

There are domestic teams that are accessible through the various tours available … but the main Domestic Leagues are from the UK and Australia. For England this includes; County Season, Liverpool Victoria County Championship, Natwest Pro40, C&G Trophy, and the Twenty20 Cup. For Australia; State Season, Pura Cup, One Day Domestic Series, and the Big Bash Twenty20.


What editing options will there be? Will create-a-player be more in-depth this time around, and will the different statistics actually affect the performance of the players? Will there be modes for creating teams and tournaments?

There are a lot of editing options; some of the new ones we have added include the ability to edit a team and its name and to edit any player’s name. In regards to the stats, they do have greater bearing on the players, especially in the higher difficulty levels. One great addition is that the user will now be able to select a fully licensed authentic bat for use with their created player.


Will the commentary team be the same as in previous titles or will there be changes?


The commentary has changed. Mark Nicholas has taken over the reigns of the game and great cricketing voice of Richie Benaud is still there for a great English/Australian commentary pairing.


Will the players be having their real faces, including sub continent players?

We have the Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England Licenses, so we have added new faces for those countries. Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Monty Panesar, Alastair Cook, Hamish Marshall, Jamie How, Andre Nel, Jacques Rudolph to name just a few. As far as Sub-Continent teams go we do not have the licences for those regions, otherwise we would gladly do more of them. Saying that though, a few do play County cricket, so you might find the likes of Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble in the County game.


Gameplay / AI

Will there be a career mode in it & if so please explain how it works? Or one where you control one player i.e. yourself?

There will be no specific Career Mode in this rendition. There is still plenty of opportunity to create players and play through the myriad of authentic tournaments that we have in game.


Are there going to be different bowling and batting actions? If so how many different actions will there be for both disciplines?


The key area that will feel different with batsman and bowlers is that animations will trigger more freely in this version. There were a number of critical shots that were rarely triggered and extremely difficult to master in EA Cricket 2005, and this is not the case any longer. For instance hooking, pulling, and playing straight down the ground are now very rewarding strokes and add a huge amount to the overall gameplaying experience.

Can we have more realistic bowling actions?

We didn’t have any new bowling animations done this time around, (we’d love to have this in there as much as you would) but our focus on the mechanics of how the game plays outweighed this in the end.

Will there be real swing and spin in the game? Also we would like to be able to watch the CPU VS CPU matches feature back?

Swing and Spin have improved greatly along with all of our bowling deliveries. With the right bowlers under the right conditions, the ball will swing and spin much more visibly than before. This is certainly a big improvement in the bowling.

Will seam bowlers be able to regularly move the ball off the seam in suitable conditions? Not talking about the amount of movement off the seam, but how often you are able to get seam movement. In Cricket 05 it was none existent. Also in Cricket 05 seam movement was only possible by bowling a normal delivery. Pressing the off or leg cutter delivery button always resulted in a straight delivery. Will this be resolved in Cricket 2007?

Yes, offcutters and legcutters (should a bowler have them in their repertoire) are much improved and now give good movement off the seam dependant on the bowler’s seam ability. Also, the max movement off the seam also depends on the pitch type, ie. Much easier to get bigger movement bowling a cutter on a green tinged pitch.


Will there be Rain in ODI's?

Not this time around … but this is catered for in unlimited overs games.

Will it have modern one-day features? Power plays super sub etc?

Super sub is gone from modern day Cricket, so no, we won’t have this. We have included an option to change fielding restrictions so if you’d like to play with more for Power Plays you can.

Will the AI be made from scratch or will the same configs used by Jeremy’s team since 1999 still be used?

The new analog batting control has meant that we have had to revisit the base configs and these have been changed dramatically … it’s a whole new cricketing experience this time around.

Will the fielding be made more innovative this year? For example catching meter, throwing meter etc.

Most of our time with fielding has been spent on fixing what was wrong with it last time around (dropped catches, super human fielders, etc). For new stuff to the fielding we have added semi auto fielding which is a guided fielding option that lets you take control after the ball has been fielded. This essentially controls which end to throw to and user skill determines the velocity of the throw.

Is there going to be manual appeals for the bowlers.

No. It’s funny how this always comes up and always gets discussed at concept stage. This would be a nice to have feature … but in the grand scheme of things, the areas that have been focused on are the high impact areas that dramatically affect the gaming experience.

Will singles, twos and threes be made easier to accumulate?

Yes. This ties in directly with fielding calming down and how precise you can be with analog batting. This new system allows the batsman to intentionally play the ball into the gaps with precision. Having precise control over how hard you wish to hit the ball is also a huge factor here. If a defensive field has been set where the fielders have been moved out towards the boundary rope, you can now exploit this field setting by intentionally playing the shot specifically to fall into the un-guarded area of the field with a soft press towards the open region. This makes running ones and twos much more user controlled, and ensures the ability to play tactically in all situations.

Will the computer fielding side make field changes and bowling changes relative to how well the bowler is performing and to place fielders where the runs are being scored?

Yes … this is now much more the case than in previous renditions of EA Cricket.

I'd like to know, will the way the ball moves be affected by things like how many overs old it is, the condition of the pitch and so on?

In short … Yes. Lateral movement through the air is affected by ball age and weather conditions (and of course bowler statistics and skills). Lateral movement off the pitch is affected by ball age and the state of the pitch … and again the bowler statistics and skills.


Will we see graphically pitch deterioration during a first class/test match? E.g. on 4th/5th days, will there be visible bowler footmarks, and by bowling into the footmarks will you get more spin etc?

The pitch will wear, and bowling foot marks will appear. And yes as the pitch ages this will get you more turn/spin.

Will the actual pace of the bowlers through the air be quicker, to the point where 95mph onwards outpaces you?

Yes, this is an area of bowling which has yielded significant results. Bowling really quick actually feels really quick, especially when you are batting against a genuinely fast bowler. This is not just text on screen showing a 99MPH delivery … you can clearly see the increase in pace and have to adjust the shot timing accordingly to deal with the quicks.

In simulated ODI matches, will someone other than the top 3 batsmen actually get runs? A similar question for the bowlers too. It was very rare that the opening or first change bowlers would take a wicket, what have you done to improve this?

The match simulation AI is largely untouched from Cricket 2005 hence higher order batsman will still dominate most of the time, particularly in ODI’s, trying to strike a balance of decent team scores Vs batsman score spread is always a tough one. Bowler abilities have been slightly toned down overall however, so team’s should be consistently getting slightly higher scores than last time, particularly in 50 overs, but also now there is a notable difference in simulated Unlimited Overs matches. More 100s are being scored.

Will there be more animations in the game such as for player milestones or career milestones?

More animations have been added for these events and a new cutscene system along with Mark Nicolas’s commentary that contains Player specific dialogue for the top players when they reach match batting and bowling milestones, in my opinion it sounds and looks great.

Usually we find that bowling is the weakest link in cricket games. What steps specifically have been taken to make the bowling more interesting in this year's game?

Major improvements this time around have been done to all our deliveries. We have added a new mechanic called the sneak cursor which allows you to hide where you placed your pitch point and to do other little tricks to fool the batsman. Our bowling cursor mechanic has had an overhaul (it isn’t so easy to get a default line and length for the less talented bowlers). With the delivery types and the mechanics of bowling improved, the experience of bowling is just a lot more fun in general because the system is that much more responsive. It’s really nice to see our swing and our Spin being much more prominent (especially for those that are known for it – watch out for Warne!)

Miscellaneous

Will we have a "save replay" option?

No … this was seen as stretch goal that had to be secondary to gameplay improvements.

What are the steps being taken to reduce the number of bugs in the game as compared to Cricket 05?

We have a great QA onboard this year and we read the feedback / bug list given on Planet Cricket. We addressed the major issues raised by the forum members and made sure our goal of making the game accessible, fun, fresh, and intuitive never got lost. Gameplay and accessibility was our biggest goal in this year’s game as a lot of people found Cricket 2005 just too difficult. These problems along with some bugs in our mechanics made the game frustrating to some. Now anyone can pick up the game now and get instant satisfaction. For the hardcore – don’t fret. The game isn’t just a slogfest, our hardest difficulty will prove a challenge for even the most veteran player.

Will there be online play?

No, unfortunately not … we had to pick the key areas to work on, and the core gameplay had to take precedence.

Is there any possibility of updates or patches to be made to fix any bugs or update any rosters after the game is released?

There is always the possibility of patches being released to deal with any PC specific issues that end up being shipped. The focus that we’ve had on getting the game really clean should alleviate the need for this. There will not, however, be any patches to update rosters.

What consoles will it be on and when would it be released?

PS2 and PC. The release date should be announced in the forthcoming Press Release.

[Punk Sk8r!]

finally is this the Q&A btw?

[andrew_nixon]

Is there more to come on this? I'm sure there were more questions... mine was in the list we sent, but not in this one.

[stevie]

Originally Posted by punk sk8r

finally is this the Q&A btw?

Well it looks like, doesn't it.

[Left_Hander]

Sounds promsising. I hope they live up to what they have put in front of them!

[puddleduck]

Slightly off topic but I thought Fraudly was going to focus on his boxing and not his marketing now? I really hope that picture isn't a sign of things to come, because Justin talks a good game, much like Audley, hopefully they deliver unlike him.

[Punk Sk8r!]

lol that pics on google images!!!

[manee]

Sounds good that they focused on gameplay rather than minor features.

[surendar]

Originally Posted by manee

Sounds good that they focused on gameplay rather than minor features.

yeah now it looks bit more interesting

Lateral movement through the air is affected by ball age and weather conditions (and of course bowler statistics and skills). Lateral movement off the pitch is affected by ball age and the state of the pitch … and again the bowler statistics and skills.

This feature is also looking interesting

[Ramz]

good interview.. lets hope they deliver.. shame theres only 36 stadiums..

[manee]

Q. Will there be more animations in the game such as for player milestones or career milestones?

A. More animations have been added for these events and a new cutscene system along with Mark Nicolas’s commentary that contains Player specific dialogue for the top players when they reach match batting and bowling milestones, in my opinion it sounds and looks great.

Although gameplay is important, it is great to have a good reward when you reach a milestone.

[Deboooo]

im happy with that but the batting actions are the same and im angry at that!

[Dydl]

"With the much anticipated Ashes Series coming up … EA Cricket 07 has catered for this by giving the user a real authentic Ashes experience. Re-live the 2005 Ashes series through a full tour, or play the 2006/7 Ashes series down under as it happens! We have also produced an Ashes Challenge mode that places the user into the key moments of last year’s momentous Ashes series. With 20 scenarios to play through, all introduced with real Ashes footage from the 2005 series … this will be a really rewarding challenge for fans of the great sport of cricket."

That sounds really good, especially the real footage.

[graham1]

i think it sounds very good , they have fixed a lot of the probs from the last one , square cuts etc and added some very good things like hiding bowling mark and behind the batsman cam is clear , very excited about this

[duded64]

new AI system i see finally what the patch makers have been looking for