Don Bradman 14

[nightprowler10]

I usually order through some Aussie company and pay a premium price for cricket games (80+ USD) but I wanted to go through someone local to save money this time as Big Ant had told us on PC that it will be on US Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon themselves took ages to put the game up and still haven't done so actually, but a marketplace seller put up 20 copies for a very good price, so a bunch of us over at PC.net ordered through them...

Estimated delivery date: April 28th.

It will be delivered sooner in all likelihood, and it's not TruBlu's fault as I'm sure it's not easy finding a retailer in North America who is interested in selling cricket games, but it's still pretty frustrating.

EDIT: Matt from PC.net has posted up a good balanced review. What I was looking for this game to do is set a solid foundation for more games to come that could be used to actually evolve gameplay and not just keep rehashing trying to come up with something that works. Sounds like that's exactly what this is.

 

[Riggins]

where's the best place for an aussie to get it?

 

[Prince EWS]

where's the best place for an aussie to get it?

Pretty much anywhere that sells games really. Target if you feel like saving yourself $10, EB Games if you want to be guaranteed they have stock when you show up or want it delivered.

 

[nightprowler10]

My delivery is 45 minutes away from my house yet it won't arrive till Saturday...

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Bought this on sale last night and fmd the learning curve is so steep. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if i didn't run myself out so often because my character sees fit to amble home ever time i recall a run.

 

[nightprowler10]

PC version is out with all the bugs fixed. oh em gee. I played well into the night and ended up being late for work. The career mode has been changed so we're able to start the career at the age of 16, 21, 26, or 31. I started with 21 and it just seems a lot more reasonable. Almost everything is better than the console version, which is still waiting on a second patch.

Basically the console players ended up buying into a beta as was expected, but the end result looks great.

 

[Watson33]

I got it on xbox 360 a while ago, the batting is really difficult compared to the bowling! I really want to start a career as a batsman but I keep getting low scores.

 

[Howsie]

Is the career mode in this thing actually good? Like something you can play for a wee while and not lose total interest in it? Decent depth and whatnot.

 

[nightprowler10]

Is the career mode in this thing actually good? Like something you can play for a wee while and not lose total interest in it? Decent depth and whatnot.

By far the best feature of the game. I find it to be very addictive and it's basically all I play. You choose your role at the beginning, and as I mentioned now you can choose at what age you start. You get to choose which team you start out with (county or shield) and what nationality. Then you're basically dumped into the competition and play out the schedule one match at a time (FC, List A, T20). You can choose to skip everything except the parts where you bat or bowl, or you can choose to practice in the nets (batting only). As you progress, and based on your skill level, you get picked up by teams in other competitions. For example, I play for Sussex and have been picked up by a team in the Shield based on my skill level. Once I finish my county season I'll go over and play in the Shield. In the meantime, there's a selection screenie thingy that tells how close you are to selection for the international squad. So there's a lot of depth I'd say. Plus all the selection criteria is broken up by formats, so you could make the ODI team and not the Test and T20I squad, etc.

As far as losing interest is concerned, a week ago I would've said it'll get boring. But now is a bit of a different story. What I mean is that the bowling was too easy and batting too difficult, neither too much fun after a while, at least for me. I mean I was excited getting my first 10-fer at the age of 16 but it lost it's shine when I was able to get bags of wickets due to an in-form batsman missing the line by a mile. With the PC version, and subsequently the new console patch, bowling is a lot more fun and the dismissals have a much more organic feel to them. I can't speak to the batting much as I've always sucked at it, but bowling alone will keep me occupied for a long time.

 

[jan]

Watched vids of the game on youtube. Installed demo from Steam. Launched. The game asked for a controller. Immediately unistalled.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Controller is definitely needed in a game like this. Some serious Panesar fielding at times mind you.

 

[nightprowler10]

You can use a PS3 controller if you have it.

 

[uvelocity]

i played it about one and a half times. batting ridiculously hard and bowling ridiculously boring. 0/10

 

[Shri]

There's a rookie mode now. Give it another go.

 

[uvelocity]

do i have to. might actually play some sony today. have a cupboard full of unfinshed games

 

[Mike5181]

Downloading this on steam atm

 

[Mike5181]

I average 5 with the ball, and 19 with the bat after five first-class games. I'm supposed to be a batting allrounder.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Got this yesterday. fmd it's unforgiving. My 16 year old Indian prodigy who plays for Kent has an average of 8.5 after 16 innings.

As ridiculous as this sounds considering my stats, I can feel myself getting better. I'm able to pick the length of the ball (by far the most important and difficult aspect of the batting in this game) a bit better with each passing innings. But I just keep nicking off outside off stump. Probably need to stop driving so often. I basically go for the drive every time it's pitched up. Really hoping I get better and it's not just poor game mechanics holding me back (though I doubt that, as most reviews are very positive about the batting)

Got the collector's edition which comes with a cool steel cover and a nice, quaint Bradman documentary.

 

[Spikey]

wait is this game actually good?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Goddammit are people still confusing this for Ashes 13? **** you guys. Apparently the game bombed big time, too, despite great reviews. Pews was right.