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A new era of cricket games gets set to arrive with Cricket 22

Bullet Club

Bullet Club

Member
I know what cricket is. I also know what a crumpet is. Bring on the Ashes!

A new era of cricket games gets set to arrive with Cricket 22​

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the humble game of cricket is seriously under represented on the gaming scene. But that all looks set to change this November when Big Ant Studios and Nacon come together to deliver Cricket 22 to console and PC.

Defining a new era of cricket, following on from that of Cricket 19, Cricket 22 will deliver the most robust and substantial cricket experience yet. And yep, it’ll have everything you need in a cricket game in place – The Ashes, Big Bash, The Hundred, Caribbean Premier League and more.

Cricket 22: The Official Game of The Ashes (to give its full title) will arrive this November with launch on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. There will then be a Nintendo Switch version dropping a little later in January 2022. A true next-generation effort not only will Cricket 22 feature the perennial favourite Ashes competition, but the scope of licenses featured in the game has expanded massively. This means cricket fans will be able to enjoy Australia’s Big Bash T20 competition, The Hundred, the hugely innovative new competition in England and Wales, the tropical party of the CPL in the Caribbean, and take to the international field of battle with fully-licensed teams from Australia, England, The West Indies, New Zealand and Ireland.

And of course, keeping with Big Ant’s commitment to equality and equal representation, both the Men’s and Women’s games have been replicated across all of Cricket 22.

It’s a game that looks to have been hugely driven by fan feedback, as Cricket 22 also features a bevy of new innovations. They include:
  • All-new bowling and fielding controls; whether it’s a feisty fast bouncer, or the satisfying “snap” as you hurl the ball from the infield for a precision run-out, Cricket 22 features refined, tight controls that enable you to play your best game of cricket.
  • A deep, narrative-driven career mode; you are in control on and off the field. You manage your training and press conferences, deal with injuries, and decide your path towards international glory!
  • It’s the most accessible cricket game yet; New to Cricket? Cricket 22 makes it easier to get into the game than ever before, with a completely overhauled series of tutorials and first-time user experience. Cricket 22 is the most detailed simulation of the sport that Big Ant has ever created, and thanks to these tutorials we’ll have you out there batting and bowling like a pro in no time.
  • An all-new commentary team; Cricket 22 brings a star-studded commentary team, featuring Michael Atherton, Ian Healy, Mel Jones, Alison Mitchell and David Gower. Every shot will be called with greater depth and analysis than ever before, and for the first time ever in a sports game, there will be an all-women commentary team, further deepening the representation of women in the Cricket 22 experience.
  • The best-looking cricket ever; Cricket 22 takes full advantage of the capabilities of the latest generation of hardware. Not only does the game load with blinding speed, getting you into the action more quickly than ever before, it also includes a full suite of visual updates, including incredible real-time ray tracing elements, providing the most visually realistic game of cricket ever seen.
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“The number of cricket fans that have been asking us about our next-generation cricket plans has been overwhelming,” Big Ant CEO, Ross Symons, said. “We’re incredibly excited by what we’re able to bring to the table with Cricket 22. This is our fifth cricket simulation title, and it really represents the cumulation of everything that we’ve learned on this ten-year (and counting) journey. We have the most passionate fans, and we can’t wait to get this into their hands.”

Russell James, ECB Sales & Marketing Director said, “we are thrilled to be partnering with Big Ant again for the hugely exciting Cricket 22 game. Cricket is a game for everyone and whether taking on the challenge of playing an Ashes Test or facing the best men’s and women’s white ball cricketers in the world in The Hundred, Cricket 22 has everything cricket fans could want.”

Cricket Australia is proud to partner once again with Australian game developer Big Ant Studios to bring such a visually realistic video game to our passionate fans,” Cricket Australia CEO, Nick Hockley said. “The Ashes is one of the greatest rivalries in world sport and we can’t wait to bring the game of cricket to new audiences via Cricket 22.”

You’ll find Cricket 22 releasing on November 25th 2021 on Xbox, PlayStation and PC through Steam – you can pre-orders right now to gain access to Cricket 22 THE NETS CHALLENGE from mid-October 2021, which gives fans early access to part of the Cricket 22 gameplay experience, including nets and training games, ensuring that by the day of release they’ll be ready to take on the best in the world. What’s most exciting is that – and we think this is a first for a Nacon game – is that should you make the move to the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation hardware, you’ll be able to upgrade your game for free.

We’ll be sure to remind you when that November 25th release hits.




Source: The Xbox Hub
 
B

Bulletbrain

Member
Nice. I'm currently playing Cricket 2019 on gamepass. Bigant has the basics all covered I think. Now it's a matter of refinement. Physics, controls, AI. Hope the visuals and the godawful commentary is also improved. NO SLATS PLS.
 
Tschumi

Tschumi

Member
I am all about your crickthusiasm Bullet Club Bullet Club fucking legend

Hugely skeptical but totally willing if you give it a good review my friend... Better not cost $99 for the next 6 years...

Edit: if bulletbrain isn't your alt you've missed a trick
 
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Bullet Club

Bullet Club

Member
Tschumi said:
Hugely skeptical but totally willing if you give it a good review my friend... Better not cost $99 for the next 6 years...
Click to expand...
The cricket games by Big Ant are really good, so the 2022 should be as well.

I own a few of them. The Bradman one that came out in 2014, the Ashes one and Cricket 19. Graphically they are average but they play well.




SlimySnake said:
These graphics and animations are atrocious compared to Madden, Fifa, MLB and Fifa games.
Click to expand...
That's true, but the Cricket games have a way, way lower budget.
 
V

VolticArchangel

Member
It's good that we have BigAnt, as the final frontier for Cricket games, for the past few years. Sincerely hope they don't get acquired by EA or Take-Two/2K.

Their gameplay, mechanically was really good in DBC' 2014, and they've only improved since then.

Their problem is budget and licensing. The graphics won't be that great, and you won't have full fledged teams like FIFA. Especially big asian teams like India, where they literally control the global (International) circuit when it comes to revenue, and charge in millions of dollars for licensing, so obviously a small company like BigAnt can't afford them.

They've got AUS, ENG, WI, NZ, and IRE, that's good enough. Should've reached out for South Africa too imo, but I guess they were constrained by budget. Fuck the other teams.

Hopefully this turns out really good, and sell BIG.
 
Tschumi

Tschumi

Member
Bullet Club said:
The cricket games by Big Ant are really good, so the 2022 should be as well.

I own a few of them. The Bradman one that came out in 2014, the Ashes one and Cricket 19. Graphically they are average but they play well.





That's true, but the Cricket games have a way, way lower budget.
Click to expand...

I remember a cricket game i had in, like, the late 90s.. that one worked well, might have been called cricket 99 or something, i seem to remember it was paired back and simplified it many ways but the bowling and batting controls made sense
 
Fahdis

Fahdis

Member
Spaceman292 said:
May as well close the thread here honestly.
Click to expand...

Imagine thinking about cricket this way. 2nd most played sport in the world. Baseball is inferior to Cricket too. Fight me!

Outside of that they should just end 1 Day and Test Cricket and adopt 20/20 as the new main show and 10/10 as the new 20/20.
 
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Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit

Member
The Big Ant cricket games play well, but they are lousily programmed. The infuriating pauses in the commentary and the stuttering slideshow as the camera pans over the field of play get right on my tits.

Cricket games on consoles have mostly been good - the Megadrive, SNES, PS, PS3, PS4, PSP and Switch all had very playable ones. Never had a PS2 one, so I don't know about that. The only real stinkers for me are the DS rubbish and some shovelware crap that farted its way onto the Switch.

I'll get this.
 
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Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Bullet Club said:
The cricket games by Big Ant are really good, so the 2022 should be as well.

I own a few of them. The Bradman one that came out in 2014, the Ashes one and Cricket 19. Graphically they are average but they play well.





That's true, but the Cricket games have a way, way lower budget.
Click to expand...

I mean let’s put it out there right now. That’s not fucking Edgbaston cricket ground so they fail straight away as they dont even have the rights to model the actual fucking grounds. It’s not hard there’s only 5 to get the rights for in an Ashes series.
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
After the last two entries, I'm not too hopeful about this to be honest.

DBC 14 was a 'revolution' because it was so unique. Then they shed some good ideas in the sequel and just never innovated at all in the next three sequels. The problems that were present in DBC'14 are still the problems in newer games 7 years later.

I've been playing cricket in VR recently, and I have to say that is the mode/format it is meant to be played. Not for bowlers -- which is a shame but understandable -- but batting never felt as good as it does in VR.

Good luck to BA for this entry, but I don't have a lot of hopes.
 
Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit

Member
I never bother with bowling in cricket games. Thank God there's now the option to skip it by just generating the opposition's innings.

I loved Super International Cricket on the SNES, but nothing ever made me wonder what I was doing with my life in the way that bowling at the CPU teams did.

No game can ever replicate the fear factor of facing a really fast bowler. If your player takes a bouncer to the face, he gets knocked over, you can shrug and get on with it - he'll be fine next ball.
 
Bullet Club

Bullet Club

Member
Twistie has done a couple of videos about Cricket 22. Nothing major though.







Roger Rabbit said:
I never bother with bowling in cricket games.
Click to expand...
Same. Although I don't mind the bowling in these games. I always play as a batsman in career mode so never bowl much.

Nitty_Grimes said:
I mean let’s put it out there right now. That’s not fucking Edgbaston cricket ground so they fail straight away as they dont even have the rights to model the actual fucking grounds. It’s not hard there’s only 5 to get the rights for in an Ashes series.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the grounds aren't usually that close to the real thing, although the Australian ones aren't that bad.
 
Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit

Member
Career mode requires years of time to get through just as a batsman. I can't imagine how long it must take if you're an all-rounder.

It does piss me off when, as a specialist batsman, I'm brought on to bowl, sometimes for the last few overs in a one-day match, and immediately get hammered all around the park.
 
Bullet Club

Bullet Club

Member
Roger Rabbit said:
It does piss me off when, as a specialist batsman, I'm brought on to bowl, sometimes for the last few overs in a one-day match, and immediately get hammered all around the park.
Click to expand...
I like it when that happens. I'm a 16yo opening batsman that gets called on to bowl, take 3 wickets in 3 overs and then don't bowl again for 10+ games.
 
B

Bulletbrain

Member
Roger Rabbit said:
I never bother with bowling in cricket games. Thank God there's now the option to skip it by just generating the opposition's innings.

I loved Super International Cricket on the SNES, but nothing ever made me wonder what I was doing with my life in the way that bowling at the CPU teams did.

No game can ever replicate the fear factor of facing a really fast bowler. If your player takes a bouncer to the face, he gets knocked over, you can shrug and get on with it - he'll be fine next ball.
Click to expand...
I quite enjoy bowling with my career mode leg spinner batting all-rounder. Most of my wickets are bullshit I reckon (lots and lots of bat pads) but sometimes I get in the groove and start landing genuine warne like deliveries that fizz past the bat (or better yet, take the edge). Or tempting a batter into a big drive and beating the inside edge with a wrong un.
 
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SirTerry-T

SirTerry-T

Member
Brian Lara Cricket 2005 was a title I worked on, very fun project. I think at that time we had the better game out ours and our competitor. We didn't have the licences of course but that just meant we could have a bit of fun with a few things. One of the best compliments I heard about our title was that it was the "Pro-Evo" of Cricket games ...which back then was a blessing rather than a curse :)

I'm surprised the Cricket game genre has quietened down in recent years.
 
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Hydroxy

Hydroxy

Member
SirTerry-T said:
Brian Lara Cricket 2005 was a title I worked on, very fun project. I think at that time we had the better game out ours and our competitor. We didn't have the licences of course but that just meant we could have a bit of fun with a few things. One of the best compliments I heard about our title was that it was the "Pro-Evo" of Cricket games ...which back then was a blessing rather than a curse :)

I'm surprised the Cricket game genre has quietened down in recent years.
Click to expand...
I played Brian Lara 2007 on PS2 and it was definitely very fun.
 
N

NT80

Member
What puts me off with a lot of the cricket games is the bowling animation. It often looks awful and they tend to be all the same and not the bowling action of there real life counterparts. Anderson's action did look somewhat like his real self in this vid but the others still looked bad.
 
Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
SirTerry-T said:
Brian Lara Cricket 2005 was a title I worked on, very fun project. I think at that time we had the better game out ours and our competitor. We didn't have the licences of course but that just meant we could have a bit of fun with a few things. One of the best compliments I heard about our title was that it was the "Pro-Evo" of Cricket games ...which back then was a blessing rather than a curse :)

I'm surprised the Cricket game genre has quietened down in recent years.
Click to expand...
Imagine Cricket Ultimate Team? You could ‘pack’ Steve Smith or a new Kookaburra ball… chance to unlock legends Beefy Botham or Shane Warne…

Nah, me neither 😂
 
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V

VolticArchangel

Member
SirTerry-T said:
Brian Lara Cricket 2005 was a title I worked on, very fun project. I think at that time we had the better game out ours and our competitor. We didn't have the licences of course but that just meant we could have a bit of fun with a few things. One of the best compliments I heard about our title was that it was the "Pro-Evo" of Cricket games ...which back then was a blessing rather than a curse :)

I'm surprised the Cricket game genre has quietened down in recent years.
Click to expand...

Hey I remember this.

If I'm right you guys are not Codies but the team they outsourced (or internal studio?) to, but Codies published it.

I totally get the reference of you guys being the PES of the Cricket games, as yours and EA Cricket 2004 released during the same timeframe (if I remember correctly you guys released BLC a year later to not go head-to-head against EA in 04 or missed deadlines?)

About the licensing bit, EA are not that far either. They didn't get the full license too lol.

Basically, the problems with full licensing in Cricket games (as you know already) is Asian teams (specifically India's BCCI) being greedy, and the ICC staying silent as usual to keep BCCI and them happy because India brings the most revenue for ICC to function even. I seriously wish we had a system like what FIFA has, like once you get the FIFA license, you get the entire teams of the world and their player likenesses.

It's pretty much the reason why Don Bradman Cricket even happened in the first place. The guys at BigAnt first went to Tendulkar for his likeness for their new game back in 2013, and his brother (who's Tendulkar's manager) charged enormous sums of money for the license, like in millions, that would exceed even the game budget.

BigAnt being the small studio that they were back then (doing rugby games I think, which were critically acclaimed), went to get the Bradman license, and here we are. The Don is the GOAT anyway, except maybe Nathan Lyon.
 
SirTerry-T

SirTerry-T

Member
VolticArchangel said:
Hey I remember this.

If I'm right you guys are not Codies but the team they outsourced (or internal studio?) to, but Codies published it.

I totally get the reference of you guys being the PES of the Cricket games, as yours and EA Cricket 2004 released during the same timeframe (if I remember correctly you guys released BLC a year later to not go head-to-head against EA in 04 or missed deadlines?)

About the licensing bit, EA are not that far either. They didn't get the full license too lol.

Basically, the problems with full licensing in Cricket games (as you know already) is Asian teams (specifically India's BCCI) being greedy, and the ICC staying silent as usual to keep BCCI and them happy because India brings the most revenue for ICC to function even. I seriously wish we had a system like what FIFA has, like once you get the FIFA license, you get the entire teams of the world and their player likenesses.

It's pretty much the reason why Don Bradman Cricket even happened in the first place. The guys at BigAnt first went to Tendulkar for his likeness for their new game back in 2013, and his brother (who's Tendulkar's manager) charged enormous sums of money for the license, like in millions, that would exceed even the game budget.

BigAnt being the small studio that they were back then (doing rugby games I think, which were critically acclaimed), went to get the Bradman license, and here we are. The Don is the GOAT anyway, except maybe Nathan Lyon.
Click to expand...
Yep. Swordfish Studios, formerly known as Rage Software, now known as Codemasters Birmingham Studio. The licensing was a nightmare, especially on the classic player side. We actually had an Ian Botham created so we could do the whole 1981 Headingly thing but licensing got cold feet, real shame. I think the big thing in our favour was the addition of the Hawkeye stuff, our rival didn't really have that.
 
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