Cricket Captain 2018

Look, I could go 50/50 on this game as to whether or not I'd give it a recommendation or not. If you're new to the series, then you really can't go wrong in terms of what this game has to offer. It's pretty easy to pick up, gives you a huge range of countries to take control of (ie. you can take the reigns of an Australian state team, English county club and so forth...), you can play all forms of the game and make all the key decisions you could wish for, such as signing players, developing them, changing the type of pitch you want, deciding on your line up and so on. I'm giving this a positive review because of the above as this is, hands down, the best of it's type on the market. You really won't find better. However, for repeat buyers of this series, you'll find yourself disappointed as to the progression the developers have made to the game over the last 4-5 years. While they have added more countries, updated the UI a little and given us the chance to coach a team through T20, ODI and tests, they haven't really done much else. You could potentially play Cricket Captain 2014 and have essentially the same game. I think the developers need to challenge themselves a little as I think they're getting lazy. For example, the one major thing that is lacking in this game is the ability to see a players skill level. After all this time, how can you not have this in the game? Are they too scared to do it, or do they not have the capacity? By now they should have at least something like a 'five star skill and potential level', where you can see their skill level now, and what they could improve to. It's as simple as that. When signing young players it is nigh on impossible to know if they'll be good or not. You can sometimes go by their average, but that still doesn't tell you much. Also, the match engine has been the same for so long. The commentary as well. I think I can recall playing Cricket Captain 2 and hearing the exact same commentary then. Isn't it time for an update? Couldn't they put aside the little things they say they do and look to overhaul how the game looks a little? I think I've seen enough pull shots go through mid off to last a life time. Again, if you're new to this series then you can't go wrong. If you want to manage a cricket team, then this is the game for you. However, seasoned players could be encouraged to steer clear. For me, I don't think I'll buy another iteration of this game until they make some serious changes, especially with how you can see the ability level of a player. Until they do that then it will just feel as though I'm playing the same game year after year after year.

Addictive game. Easy to play. Some aspects needed updating 10+ years ago. This would be perfect with some basic changes: 1) Finances. Playing as a county, your budget for new players resets every year. So if you win the treble one season, and want to hold back some of the prize money for new signings in future, you can't. You have to spend it or lose it. Utter rubbish. 2) Player training / attributes. This is useless. You can't see how training improves a player's skills. In fact a player's skills aren't even visible. Championship Manager 1993 is far more advanced. 3) Loan signings / contract negotiations. You can't sign a player on short term loan. You can't approach a player who's contract is expiring. You can't pay another club for a player. You can't offer a contract longer than 3 years. You can't negotiate anything below the amount a player demands. A player doesn't demand a higher wage for a shorter contract - it's exactly the same annual salary regardless of contract length. You can't sign more than 3 players per 'round' of negotiations. Awful. So basic it could've been made in the 1980s. 4) Free hits. Players don't necessarily attack when they get a free hit. If you've set up to play below ~6 bars attacking as a batsman, you'll often see a player defend a free hit! Dumb programming. 5) Overseas players unavailable. You might shell out £120,000 for a star overseas player. Without warning they might be missing for half your season. You still pay their full salary, whether they're available 40% or 100% of the time. 6) Player editor. I might be wrong, so please bear with me. I seem to recall in the older games, in the early 2000s, you could change a player's name etc. It was quite fun to change a county to your club team. I don't see where that can be done in this version. 7) Connection to Steam. In the past I've bought a CD or DVD and just played the game. Now if my internet's down I can't play. It seems you stupidly have to be logged into Steam to play the game you've paid for. This is shocking. Surely everyone will try to get a cracked/pirated version instead. It's like the old days of buying music on Itunes. Other than that, it's a decent game. Wish the developers had someone with half a cricket brain. Any club player - there are hundreds of thousands of us - could improve the game enormously. I'm sure people would help for free. Please just try, developers. Try. Make an effort.

It is a little slow paced. Takes too long to work out the best team to play, But once in the actually matches the game play is fantastic.

cricket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The run outs are a joke, you get at least three a match, like the idea of the game but it needs improving in the future series, run outs has been a problem for a while.

fun game