Don Bradman Cricket 17 (PS4)

An improvement on the first game - more modes, better computer AI on field placements etc. Not a smash bang cricket game, you have to work at the controls and the rewards once you have done this are a realistic career.

A big backward step, the 2014 version is much better in my opinion. 2017 is full of bugs and glitches and matches are laughably bad with fielders appearing after the ball is hit. Very disappointing given the matches themselves in 2014 version were actually decent and it didn't need much improvement to the gameplay itself. Fingers crossed it will improve after updates. The 2014 match engine with 2017 stats, teams etc. be a huge improvement.

Well this is certainly a game for cricket lovers and I have to say it must be good if it has me sitting here shouting "Catch" to my fielders through the TV screen.However I must stress you would only enjoy this game if you were a genuine Cricket fan that is pretty passionate about the game like myself. This game seems to have quite a large learning curve after playing the game for two days now I can see that there is much to learn and I think I'm slowly getting the hang of batting and bowling on easy mode. I think to progress through the other modes which I believe goes up to "hardest" I think I would get embarrassed.Some other things to note this game is made by a very small company so the game at the moment has one or two rough edges and bugs. Graphics aren't fantastic I admit but then again you're buying this game to play cricket not look at the beautiful scenery, right? But seriously the games graphics are very passable to me and the main field of play is done very well though the players design and quality in looks is leaves something to be desired for in my opinion. You may also be quick to note like I was that this game has avoided complications with law by naming specifically the England characters starting with the first letter of the first and last name for example Jimmy Anderson is now J.Ashcroft and Moeen Ali is M.Ahmed and Joe Root is J.Rogers just to name a few.So far I haven't played the career mode but I'm really, really looking forward to giving it a bash. I've played casual mode which allows you to setup your own match at a very limited amount of venues but there is still a lot of customisation for example you can select the type of batting surface eg dry, damp, cracked and so on.Overall this game is a perfect representation of cricket and once you memories and learn all the controls you are very free to play how you see fit you can even review the umpires decision and appeal on your own which I absolutely love.I could go on for much longer going into way more details but I think I've covered enough and to close I'd like to say.This is a game for true cricket fans that have a pretty decent amount of free time for the long matches even a T20 can last well over 40 minutes. As long as you aren't too picky and can cope with the handful of bugs and errors that can occur and you just want to play some cricket this game is outstanding I'm very happy with it. If you, unlike me have friends to play against/with then this game becomes truly exciting especially if the matches are close quality ones sadly I've only managed to persuade my none cricket loving friend to play one match against me but it was enjoyable never the less.Anyway I'm ranting again. That's the end of this review I promise. :)

Good price

I was eagerly anticipating the release of Don Bradman 17, after having played the first instalment quite extensively. Given that the first game was a valiant effort from a gaming studio still in its infancy, I was hoping for a much improved game which would finally be the cricket we had all been waiting for. Unfortunately, the first impressions of the DB17 have not been so positive.First off, lets start with the pros: The gameplay is largely unchanged from the previous game, which is good. They had already revolutionised the concept of a cricket game so didn’t quite need to re-invent the wheel with this one, and they didn’t. There have been a few subtle changes on how to bowl etc, but they can be called modifications rather than entirely new features. And I like that. There was nothing wrong with the fundamental controls of the original game, in fact they were quite good, so they have decided to keep them.Unfortunatley, that is where the pros end as well. I will now dive into the cons, but please bear in mind that the game has only been released for a couple of days, so I imagine there will be a LOT of patches etc that will be released to fix these issues, but for now, they stand as criticisms:Graphics: I was really looking forward to some good, updated, high end graphics in this game. Sadly thats not the case. On first look I could barely tell any difference between this one and the previous game. Not much has changed in my opinion, which is disappointing. The first game got the leeway for such things, the second game I’m less willing to afford such leeway. The graphics could be massively improved, the players still look box-y, the grass still not quite up there with FIFA etc, and the crowd pretty much ignorable in the back ground.Player movements: They are still not fluid. Not a single game of cricket has had a bowling action which looks fluid and natural. They all look awkward, weird and a collection of actions bunched together rather than one sweeping action. It’s sad that this hasn’t been updated much from the previous game either.Player likeness: Now I have to admit, this is the part I was most looking forward to. The game obviously does not have any rights, so they have default teams with no real players, but you can download the proper ones all via the online community. And the results have been pretty mediocre at best. First of all, the faces do not resemble anything what the players actually look like. Players who have no defining facial hair/features have been poorly replicated in the game, they look nothing like each other, think Steve Smith, a generic blond clean shaven man. Players with defining features (think Moeen Ali with a long beard, Hashim Amla with a bald head and long beard, Virat Kohli with his tattoos and beard) look somewhat alike, but mainly due to these defining features, not so cause of their eyes or nose or eyebrows. I was so looking forward to playing a game where I could finally feel I was playing with real-life players, but that dream largely remains exactly that, a dream. I will caveat that by saying that since its a community driven project, and its only been a few days since the release, I’m sure (hope) that people will be spending more time and produce players which look a lot like their real life counterparts. Having said that, the success of this largely depends on how extensive the create a player studio is in the game, so it might be the case that what I have already seen is as good as it gets.Lagging - dont know why, but the game takes an awful long time to load matches etc, to the point where I thought there was something wrong with the CD itself. Not too much of an issue, but just annoying in general.Transparent Keeper: For the most part, the keeper is transparent, I think to allow players to play with the camera angle from behind and not having the keeper obstruct the view. Having said that, even when you change angles, or are making a run, the keeper remains transparent for at least a couple of seconds, till he suddenly becomes not so transparent. Does it have any affect on the game? No. Is it annoying? For sure.Reviews: The review system was a bit hit and miss, then again I never quite understood DRS in real life anyway, so maybe its just me. But there were a few decisions where I thought that pitching outside off, hitting outside off should overturn the decision, but it didn’t and I was still given out. And the Hot Spot doesn’t work. Twice I edged the ball and reviewed for the sake of it. The “EDGEO” feature (Snicko meter, basically) showed that the ball probably hit the bat (I heard the snick loud and clear when I played the shot as well), but the Hotspot showed nothing. No edge. But I was still given out. Largely because I HAD nicked it, its just that the hotspot feature is broken.I’ll end the review here, cause I could go on and nit pick many things which take away from the gameplay. I loved the original instalment, and I was really looking forward to this one too, but I think there are way too many bugs right now for me to fully recommend this game to any potential buyers. If you love cricket, DB14 will do just fine for now. But if you are like me, and are hoping for patch updates and improvements, then buy this, and pray like anything that the game is updated properly. Everything good about this game, comes from DB14. Everything bad, is this game’s own. 2.5/5 for now.

This is a really good game whilst playing it.But I just thought maybe loading times may be improving after Rory McIlroy Golf had got around the problem. Alas, no. Long loading times persist. Games released with bugs, this is another one.Is there anything more annoying than a lock up while playing? Not really.It may annoy when release dates for Gran Turismo's are put back a couple of times but at least you know there'll be no problems with it.

I got it for my son and he likes it it's the first cricket game he has played on ps4 and picked it up easily

Awesome game. Gameplay great and downloaded the international kits and badges so looks very authentic.