'Living On A Prayer'

[TheDevil666]

'Living On A Prayer.' The song belted out by the Barmy Army on the morning of the 5th Day, 3rd Test, during the 06/07 Ashes as Geriant Jones walked to the crease. Why am I saying this? Because Cricket Captain, the game I've gladly played since '05 is, sadly, Living On A Prayer because of it's rival Cricket Coach.

It began when a few days ago I looked over the other side of the fence at Cricket Coach and downloaded the 2-Day Trial. I'm going to be brutally honest here. It kicks Cricket Captain into the gutter. Let's see the reasons why:

1) The amount of teams. In Cricket Captain you can play as 9 International Sides, the County sides from England and the State sides from Australia. In Cricket Coach you can play as all of these plus; Associate Nations (Ireland, USA etc.) and over 100 domestic teams (plus IPL). The choice is staggering.

2) Linear Career Mode. Cricket Captain will only allow you to play as One County/State side and One International Side during the course of your career. With Cricket Coach you can move from team to team and ven start unemployed. This means Cricket Coach's Career Mode is better and more 'free' than Cricket Captain's.

3) Match Engine. Let's be honest here, Cricket's Captain's ME is poor at best. The shots played are weird, the fielding is weird and it's all round glitchy plus jerky. Cricket Coach is just so much better. While it's 2D it does allow it to look more realistic plus it isn't jerky.

4) Stats. The biggest reason of all. Cricket fans love stats, and on this forum we've come to realise that ICC has not enough stats (up to 2 years worth). Cricket Coach however has; all players have career statistics saved..

5) An editor. While not a big reason for me, it is for others who have been crying out for one for years. Cricket Coach gives you a editor which allows you to edit (pretty much) everything.

I think last year summed it all up. ICC 2010's biggest feature was Aussie Domestic league coming in while Cricket Coach's workers update their gameevery few months with better and more worthwhile features. I will still try ICC 2011 but it will take something pretty special for it to overtake Cricket Coach which is quickly becoming the FM of the cricket world. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself!

[Phylos Fett]

More than a few jabs at ICC in that features list on their website, isn't there?

[Phylos Fett]

Still, if there is a 2 day free trial, it might be worth having a look at, to see what the other team are putting out. Might give me a wish list to add to the ICC game! :P

[ab5ides1]

I'd just like to say that cricket coach's realism is terrible. Stats mean nothing if they're not realistic. Cricket captains realism is excellent, and cricket coach's is poor. The spinners are way too overpowered for starters. Also in terms of aesthetics, cricket captain looks a lot nicer. I don't however, want to get into a fight about which is better as they both offer something. I'm just saying that in my opinion ICC is a much better presented, polished and realistic game.

[Chewie]

I totally agree with the above poster. The thing I look for most in a cricket management game is realism. CricketCoach has none.

The match engine is almost perfect in ICC. What you are referring to as the match engine is in fact the 3d graphics. Scores are almost perfect in ICC.

[Phylos Fett]

I guess I'll never know whether CC2011 is any good - seems not to like my netbook. Hopefully, ICC2011 will!

[outbreak]

I bought cricket captain, played it a couple times and found out the match engine is horribly un realistic and it felt as if changes i made to players aggressions and the like didn't even effect how they played.

[Clifford]

Having played both games quite a bit, i agree that the number of teams in cricket coach is great however the realism is terrible! As zimbabwe i managed to win one day and T20 series against SA and India on normal difficulty in my first season but got beat by bangladesh!!!

[Scritty]

I like both games.
But I can't play CC for more than a season or two without it crashing (normally it just "stops" and refuses to continue)

Too many unresolved errors - I suspect unhandled occurences of infinite iteration loops.

Having to few players to field 11 in a game (commonly due to injuries or IPL call ups) and the game just crashes. There are other examples - the game just stops. I've never got to the end of a second season ic CC and I really have tried many times and with every patch Oli has released - on more than one PC as well.

For stats it is excellent. It is the cricket bar that ICC needs to surpass.
Overall though OOTP and FM are the real stats kings. (I love both those games)

Here's hoping the soon to be released ICC 11 has some BIG movement on this front.

Scritty

[6ry4nj]

I like both games.
But I can't play CC for more than a season or two without it crashing (normally it just "stops" and refuses to continue)

Too many unresolved errors - I suspect unhandled occurences of infinite iteration loops.

Having to few players to field 11 in a game (commonly due to injuries or IPL call ups) and the game just crashes. There are other examples - the game just stops. I've never got to the end of a second season ic CC and I really have tried many times and with every patch Oli has released - on more than one PC as well.

For stats it is excellent. It is the cricket bar that ICC needs to surpass.
Overall though OOTP and FM are the real stats kings. (I love both those games)

Here's hoping the soon to be released ICC 11 has some BIG movement on this front.

Scritty

Latest (possibly the last) CC11 update released in 'beta' four hours ago. Yes I agree CC is way buggier. If it truly can't be played beyond a couple of seasons, that's a dealbreaker and ICC can continue to wear the crown unchallenged, at least for another year or two.

I'm really optimistic with regard to ICC11. I think this delay for another month is a good sign that a serious amount of fixing and enhancement is going on. Maybe even enough to keep ICC ahead of CC when the latter's bugs are fixed...!

Normally I'm not a big fan of 'competition' but it's great when it brings out the best in people...

[Scritty]

Normally I'm not a big fan of 'competition' but it's great when it brings out the best in people...

I'm ok with competition - it's choice for the sake of choice that winds me up.

"The consumer needs more choice"

Take your gas and leccy. There is ONE supplier who will be the cheapest. To 99% of people that's all that matters.

Having tens of different suppliers to choose from just means more people will choose "wrong"

Too much choice can be crippling.

Scritty