“What is life but a game of cricket” is the opening quote in this game and this is what this game does offer, life for the future of cricket gaming with its improved graphics and game-play. The graphics on the Playstation have dramatically improved from the previous version.

Another improvement is the greater range of shots for the batsmen. They can play most types of shots. The sweep shot is missing. Dancing down the pitch is also not in the game. Perhaps these omissions are due to technical limitations or perhaps they are in development for the next version.

Bowling has also improved with the inclusion of “special deliveries” to add variety. Quicker bowlers have the bouncer and yorker, whereas spinners have the one that goes the other way and a quicker ball or straight one. Deliveries look relatively realistic although you can’t see any sort of action on the ball. Once it’s delivered, it tends to show a vertical seam rather than spin. Turn on the option of swing when conditions favour it. Conditions do change during the game to favour seam, spin, and swing or drift, which keeps the game interesting.

Fielding is a little too monotonous, it’s automatic and catches are awarded by a metre. When going for run out opportunities the fielder always throws the ball to the wicketkeeper, which is a little annoying sometimes. Run out chances are rare.

I find bowling more difficult than batting in the game. Batsmen are not easy to get out even when the conditions suit the bowlers. Batting, however, is rather straightforward in both lengths of the game.

On to tests and one-day internationals themselves now: with one-day internationals you have a choice of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 overs, this allows some diversity as to whether you want a quick game or a full-length game. “Line and length” is the best strategy, as most batsmen, apart from Matthew Hayden, don’t tend to attack. They can have scored less that 50 runs after 40 overs bowled, even against the strongest opposition. In the final ten overs they let rip going for most shots, mainly playing to third man and fine leg. Therefore, I suggest you place two of your fielders in those positions. If you lose the toss, the opposition tend to bat first but if you win the toss, I suggest you bowl first as it’s so much easier to bat as they set fields with huge gaps that you could exploit to win the game quicker and easier.

Tests are a little more difficult for bowlers as the batsmen tend to defend and defend. Aggression comes in small packages from the batsmen but mainly they play to the field. Again, I suggest you have the third man and fine leg as batsmen like to send it down there often. In one match, I eventually got Don Bardenham (Bradman) out after having bowled 195 deliveries to him, and this was on ‘slog mode’. Once you get passed the specialist batsmen and get down to the tail you can simply bowl yorkers and you are more than likely to get them out so the last 4/5 wickets tend to go fairly quickly.

Batting is very simple for the first two skill levels. If you play it in test mode or slog mode, the bowlers start to bring a lot of variation in the bowling. They bowl the slower ball a lot and wickets could fall every ball if the timing of the shot is not perfect. Once again, the opposition tend to leave gaps in the field so there are places to score runs with the bat.

Now we move on to the creative side of the game. Due to the non-official licensing for the sides, you can edit test and one-day teams of your choice. You can create three players per profile and you can have batsmen/bowler/all-rounder. To determine how good your player is there is a point scheme to help you choose which parts of the player’s game to improve. The only problem I have found with having a fast bowler is that they only get up to a pace of around the high 70’s (mph) which is quite some way off Akhtar who gets up to 100+. Apart from that the choice in this part is very good and you are as good as any other player on your side Bowling points increase with wickets, batters improve with runs, fielding improves with catches and run outs (no surprises there).

Next, we have the sides in the game. You can play as the unofficial England, Australia etc.; plus some other unranked countries.

In addition, you can unlock classic players, a photo gallery and different world sides. Playing matches will unlock most classic players. Classic games, a section where you relive some classic matches in cricket, unlock photos that you can view in the gallery. World sides are unlocked when you complete the World XI challenge. This is where you face the different world XI sides. Completing this allows you to do the Classic XI challenge where you have to beat the Classic XI with the world XI in a test match and one-day match.

Finally, the licensed tournaments enable you can compete in the 2003 World Cup and 2004 ICC Trophy. In the 2003 World Cup you can play as Nasser’s XI and if you win you get the trophy in your cabinet. As with the ICC Trophy, you play with players of that era. They are something different but once you have done them they are just the same again.

In conclusion, the game offers more than previous cricket games and is superior in many aspects to Cricket 2005. However there are small niggles in the game that would need to be improved in the next game if cricket gaming is going to advance. I give it 8/10.

Vrock

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Watch this for a perfect about.
James May