Cricket 2005

Recently, the Cricket 2005 demo was released. Out of sheer curiosity about this game, I took all the trouble to search the age old Windows OEM CD that came with my PC (which was lost a long time back in my cupboard). I installed it, then reinstalled the boot loader and then spent a lot of time installing DirectX, drivers and stuff - whew!. and then, it was to download the Demo and try it. :)

Read my review...

The game turns out to be really better than the previous ones and as if adhering to all the hype surrounding it, it comes with whole lot of new features and game-play.

270+ MB of download might not really prove worthy since all you can play on that demo is a small 3 over game and you can only bat! Everything else is disabled. There are good number of changes and improvements over the last one, and those of us who'd liked the Brian Lara Cricket are in for some treat and would surely like this one.

I could notice many changes, improvements in the game as seen in the demo. The most significant one is the menu and the overall interface. Those who have played cricket 2004 would know that the game's interface was previously crappy. They've really managed to arrive at a better one, finally (menus on this resemble the ones on fifa 2003).

The cinematic that follows each shot is stunning in terms of graphics. Since the demo is without commentary, the cinematic doesn't make good impact. The players look more human-like, the fielders look far more convincing and realistic. Awesome catches are taken and is a treat to watch.

Resemblance to the real-life players was the speciality of EA Sports Cricket game, and this has continued in 2005, with greater resemblance. Since the players and the actions look more human like, it creates a nice look and feel to the game.

Crowds are still more or less dummy like, some AI put into them makes few dance, few jump - overall looks a bit funny. Umpires are better than before, graphics has improved a lot. But, all Umpires are fat!

Bowling actions come out real good. Although the demo doesn't let you bowl, the bowling action on the other end looks real nice. But the bowler still sheepishly looks on, standing near the stumps when the ball hits the stumps on the bowler end ;) Some fielder has to run in and pick it up, even when the ball's just beside the bowler; can easily sneak in a run ;)

As before, the game doesn't seem to take the Asian teams with any significance or seriousness (looks like they're mainly concentrating on the mainstream market). The featured teams on the main interface are usually South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England (which gets displayed in random)

The different angles, as usual, are very nice. But I didn't like the 'Dynamic' camera angle which strains the eyes a lot. The 'Standard' camera view is a classic one, looks just like TV; even the scorecard on the top, the info-bar on the bottom are more TV-like and are impressive.

Game-play has been cleared of some really annoying bugs that were present previously (like the keeper's stupid AI, fielder running across the pitch as the ball is bowled etc). The action replays make the whole game look real good and absorbing. Action replays aren't as bad as before, anymore (you can catch a sight of even the ball spinning). But, they can no longer be 'controlled' as it was in the Cricket 2004 version.
Sixes are easy to hit :D. The demo lets you to play for England, with 3 overs left for England to get its 20+ runs. I could hit 4 sixes on consecutive balls to get England to victory. Fancy that ;)
But make sure you take a glance at the field set, the ball thats hit in the air - if not timed well, lands straight into the hands of a fielder! Its hard to get a boundary, unless the timing is just good and the ball falls in a gap. Manage to hit a Six, the fat Umpire signals it straight away, with a tinge of, perhaps, jubilation.
I played the same game plenty of times until I finally got bored of it. Once, the demo match ended in a tie, but the game AI declared it a win for the batting side. kudos - I liked that. ;)

At the end of the match, there's a little improvement this time over: there's a 'innings highlight' feature where fall of wicket replays are shown. Also, the victory scene is a little bit absorbing. In Cricket 2004, the victory (cinematic) would just be a batsman lifting a bat, a fielder scratching his head and the other one looking at him dejectedly.

Overall, this game is something to look forward to... after playing great video games by EA like fifa and Rubgy, the cricket fans had always liked to play cricket that way; and things are getting shaped up towards that. I googled around and found that this game is on sale even on Rediff. No wonder if this version sells better than all the previous ones.

The demo is available for download at:
http://easports.co.uk/downloads.view.asp?dl_id=1032

Some more info on EA Sports Australia portal:
http://www.eaplay.com/australia/