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International Cricket 2010
Batting
The batting in Ashes Cricket 2009, the last version of this game, was excellent. It’s now slightly better with greater control of each shot’s power. If you don’t try and knock the leather off the ball, you’ve less chance of getting out.
You work your way into the game taking singles, before unleashing drives and pulls when you’re well-set. Specialist batsmen are less likely to edge or miss as well, so you’ll find yourself marshalling the tail. These developments make batting more tactical. They make it better.
Bowling
The bowling was decent in Ashes Cricket, but not great. It’s far better now. The huge leap forward is in the fact that the opposition batsmen don’t suddenly think they’re in a Twenty20 match after eight overs (unless they are). It seems all the more realistic for that.
You find you really have to work for your wickets too. You can’t just keep bowling full balls, because the batsmen seem to get wise to it. You actually have to set the batsman up, trying different ploys to get the better of him.
How about a career mode?
Our one reservation is that playing a Test match is pretty arduous. The tactical side of things is great, but you quite simply can’t be bothered playing as all 11 batsmen. It’s fun for a bit, but after half an hour, you really want a bowl, so you skip the innings.
Why do you have to play as every player? The game would be infinitely more engrossing if you had just one player under your control.
What would that mean?
First of all, your player could develop over time, giving the game a narrative and keeping you hooked. Early in your career, you would bat down the order and get a few overs and then according to how you performed and how you chose to train your player, you might get more responsibility.
Having one player would make each match a more manageable size, as you’d only play the parts you were involved in. It would also mean that you encountered different situations. Maybe you’d come in to bat needing to score at five an over; maybe you’d need to bat time. Maybe you’d come on to bowl needing to take a wicket or maybe you’d need to keep the runs down.
Training
Training would be a great addition. Your player’s batting would be poor at first and you’d struggle to middle the ball, but as you progressed, he’d get better and you could start playing more shots and longer innings. As a bowler, you’d get fitter, more accurate and maybe quicker. You’d also learn new skills or refine existing ones: doosras, googlies, swing, reverse swing.
All of this would make a game more absorbing and it would give the player a reason to keep playing. We’ll settle for five per cent of all profits if someone makes this game. Ta.
Until then, International Cricket 2010
KC, you know exactly what would happen if you only played as one player. You’d score a decent 48 against the Aussies, then get dropped and replaced with the computer selector’s son Then you’d have to spend your time around the fringes of the team, trying to pick up low-grade sponsorship deals to keep the wolves from the door, before finally deciding to pack it all in and run a pub.
International Cricket 2010 – The England Lions Edition
Anyway, I like this game, although there still seems to be a slight discrepancy between how hard batting is and how hard bowling is. For example, yesterday I played a T20 match against Zimbabwe, but I was unable to keep them to less than 180 in their twenty overs. This might have been a problem, if it weren’t for the fact that they were batting second chasing 513 to win.
Also, I now know exactly what David Lloyd, Shane Warne and Ian Bishop all think about the 1932 / 1933 Ashes series and the importance of bowling a good line.
Your suggestions are, of course, excellent – as a comparison, FIFA10 has a ‘Be A Pro’ mode in which you play as a single player throughout a season/tournament and develop skills (get awarded bonus points for good performances which you can then allocate to shooting/passing/tackling, etc). Sound about right?
That’s the sort of stuff we’re on about, fourstar, but also the fact that you’d encounter differnet situations.
Basically, playing as the whole team you encounter ‘trying to score as many as possible’ when the openers first come in and then you have ‘restraining yourself from trying to leather every ball for six’ once you’ve made a solid start, because after 40 overs, you’re basically fed up of batting.
You’re willing to go through a period of training in a video game to make your players actually get fitter?
Oh, there are two things I can think of: Commentary should be in colorful language, and a perfectly reasonable chase should be suddenly interrupted by rain, Duckworth-Lewising the target to something you can’t achieve.
You wouldn’t actually run up and down and lift weights. We just mean that after each good performance you would earn training ‘credit’ which you could choose to apply to different skills or attributes.
Those are two good suggestions, particularly the commentary one. You should be able to submit your own fragments of commentary for fours and sixes and then download other peoples. Would keep it interesting.
“Shit! Did you see that? He must have a bat like a traction engine.”
Am I doing something wrong? In last night’s T20 match in Kolkata, the West Indies managed to rack up 256 runs. This is not, perhaps, the best bowling performance ever. England (me) did manage to win the match eventually, but we had to use a full eleven overs to do so.
One, what level are you playing on?
Two, yes, you are bowling complete shit, whatever level you’re playing on.
Have u completed bowling tutorials get back to me try it it did me good on hard i kept austraila under 150 in twenty-twenty cheers = )
One – Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Two – I thought that might be it – after all, it’s the same technical problem that plagued my real cricket all those years. But as I can barely see the circle thingy that I am supposed to bowl at, I don’t know how to correct it. After listening to all those cricket commentators for years, I’ve tried “trigger movements”, and “getting my wrist behind the controller”, but neither has worked.
Don’t use the trendy following the bowler camera. You can’t see what the hell you’re supposed to be doing with that view.
Probably should have mentioned that in the review. Does this count? Will this do?
A career as a professional computer cricket coach awaits. Ta muchly.
It’s so nice . It has good entertainment. I like this because the styles are completely different from other games.
This is a great idea you could also make some random club teams and pick random names and team names and you could have academy trials
It has good entertainment. I like this because the styles are completely different from other games.
..I would say the BEST cricket game will be a game where you can enter “career mode” like fifa games – you start as younster and work your way up – get selected for your country,(test, ODI, t20, first-class career) cricket 07 was awesome, you can choose different tours ect.. and even I if you get a manager mode it will kick-ass!!!
i want to play this game