Cricket 2005 : Games : Web Wombat

It would be a dream to stand at the crease, with Justin Langer at the other end and the current score at 0/400, with both you and your partner on double tons against the Poms.

Now you can do all that (potentially) and a lots more besides in EA Sports new cricket title, Cricket 2005 on PS2 and Xbox.

Beyond the cool graphics and in-depth stats, the game is completely baffling when you first fire it up. Cricket is obviously a complex sport and in Cricket 2005 this is a new way to play it -- yet there's no tutorial!

So getting to grips with the way it works can be a drawn out and frustrating process, and would be near-impossible if your cricketing experience only went as far as whacking a tennis ball around the park or mimicking the chaps on TV without understanding any of the lingo. Silly mid-off.

First, the good news: the bowling and fielding - so often the hopelessly desolate part of most cricket games - is remarkably effective here.

Choosing a delivery is as simple as selecting a style, picking your spot and hitting the power button at the optimum moment.

Once the ball is in motion, the fielders take care of themselves, swarming to the ball like hungry flies around a freshly steaming pile of horse shit. Though the intelligence of your PS2-controlled fielders isn't as sharp as you might like, the fact that it's the same for both sides kind of evens things out.

Batting, on the other hand, is a fairly joyless ordeal, particularly when the team you're playing against clams up like a mollusc and starts playing for a draw. Boo, hiss!

Building up a large innings requires patience, undivided concentration and an extremely high boredom threshold. Sadly, no amount of buffed up TV-style presentation can hide the fact that Cricket 2005 is a fairly dull and uneventful experience during long test innings. Even the presence of yellowish cricket Buddha Richie Benaud can't quite liven things up, although his insightful commentary does go some way towards lightening the mood.

There are four main game modes in Cricket 2005, and they include Quick Play, International, Australian State or English County.

Quick Play is self-explainable; in International you can play a World Cup, Test Series, World Series, Knockout Cup and even go on tour with a country from around the world. In Australian State and English County, you play either the Pura Cup/ING Cup in Australia or their counterparts on the English side of things.

The graphics aren’t as good as one would like but they are a light-year above last year's instalment in Cricket 2004. A funny thing to notice though is that Sachin Tendulkar has a moustache in this year’s game. Interesting. But a very impressive asset to the game is that all - and I mean all - stadiums look very lifelike, which help immerse you in the game just that little bit more. From some camera angles it looks like you're really there, except for the 2D fans.

And then, if you get bored with all the normal straight up gaming, you can create your own player (or even recreate past players, like Donald Bradman, Jeff Thomson etc) and walk out there to the middle in the Baggy Green.

I would really only expect only Cricket fans to derive maximum pleasure from this game, as it can be quite technical at times, but if you want to learn about the great game, then you should check it out. And I must say that it sure is a lot of fun to play against your friends too.

Game: Cricket 2005
System: Xbox
Players: 1-4
Online: Yes
Developer: Electronic Arts
Distributor: Electronic Arts

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Cricket 2005 is on the shelves now.

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