International Cricket 2010

A trickstar/Codemasters release

Well as our World Cup dreams were dying a death, I thought it would be a good time to fire up a cricket title and see if that could lift the gloom. I mean the English Cricket team is doing brilliantly at the moment and its great to see all those English stars like Trott Keiswetter Pieterson Morgan Lumb really flying the flag.

So into my beloved 360 I plonked the disc marked International Cricket 2010. I started it up and then pressed eject. I took a very long hard look at the disc markings and on it was quite clearly International Cricket 2010. So I put it back in the 360 and rebooted only to spend the next half hour sratching my head. The reason?......

Well at first glances and playthrough this is just Ashes 2009 rebadged. Same graphics, same structure, same sound bytes, same game. It was so similar I thought that Codemasters had been bought out by EA Sports.

At this point I guess that you will be expecting a paragraph or two from me slating this release and giving it a low score. Well thats what I was going to do until I started to give it a bit of a chance.
I actually really liked Ashes 2009 and so playing this was still something I was going to want to do even if it is remarkable similar. But after 5 solid days of the game I will admit that its a few tweaks here and there that make it an update worth getting.

So on to the actual review.

Its a cricket game which allows you to play matches of any type, from 5 days tests to 20/20. You can play as any team you like, but sadly trickstar still only have licences to use the real names from the England and Aussie teams. So you get the rather poor close approximation name tags for members of sides from other nations. You can select to play in tournaments or one off games.

Control of the game is split into 3 distinct areas.

Batting

This is the most fun as it really is very easy on the lower difficulty settings to lamp the ball into the crowd every ball. I scored 600-0 in a 20/20 match!!
Prior to the ball being bowled you can look around to see the fielders positions and then you press Y to start the delivery. By placing the left thumbstick into the postion you want the ball to go and choosing whether to play a defensive, attacking or lofted shot, the outcome is decided by the timing of your stroke. Too early or too late will see you being caught or a run stopped. Bang on will see you hoik the ball out the ground. The timing it effected by what type of bowler you are facing and where he pitches the delivery. But with very little practise you will be scoring very very heavily. If you hit a ground shot and want to run you can call for a single or two. Then you have to decide if you will make it before being run out.
The graphics for this are quite pleasing and it all works well. But this aspect of the game is identical to Ashes 2009.

Bowling

This is where you will develop the most skill in this title. Its also the only part of the game that has had any real revamp since the previous release.
You choose a your bowler from your line up. He will be a fast/medium/spinner. You decide what type of delivery you want to make and start your run up. Whilst on your approach you use the left thumbstick to move the position of where the ball will pitch and as you get to the crease you click a button to time how well you release the ball. By adding extra spin or movement with the triggers you do have the ability to really bowl a huge variety of styles. As a cricket lover (well any sport really especially ladies volleyball) it was very enjoyable to actually develop a strategy to dismiss a batter. I would get a real buzz out of setting up a guy to be clean bowled. In Ashes 2009 you had similar controls but it was not quite as effective.



Fielding

Erm...
This is all done automatically apart from two things.
Catches are obtained by timing. You get a circle that starts red then goes amber then green then red quickly. If you press A when its green then you make the catch. If you hit red its dropped and on amber its 50/50. This is an absolute doddle to do and I found myself catching 95% of all chances.
You also control to a point which end the fielder throws the ball to for a chance of a run out.

Now this brings me onto a massive change in the games. In Ashes 2009 you got run outs, loads of them. I would get 2 or 3 run outs a game. In Cricket 2010 you get none. I mean zero. I played nearly 60 full matches. Not a single run out. Its bizzare how you would tweak a game from being too easy to being none at all. Surely somewhere in the middle would be more appropriate.

The whole thing looks fine but although its easy points for the whorers, unlike Ashes 2009 some of the achs are very very grindy. I just have a couple of matches to win to get to 1000 but its taken many hours of what is essentially the same thing.



The commentry which was refreshing and well done in the original title is now rather annoying, mainly because they have used nearly all the same sound bytes from the last game and just replaced Tony Grieg and Ian Botham with David Lloyd. If you have not played the original you will be impressed with the audio but I found it frustratingly samey.

And there are a few things that really stop it from being a great game. If you are bowling then you can see a highlight over the end you need to throw to if you are fielding. However if the oppo hit a boundary then that marker is not there. So you know immediately if they have hit a 4/6 and so any suspense of will the fielder get to the ball is gone.
The afore mentioned removal of any run outs also grates. And why have the right thumbstick select the end to throw at? Its completely unatural and that control should be moved over to left thumbstick.
The commentry although well done is sometimes very very unapt and you lose the sense that its real.
The lack of the proper names for all the players is a shocker and it would be really good if the players actually played in the styles they do in real life more. If you love cricket then you know the strngths and weaknesses of the worlds elite and trying to get a batter out that you know walks accross his stumps early on etc would add a complete other dimension to the game.

So its a recommended game for me but probably only if you did not buy Ashes 2009.

Its better than Ashes in about 80% of things but actually goes backwards on a few points.

4 of the achs are very grindy indeed and so completionists beware.

I think with better input from the beta testers and a tidy up on some of the points I made here could see a brilliant game eventually. This however is only just about good.

I would rate it 7/10 if you like and understand the sport
(5/10 if you have Ashes 2009 or dont like cricket!)

Good work mate.

Very informative

Well put together Everton good review and now on my wanted list.

Looks like a very thorough review mate (i've not read it i'll admit).

I have absolutely zero interest in cricket, although i am a member of my local cricket club,

The reasons for this are,

Its only about 100yds from my house,
The beer is cheap,
It has a pool table,
And if the weathers nice its the biggest beer garden and suntrap in the village.