Ashes 2009 (PS3/360)

[Cuber001]

LOL. Mods deleted the wrong thread. Anyway i will type again.

Bought this game yesterday, and having not played a good cricket game since Shane Warne 99' i was excited that this could be it, seeing the reviews also up my anticipation. So when i turned it on i was pleasantly surprised that it did indeed meet them. What a cracking game. Grahpics wise its OK. Wont win any awards but gets the job done.

Gameplay wise its fantastic. The only problem i have is having no control over the fielders other than catching and choosing what end to throw it to, as i enjoyed this but still its no problem.

Batting is very hard at first with shots requiring you to play properly by either advancing, going front or back foot. Or you can make it easy and let auto decide. Th confidence metre is fantastic as well and can change a game.

Bowling is the best though IMO. It feels so rewarding to grab a wicket. You can change deliveries on the fly to fool batsmen and pressing down the th right trigger brings up a menu which lets you see the pitch condition, if its cutting or swining so you can decide what bowler to use. I LOVE how the pitch deterioates. Great feature. And the confidence metre is a blast. Bowl a few bounces clip and edge, go past the bat and watch your deliveris FLY! Get slogged and be prepared to continue to!

Fielding as i said is very basic just press x on the green circle to catch, which is a great feature and the timing window is prfect. And click up on the right trigger to throw to the keeper, or down to throw to the bowler.

All in all its an amazing game and has a lot of little nifty features. The "theme" at the start is a great touch and will choose your teams colours in the menus, and the legends batting/bowling/fielding with "Beefy" Botham and Warnie is an awesome touch and will help you improve. There are a range of ODI's T20 and Test Matches as well as the Ashes 2009. I really love this game and cannot wait to get some tournies going because its everything i wanted. Easily worth the 8.2 score IGN gave it. Cracking game.

[Cuber001]

Getting pretty good now. Just stuck on the last batting challenge which is to survive 6 overs without losing a wicket in India against Harbajhan and Kumble scoring a 8 runs per over. Hard!

For people wondering the PS3 version also has trophies as well.

[ezee ryder]

After initially not really enjoying the demo, I gave it another few tries and I actually ended up enjoying it to a certain degree so I purchased it!

I have actually been hooked on it over the last couple of days. I just recently finished an Ashes series with England and won 4-1 (never gonna happen in real life!). I also have won the one day and T20 tournaments aswell as completing the tutorials/challenges.

For the most part I have enjoyed playing the game but there are a few niggles which I might aswell get out of the way now. Test matches just don't last 5 days at all even if you try. I think I have got into day 3 once but the rest of the tests have finished within the first day or two. I have been playing on normal so I don't know if they actually last longer on hard, I doubt it though. The CPU team doesn't play conservatively at all, they actually go at about 7-9 runs per over. This leads to them getting out pretty quickly, I think the highest score they got against me was around 170. The good thing is though the CPU does bowl well and mixes up the deliveries nicely so you actually do need to keep your eye on the ball to get the best timied shots out.

Other niggles would include the monotonous commentary, the lack of official player names/kits (apart from England and Australia) and the slightly dull looking visuals. Infact the game isn't really a looker at all, it just seems like a slight upgrade of the previous Brian Lara game.

Ok now, negatives aside, the game is fun and surprisingly enough I find the bowling to be more enjoyable than the batting. The demo didn't really show of the delivery types well at all and left me with the impression that there was no variety. Codemasters really should have included the tutorials in the demo so players would get a much better idea of how batting, bowling and fielding works. The bowling has quite a bit of depth to it as you really do have to work to take most of your wickets. You can't just keep bowling constant yorkers because eventually the CPU will smack you for fours and sixes. It pays to mix up your delivery types, keep the batsmen guessing and build the pressure on them.

Like I said I do enjoy the bowling more than the batting but hey smacking fours and sixes around is still fun! Saying that though (unless you probably play on easy) you can't just spam boundaries as eventually you will get caught out whether it be by a slower delivery or just a random mistimed shot. Much like real cricket, the batting is all about the timing. If you're in the groove then you will find yourself timing shots well but if you're not then you will have to earn your stay at the crease. Fielding is simple enough, you only really have to worry about the catches which are pot luck really. You just have to hope you time your button press correctly.

All in all it is a pretty decent game, I don't think the demo does the full game justice to be honest. If I didn't play it 5 or 6 times and messed about a little I probably wouldn't have got this. It's not "OMG amazing" but it is alot better than I expected and definitely worth a 7/10, maybe 8 if I was generous I suppose.

[Jebus]

It's all a bit similar to the last Cricket game on the 360 for me, though I like the changes to the fielding (no more running to catch it, it's just a QTE) and I like that they've made everything just a bit more in depth.

That said, graphically it's a mixed bag, some of the likenesses just...well...aren't!

It's an arcade game in my opinion, my first test match I scored 350 all out in the first session then proceded to bowl the Aussies out twice in the second session. It feels like 20/20 almost all the time, because its our nature to automatically never use the defensive shot. I mean, there's no point anyway, you can hit them for 4/6 on almost every ball, and if you don't, it'll still be 2 runs.

I have issues with the fielding AI, animations and speed of the game. Sometimes you'll throw it to the bowler or wicket keeper for a run out, but their animation is so painfully slow that whilst the runner was half way when the ball was caught at the stumps, they still dive home because the animation is so slow that you don't run them out. I also don't like that the fielder almost always runs over the ball, "shoving" it backwards, to turn, pick up and throw. I know it happens in cricket but not EVERY ball. Generally speaking I feel the actual game of cricket in here has pacing issues. Finally on that front, the animations for catching/celebrations are extremely odd, very slow and unnatural almost all the time.

Also, I've not found a way yet to come down the wicket as a batsman. There only seems to be front foot and back foot, and shuffled left and right, I don't seem to be able to advance down the wicket to smash a spinner into the stratosphere...which maybe doesn't matter, as it's very easy to hit sixes anyway.

I've not checked the online yet, but I doubt there'll be what I want...a co-op mode, where you take turns bowling/fielding and you and your mate at the two batsmen at the crease.

Ezee pretty much nails the rest of my impressions of the game, I'm sure I saw another cricket game (From EA?) coming out this year, and I'm hoping that delivers a bit more than this, because whilst this isn't a bad game (I'd agree with Ezee's 7/10, but it'd be a low 7, high 6 for me) I doubt I'll play it much after I've rinsed few achievements out of it, it doesn't feel like it has much staying power, and as mentioned, the visuals and likenesses take away from the experience.

Taken on it's own merits I can see why it'd get reasonable scores, but whilst I don't *hate* the game, it's not really a huge improvement on Brian Lara's Cricket, which was also "pretty good", and I'm wanting "amazing".

[ShadowDancer]

I'm awaiting this on a rental, if its feels like I'll dig it out once to twice a week after the initial 'all is new' factor, I'll purchase.

Anyone played the 360 online things of the game?

[Cuber001]

Also, I've not found a way yet to come down the wicket as a batsman. There only seems to be front foot and back foot, and shuffled left and right, I don't seem to be able to advance down the wicket to smash a spinner into the stratosphere...which maybe doesn't matter, as it's very easy to hit sixes anyway.

On the PS3 version you hold both L1 and L2. It shows you how in the tutorials. It helps out so much against the spinners.

I dont know you guys dont seem so impressed but i am REALLY enjoying it. Something about has me hooked. I never saw another cricket game coming out so will keep an eye out for it. All in all though i love it.

[Jebus]

Well as I said mate, I've played a cricket game on the 360, so it's not blowing me away. As you said, you've not played one in a long long time.

[Del Boy]

Im loving the game, got my Platinum over the weekend.

Now playing it on hard in a 20/20 tournament, very good game IMO.

My only gripe is it wont let me play online at all, tried about 20times and everytime it says failed to connect to host, most annoying.

[ezee ryder]

I've not checked the online yet, but I doubt there'll be what I want...a co-op mode, where you take turns bowling/fielding and you and your mate at the two batsmen at the crease.

I'm sure I saw another cricket game (From EA?) coming out this year, and I'm hoping that delivers a bit more than this

Online co-op in a cricket game would be brilliant, definitely something that should be included in a future release. The batting as you described would be great, calling for runs would be hilarious. "Waiting....no....yes....no", some quality moments in the making there. When not batting, the two players could alternate between bowling/fielding and inbetween deliveries have discussion about strategies/tactics. Ah man, some brave developer really needs to get this stuff implemented!

Offline wise, you could even go a step further and have a be a pro mode (like FIFA) where you rise from the county scene to try and become an international legend. So much more can be done with a cricket game nowadays and this is why some of us are a little disappointed. This Ashes game is good but it still can be improved in many areas.

As for the EA cricket game, that is the first I have heard of it. I really hope they give it the same attention that they have given titles such as FIFA and Madden. I doubt they will though, their previous cricket games have been absolutely abysmal. The Codemasters games have always been better. I shall live in hope though!

[Cuber001]

The thing that i wish is that they would enlist the Barmy Army to record their songs and chants and play them in the crowd. Honestly i love watching England play on the back of these guys. The Ashes in Australia was magical and i think the atmosphere is half because of these guys. Or patch it in. Come on Codies, its a major part of the game "We are the army.... The Barmy Barmy Army ...