Ashes Cricket 09 (Xbox 360)

Despite being a big fan of the sport, i've not been tempted to buy any cricket video games beforehand as they were pathetic attempts in comparison to the long established football alternatives.Ashes Cricket 2009 has completely changed my view.Having played it at a friends house, i found it extremely difficult, especially batting. However, the commentary, graphics and game-play had me interested.A few days later, my Amazon copy arrived. A couple of hours in, i became increasingly frustrated by the difficulty. In 'normal' mode, i was getting skittled out for under a 100 runs and i was ready to agree with some reviews that it was just too hard to play. However, after reverting to 'Easy' mode and building up experience over a week, 'Normal' mode is now struggling to give me a challenge! The key is to utilise all the various controls you are provided with.So, as with any other good game, you can't just pick it up and play expecting to be Freddie Flintoff. It certainly takes perseverance, but the rewards are there. It's immensely satisfying getting that first 50 and 100, especially against the Ozzies! A nice catch from a experimental field placing will get you punching the air in satisfaction, whilst a perfect spinner that rattles middle and off will get you on your feet! I even found myself clapping the team's effort...Drawbacks? It's certainly a time killer. A quick game is impossible, but you can save whenever you like. This is essential as my game has crashed a couple of times during a long match, so be sure to save progress regularly. Apart from that, i would just be nit-picking. Yes, commentary is a little repetitive, but it brings a familiar and realistic background noise to the game. Replays aren't that great, but then you have fantastic features such as hawkeye to fall back on.The most annoying thing for me is a lack of LBWs. A few times i have hit a batsmen square in the pad and my bowler didn't even appeal. AI for run-outs could be improved too, as it's a little awkward. There was also a bug once where my batsman was standing in his crease but was given as run out! He was on 98...As i said, this is nit picking, and doesn't distract from an otherwise brilliant game. That's not brilliant for a cricket game, nor a sports game, it is up there with the best games i've played on the Xbox, full stop.

Really like this game having had it for a few days now. Typical niggles about run scoring rate (which never really drops beneath 5) are a given, as I suppose they're trying to keep it entertaining and not too much like watching a 5 day test!A sign of how much I like it is how minor my big gripes are. Firstly the commentary - it's really, REALLY annoying that the commentators don't use the players names. They're licensed teams, yet you get phrases over and over again like "the quickie to bowl another over", or "the seamer to start again", or "one more to the batting team". Why oh why can't they refer to players by their names, or teams by name? Is quite unbelievable.Second the training is good fun, but it's pretty much impossible to recreate in a match. There's quite a few sessions on how to defend and push singles, but in an actual game it's nigh on impossible to actually do that.Third the running's a bit annoying, as they're very slow to react to a cancelled run (which you need a lot if you've got into the habit, from the training, of trying for quick singles!). Can lead to a lot of run outs until you learn to not bother trying for singles!I also just do not understand why I can't pull up a hawkeye of any ball, or a replay of any ball, or the wagon wheel at any stage. Sometimes it'd be nice to see them when I want to see what happened, or how close something was. Footy games have allowed total control of replays since about FIFA 96 - is cricket really more than 13 years behind?!Overall though, and aside from the somewhat repetitive "so tell me what you think about inswing", or "what do you think is important to be a good batsman" commentary that goes on forever and is just a bit silly (when you get the same 5 minute monologue three or four times in an afternoon of gaming) a really fun game and a real improvement from Brian Lara. If you like cricket in any way, well worth getting.

Great game so nostalgic

Graphics are rubbish I would defiantly not recommend it to anyone and it is also very old so do not buy it it is a waste of money