EA Sports Cricket 2004

Those who can, do. Those who can't, play it on their PCs. But having bowled the perfect outswinger or played a flawlessly executed straight drive, the Cricket 2004 experience leaves the console cricketer feeling cold.

Console cricketers have waited two years for EA to release a new cricket game. With 56 teams, more than 1,000 players and over 60 `real' stadia, you can choose to play one-dayers, Tests and tours or domestic cricket (Australian and English), accompanied by commentary from Richie Benaud and Jim Maxwell. But it still fails to capture the essence of the sport.

Cricket 2004 supposedly comes with improved graphics and a better artificial intelligence than previous versions but you are stretched to find too many improvements. With licences from the respective cricket boards, the developers claim to have provided an actual likeness to players. Well, let's put it this way: if I stare long enough at the damp patch on the ceiling and tell myself it looks like Steve Waugh, after a while it does. The gameplay has not really changed and remains hard enough to be annoying. A good tutorial would have been helpful - the manual is nowhere near lucid enough. That said, playing with a gamepad is easier than a keyboard.

The fielding is also supposed to have improved, but it doesn't stop the players from behaving like dolts at times. Even if the batsman taps the ball down defensively, fielders converge on it like maniacs, as if there's one run needed to win. Wicketkeepers give away too many byes. And Glenn McGrath being totally clueless about line and length is really taking liberties.

Strangely, the `improved' graphics are quite poor. The players look terrible, but the paying public are the most hard done by, looking like cardboard cutouts waving in the wind.

Cricket 2004 is a gamer's game, not a cricketer's game - a competent computer application, but not a resort for a wannabe cricketer. Blame it on the complexity of the action if you want, but even strategy games like International Cricket Captain or Michael Vaughan's Cricket Manager have some way to go to match up to football offerings like Championship Manager. It is not hard to see why: perfect summer day + Ashes Test + Lord's + whites + press x and y key at z moment = nope, not adding up at all.