EA Sports Cricket 2004 (PC)

My first impressions of the game play were, it was not as much fun as 2002, but wait, giving it 8 or more hours of practice and play I must say this is far, far more realistic and challenging than 2002. This is much more a sim than 2002 and will appeal more to the real cricket fans than the arcade slogging kids. And yes its still fun, just learn it.

Batting, you can’t just start slogging from the outset, there is a batsmen’s confidence meter that has to build up with well timed shots before you can hit the big ones. Careful shot selection is the key. Be patient and the big hits will come, but now they will seem more satisfying as you have worked the batsman up to it. Lose his wicket and you feel genuine disappointment as you now have to build the new batsmen up all over again. You will have to get used to the new keyboard layout; it’s sort of opposite to 2002, with the arrows now used to control direction and w and s, front and back foot shots. It seems awkward at first but is actually is a much more sensible layout and makes controlling the menu system much better.

Batting for me is still the most fun part in the game. As Australia in a 10 over match Vs India I average 80 runs and have one time only kept them below there target. So I need more bowling practice.

Bowling to me is even more improved than batting, on the PC version anyway. I actually hated bowling in 2002 and always auto played around it. With 2002 the bowling marker seemed to skate all over the place, making it very difficult to place the ball correctly. Now in 2004 it still moves around a little but generally is much more controllable. No balls are less frequent too, as the meters are much more visible.
The pace bowlers don’t seem to swing the ball much though; a bit more visible swing would have been good. With the spin bowlers the fun facter increases 10 fold. The ball really turns heaps; just slow down your bowling speed and watch the ball bite into the pitch a rip around the legs. Great stuff.

Running between wickets now is much better timed; previously batsmen ran and turned too slowly, now it is much more realistic. It’s easier to judge runs and the fielders don’t hit the stumps as easily. It takes time for the keeper/bowler to gather in the ball and break the wicket.

Graphics have improved significantly, I run the game at 1280 by 1024 with max details and it looks great. The motion is super smooth compared to 2002 on the same machine. The animations in batting are spot on, playing a power leg glace for six looks awesome. Just the general smoothness is perhaps the biggest improvement but also the details are much better to.

Players look. The player’s shapes have been reasonably implemented, there are heaps of various body shapes and sizes and generally they look a lot more human than in 2002. They are more detailed, there motions and animations are more seamless, much better. What is a little disappointing at this stage is that it’s hard to recognize any player face from each other. There are hardly any real faces on the players. The only player I could pick was Sachin Tendulkar. But there is editing tools were you can add faces, so I hope some enthusiasts will do some mods for the main teams. The faces that can be applied are actually quite detailed

Replays are excellent, you can now move the camera to any location you want as well as the pre defined positions. Great to go directly above the pitch to watch the swing\ spin of the ball. Or a side on view of the batsman square cutting a fast ball is great to watch. Keyboard controls are much better laid out. Slow mo replays look better than ever. Can’t save them though.

Stadiums, its great to have many more stadiums available but to be honest I don’t think it’s a huge deal. A lot of work seems to have been done modeling them all. Now 60 plus. I suppose if you live near one of the newly added stadiums it will appeal.

Players abilitys can be fully edited and new players added. There is literally hundreds of players and heaps of domestic teams from around the world.

Game plays, various types available. Tests, knockouts, etc. I haven’t really explored them. I’ve just been playing 10 or 20 over exhibition matches, usually Australia Vs India, as they are touring here at the moment.

Main wish: Network play.

So to sum up Cricket 2004.
Hats off to HB studios for making the best cricket game ever. Many improvements on 2002. Defiantly worthy of purchase. Has a sim like quality to it. Has endless replay value for a cricket fan. Looks great and a PC version that doesn’t seem like a console version afterthought. Great Stuff.

However, once I got out in the middle, I found out that this is about 10 times as good as Cricket 2002. This is a proper cricket sim, rather than a smash every ball arcade game. The graphics aren't what you'd call stunning, but they are good and realistic, and most of the players are recognisable. Though the commentary is a bit repetitive, and contradicting of what has just been said, you can't always expect new comments every ball with computer games.

In my opinion, batting is the most vastly improved part of the game. The batter's confidence meter is a great addition as it makes the game more realistic. If you ever bat for your local club and have just come in, you know just how it feels to go out there and then having to get the ones and twos and the odd four before you start going over the top. The slogging version, once you are confident enough to use it, is also a lot better than before, for now you must get in the right position and time it perfectly to have it go for six. The batting is also more of a challenge than before, if your not on easy level, because you need to get into good position and time the ball well to see it race away. The keyboard layout, with w and s as back and front-foot shots respectively, and the arrow keys as the different shots, is a lot more sensible and therefore I have had endless joy batting in this game.

The bowling is also improved. The chance of bowling a no-ball has been decreased as the run-up meter fills more slowly. The swing and spin you can imply on a delivery is a lot better too, and the bowling marker is more controlled, allowing you to be more accurate.

Fielding is quite fun, once you get the hang of it, but sometimes, it is the best idea to let the computer do it, allowing you to concentrate on just your bowling and batting, without worries of catching, running people out and preventing extra runs and boundaries.

The different game modes let the gamer have a lot of different experiences in different places. It is nice to finally see and EA game that allows every domestic style, like FIFA, mixed in with all international modes, like RUGBY 2004. You have all the English domestic competitions, all the Australian domestic competitions, lots of different foreign tours (which are a nice new experience), the world cup, a world series and a test series.

Another thing, which EA are often good at including in their games, is Team Management, which allows you to create your own player. You can make yourself play for England as the best player in the world, and can have all your mates playing as well. Though it is a bit dissapointing you have to replace someone with your made up player, I suppose there isn't enough for everyone and, if you make a good player, the added quality is often worthwile.

This game does EA Sports proud. Loads better than the previous effort at a Cricket game by EA. All true cricket and gaming fans just have to get this game and I hope we shall see further updates in the future.

One thing that really attracted me to this game is the 61 stadia. This is phenomenal compared with the 22 in Cricket 2002. These stadias have very good graphics aswell.

The best new feature of this game is the world tour mode. You can do an entire tour with warm-up matches, test matches followed by a form of one-day series.

One other thing that pleased me was the fact that on this game there is not inncecent appealing for a run out when the batsmen is clearly home.

The sound however is not great. The commentary becomes boring and repetitive before long, but it is worth keeping the sound switched on as the crowd noises are of top quality.

Be warned, you will have to get some batting and bowling practice in the nets before you start playing the real thing. It is difficult at first but as you get used to it, you will enjoy it. On the batting side it is good that you have to settle in first before playing the big shots. It is more realistic and is far better than having 10 or 12 an over run rate in test matches like on Cricket 2002.

Cricket 2004's all round game is far better than the 2002 version. It is a must have for all cricket fans. Everything is much better and I would recommend it to anyone. It gets 5 stars from me.