Cricket 07
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| Cricket 07 | |
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| Developer(s) | HB Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Engine | Modified Madden NFL |
| Release date(s) | 14 November 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E |
| Platform(s) | Windows, PlayStation 2 |
| System requirements | Windows: 1Ghz, 256MB RAM, Windows 2000/Windows XP or higher, 1.2GB Hard disk space |
| Input | Keyboard, Gamepad |
Cricket 07 is a cricket simulation computer game from EA Sports, which, like it's predecessor Cricket 2005 was developed by HB Studios, and is available for Windows and PlayStation 2. The game was released in the UK on November 24, 2006 and was released in Australia on the 14th November 2006. It was anticipated on the back of substantial criticism of bugs and poor gameplay in the previous release in the series. The cover star of Cricket 07 is England and Lancashire cricketer Andrew Flintoff, whereas the Australian PS2 release has a picture of the Ashes urn with the Australian and English flags behind it.
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[edit] Improvements
A key new feature to be introduced in Cricket 07 is a new control system termed 'Century Stick'. The batting player uses the analog control sticks to determine shot direction and power by flicking one stick at the appropriate moment, while the foot movement of the batsman is covered by the other, rather than the direction and button system of before, which limits the batsman somewhat to fixed footing. The game has been criticized for keeping the keyboard controls the same as Cricket 05.
Also introduced is speed control known as 'Quick Play', allowing the player to speed up or slow gameplay to suit difficulty and preference.
A new picture-in-picture display with a shot timing gauge coupled with a running assistance indicator and radar help in making snap decisions when batting. The often lugubrious act of setting fields has been optimised and Quickswitch bowling allows the fielding player to change the field and the bowler's line of attack without a break in play.
New commentary is provided by Mark Nicholas and Richie Benaud. Former English player Nicholas replaces Australian sports journalist Jim Maxwell. The updated commentary system employs all new recordings for Nicholas, the supporting commentator, including messages recorded specifically for the most reknown players in the game, such as Michael Vaughan, Ricky Ponting or Brian Lara. Despite this, however, the previous system where the game simply inserted the players names into pre-recorded messages is still used for Ritchie Benaud's comments.
Also new is the introduction of brand bats such as Gray-Nicolls, Kookaburra, Puma and Slazenger allows the player to choose a bat for themselves when the have created a person.
There are many other features such as the 'Create Player' mode, and one of the most notable, the 'Manual Fielding' system. Manual fielding creates a whole new aspect of the game, being in charge of your field. With this you can choose which end for your fielder to throw the cricket ball too, and move them about. There is a power gauge on the side of the player, which controls the power on the throw. Over filling the power gauge makes the ball go past the bowler of wicket-keeper, and filling too little makes it not reach them.
[edit] Licensing
The England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand teams are once again fully licensed, allowing kits and player likenesses to be faithfully represented. Other international teams have fake logos, kits, and for the first time fake player names, although the game includes an option to edit the names of existing players to compensate for this. In addition, gear manufacturers Gray-Nicolls, Puma, Kookaburra and Gunn & Moore are also licensed, replacing the plain bats of previous versions with more accurate representations. Stadiums within the game are not licensed but are modeled on real stadiums with their names given as the city where they are located e.g. Old Trafford is called Manchester. The game also features a fully licensed 2005 and 2007 Ashes mode and Twenty-20 mode.
[edit] Criticism
A lot of criticism has came in for the latest games in the EA sports cricket series during the releases in Australia and South Africa. Thecentury stick - which is supposed to let you score round all 360 degrees of the ground - is reported by some players as not working properly because it only allows you to play in 8 lines along the radius of the ground i.e. a cover drive will always go into the same place. Another thing that has been noticed is an old bug from the Cricket 2004 and Cricket 2002 editions, which is in One-day internationals, bowlers are bowling more than 10 overs during an innings, which is against the rules of One-day International cricket. Or the Umpire signalling an extra after autoplay.
Further research into the stroke files of Cricket 07 has found that each shot has at least 10 different files for where a shot can go. However with ideal timing, all the stroke files of one shot hit the ball in the exact same spot allowing little variation in the position of boundary hits.
The EA Cricket series is unpopular among hardcore cricket gaming fans because of the game's failure to live up to the standards of other EA Sports games, in terms of graphics and modes, and the many bugs found in gameplay. However gameplay patches have previously made EA Cricket games much more playable.
