Just another part of cricket, without ghraphics or gameplay.
The graphics have been done realistically and accurately and are very pleasant to look at. Everything has been replicated well and the resulting atmosphere is very similar to a real game of cricket. The players have been designed well enough, despite a small amount of blockiness and being a bit loose at the joints they look okay. The only problem with them is how similar the majority of them are, only a small number of key players actually differ in looks from the majority.
The various grounds have been well designed and realistically represent their real-life counter parts. The pitches are designed well, the grass is a nice shade of green and the fences have a good amount of advertising on them, which really helps the realism of the game. The crowd is a bit of a let down though, all of the people are very blurry and look like something a dog would barf up, luckily the crowd isn't seen too much so you won't have to put up with the monstrosity of it.
The animations done by the players are fairly realistic; all of the shots played by the batsmen look just like they should and the bowling is also pretty good. The players seem a bit stiff in their movements at times but this doesn't affect the playability too much at all.
Overall, the graphics of this game are polished and nicely detailed. There are a few glitches that will pop up during the course of the game, but still it's nothing too major. As a whole it's very aesthetically pleasing.
The sound has standards a bit lower than the other aspects of the game, there was quite a bit of room for improvement here. There is no background music, but I doubt that anyone would expect to find any so this doesn't really matter. The sound effects are fairly realistic, the sound of the ball smacking into the willow has been recreated perfectly and all the other effects have been done equally well (although there should have been more). The crowd adds nicely to the atmosphere of the game, but after a while some of their chants and off key yelling will start to get on your nerves.
The commentary is dull and monotonous, there's two boring old English geezers up in the commentary box, they've got flat annoying voices that could put anyone to sleep, and what they say is usually just stating the obvious. One of the commentators does the bog standard comments, and the other adds colour commentary which is decidedly black and white. It's best just to either ignore them or turn them right down.
Overall, the sound is reasonable but nothing more than that. There was a lot that the developers could have done to make the audio better but unfortunately we're stuck with these sounds that don't help the atmosphere of the games along one bit.
The gameplay of Shane Warne/Brian Lara Cricket may be realistic, but the pace of the games is far too slow to entertain the players enough. It's a tough game to jump straight into and a good amount of training will be needed before anyone is playing competitively against the computer.
The controls can get confusing and a decent amount of memorisation will be needed, each of the four action buttons plays a different shot or bowls a different type of ball, you need to use a good deal of strategy and variety to dismiss the opposing batsmen and that means placing fielders well. It's unfortunate then, that fielding is one of the most confusing and hard to do jobs that you'll ever go against, luckily you can just set fielding on auto and let the computer do it for you. Couple the fielding problems with the confusing control system and it can be a very difficult game to get into.
There's a good amount of modes to be found in this game. There's the normal test and one day matches, but go past those and you'll find a world cup/world series (a long series to determine the best in the world) a test series, and even a few classic matches (this is an ingenious idea where the player is presented with a difficult task taken from a real game, can you do the same heroics as the players, or change history?).
The rosters of all the teams had all the current players from all of the teams, even the little known teams not quite up to world class. You can customise everything from team captain to fielding positions, if there's something in the game then chances are you can fiddle around with it and change it to your liking. This adds a lot of depth to the game.
Overall, the gameplay is confusing and playing the game can be a difficult task. There's enough depth however to make the job of learning to play the game properly a worthwhile one. Some good times to be had from this game.
There's a good amount of lifespan to be found inside Shane Warne Cricket. All of the modes require a fair bit of long-term playing, and if you're a fan of cricket then chances are that you'll give them all a decent work out. The classic matches in particular have enough appeal to hook a player for a long time, each task has to be completed to unlock the next and they're certainly no stroll in the park. Huge fans of the sport will definitely play this game for a longer period of time than someone else would, but there's a good amount to do.
The fun factor isn't so high, only cricket fanatics will get an appropriate amount of enjoyment from this game as the confusing gameplay will deter most other gamers from having a nice amount of fun with this game. The pace of the game is too slow and the action isn't frantic enough, this game is much more of a sim and because of that the fun factor is naturally going to be lowered.
The challenge offered by Shane Warne Cricket is pretty good. It's challenging enough just learning to play the game, but once you start playing there is a good range of difficulty to be uncovered. Some teams will give more challenging games than others will and some modes are harder to win than other modes. A couple of the classic matches are just downright impossible and are best left to the experts, but there is a good enough range to challenge most gamers out there.
Overall, this game of cricket is probably best left to those who are crazy about the sport. The widespread appeal really isn't widespread enough for other people to find this game enjoyable. There are some good points to be found, but they're spread way too thin. You'll probably find that one of the more generic sports and its respective games will entertain you better than this will.
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GOOD POINTS
- It's a nice, accurate sim that cricket lovers will get a lot of fun from
- A nice selection of modes to keep players entertained for a long time
- One of the only cricket games on the market, so it could be worth a look
NOT SO GOOD POINTS
- Being a simulation it will turn many players off
- The sound is quite a bit dodgy
- Confusing control layout and some annoying gameplay