Cricket 2004

Cricket 2004, HB Studios 2004 release of the EA Sports cricket franchise. Released for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows, this title has a history in the sport and continues to improve upon everything from the previous games to make this a thoroughly enjoyable title. Suit up and let’s get into it.

Gameplay

The majority of the gameplay functions as you might expect. Now, I shan’t fool you into thinking that there isn’t a relatively sharp learning curve for this. You will need to head into the practice nets before engaging an actual competitor, unless you are looking to get wrecked in public.

One of the most interesting mechanics that I’ve seen in a sports game is the ‘confidence meter.’ You won’t be knocking it out of the park straight away, instead you must make competent hits and your confidence will grow throughout the game. Once it reaches a high enough level, only then are you able to really go crazy on the distance. This adds a nice amount of engagement that keeps you playing, instead of smashing it in the first few minutes and being able to doss for the second half.

The controls are a little difficult to learn and timing is crucial at every section. That being said, there are a lot fewer moving parts than what you would find in FIFA Football 2004 or NBA LIVE 2004, games that were released in the same year.

Character Creator

Awh yeah! This game has a character creator. Something that few games have and more need, character creation adds a real personal flair to the game, providing you the opportunity to design how you want to look and choose what team you want to play for. This might seem like a small thing, but it really adds a lot to a game. I, for one, spent far too long in the character creator, as I always do, and view it as the first challenge of the game.

Autoplay

Throughout the game, you’ll likely want to sit out the other player moments where you don’t get to do anything, which is understandable. Thanks to an interesting little innovation, this game gives you the options to simply auto play and skip 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 or 100 overs, until a wicket falls or speed to the end of an inning. This helps you out a lot with staying focused and enjoying the bits of the games that actually mean anything to you. I found this to be very useful and a welcome addition to the game given that the previous titles didn’t have it.

Pros:

• Interesting Mechanics
• Great gameplay

Cons:

• A dedicated career mode
• needs more fleshed out character creation