Cricket 2004 (PS2)

Cricket 2004 is very enjoyable compared to latest ea sports cricket 2007. more choice for ground

Cricket games have always been a problem for EA Sports, not once have they released a decent cricket game enough to make the dire cricket fan sweat with excitement. Sadly Cricket 2004 is another one of those failed attempts by EA and yet again has proven to be a total waste of time.

Following on from Cricket 2002 , which was a fairly decent game, it failed to improve on its gameplay or gamer friendly controls.

Cricket 2002 was quite popular seeing as it had some aspects of a good cricket game within it, there was room for improvement but other wise it was still decent enough.

Although Cricket 2004 does not fail on the options given to the gamer ie; New teams, new game modes and so on. It really is the Graphics and the gameplay which have let it down.

Cricket is definitely a fun game, I haven't transferred to the game so far has taken away the fun factor from being able to whack a ball as hard as you can in to the stands.

The area it does succeed however on is the Game modes and the teams available to play with.

You can play tournaments, take on the world tour, a complete season (Domestic or international) or even play a simple exhibition match. There is also the option of autoplay. If you become bored of either bowling or batting you can allow the computer to do the rest of the work for you up to how much you like, which in some ways is pretty cool. The team choice here are endless, you can pick teams ranging from Australia to Canada and domestic teams like Essex or New South Wales.

However despite this Cricket 2004 still lacks in producing a game good enough to keep you knocking sixes for long, its duration is not that long and it will become repetitive and tiring very easily.

Cricket 2004 for the PS2 is a good game, but after the first week of having it it becomes tiring and boring. Little things creep into the game which make it extremely frustrating. Firstly batting is extremely hard and not realistic, as all your shots go in the same place. Next, you can bowl the best teams out for less than 75 in 50 over games with lower ranked teams. Finally, it is a complete waste of your money. Go for Brian Lara cricket games, as they are so much better!!

Overall, Cricket 2004 is an improvement after Cricket 2002, but there is still room for improvements, I hope that in 2005, they make the new games as realistic as possible.

Cricket 2004 - I find the opposition keep running themselves out in stupid ways. I was playing a 50 over game against Zimbabwe and got them all out for 40 with 8 run outs! Very unrealistec and totally spoils the game. This also happens against good teams and on difficult levels. I want my money back!

I don't know if any of you have played Cricket 2004 on the PS2 yet, but I found lots of little errors.

Firstly, I've never had an edge go behind even in hard level!!! - that annoys me the most - because I love watching an edge going behind to the keeper or slips.

When playing a tour match, or any tournament, we have to select our team before knowing the conditions - why is this??

Sometimes when playing in 2 player mode, both the players initially select their opening bowlers, and sometimes, for the team fielding second it automatically opens with some other random player.

There are also so many wrong LBW decisions - though, this could be forgiven for making the game more realistic.

When bowling, the umpires head gets in the way big time.

I know Shane Warne was suspended, but I cannot find him in the game.

I really do like this game but I found all these errors when playing for the first time. I find it hard to beleive that they tested this potentially great game. But some of the shots are great to watch.