World Cricket

Probably the worst game from UK's Zeppelin Games, World Cricket is an abysmal representation of the sport. Despite good graphics that are up to Zeppelin's usual standards, the gameplay is too superficial and flawed to please any cricket fan.

Cricketgames.com says it all about this Real Dog from the perspective of die-hard fans of the sport (which yours truly is not ;)): "With World Cricket you pick an international side from the 7 included (Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are the teams missing) and either go on tour or play host to a computer side. You can play a short, medium or long tour which will consist of a number of tour, one day and test matches.

This is about the only good thing about World Cup in that you get to manage a complete tour an option a lot of people would like in other games. You pick your side from the 20 or so players available. You can have injured players but unless you specifically select the medic option you don't know who is injured and injured players can still be picked. About the most decision making in this game is what to do if you win the toss! When batting you select your batsman but don't make a mistake as you can not change your mind once you have selected a player. A scoreboard is the main display and that ticks over the score until a wicket falls or you hit a six (there are way too many of these to be realistic) when you get a few jerky frames of animated highlights. When bowling you select your bowlers and again watch the scoreboard.

There are no tactics in this game at all. There is no full scorecard, no details of who caught the ball, took the wicket, bowling figures, partnerships, etc. All the information you get about the match is shown on the main scoreboard. You are only offered the chance to declare if the computer thinks it is sensible. After any major partnership (50 or more) is broken the other player involved always and I mean always gets out within an over. When playing a 1 day match the scoring rate remains the same and you have no control over run rates or anything. I batted first and England scored 88 for 4 off 50 overs! When I bowled I had no bowling restrictions and was able to bowl 2 bowlers for 25 overs each and even won the match!

There is just so many things wrong with this game. It would be more fun watching paint dry. Releasing this game as a serious cricket management game is a travesty." Ouch ;) *

Review By HOTUD