International Cricket 2010 for PS3

This is the perfect example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Launching a cricket game at the height of the football season is perhaps the biggest oversight Codemasters could have managed.

Once you manage to come to terms with how such a popular game manufacturer can get their timing all wrong, let me assure you that there is a good enough game waiting to be discovered.

If you have played the Ashes 2009 game from the same publisher, then you will no doubt feel as if this game has the same base with a few more add-ons.

First off, the England and the Australia cricket teams are the only officially licensed ones. Meaning- they have the authentic squads and players. The rest of the teams have players which sound similar to actual ones, but are not names so to avoid any license breaches.

International Cricket 2010 allows you to play all forms of the game- T20, ODI and test matches. There is also the World T20, Champions Cup and World Trophy (presumably the unlicensed name for the World Cup!).

The menu interface is neat, and there is a player editor nicely tucked away to change the player to names to the authentic ones! However, the editor could have been a bit less confusing to use.

The players seem quite realistic, particularly the England and Australia ones. However, the graphics are a tad disappointing when the match first begins. The crowd seems flat, and looks like the stands are empty. The toss is quire robotic and the commentary of David "Bumble" Llyod with inputs from Shane Warne and Ian Bishop seem robotic and pre-set. However, this starts to change once the match actually gets underway. The first England vs Australia match which I played had Doug Bollinger opening the bowling for the team from down under, and the realism seemed excelent- a complete contrast to what I was seeing earlier.

The crowd also comes alive now, and the match looks closer to reality than I expected. The shot playing looked quite good, and much closer to how that particular plays shots in real life. For example- it is easier to get Kevin Pietersen or Luke Wright to come down the track and hit a lofted shot over the boundary, but equally difficult to make Paul Collingwood or Alistair Cook do the same. This realism is great, and makes it worth every penny for a cricket lover.

The gameplay is somewhat a mixed bag. While you will enjoy batting- learning the controls and deploying that knowledge, the bowling is a real frustration. It is incredibly easy to bowl front foot no-balls. I bowled 21 on a trot before finally getting some semblance of control on the run-up. This might turn off some users, who don't want to spend hours loosing match after match just so they can bowl one delivery which is legitimate.

Overall, International Cricket 2010, apart from arriving at the wrong time, has got a lot going for it. The matchplay is good and it is fun to spend hours thrashing the bowlers over the ropes. However, just to get the full experience from the entire game, you will need to spend quite a while editing the non-licensed players to name and look real. If you don't bother about most teams, don't worry. Overall, if you want Ashes 2009, with a bit more, this is the game to buy.  Its available only for Xbox 360 and PS3. The game retails for a street price of Rs 1,999 and is brought to India courtesy Zapak Games.