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Hyper (Australian Video Games Mag April 99) review Australian Cricket Captain review by Eliot Fish. We reviewed International Cricket Captain back in our September 98 issue, and babbled on about what a great piece of cricket gaming ICC was for big fans of the sport. Well, seeing as we all live in Australia, home of the best team in the world (heh, heh), it seems only right that we give you the lowdown on the local Aussie version of the same game. If you’ve managed to hold off from buying International Cricket Captain up until now then you’re going to be rewarded here with an updated version of the game with every single Australian Sheffield Shield and Mercantile Mutual player and commentary from Ian Chappell. "The Smell of Leather in the Morning" Australian Cricket Captain is exactly the same game as International Cricket Captain and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Seriously the only changes mad to our localised version is the addition of all the Australian cricketers you can think of and the Ian Chappell commentary. Being able to stick Boony back in the side, and get rid of that joke Brendon Julian is a great joy. The game itself, visuals and all, is pretty much untouched - but they have done a bit of bug weeding and prettied things up. The first immediate difference to the gameplay you will notice, is the fact that you an begin captaining the Australian side without having to play through the Sheffield Shield to earn the right. If you choose to captain Australia right off the bat (so to speak), then you will not be rewarded with your name in the Hall of Fame. Any true cricket fan though, will be determined to start by captaining a state side and experience the full glory of progressing through the ranks to the prestigious position of Captain of Australia. And all the chewing gum you can chew. "Bodyline Rules" To remind you of how gameplay works in Australian cricket Captain - this is totally a management sim, though you witness the cricket in real time on a variety of levels. If you are in the field, you can not only alter the position of every particular player out there, but apply different field settings for particular batsmen and adjust the line and aggressiveness of the bowler you have chosen for that over. Thus when a new batsman is at the crease, you can decide to bowl an aggressive line, or the opposite of what you know that batsman is confident in playing (you can access every players strengths and weakness to decide on your tactics). If batting then you have a gauge which shows you how "settled" each batsman is, and you adjust their aggressiveness accordingly - again locking in a different approach for different bowlers. The amount of stats you can access in the game is quite astounding, even down to the funky graphs of how a batsman is performing. Australian Cricket Captain will become an obsession for any fan of the sport, and it’ll be a long, long time before it gets deleted from the Hyper PC. There’s only one thing…. Ian Chappell’s commentary is appalling. It sounds like he’s reading from a phone directory, and most of the comments are identical to those from ICC. Apart from that, Australian Cricket Captain is awesome. SUMMARY: Plus: Captain Australia choosing the XI of your choice. Minus: Dull commentary and some player pics are missing. RATINGS: Visuals: 72% An almost perfect cricket "sim" for you to obsess over! Yay. |
Revised:
Saturday, 16 March 2013. |
