I-2 Preview

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This preview was written by Andrew Drinkwater, webmaster of I-2 and Indigo.

The cricket gaming state of play is looking a little like the current real-life cricket scene. After the quick-fix action (and disappointments, unless you’re an Aussie) of the World Cup, we can now look forward to a more cerebral test series against New Zealand. Similarly, after the disappointing Cricket World Cup 1999 from EA and the decent Brian Lara Cricket from Codemasters - both action games - we can now look forward to a more strategical offering. This is International Cricket Captain 2.

If you’re unfamiliar with ICC, lets get you up to speed. International Cricket Captain is the creation of Empire Interactive. Lead by Brian Walker, producer of Championship Manager 2, the team aimed to create an altogether different cricket game. Shunning the ‘smash the keyboard like crazy’ approach that was considered the norm, they went for a more managerial game, in the mould of CM2. When ICC was released in June 1998, it was well-received by the public, shooting quickly into the top five games chart and staying in the top 20 for three months. It was also hailed as being ‘so far ahead of any other cricket game on the market’ by PC Gamer UK magazine. It was so successful that work began on an Australian version, and then on a sequel. And here that sequel is. . .

Until now, all we have seen of the game is five screenshots that were released as part of the press release. At last though, we have some playable code, and we can draw our own conclusions on the game. The first thing you’ll notice on entering the game will be the new front-end. The team have disposed with the old windows GDI interface, and rebuilt it from the ground up using Direct X. Gone is the clunky system text and brown menus, replaced with bright animated graphics. The game seems to have borrowed much from the Championship Manager series - in particular the latest instalment. There is now an enhanced hyperlink system where you can click on a player or team name and can be taken instantly to their stats. Also in are drop-down menus, which are another welcome addition. All these improvements make the game much more accessible than the original.

This being the year of the ‘Carnival of Cricket’, no cricket game would be complete without the 1999 World Cup competition and squads, and this is indeed the case with ICC2. You can now not only take control of the 18 first class English counties, but you can also manage your favourite international side to World Cup success too. Surprisingly, you can also captain any test side too, which is a more than welcome addition.

Of course, a management game wouldn’t be a management game without statistics, and ICC2 doesn’t disappoint in this category. There are now comprehensive lists of records for each county and country, and a full description of each county’s ground. The player stats have also been improved, with more details of batting preferences, analysis of which can be vital in order to turn matches. Each county squad is fully up to date for the new season, incorporating not only the high-profile moves, but also newer players from within the clubs. The player database is larger than ever before, with more overseas players available to sign for your side, and you can now sign staff, such as coaches, physiotherapists and youth team coaches. The financial side of the game has also been expanded to add an extra dimension.

So, having swotted up on your chosen county, hired some staff, and selected a team, its time to take to the field. At first glance, it appears that Empire have gone down the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ road, and simply given the front-end a lick of paint, and added the option to bowl around the wicket (which should have been in the original). Play a few games, and quite soon you’ll begin to see the changes. Going around the wicket is more than a cosmetic change, and, when used at the right time, can help to break those stubborn partnerships. Leg stump no longer seems to be an attacking line, as the opening quicks tend to take more wickets bowling at the off-stump. Although the version I played did not have the ability to change field settings, if these are improved in the final version, then the match engine will be almost flawless. The only grumble that could be levelled is that you still cannot control the length of deliveries, which would let you ‘soften up’ batsmen before producing a yorker, and once a player is injured, they cannot return in that match, which doesn’t sound like a problem, until you find yourself chasing a target and losing that 8th wicket only to find that your number 11 can’t bat.

The game would be pretty drab though without the in-match highlights, which return again. There was talk of a full 3-D match engine at one point, but this idea was ditched in favour of an enhanced version of the old sprite-based system. Coloured kits, introduced in Australian Cricket Captain, make a welcome appearance, as does, for the first time, a square leg umpire, and the third umpire along with his worrying titled ‘DJ traffic light’. Joking aside, the match engine has come on leaps-and-bounds since the first game. Spinners now move the ball, and, according to the game’s producer, there will be rain stoppages in one-day games, with the Duckworth-Lewis method coming into play, although this had not been implemented in the version I played. Also promised are varying levels of light during matches, and a working light meter.

The Beeb’s Jonathan Agnew again provided the commentary for the animated match sequences. ‘Aggers’, as he is affectionately known by Test Match Special fans, has recorded another 60 minutes of original commentary for the game, and now describes strokes as opposed to just saying ‘Good shot’. The end result is very slick, and a definite improvement over both the prequel, and the Australian version, which featured the Australian commentator, Greg Chappell.

Two new features that are being worked on are a name editor, which will allow players to add themselves to the game, and, most interestingly, a multiplayer option. This will allow two people to play against each other on one computer, and usually double the players equals double the fun. We shall see whether this is true when the game is released.

As for the developers, they freely admit that there are lots of features that they would have loved to add to ICC2, but just simply haven’t had the time. These include the aforementioned 3D engine, and, most intriguingly, a network and Internet multiplay option. But, for the moment, let us be happy with what is in ICC2, and there’s a hell of a lot. If the team can add all the promised features that weren’t in the version I played, and keep it bug free, then ICC2 should be a deserved success. After the bugs of BLC99, and downright awful Cricket World Cup 1999, perhaps this is the cricket game we’ve been waiting for. The game is scheduled for Friday 16th July, though you can pre-order the game from Empire’s web site.