Cricket 19

Cricket 19 is by far the best cricket game available right now. There’s enough about it to keep cricket newbies entertained while its high level of authenticity will no doubt delight die-hard cricket fans. Even England’s Barmy Army, however, would get quickly tired of the loading times, and may notice the small imperfections to the matchday experiences. Despite this, Cricket 19 is a solid boundary, with the career mode hitting nothing but sixes.

If you['re] bored by cricket you’ll likely be bored with this game too. However for the fans, there is now a really good cricket game to enjoy, one that’s packed with gameplay, customisation, and a real love for the real game.

Cricket 19 delivers us another solid improvement in the world of cricket games, and while it still doesn’t quite match up to the big budget sports games, it certainly gives the genre a good run for its money.

Like Ashes Cricket before it, Cricket 19 takes a good thing and touches it up. Its strength is definitely when bat meets ball, which is largely the same as Ashes Cricket, but its focus has been on enhancing everything around that. While there’s still room for improvement, once again it has topped itself to become the best cricket game on the market. The fully licensed Ashes mode is fantastic, the quasi World Cup delivers a faithful alternative to the real deal, and the Career mode will keep you invested long term.

Despite some rough edges, Cricket 19 is the closest to the real thing that a cricket game has ever been.

Cricket 19 is a comprehensive and detailed simulation of the sport with a bewildering number of modes and options. Its depths and complexities can be daunting for newcomers, and playing against the AI feels a bit arbitrary at times, but from playing Ashes Test series to one off challenges, there is something here for every level of cricket fan.

Especially commendable are Cricket 19’s best-in-show customisation options. While only England, Australia, and Australian domestic sides are licensed, all non-licensed sides – and there are loads – can be immediately overwritten with fan-created versions. Giving you ‘real’ names and kits for the exotic likes of Barbados Tridents, and Sunrisers Hyderabad, and, uh, Denmark. Oh to have such touch-of-a-button editing functionality in PES. [Issue#164, p.89]

Cricket 19 won’t be winning any awards nor pioneering new things, but it is a fun game to pick up and play. It’s simple, intuitive and makes cricket accessible to just about anyone.

Big Ant Studios have continued to make a comprehensive cricket sim without especially making great strides over previous efforts. The customisation is extensive and the content on offer covers almost everywhere in the cricketing universe. The sport itself plays well but the presentation lacks a little, especially when it comes to atmosphere. Load times seem to suffer but, for fans, Cricket 19 offers more than enough to keep them happy for a while.

Not the big jump in quality we saw from the last Don Bradman’s to Ashes Cricket, Cricket 19 is at least a small improvement on its predecessor, strengthening its modular gameplay options and packing in a bit more detail to the engrossing career and Ashes modes. It’s fair to say more was expected of this latest willow-whacker, but it does manage to keep the series on the path to greater things.

Cricket fans would be batty to miss out on this, but they should go in aware that things could still be better.