Michael Vaughan 2007/8 Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

A solid cricket game

It may be 6 months since the Cricket World Cup but the Twenty20 Cup (there is a difference) has just started so it's a good time to bring out the latest Michael Vaughan cricket game.

The series and the developer, Player One, have been around for a while and MVC 2007/08 sees a coming of age. On first appearances, the game looks very similar to Glu's Brian Lara and Gameloft's Kevin Pieterson games. They may look similar but MVC is much more playable and there's a lot more going on under the hood.

Most impressive is the array of ways of getting caught. Here, the slips and the wicket keeper actually have a part to play and this is something I never saw in previous games. The types of shots may be fairly generic but time the shot badly and you will edge the ball onto the wicket - again this is something new. Overall, the batting aspect of the game is great. Each batsman has three attributes which flash up when they first step to the crease; timing, power and awareness. The higher your reactions, the quicker you will see where the ball will bounce and what spin is imparted. Timing the ball is much easier than some of the other cricket games released this year. As a general rule, play your stroke as the ball bounces (a little earlier for the fast balls). The batsmen do not automatically run and you are in control for the running and you can also cancel runs before the mid point. Whether it is intentional or not, hitting a six is very difficult even for the big hitters. Don't expect many boundaries for some of the tail either.

Fielding/Bowling has been simplified and you just need to decide on where to pitch the ball by aiming horizontally and vertically. As the match progress marks will appear on the pitch and you can try to aim for this if you want. You can set various fielding positions but all catching and throwing is automatically completed by the CPU. At the end of each over Hawkeye will show your trajectories - unfortunately this is a static display and not dynamic as in other games.

The game has a number of options including an initially tough challenge mode, tournaments, 20-20 and one day internationals. Michael Vaughan Cricket 2007/08 is the most playable of the cricket games this year and one that should still keep you interested a few months down the line. Is it surprising that the best cricket games comes from a 100% English developer (lets hope the Aussies don't start developing cricket games).