Video games based on sports we Commonwealth folk enjoy tend to be few and far between, and don’t enjoy the same sort of budgets as the Madden NFL, FIFA and NBA Live series that come out on a yearly basis. There’s always a bit of joy when Codemasters brings out its latest cricket game – they’ve been at it for almost 20 years now, and they’ve been getting progressively better. Ashes Cricket 2009 is the latest effort, but sadly, it seems that losing the urn isn’t the only disappointment of the year.

Ashes Cricket 2009 is tied directly to Australia’s current tour of England, featuring the backing and license from each nation’s cricket board, allowing for full kits and player likenesses. Along with replaying the recently ended test series, players can participate in one off matches of the test, ODI and Twenty20 variety, along with customisable tournaments. Matches are presented by a number of commentators including Ian Botham, Shane Warne and Tony Grieg. They’ve even licensed the Channel Nine cricket theme music (in spite of SBS airing the series).

Beyond the scope of the Ashes series, the game isn’t quite so hot. Codemasters’ license is limited to the English and Australian squads and kits, so players will have to make do with fake names (e.g. C. Goyle in place of West Indies captain Chris Gayle). Players are unable to compete in any other official competitions at any level, so contests like the World Cup, IPL or Sheffield Shield are out of the question. This has been par for the course in recent times for Codemasters, with EA tying up most of the licenses for their cricket games. With EA’s game on hold, Codemasters had the opportunity to chase these licenses, but has failed to do so. Ten years ago in Shane Warne Cricket 99, they had all of the official team licenses, a number of different competitions, and a full 12 month season mode – so much for progress, then.

Far more important than licenses and play modes is the game on the field – something that Ashes could stand to have done a lot better. It’s an uneven experience, with two things going wrong for every one thing it gets right. The best part about the game is the bowling. Bowling in cricket games prior to Ashes has always been a chore, but the new system employed in the game brings along a whole lot of depth to make bowling more meaningful. It’s a system that rewards smart bowling – players are encouraged by the game’s tutorial to devise a strategy for getting each batsmen out, and suggests methods for drawing LBWs, forcing poor shots and whittling away at a batter’s confidence.

Rather than simply mapping a few types of deliveries to the face buttons, Ashes gives the player unprecedented control over their delivery. The type of delivery that can be bowled is relative to a bowler’s skill level – an opening fast bowler will have a wide arsenal, including straight deliveries, swing, reverse swing and cutting deliveries. Once the type of delivery is selected, players determine where they want to pitch the ball, how much they want the ball to swing or cut and how much power to put behind it. The game provides feedback on the quality of the delivery; the yellower the reticule is, the better the delivery.

Batting in Ashes is built on a foundation of shot timing and selection. Players need to learn the game’s timing windows and make a decision on which shot to play. There’s a little more to it, with front foot and back foot shots, batsman’s confidence and shot power, but the main aim is to make sure the shot has at least good timing – you won’t know until after the shot is played, so it takes some getting used to. The big problem with this system is that a vast majority of the time, any shot that’s not well-timed will result in the player getting out, regardless of the type and appropriateness of the shot and any real world physics; it’s as though the result of each shot is pre-determined. Another issue is that once you’ve figured out the timing (which takes all of about 10 minutes tops), you’ll be able to smack the ball around the park with little effort, regardless of the difficulty.

Ashes takes a unique approach to fielding. Catches are handled in an interesting fashion. When there is a player in a position to take a catch, the game goes into slow motion and a coloured reticule surrounds the ball, which changes colour from red to orange to green, and then back to red. Hitting the A button when the ball is green completes the catch about 99% of the time, orange reduces that to about 50%, while red fumbles the ball. The AI isn’t perfect when it comes to catching like past cricket games, putting catches down on occasion. Fielding the ball from the ground is handled automatically, but players can decide which end to throw the ball at with a flick of the right stick, which really helps when it comes to runouts.

Glitches and moments of frustration undermine the things that Ashes does get right. Transmission Games might not have a big budget to work with, but there are certain standards and expectations that they’ve failed to meet. The game’s physics are otherworldly; a silly mid on can defy directional arc and velocity simply by sticking their hand out in front of a shot that would otherwise go for six, catching your batter out. The ball occasionally will get stuck in the air, and players will be helpless. Other times, the game can simply fail to trigger catching sequences, not only causing you to miss a certain wicket, but giving the opposing team two easy runs. There are moments of slow response, particularly when it comes to running between wickets; a player will run immediately, but will take more than five seconds to respond to a request to cancel a run. Umpiring decisions are totally inconsistent and often out of touch with the rules of the game; there were multiple cases during testing where an opposing player was out LBW on deliveries we pitched a foot outside the line of off-stump.

With a smaller budget than most sports games, Ashes can’t compete with the likes of Madden and FIFA when it comes to presentation, but it does try. The stadium environments are rather nicely created with a more than adequate level of detail. Player likenesses are quite a ways off the mark as many players look like they’ve packed on a few extra pounds and have bulbous eyes. The animation isn’t particularly hot either – you’ll see the same two or three canned animations for every move in the game by the end of the first match. All of the features of modern cricket broadcasts are included in the match, like Hawkeye, the third umpire and all sorts of fancy graphs. Commentary is provided by famous ex-players and broadcasters like Shane Warne and Tony Grieg, but they’re reading from exactly the same script Codemasters has been using since Shane Warne Cricket 99, which is just lazy.

Ashes Cricket 2009 is a remarkably disappointing effort. There are moments when the game shines – the presentation is good, and the bowling system is really well executed. Outside of these moments, the game is a mess of glitches and poor design decisions, leading to a high frustration factor. Codemasters really needs to pull its act together and bring its cricket games up to and beyond the level they were at 10 years ago; they need to get the real players, the real kits, licensed tournaments and a decent, glitch free and rewarding batting and fielding system – then they’ll have a game worthy of your attention.