Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007 is hardly a massive evolution from the last game, but there have been enough little nips and tucks here to keep Ricky a nose in front of EA's recent Cricket 2007. It's a Bill Lawry sized nose, though. Certainly nothing to sniff at (pun sadly intended).
Herschelle Gibbs probably still has nightmares about that time he dropped Steve Waugh, and it's likely that after extended play with Ricky Ponting 07, you'll also be waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, reliving the countless times your fielders have dropped match-winning catches.
This is because the fielding controls in Ricky Ponting 07 once again require a touch of interactivity (not to mention luck) when it comes to throwing the ball at the stumps and catching in the outfield or behind wicket. The mini-game comes in the form of a reaction-time button press - just like the kind you find for driving the ball in old golf games. When the needle hits the middle of the meter, you have to nail that button or your hapless man in white will fumble the catch like some reserve player for Bangladesh, or throw the ball horribly wide of the stumps.
It certainly makes matches a little less predictable - there's nothing quite as enjoyable as playing a friend and seeing them stuff up their golden chances in the field, for instance - but it becomes obvious that the catching meter is still too blindingly fast for simple catches and it leads to a lot of frustration. The darn thing literally pops up on the screen and vanishes again in the blink of an eye, even if the ball is coming straight down your throat.
Where this really hurts is behind the stumps. When the batsman nicks the ball, you've only got a split second to catch what would normally be a regulation take for a decent wicketkeeper. Getting someone caught behind starts to become frustratingly difficult, so we can't help but feel this side of the game still needed a bit more work - like maybe a sudden slow-mo if the ball is nicked, to give you time to play the reaction time mini-game. We have to wonder if this feature was tested thoroughly.
What we do like, however, is the ability to return the ball to either the keeper's end or the bowler's end when fielding. In fact, you can even hear your teammates call out for you to return it to a particular end, which is a really nice touch. If you get your timing down, your fielder will hit the stumps with a direct hit, whereas a sloppy return gets dropped by the keeper or even misses entirely him entirely, resulting in overthrows. In this respect, there are a nice variety of animations to appreciate - at least for the first few days of play.
Fielding should probably be even more interactive than it is in this game, but at least it's not just an automated affair as it was in Cricket 07. Swordfish Studios are onto a good system here, because it's clear that virtual cricket needs a lot more of these fun little elements to add an extra dimension to the repetitive work of bowling or repeatedly trying to loft the ball over the rope as the batting side. Let's hope they continue to work on it and bring us something far more functional and compelling the next time around.
Being an "official" ICC World Cup (and Champions Trophy) game, all the real player names and likenesses only exist in these particular tournament modes. Exhibition matches and tests are still populated by Bizarro cricket players with names like B. Hugg (Brad Hogg) and M. Huscarl (Michael Hussey), although you can go into the custom team editor and change their names if you really want. Of course, Ricky Ponting is still Ricky Ponting in all modes. It is his game after all.
Bowling gives you a couple of options; just enough to keep you engaged well into the innings. Each bowler can add a bit of spin, off-cut, swing the ball and throw in some special deliveries like bouncers and yorkers, but the real key is to find that perfect line and length. We like it that when you pitch the ball in a good area for your delivery type, the place marker will be green. It turns yellow if the batsmen is still likely to be deceived, and it's red if it's a poor delivery and likely to be carted to the fence. Just as in Cricket 2007, you have to let go of the ball before the rising power meter crosses the line, otherwise it's a No Ball.
The shoulder buttons also give you instant access to your field settings, with a few default attacking and defensive shapes to choose from, as well as the option to set a custom field. This way it's easy to change the field with the flick of a button before each ball, if you desire to be that finicky.
If you've keen to swing some wood, then you'll enjoy the simple but effective batting system. Just like Boony, you'll soon discover how to dispatch the ball out of the ground, saving you the need to run. You either play a ground shot or lofted shot, with the analogue stick determining the style of shot it is based on where you "aim". Using the small radar, you can set yourself to play shots between fieldsmen, or aim to smash the ball over the top if no one's on the rope. A confidence meter comes into play too, so you'll be more successful if you warm your batsmen up a bit before lashing out.
Batting may not have quite the same tactile appeal as EA's Century Stick, but there's still a satisfying feel to timing the ball and pushing off for a few runs. The small details do make a difference, and you'll enjoy hearing the batsmen actually call for runs. In fact, just to comment further on the audio, the actual match commentary is far less stilted than the triggered sound bites in EA's Cricket 07 - even if this game doesn't feature Mister R. Benaud - and we didn't notice any glaring errors, so props for that.
However, when it comes down to it, batting is too easy. The timing of your shots is forgiving enough that you can fairly easily crack boundaries and sixes almost regardless of the ball that's been pitched down at you. This is, of course, a classic flaw that's existed in almost every cricket game ever released. Working singles is obviously deemed too slow and ponderous by the devs, so games always tend to come down to smashing the big shots or leaving the ball entirely.
Playing against another human helps to remedy this problem somewhat, as you can be far more devious in your deliveries, quashing your opponent's desire to swing at everything. The ease of play highlights how much more of an arcade game Ricky Ponting 07 is over EA's Cricket. It regularly eschews realism for snappy play, and in doing so probably aims a little too low. Either that or the AI is simply nowhere near as good as it could be.