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POSTED 20/4/14


DON BRADMAN CRICKET 14

Tru Blu Games
Xbox 360 (also on PS3)

He was more than just a batsman, he was something like a tide. He was more than just one man, he could take on any side.

Paul Kelly sung of Sir Donald Bradman thusly. He was a bloke roundly regarded (and possibly triangularly and squarely, too) as Australia’s greatest ever cricketer. Erm, Bradman, not Kelly.

Don Bradman Cricket 14 (we’ve no idea what happened to 1-13...) is the latest videogame incarnation of a sport that’s proven difficult for anybody to tackle successfully – save for an ace outing on the SNES back when Dave Warner was just a suburban boy.

It does things a bit differently, and with much practice – just like the real thing - its way with analog wiggly/waggly wielding gradually makes sense. Not that you won’t still swear at it like a Boonie when it doesn’t do what you think you told it to do.

You actually can’t swear at it like a real cricketer straight out of the box, unless that’s Mr Bradman, and we’re sure that he was above such vulgarity. Ah, but there’s a sneaky option whereby you can download “custom” teams. Lo, real players appear in real teams – including T20 - looking like they should (more or less). While morally dubious, as gamers we applaud this.

Mind you, this skulduggery’s let down by a commentary team that can, at our politest, be described as curious. A soccer bloke and a gee-gee race caller. Umm?! Surely a few slabs could have been slung to some real cricket commentators? Worse, it’s almost entirely “the batting team”, “the bowling side” and such. Occasionally, you may hear a real name, but ultimately the commentary’s cack and bowls the whole production out.

Still, until somebody’s smart enough to realise that we want an uncomplicated pick-up-and-play cricket game, this is the best around. Just like Mr Bradman apparently was.

take me back to the start...

 



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ALL WRITTEN CONTENT COPYRIGHT © AMY FLOWER 2008-2018. GAME IMAGES COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE GAMES COMPANIES.