With the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England well under way, there would obviously be no better time for EA Sports to release Cricket World Cup 99. The Cricket World Cup is the biggest event in cricket’s calendar and the cricketing nations will have all guns blazing to take the coveted trophy home. The game of cricket, I feel, is accurately represented and superbly presented in this well-rounded game.

EA Sports uphold their name consistently and have kept their games with top-notch graphics for many years. Although Cricket World Cup does not keep up with topdogs, Fifa 99, NHL 99 and NBA Live 99, it still does hold its own in most aspects. In today’s times, a game, especially one involving sport, cannot go without 3D acceleration. Luckily for us cricket fans, Cricket World Cup 99 does not go without support for Direct3D. The graphics easily surpass the former best cricket game, Brian Lara Cricket. The colours are vibrant and bright and seem to welcome you to the game. The cricket players are well motion-captured and most of their movements are realistic. There are only a few minor glitches, which will usually be ignored. As this is the official game for this year’s World Cup, much attention to detail has been applied. Digital stadiums are replicas of their concrete counterparts and are intricate in their design.

As you start a match, the first thing, which will strike you, is the commentary. The pre-match comments are excellent and sound completely natural. The commentators have natural pauses and are not unnaturaly fluent. At first, I was pleased with the crowd volume and their ambience seemed just about right. After a good time of play, they become an annoyance, as they seem to just sound like a background blur. This problem, however, can be quickly rectified with a run to the options.

As I mentioned earlier, the attention to detail is great. Everything is correct from the batting/bowling statistics, to the correct number for each player on their shirts. Most players have a photograph to accompany their statistics. As usual, there are many options to change to customise the game to your liking. The biggest problem with gameplay with all previous cricket games was the inability to control your actions well. Fortunately, a good system has been used with Cricket World Cup. Excluding the directional pad, there are only two keys to use. By simply pressing the keys simultaneously or tapping either key one can access various shots and other options. For batting, there is a “batting cone”. This is a coloured field of direction, which shows the general direction in which you will hit the ball. The batting cone is a great improvement on the use of directional keys, which were used in all previous cricket games. The batsmen can move around the crease and pitch with ease and you have a choice of playing a stroke, defensive stroke or a power stroke. Bowling has also been made very controllable. You are able to control the amount and direction of the swing or spin, depending on the type of bowler.

There are no LAN, modem or serial connection modes of multiplayer available. If you wish to play against an opponent, it would have to be done over one computer, using either the keyboard, mouse or a gamepad.

Cricket World Cup 99 is technically good in all aspects. It delivers what it aims for constantly. Yet, there is still a problem, which affects all cricket games - they get tedious and boring quite quickly. The problem lies in the fact that you are only part of the game for a very short while. Once you play your shot, or bowl the ball, you are more or less not in control. In a game like Fifa 99, you are constantly controlling what happens. This problem cannot be easily solved, as it really is not the game’s fault as it mirrors the natural state of cricket.

In conclusion, I would have to say that I am impressed by Cricket World Cup. It easily tops Brian Lara Cricket to take the crown as the best cricket game available.