Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

Shane Warne

Shane Warne cricket has just been released on the Playstation in Australia.  It looks to be a huge hit for Codemasters and all cricket fans alike.  I have played it a fair bit already and I think that it is the best Cricket game on any system.  This is a great game for any person who is interested in all kinds of sport especially cricket.  It is what was missing from the gaming and sports scene.  I can't wait until it comes out on the PC.  When I purchased the game in a games store it was nearly sold out in its first day of release.  It has proved that a good cricket sim on console is what we need.  Even video stores have got their ten copies of SW99 and every time I go in they are all booked out.  The new Brian Lara Cricket demo has just been released for the PC.  I have downloaded this and I can say it is going to be huge for fans with a 3dfx card.  It looks and plays fantastic.  What a fabulous game!!!

Download the Brian Lara 3DFX demo from the fantastic http://www.codemasters.com

Click on link to see specifications for the Shane Warne Cricket game when it is released. Specs

On this page I have included a few screen shots and a review from the fantastic Playstation Gamer Magazine.

I have decided to dedicate a web page to this fantastic game from Codemasters. 

Click on image If you want to send me an 

Below are a couple of screenshots from Playstation Version of the game.
 
 

Playstation Gamer Review

Shane Warne Cricket 99

Platform: PlayStation
Category: Cricket Sim
Publisher: Ozisoft
Developer: Codemasters
Players: 1 - 2
 
 

Cricket on the PlayStation! Finally it's here! It's been a long time coming, but at last Codemasters have put the finishing touches on Shane Warne Cricket '99.

The first thing that you'll notice when playing Shane Warne Cricket '99 is the awesome attention to detail in the graphics. The grounds look absolutely stunning, and they're actually modelled on real stadiums to an extent. The Australian grounds are all fairly well reproduced, but the classic English grounds like Lords really look tremendous. You can't beat the West Indian grounds though - love those palm trees!

Shane Warne Cricket '99 features all the real names (but no Boonie - damn), countries and colour schemes. Each team has a squad of around 18 players, so if you're not happy with how Michael Slater is performing as your opening bastman, you can replace him with Stuart Law.

There's also the option of having the CPU select your top 11 players, and you'll find that different players are selected for different types of cricket - for example, Ian Healy is rarely selected in the one-day sides, but is always in the tests.

Although there are three main types of bowlers - pace bowlers, swing bowlers and spinners - for Shane Warne Cricket the pace and swing guys are sort of lumped together in the same category. To bowl, all you need to do is position a "floating circle" on the pitch, and the ball will land there (if your bowler isn't totally hopeless that is).

To start your run up, all you need to do is hit any button, which will decide what type of delivery the unfortunate batsman will receive. You've got a nice range to chose from, from blisteringly quick bouncers to deceptively slow yorkers. For the spinners, you can't stop Warnie's leg breaks and flippers!

Batting is just as easy as bowling, and a LOT more fun. Knocking out a guy's middle stump is nice, but smashing his quickest bowl straight back over his head for six is even better, don't ya think?

Even a total novice should be able to bat successfully in Shane Warne Cricket. All you need to do is press the D-pad in the direction you want to hit the ball, and press a button to swing. Much like bowling, each button performs a different stroke - one is a defensive stroke, one a ground stroke, one a lofted stroke.

[A quick tip - if you don't want to get out in your first ten balls, keep the lofted shots to a minimum.]

Once you've had enough practice and selected your team, checked out the pitch conditions (unfortunately, without Tony Greig), won or lost the coin toss and listened to some pre-game commentary from Geoffrey Boycott, who likes to inform us about the state of the "creek-it peetch", it's game time! And this is where Shane Warne Cricket '99 really shines. The whole atmosphere of cricket is fairly well recreated in Shane Warne Cricket '99. As your bowler runs in, occasionally the crowd will chant and cheer in anticipation, and if you smash the ball to the boundary the crowd will cheer accordingly. The commentary is also of a quite good quality, and although a few comments are repeated quite often, it's generally quite realistic.

The fielding aspect to Shane Warne Cricket is the one let-down to this game. The default setup is to have the CPU automatically field for you, which results in your fielders reacting quite slowly. If you select manual fielding, the distance of the camera from the fielder sometimes makes it impossible to work out where the ball is actually going, and therefore, extremely hard to judge.

Also, you can't switch which fielder you're controlling once the ball has been hit! This really sucks, and results in quite a few marathon runs for the unlucky fielder who's been selected to chase the ball.

Apart from the flaws in the field, Shane Warne Cricket is a top-notch game that should be running off the shelves around Christmas time. More exciting than the real thing, that's for sure.

Hyperactivity: 8.8/10
 

Ewan Corness
Playstation Gamer