Cricket 07 swings in

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[Multi] EA's willow-banger is ready for a new innings

Tuesday 12 September 2006
EA Sports Cricket 07 is kitting up for a release on PC and PS2 this November, bringing brand new controls to the slogging series with the Century Stick system.

Thanks to its intuitive use of the two analogue sticks, this new system will "change the way all fans approach gameplay," according to developer and publisher EA. So you'll need a gamepad for your PC if you want the full experience.

The Century Stick controls sound like a brilliant addition to the series. As the bowler delivers the ball you select a back or front foot stroke with the left stick, before nudging the right stick to set the direction and power of the stroke. You can gently push the stick to produce a soft tap and poke the ball for a swift single, or push it all the way to perform a full swing and smash the bowler for six.

After last year's slightly unresponsive batting, Cricket 07 solves the problem with a useful timing gauge, so you'll know how well - or how terribly - you play each shot.

Cricket 07 will also feature a behind-the-wicket view for more comfortable batting, newly recorded commentary from Mark Nicholas and Richie Benaud, and international, county, limited-overs, Twenty20, Test and Ashes matches.

Brilliantly, Cricket 07 adds on-the-fly field shuffling, too, so you don't have to break from play to create a batsman-pressuring fielding arrangement. Everything seems in place for a real smasher, and we're desperate to have a slog at the exciting new controls, so expect to see Cricket 07 bounce up again very soon.

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.