Game Review: International Cricket Captain 2013

For those of you who are not familiar with ICC, the game is a management simulation. Basically it lets you take over as the captain of a team and lead them towards world domination or just plain mediocrity. So if you wanted to captain India or Yorkshire, or, even, Victoria Bushrangers, here’s your chance to do that!

New Features

International Cricket Captain 2013 brings about a few new features. As always, the features aren’t all that groundbreaking from the previous editions, but they are nevertheless welcomed and add a new edge to the game.

KP, Hobbs and Botham in the same team!

The ‘all-time greats’ is one of the new game options and lets you pick your own all-time great in a custom match or series and play. So if you wondered just how powerful a batting line-up with Sunil Gavaskar, Don Bradman and Viv Richards would be, then here’s the arena to test that out. There are also five classic Ashes matches that you can take control of and rewrite history!

Another one of the features that we feel needs to be mentioned is the option to choose which teams to captain. Instead of captaining a team in all formats (T20/Limited overs/Tests), the game now gives the option for the player to select his preferred format and play just that while the AI would captain the team in the other formats. Also, there are more options with different teams for different formats, and one can even select the opposition team.

Ian Bell’s form – better in real life.

The stats department got a little better yet again, and, though not comprehensive as ‘Cricket Coach’, it does warrant a mention. The graphics haven’t improved much, but this game isn’t for graphics. The simulation of the matches are more realistic, and, with every edition, ICC are slowly closing the gap between virtual reality and reality.

Positives

• Enhanced match engine and AI. More realistic rendering of matches and results.• New game options in ‘all time greats’ and classic Ashes scenarios• Improved player selection options• Option to chose preferred format of the game to captain• Better online play

Negatives

• No notable improvement in graphics or the UI (but that’s not what this game is about)

Score – 4/5

Our Take – While new editions of ICC seldom change much from the previous editions other than the packaging, this time there are quite a few new features to take note of. For a cricket fan, this is one of the best game you’ll get your hand on in the sports management genre.