Ashes Cricket 2009 – coming in August

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Cricket games are never all that great, let’s be honest. Graham Gooch World Class Cricket on the Amiga was okay but the batsmen would run without prompting causing numerous, unnecessary, run-outs and many a smashed joystick.

But if there was ever a games console designed for a cricket simulator then surely it’s the Wii? Ashes Cricket 2009 by Codemasters will put that theory to the test when it is released next month.

The gameplay has the potential to be excellent. Codemasters is promising various shot types when batting including drives, cuts and slogs – hopefully you’ll also be able to reverse-sweep for six, KP stylee. When fielding, players will be able to polish the ball to affect its movement and bowlers will have to turn the remote during their action in order to swing the ball.

The features of the game sound pretty impressive too – the top eight test playing nations will be there along with real kits and real names. So no Harry Flentoff or Rocky Punting. All formats of the game will be present including tests and 20/20 and they’ll be played in 10 real stadiums with commentary by Jonathan Agnew, Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Ian Bishop and Tony Greig. No Bumble unfortunately.

Pre-order it from Game on the Wii for £29.99. It’s £37.99 on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and £24.99 on the PC – although they don’t sound as much fun as the Wii version.

Atari abandons filesharing lawsuits

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Following the news the other week that some pensioners had been accused of downloading pirated games, Atari has abandoned its ‘sue-your-own-customers’ strategy, developed in conjunction with trigger-happy lawyers Davenport-Lyons.

Although the company maintains that it will “always retain and reserve the right to protect our intellectual property from illegal copying and piracy”, this is a positive step from a company realising that the only thing it’s actually getting out of the campaign of intimidation is bad press.

Will other companies follow? Codemasters is the biggest games publisher still associated with the troubled law firm. With any luck, it will wake up too, and realise that bringing legal action against its customers is far more trouble that it’s worth. There are many other options for making money with games.

I’m off to go buy some Atari games.

Atari (via TorrentFreak)

Related posts: Pensioners ‘caught’ pirating games | Atari and Codemasters join video game piracy legal fight – £300 fines on the way to 25,000 game-sharers

Atari and Codemasters join video game piracy legal fight – £300 fines on the way to 25,000 game-sharers

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It would appear that yesterday’s shaming of poor Isabella Barwinska was no one-off – some of the largest players in gaming are joining up to (try to) eliminate online piracy.

Atari and Codemasters, who make half the stuff you’ve played during your lifetime, have joined Topware and another couple of companies in targeting P2P-using game pirates, and will, according to The Times, start sending out automatic £300 fines…