A good delivery rendered harmless thanks to some skilful batting

Codemasters have long presided over the virtual cricket scene with various incarnations of an old game engine originally licensed from Audiogenic and a Brian Lara endorsement to boot. Undeterred, Electronic Arts come in to bat...
Andy Smith

EA, eh? Who have they signed up then?
No-one in particular, but Cricket World Cup '99 has the licence to the whole tournament. That means real teams, all the real players and the grounds themselves. The actual cricket World Cup is being held here in England over a six-week period commencing on May 14 at Lord's.

Yeah, but the Codies have been doing cricket games for years...
True. EA are going to have to come up with a decent engine themselves if they're to compete on an even playing field, and they reckon they've got just the thing at the heart of their game. Producer Michael de Plater is particularly happy with the game's interface. "We have spent a great deal of pre-production time focusing on the interface of the game," he said, by way of reinforcement.

But we all know it's how well you re-create the ball's movement...
And EA reckon they've got the most accurate recreation of that to date - down to seam action, degradation of the ball, plus real spin as well as climate effects. They're also proud of the way the batter can make 'true shots' depending on the angle of the bat.

Sound's impressive.
Doesn't it just. "Cricket World Cup '99 is going to be a genuine next-generation interactive sports experience," said Mr de Plater, who, as you'll recall, is the game's producer.