EA Cricket 11

Cricket is all about timing.

Of course, by 'timing', I mean players getting a fix on how long the buns need to be in the oven if they're going to be nice and toasty in time for the tea interval at 4pm, or fielders managing to squeeze in that extra scone before heading back out onto the oval.

Bizarrely, EA has elected not to base its long-running cricket sim on the one element of play where the English tend to dominate – sitting down with a nice cream cake whilst browsing the Daily Telegraph – but, instead, on the actual art of the game itself.

Rather than taking the 'traditional' approach of tasking you with thwacking the ball as it pelts towards your face, EA Cricket 11 breaks play down into a series of gauges.

Some of them you have to manage, while others simply illustrate the actions of the opposing team.

For example, after lining your opening batsman up with the projected path of the ball (handily marked on the grass with a circle), you can then shift the level of aggression behind your attempt up or down by moving a gauge on the right of the screen.

All of these decisions have to be in place before the ball leaves the bowler's hand, with the most crucial element - that of making contact – resting on your ability to pick out the sweet spot in a horizontally-darting gauge.

Just not cricket

Bowling, likewise, relies on a combination of positioning and timing – the latter once more handled by a sliding barometer, where three green areas determine both the accuracy and the direction of the throw.

But while everything comes together nicely on the surface (the 3D visuals, in particular, give the matches a particularly swish look) there's a distinct feeling throughout that the game's take on cricket isn't the deepest.

There seems to be little link between opting to take the riskier, more powerful shots and finding yourself caught out, while fours and sixes also seem to come along at random.

Despite that absence of clear causality - and the inescapable similarity between EA Cricket 11 and its predecessor - there's still much to enjoy here.

Some of the modes on offer, including the scenario-based Test match mode, really bolster its set up, and the matches themselves are engaging, even if they lack authenticity.

But when it comes to offering a credible take on the game, EA Cricket 11 could have done with more baking time in order to hit the same heights as the balls that readily fly over its boundaries.