I thought I'd have a impulse pre-order for Ashes 2009… Yes, it was worth the money spent. I'm the kind of person where if something's on TV constantly, I would get the urge to play that e.g. Sport. Now that England and Australia are battling it out for the Ashes at present, while watching it on TV I feel like playing a cricket game on the console (if perhaps I can't do it in real life at 10 o'clock at night). Ashes Cricket 2009 satisfies this easily. The general game-play is good; You can play a 20/20 competition (overs can be shortened to 10 over or so [as a 10 over game still takes about an hour]), ODI's, Test matches, and of course, the Ashes. I feel that the batting part of the game is superb, as you can pick where you want to play your shot; and if you pick the wrong area to hit it from where the ball lands, you may miss it/get out. The bowling side of it is good, it makes you think, and bowl to your field… or else you'll get punished by the batsmen. The fielding is very easy, so no real need to worry about that. One of the ‘cool’ aspects of the game, is that when you are batting, if you constantly hit a cover-drive for 4 runs, the game will place a fielder out there to stop you hitting there. It does, however, have little replay value – although it does have online, you can't see your connection to other people and it is VERY VERY difficult to play if the ball freezes mid-way down the pitch and bowls your stumps. It is EXTREMELY easy to get the trophies – all you have to do is be Australia/England/another 5 star team vs. a team like Zimbabwe on Easy mode… and you'll have all the trophies in no time. Personally, once I get all the trophies, I probably won't play this game much/sell it as the only reason why I may play it in the future, is to satisfy my urge of batting for long periods of time. If you love cricket, you'll like the game, if you're not a fan of cricket/don't care, you should at least still buy it for an easy Platinum trophy.
