Re: Ashes 2009 Game
Having tried the demo it's a good game, the best cricket game out of the box since BLC 99 but i'm not sure the batting is better than Cricket 04 on PC with AI/gameplay patches (I always simmed bowling on that though, was boring).
As Tim said, you never really feel like you are going to get a wicket when bowling, maybe in a longer match you could use a gameplan and then catch them out with a different ball every so often, if the AI was that good which I doubt it is.
I also hate the way that if you try putting too much pace on the ball you bowl no-balls, every game does that and it doesn't make much sense. Extra pace comes from upper body power, trying to overdo that would mean you would bowl off target, not plant your foot in the wrong place and bowl a no ball.
The AI batsmen seem to play impossible shots that if you tried you would have no chance of even connecting with the ball let alone hitting boundaries like they do...
The bowling speeds are wrong, one example is Broad being so slow (he can bowl 90mph in real life, i've hardly reached 80 on this, someone told me this has been fixed for the full version but i'll wait and see first, it's very important to me that they are right.
The fielding and running is shit, i've seen so many overthrows and needless run-outs in the fairly short time i've played the game. The umpires are blind as well, they use the third umpire on just about every run-out appeal.
Despite all that though it will probably be the only cricket game worth getting for a while, because EA are shit at making cricket games.