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What's the story?
The Ashes, after a long wait, are all set to get underway on Thursday as Australia and England face off in Test cricket's most iconic and celebrated rivalry. Big Ant Studios, the makers of the famous Don Bradman Cricket series, recently released the Ashes Cricket game that allows fans to play with their real likenesses of their favourite Australian and English cricketers, featuring their real faces and names.
Due to licensing issues, other nations and their players have not been included in the game. However, fans can still play with other teams such as the Indian cricket team and players through the 'Community Area' option in the game.
The feature allows users to upload and download user-edited names and likenesses, which means that fans can easily create their in-game versions of their favourite players and play the game with them. Thus, any user can create likenesses of the Indian cricket team players as well as other nationalities and share them with the rest of the world.
Here is a likeness of Virat Kohli made by a user:
In case you didn't know
Ashes Cricket is the first-fully licensed cricket game by Big Ant Studios, which has seen the developers work closely with the England and Australia cricket boards to provide gamers the best possible experience of cricket.
The heart of the matter
The game released earlier this month and has received a number of positive reviews on the internet. It is available to play on PS 4, XBox One and PC, and along with the main Ashes series, it will have a number of other game modes as well.
The user can play different kinds of matches, such as five-over games along with full-fledged international tours consisting of a mix of Tests, ODIs and T20s. The game will also feature a career mode where players can make their way up the ranks all the way to international cricket.
What's next?
With the game released recently, one can expect it to become extremely popular among fans across the world.
Author's take
Cricket, when it comes to gaming, has lagged behind other popular sports but with Ashes Cricket and the features it offers, the bar has certainly been set for what every cricket game must have.
