The biggest problem that most of us Brits have had with the Ashes is that we haven't been able to watch any of it. Sure, a well-timed redundancy has gifted some a bit of quality couch time in the working week, but for the majority of us nine-to-fivers, it's been a matter of crafty glances at the score updates via the BBC website when the boss isn't looking. Sure, there may be highlights to watch in the evening, but c'mon - watching cricket for an hour is like tuning into the football for a minute and a half! It just doesn't feel right. So, what do we do for the rest of the evening after we've watched our measly hour of highlights? Well, Codemasters are hoping we'll all spend it playing their first cricket game in nearly three years, Ashes Cricket 2009.

Based on the solid if unspectacular structure of Brian Lara's International Cricket 2007, Ashes Cricket 2009 takes that basic framework and improves upon it in nearly every department, making Ashes 2009 a very solid game of cricket and a pleasant way to while away those cricket free evenings and weekends. While cricket games have a more sporadic, dare I say opportunistic release schedule (EA Cricket 2007 being an obvious culprit) than the FIFAs and Maddens of this world, fans should allay their fears of a quick cash in on the part of Codemasters, as Ashes 09 offers up the best game of cricket yet released on console. That may seem like faint praise given the competition, but although far from perfect, this latest release successfully deputises for the real thing, offering up a pleasing substitute to actually watching the series play out on our television screens.

Ashes 09 is made up of the three primary disciplines of batting, bowling and fielding, each of which is easy enough to get to grips with via the deceptively simple control scheme; dig a little deeper though and the game's depth, especially when it comes to batting and bowling, quickly becomes apparent. Although filled with subtle nuances that pros will exploit and the uninitiated will remain blissfully unaware of, for the most part, success in Ashes 2009 comes down to one thing: timing.

Batting, the most instantly rewarding of the three primary disciplines is, at its simplest, a matter of positioning your batter on the crease and then choosing a shot type: attack, defend or loft. To successfully pull off any of these strikes, you're going to have to get your timing just right. Succeed and, regardless of what the bowler throws at you, the chances are you're going to get off a good shot; make a mistake however and a quick trip back to the dressing room is a very likely outcome. Beyond the basics of timing, shoulder button combinations allow for specific shots to be played from the front or back foot, while holding both leads to a quick step down the wicket, giving the opportunity to send poorly delivered balls deep into the crowd for some rather pleasing boundaries. I wouldn't suggest using this against fast bowlers, but for a poorly delivered spinner this quick charge can come in extremely handy. These modifiers also help your accuracy, potentially reducing the window for error when choosing the direction of your shot via the onscreen radar.

Of course, regardless of how well developed the batting system in Ashes 09 is, it would all be for nowt if the balance between batting and bowling hasn't been struck. Luckily, this is where Codemasters have made some of their biggest strides since Lara 07; although some will undoubtedly find fault in the significant move away from the Lara template, the change of emphasis from power to accuracy should please the majority of gamers. It is now easier to get a consistent line in your bowling, making the battle between bowler and batter a more tactical, balanced affair. Sure, there still aren't enough stumps taken down directly from bowling but a careful measure of timing and reading of the bowler is paramount if you don't want to see your batter caught in the slips or taken for a run out. It may be streamlined and even a little more rigid, but bowling and subsequently batting has become a more enjoyable affair for Codemasters' latest effort.

Bowling, like batting, is a matter of choosing a delivery type and then relying upon your timing for the quality of the actual delivery. While anyone can put down a decent delivery within moments of picking up the game, the key to long term success comes from the consistency of your deliveries. Getting the timing right one or twice is all well and good, but if you're going to really succeed then you're going to have to do it time and time again. Not only does this keep your opponent on the defensive but it also increases your confidence, allowing for a wider range of more dangerous bowling options.

Confidence is just one of the statistics that make up each player's base statistics, but while accuracy ratings and skill remain the same, the confidence system can change the quality of a batsman's stroke or a bowler's delivery mid-game. Put together a flurry of pitch-perfect deliveries or send a few balls towards the boundaries in a single over and your player's confidence sky rockets, leading to deadlier bowling or more aggressive and accurate batting. The system isn't perfect by any means - new batsmen are not affected by what the bowler has done to previous batsmen - but it does add extra tactical depth to both of the game's major disciplines.

As for that third discipline - you know, the one that nobody wanted to do back in high school sports lessons - it has been extremely streamlined for Ashes 09, stripping away some of the more unruly and awkward controls that mired Lara 07 and pretty much every other cricket game that has preceded it. Fielding is all but taken care of by the AI here, with only timed button presses for catches and basic fielding positions needed from you. If this sounds a bit simplistic, that's because it is. Maybe if fielding controls had ever been done well in the past, I might have a different view of this new approach; as it stands though, I found it an extremely pleasing change to the overall gameplay and a great way to put an even stronger emphasis on the best elements, namely batting and bowling. You still have to make sure the fielders are positioned correctly if you are aiming to take a stray edge, but there are no dodgy manual running controls and a bit of razzle dazzle via some nice camera angles and slo-mo animations for quick time catches has been added.

Although Ashes 09 has a wide range of gameplay options to suit the type of gamer and the kind of timeframe you are working with, the actual Ashes is understandably the biggest draw and the most polished event; with full licensing and very accurate recreations of all of the grounds, the Ashes series is recreated with pleasing accuracy, allowing those with the time to relive each and every over of the five game series. One day, twenty over and even five over events are also available from the menu, but none of these share the Ashes same level of licensing - you're just playing a twenty over match rather than a fully licensed Twenty20 event, for instance. That doesn't make them any less fun though, with five over events proving extremely exciting affairs for gamers looking for a bit of quick thrill gaming amidst Ashes 09's more pedestrian events. If you get bored of playing the basic events, there is also a plethora of challenges to complete, set by Ian Botham and Shane Warne no less. They may not be groundbreaking by any means, but they offer a welcome distraction while adding a little more longevity to the overall package. Ian and Shane also feature as the coaches, to help new players get into the swing of things as quickly as possible. Considering how important this coaching mode will be for the many gamers not 100% clued up on the sport or the controls, it's nice too see that Codemasters have made so much effort to make it as enjoyable as possible. The online mode, however, makes little impact; it's as bare a package as you are likely to find but it does the job for those looking for a bit of online action, allowing you to partake in any of the events in either ranked or unranked online matches.

Thankfully, the roster is just about as up to date as you could hope for, with editing options available if you wish to draft in or drop (*cough* Bopara *cough*) any of the big name players. Other international teams don't feature the same level of licensing, but editing comes to the rescue when needed. Sadly, as detailed as many aspects of the game are, especially when it comes to the Ashes test series, the same certainly cannot be said for player likenesses; I really don't know what happened here, but for all the accuracy and improved animations, even cover star Kevin Petersen looks nothing like the real thing, with few, if any, of the players from England or Australia looking even remotely similar to their real-life counterparts.

Although this is the undoubted low point of Ashes 09's visual package, it still struggles in comparison with some of the gaming world's more established sporting franchises. The in-game details are solid and the animations are hugely improved over Lara's stilted last generation movement, while the inclusion of in-game matchcards and Hawkeye really add a bit of much needed gloss to the presentation - yet there isn't a single aspect of the visuals that ever really wows you in a way that the big EA and 2K Sports games do. There are also some issues with slowdown and a strange delay between taking a wicket and the players in the team celebrating. On the audio front, the inclusion of Jonathan Agnew, Tony Greig, and Ian Bishop is a more than welcome addition and for the most part they do a fine job of calling the game, yet they do run out of lines and become a little repetitive too quickly for my tastes. Still, what lines they do have are delivered well.

Ashes Cricket 2009 might not be the prefect recreation of cricket that some might have hoped for, but it's a lot better than most people likely expected. By taking the already solid Brian Lara template and improving it in nearly every way, Codemasters have delivered the best cricket game to date, one that will surely keep both diehard fans of the sport and more casual observers of the Ashes series busy for quite a few months to come. Howzat?

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).