And wasn't like that in Cricket 07 - which I think provides a very good model for a cricket game using the Ashes licence (apart from gameplay, lack of online, graphics, etc). Using the in game editor you can't edit the existing player models (you can rename in the squad editor), but you can create new ones, insert them into the Australia/England squads replacing the existing players (so you could make the 'current' team that way if you really wanted) - and then they get included in the squad that plays.
Even better is the Ashes tour is actually the tour - when you play the 2007 Ashes as England, the first match isn't the first test - it's the tour match against the PM's XI - as it should be.
There are some restrictions - you get unlicensed names for the otherwise licensed players in the World XI - which is how they handled the situation like the fake IPL teams in IC2010 and presumably this game. Though the game lets you both rename that player to the correct name or even manually insert the correct licensed player into the team to replace the unlicensed one, even if you couldn't I would rather be able to play with a fake name than to have them siloed off.
This flexibility and depth doesn't seem as restrained by the licences for Australia/England that Cricket 07 had. I can't see how it totally changed for 2009, or even now.
A very good point. Cricket 2007 had more features than Ashes 2009 and IC 2010, except for online (although that never worked in IC 2010).
An Ashes tour is a marathon, not a sprint. Merely playing 5 tests seems a bit underwhelming. So much importance is given to squad selection and a lot of that is based on the tour matches, particularly this series. There are also fast bowler fitness issues.
I'd much rather play an unofficial tour of Australia to England with all tour matches included, a la BA cricket, than an official tour with nothing but the five tests.
If the ECB and CA decided to be c-nuts with Trickstar/Transmission, then okay, but if anything this goes to show that licensed games aren't necessarily the way to go in cricket if the boards are this restrictive.
To the many fans here from the sub-continent, I think they would love to know what makes this game warrant a purchase over BA? The cover of Clarke and Cook will help it sell in Australia and England but not elsewhere.
The sub-continental international teams are unlicensed, as are the domestic teams (fine, so is BA) but Ashes only has a player editor whereas BA has a player creator, editor and most importantly, sharer.
So, to get more specific and hypothetical, say I'm an Indian kid with only an xbox 360. I want to play India vs Pakistan. The game can't be modded on the 360 (and maybe not on PC, it depends on how much effort the Planetcricket modding community puts in). Does this mean for me to play India vs Pakistan with correct names, attributes and appearances I'll have to do everything myself?
If my mate also wants to play India vs Pakistan on his own xbox, does he have to do everything himself too? What about the IPL where there are suddenly many teams to edit?
If this is the case, then it really seems hard to justify a purchase in India, particularly for the reported price online of 2x the price of GTA IV when that was brand new.
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