Get cricked on: Don Bradman Cricket 17 released

I will be very excited to see a futuresport game which does for cricket what Rocket League did to... football? Hockey? I want cricket with robots and/or cars, basically. 100 Foot Robot Cricket. Crocket League. That sort of thing. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for regular vidcricket. Don Bradman Cricket 17 [official site] has arrived on PC, simulating the game with the best theme song in all sportdom. I've picked at the game's demo over a few months and yeah, of course it doesn't feel anything like actually playing cricket but it feels like a decent enough approximation in that abstracted sports game way.

It's... a cricket video game? You do that cricket stuff, which looks like cricket but doesn't at all remind me of cricking in the park with my pals on the sunny afternoon with a couple beers inside me and Britney pounding on the stereo.

Don Bradman is, of course, the legendary Australian mob boss who invented cricket as a cover for his heavies strolling around town with bats slung over their shoulders.

Don Bradman Cricket 17 is £39.99/45,99€/$49.99 on Steam. That's where you can also grab the demo, which includes training modes and lets you fiddle with player and stadium creators. The demo's been out for ages, updated as development on the main game progressed, which was interesting to see.

I do like the character creator in Don Bradman Cricket, which now includes female characters. Like Grand Theft Auto Online, it encourages the creation of people with very human imperfections through a wide variety of options for cauliflower ears, wrinkles, pimples, and so on. My crickmen look interesting, and feel like they've spent a lot of time in the sun. Obviously there's a lot of fun to be had in creating a version of yourself from an alternate universe where you dedicated your life to cricket:

Ah, I do miss those freckles.