There’s something incredibly special about playing a top sports game set in a stadium that you love going to in real life. By looking at some of our favourite sports, we can find interesting examples of venues that have made the switch to the virtual world.
AFL Evolution and AFL2 Have Many Stadiums
As a fully licensed title, it’s no surprise to see that AFL Evolution has all the big teams and stadiums featured. Released in 2017 by Tru Blu Entertainment for various consoles, the developers at Wicked Witch Software have done an excellent job in bringing this sport to life with faithful recreations of the venues that look particularly good during evening games.
AFL fans have been patiently waiting this year for the release of AFL 23. This latest game from Big Ant Studios and Nacon has finally been made available on some formats after being delayed several times, although Xbox gamers need to wait a bit longer to try it.
Based on the 2023 AFL and the 2022 AFLW season, there are 38 stadiums here, ranging from the Adelaide Oval to the Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval and everything in between. This review is a good example of what people are saying about AFL23, with the graphics praised but a lot of complaints about bugs and the general gameplay.
It could be argued that we’re still waiting on a genuinely great game that captures the complexity and intensity of this sport. However, if you’re looking to see realistic stadiums and to play with your favourite team, both games we’ve looked at have a lot of positive points worth considering.
Ashes Cricket and Cricket 07 Go to Australia
Ashes Cricket was released in 2017 by Big Ant Studios to generally positive reviews. It’s a fully licensed recreation of that year’s Ashes series between Australia and England that lets you play as either team. This means that you can choose players such as Steve Smith and David Warner or else play as the likes of Joe Root and James Anderson.
All the stadiums from this series are included, meaning that you can try out your batting and bowling in places like the Gabba and Melbourne Cricket Ground. If you prefer a simpler approach, the list of online pokies includes the Cricket Legends game. Played in an unidentified stadium and with various players as paying symbols, this is a simple game of chance with a random outcome. You’ll also find sports-themed pokies based on football and gridiron, among others.
Another cricket option comes with Cricket 07 from EA Sports, which is still one of the best-loved cricket games out there. This is more to do with the gameplay and the wealth of options than the stadium graphics, as there’s not a lot of visual differences to make each venue stand out.
While the graphics aren’t particularly great and the bowling controls are slightly awkward according to many reviews, batting is classed as being genuine fun and intuitive. You can make a tour of Australia, play the 06/07 Ashes Tour, or play domestic games in Australia.
F1 2019 and Forza Motorsport 7
Many motor racing games have races set in Australia, and F1 2019 from Codemasters is a good example because the season starts at the Albert Park circuit in Victoria. This is where the Australian Grand Prix is held each year and the game faithfully recreates the street circuit and public roads nature of this track.
F1 2019 has a total of 21 circuits, since it covers all the venues used in that season’s F1 championship. An interesting feature of this game is the way that it’s the first in the series to include driver transfers where the AI drivers switch between teams randomly. As with most sports games, it’s proved difficult for the developers to add authentic-looking spectators to generate atmosphere.
Forza Motorsport 7 is another racing game you might like to try. Like other games in this series from Turn 10 Studios, various tracks from across the planet are included. Among them, we can see the Bathurst option, based on the Mount Panorama Circuit where the Bathurst 1000 and Bathurst 12 Hour events are held.
Like the circuit at Albert Park, these are public roads when no racing is taking place, so it’s not a stadium as such but is still an exciting sporting venue. Considered as a challenging but rewarding track, it’s one of the highlights of the game. This online review calls it a semi-serious driving simulation but points out that you can also treat it as a fun, light-hearted racing game if you prefer.
These games are all terrific ways of exploring some of our favourite Australian sporting venues, although it’s clear that some developers have made a better attempt at capturing the excitement of our top stadiums than others have managed.
