Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 (Xbox)

I suspect that some of the negative comments that have been posted here come more from frustration than anything. BLIC is really a game that requires genuine knowledge of how the game works, and especially as the levels progress it gets harder and harder. The bowling is particularly brilliant, allowing for genuine tactics and skill. The problem is of course that if you are unfamiliar with cricketing tactics then you will get hit for six more than likely. Some of the EA brigade have written reviews here condemning the lack of liscenced names. While this is very marginally irritating ingame, it is nothing that cannot be corrected by half an hour with the edit feature (the good thing about cricket is that there arent really that many players to edit!!) and certainly isnt worth sacrificing the rest of this game for.

BLIC only has international sides, but has several competitions and challenges to keep you interested for quite a while, with unlocks and trophies along the way. The gameplay is a little non-lifelike, and that is my main concern. Run outs will only happen at the wicket-keeper's end, which isnt really a problem but would be more exciting if the programmers had found a way to work realistic run-outs in.

The World Cup is an enjoyable challenge, with a trophy for the cabinet if you win. The only slight nag is that the licenced teams are hopelessly out of date. So if you still hold a faint dream of batting with Nasser Hussain in the World Cup final then this is your chance. Otherwise keep him off and put in Collingwood and your career player, once you've got him up to scratch (more on that later). Other players in the England side include Stewart and Caddick.

The confidence feature ingame is a brilliant aspect, and one that becomes more and more apparant as you increase the level. Because it is far more difficult to time your shots when your batsman is low in confidence, or to get full speed and swing when your bowler is low, test level (the highest of four levels) really is the hardest because confidence plummets if you get hit on the head or hit for six. Interestingly you will also likely find that you get hit for six less on the higher levels, at least to start with, unless you are bowling with someone who doesnt know which end to aim at of course... The reason is that the batsman's confidence will be much lower at test level than at village level, so they will be less likely to try anything stupid straight off (and more likely to get out if they do).

If I were to make a criticism, it would be regarding swing. Anyone who's watched Simon Hughes on Channel 4 will know that few bowlers can really swing the ball, fewer still can get it to go both ways, and even fewer can do the mystical "reverse swing". Now I know this is only a computer game, but it is a bit of a shame that when everything else is so precise and accurate, Codemasters have rather let this go out of the window. Yes some players can swing the ball more than others, but to a large extent any bowler can do it, and both ways at that, AND from the first ball! Its a pedanticism I know...

The other thing that I would certainly change about this is the menu music. There is only one track, a sort of slightly down-beat equivalent of the menu music on Pro Evolution. And it keeps playing over and over. With this being mult-platform there is no option to add your own music, and that is a real shame.

However you probably know by now that when a reviewer resorts to complaining about the menu music, he must be running short on things to moan about. For example as hard to believe as it is, the commentary is really quite interesting, being like real cricket commentary and going off into discussions about players and so forth (most noticeably about the great Brian Lara!); the career player feature is also excellent, wherein you create a player but are only allotted so many points for his basic skills. He earns more as he takes wickets or makes runs, or both if he is an all-rounder like little simark, my progidy.

Then there's the World XI challenge, where you play the world XI as each successive team in the then One Day rankings, with the reward of unlocking the world XI to play the classic XI if you succeed. And the classic matches - a chance to play in some of the great matches, usually only for a key part such as avoiding the famous England collapse in the first Ashes test, or scoring Garfield Sobers' six sixes. And if like me you are quite young and still learning about the history of the game, there's a good chance you'll learn a lot from these, and the fascinating photographs that you unlock.

If you were to assume that this was the cricketting equivellent of Pro Evolution Soccer, you wouldnt be far wrong. There is a game clearly made by football fans just to be a full-on footballing experience.

Brian Lara International Cricket is just the same. Only with cricket.

GOOD POINTS:
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+ Most realistic cricket game EVER
+ Easy to pick up and play straight away
+ All the real names & kits appear in ICC competitions
+ Highly addictive once you get into it
+ Commentary from David Gower, Tony Greig, Iain Bishop & John Agnew
+ Animations are accurate
+ Controls are simple and easy to use
+ The animated duck!

BAD POINTS:
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- Graphics aren't the best
- AI at times can be frustrating (including stupid dropped catches)
- You have to edit all the names when playing outside of ICC competitions

SUMMARY:-
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Overall a very entertaining and enjoyable cricket game. If you are not into cricket, then dont bother, but if you are, then this is the game for you.

To bowl you decide where to start your run up from (normal or wide over the wicket, or around the wicket), select length and line, then your bowler starts his run up and you select the type of delivery from a menu (based on the type of bowler) and time your bowling gauge to set the ammount of pace (try too hard and you'll overstep the crease). Once the ball is in the air you use the triggers to apply swing or drift. It sounds like a lot of stages to the delivery, and I guess it is, but bowling is a very complex thing to reflect accurately in a game, and Codemasters have got it spot on in BL2005...it works very smoothly indeed and is both intuitive and realistic. Top marks.

Batting works just like other games too: move left and right in your crease awaiting the delivery (no ability to move down the wicket which is a shame...EA Cricket 2005 lets you do that) and then select and time your shot based on line, length and movement. It's as simple as that. Both batsman and bowler have to play themselves in and their confidence fluctuates throughout the game - getting hit in the box, or playing and missing will reduce the batsman's mindset; getting tonked for six over midwicket will demoralise the bowler. Weather conditions, ball condition, pitch condition are all purported to affect the dynamics of the game and, in the case of Brian Lara 2005, I actually believe that they do.

The animations of the various strokes, the delivery action, the run ups and the incidental things (fielders stretching, batters being hit by the ball) etc. are all really smoothly and beautifully recreated. The hook shot is just magnificently motion-captured, the last-second evasive action to a bouncer really captures the hostility of the real thing. The crowds and grounds are really nicely done too - with really effective blurring effect on the camerawork when the background goes out of focus. It really is very good indeed. As is the commentary. Aggers' and Boycott's commentary was one of the most outstanding features of the old PSOne game, and Codemasters have not taken a backward step in 2005 on the Xbox. There is great commentary from David Gower and Jonathan Agnew, with summaries by Tony Cozier and Ian Bishop. There are so many great things about this commentary: firstly, it sounds totally natural. It sounds like they're all ad libbing in a real game, not reading from a script. There is not too much of it - in EA Cricket 2005 Richie Benaud has verbal dairrhoea but, as all TV commentators should know, you need to say much, much less on TV than on radio. The Brian Lara commentators do this...but what they do say is invariably uncannily relevant to the play on the field, and it flows so naturally...at no time do you ever detect that it's being spliced together from a variety of clips. The one glaring shortcoming is that the commentators use very generic language, due to the lack of official licensing.

EA Sports have coughed up for the licensing of their Cricket 2005, and presumably locked out Codemasters. So you don't get 'real' players in the game, nor do you get real venues or real cricket organising boards. Commentators are forced to say, "A good delivery from the fast bowler", instead of "A good delivery from Harmison", or "the pitch looks a belter here in north London" instead of saying "Lord's". It's a very small issue, and doesn't spoil the game in any way, but it's just a little obvious at times. Similarly, you don't get the proper named players in the squads with realistic facial mapping like EA can boast. Instead you get, say, a blonde haired fast bowling all-rounder called something like 'Andrew Flantiff'; again, this is no big deal...there is a resemblance, the players play in the real life style of their soundalikes and you can just go in and edit all the player names anyway when you first fire up the game.

One nice little attention to detail though is the use of equipment brands. You can create your own player, and choose the make and model of bat - they're all there...Fearnley, Gray Nichols etc. You also get to choose the ball manufacturer...Kookaburra, Dukes...which is a lovely touch. Another great touch is the use of Hawkeye which gives you all the superb ball trajectories, wagon wheels etc. The result is a very, very 'televisual' experience. The saving, loading, player creation, team editing screens are all clear and intuitive - a massive improvement over the virtually unusuable and *UNSAVABLE* EA Cricket 2005.

Overall I can't fault Brian Lara 2005, Codemaster have created an exceptionally accessible and crisply presented game.