Cricket 2005 (PS2)

If you want a game where you can have a thrash about with your mates, using the 6 hit button most of the time and generally scoring a lot of runs quickly, then keep playing 2004 and stay well clear of this game (or maybe try the Lara game which I guess I will try in a couple of weeks).

If you want to play 50 over games as minimum length, and work at the game, then 2005 is very rewarding.

On the short over versions of the Cricket 2005 this game should never have got off the testers table (if it ever got there in the first place). The opposition will smack you around from ball one, and you will be forced to slog, generally getting out for an amazingly low total. If you play the 50 over version, then the CPU score is far more realistic (180 - 250 perhaps) and you can spend time working singles, square driving for 4, and lofting the odd half volley for 4/6. In this version the game is fun for the purist, if a little time consuming (last night I chased 185 set by the West Indies and it took about 1hr 45mins for my innings). It actually seems easier to bat on the longer version, and its actually quite realistic. If the ball is good, you probably can't score off it, and will just drive it to a fielder. If you get a bit of width, you can drive it through the covers. So its a bit more like real life. Practice a bit and the timing will come.

Having said that, no idea why they added the 20/20 version, as its totally worthless. Seems like EA needed to look a little closer at how the game plays in each form.

There are some irritations. The "bowling marker" often gets lost behind the batsman's pads, or the umpires head, meaning you are not sure if you need to block or duck. The fielders are far too quick across the ground, and the running assistant is often too slow to tell you a run is on. The chances of you getting the CPU to edge a ball is as likely as us winning the ashes, but the CPU keeper often takes flying catches in front of where 3rd slip would be. Playing the ball off your pads to the leg side generally results in you being caught (maybe I still need to work on my timing). And the commentary.............oh dear.

But after being ready to bin this a week ago, I am now quite a fan. Only buy it if you have the time to invest in it, that's my advice.

Cricket 2005 seems to go in completely the opposite direction. This is an incredibly hard game to get in to. It takes days of perseverence, painstaking trial-and-error, and a lot of swearing at the TV before you even pull together your first win.
Some fans may claim this is good because at least the game is challenging. I agree a challenge is good; you should not be able to beat Australia with the USA on Medium difficulty after only a few days. But at the same time, you should at least be able to avoid getting destroyed by the USA, on Easy difficulty, with the World One-Day XI!!

The hardest aspect is batting. There are a variety of shot selections based on combinations of the 4-buttons and the left-analog stick. The L1 button also acts as a "six-hit" button.
As the bowler approaches, a small marker appears on the wicket in front of the batsman. This indicates the line of the bowl. The marker in relation to your batsman determines which shot you should play, i.e. if the ball is pitched short you should (apparently) play a back-foot shot. This is all explained in the training nets. Play the wrong shot and you will probably be walking to the pavillion. But that in itself isn't the hard part. To actually play the shot properly, you have time your button presses with nano-second accuracy. Press too early and you risk getting under the ball and looping it into the air. Press too late and you will scuff it into the ground. Either way, you will get no power behind it whatsoever. There is no meter or indicator to give you any idea of when you should press the buttons. You are just expected to know. So, even on Easy level, as a novice, boundaries are extremely rare - and even single runs are few and far between. But be careful with single runs; the fielders double-up as olympic 100m sprinting champions and they have terminator-style throws, which makes run-outs quite frequent.
The "six-hit" button throws the weight of your batsman behind the shot in an attempt to put the ball out of the ground. In reality, unless you have timed the shot with atomic precision, it loops the ball rather tamely into the hands of one of the fielders. You are supposed to wait until your "batsman confidence" is up before trying this, but considering the first thing the batting team normally does to my bowler is spank him for 6, it doesn't seem quite fair.

I've never owned a Cricket game before, so I am not going to compare this to "Brian Lara" or one of the other incarnations of EA Cricket.
The graphics are fine to me, the teams all seem to be licenced, there is a pretty good selection of stadiums (bit thin on the ground outside of the UK) and the choice of matches is good.

For me, this game is spoilt purely by it's insane hardness. The Easy level on this game should have been used to increase the margin of error for timing a shot (I can't actually figure out what the difference between Easy and Medium is!).
This is not a game you can throw on when your mates come round, and for me this is a crying shame. Like the sport itself, it should be enjoyed while chilling out on a summer afternoon with a few beers - not screaming at your TV in frustration.

This game features rain, which adds to the realism, but this mucks up the number of overs. For example, if 3 balls have been bowled in that over and it begins to rain, when it stops, that bowler bowls another full over and so 9 balls have been bowled, puting one team at a clear disadvantage in a one day match.

The create a player is the same as in Fifa and Rugby 05, but has been fine tned a little. You can set the bowling type, the batting hand, the fielding position, and the strength of te batsman. You can also choose from around 150 bats for your batsman, although there is no licensing here, unlike Brian Lara 05.

Overall this is a good game, but if I were you, I'd go for Brian Lara 05 as it is a much better, more involved and realistic game.

Thankyou for reading, I hope this has been helpful to you.