Brian Lara International Cricket 2005

Infobox VG| title = Brian Lara International Cricket 2005


developer = Swordfish Studios
publisher = Codemasters
designer =
engine =
series = Brian Lara Cricket
released = July 2005
genre = Sports
modes = Single player, Multi player
ratings = PEGI: 3+
platforms = Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2
media =
requirements = Windows: 1 GHz, 256MB RAM, Windows 98 or higher
input = Keyboard, Gamepad

"Brian Lara International Cricket 2005" ("BLIC") (also known as "Ricky Ponting Cricket" in Australia and New Zealand) is a cricket video game from Codemasters, available on Xbox, PS2 and Windows PC platforms. released on 21 July, 2005, which was the first day of the 2005 Ashes series. The game is followed by Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 (Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007 in Australia and New Zealand and Yuvraj Singh International Cricket in India).

Details

This game is the follow up to "Brian Lara Cricket '99" (also known as "Shane Warne Cricket '99" in Australia and New Zealand). It contains the 2003 Cricket World Cup in Africa and the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. These two competitions are licensed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and contain official player names, faces, kits, badges and sponsors. All other modes are unofficial as the rights for these belong to EA Sports and therefore some players and kits are made up; for example Graham Thorpe becomes "G Thrip" and Shane Warne becomes "S Worde". The only correct names in these modes are Brian Lara himself, (shown as "B Lara"), and Australian Captain Ricky Ponting (similarly shown as R Ponting) [Although in the ICC events the names of the players are spelled correctly.] . The game is also first to include licensed bats such as the Kookaburra Diablo and the GM Purist. The game takes the perspective of the normal cricket TV coverage, other views and displays in the game also try to emulate TV coverage of cricket, for example Hawk-Eye, an electronic system used to track cricket balls as they are bowled is featured in the game.

Game modes

There are a few types of cricket that can be played in the game. Test match, test series, one day match, world cup, ICC Champion's Trophy and practice mode. Along with the types of cricket there are several difficulty settings. Slog mode, village, county and test. With each difficulty bowling and batting decreases in ease. The game also offers the player to construct their own team from cricketers already in the game. There is also a "Classic XI" mode, which has famous cricketers of the past such as W.G. Grace, Imran Khan and Jim Laker. Also, you can create three made-up career players. Then build up their skills to make them extremely great players. For example, you could make a batsman hit 500 not out, and add it to his experience.

Challenges

There are also a challenge mode in the game, where the player can take on cricketing challenges based on notable cricket matches from the past. The player can either recreate or rewrite history, depending on the team they choose to play as. These include such matches as "The birth of The Ashes", the 1933 Bodyline test match, Garfield Sobers' six sixes, and the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup final. There are 10 challenges in total.

Reaction and criticism

Reaction from the public and critics was very good with ratings averaging around 7.5 out of 10 [ [http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/925855.asp?q=Brian%20Lara%20Cricket%202005 Reviews of Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 on gamerankings.com] ] . Most criticism is of the player designs not resembling the actual people, which is a licensing issue. There is also a problem with the wicket keeper who doesn't wear a helmet like in many other cricket games. [Although in the ICC events the players look like they do in real life.] .Some other shortcomings include no overthrows and running on overthrow, batsman cannot come down the track to hit or defend, the ball is always thrown to the wicketkeeper rather than at the stumps or to the bowler leaving balls driven to midoff easier to run on, and leaving the ball without playing a shot reduces the batsman's confidence. Batting and bowling averages of players do not evolve with play, unless the player has created a career player.

There is also a minor error. Ravi Rampaul, the West Indies fast bowler of Indian descent, is classified as a leg-spinner. As a result, he usually opens the bowling for West Indies in the game.

ee also

*Brian Lara Cricket series
*Brian Lara
*Codemasters
*Brian Lara International Cricket 2007

Notes

External links

* [http://www.codemasters.com/ Official Codemasters website]
*
* [http://www.planetcricket.net/blc/ Planetcricket.net]