Brian Lara Cricket 2005 (XBOX)

[jimtendo]

Had a good go of this yesterday, and so far it seems alright.

First off, there's a 60hz mode, which is always nice.
Real player names seem to be sporadic, with some players correct, and the majority of them are 'sound-a-likes'
Good job there's a edit mode. Though not quite as comprehensive as Winning Eleven.

I've started 1 exhibition match so far (England v Australia... well it had to be done ;p) and the bowling has changed slightly - mainly with some more bowling types (bouncer and yorkers for the seamers) plus the added addition of applying swing to your pitch with the L & R triggers.

Batting is more or less unchanged, as far as i know.

There's now a 'confidence' meter for both bowler and batsman. Not quite sure what this has on the bowler. Probably the higher the meter the more accurate/ general better bowling he has, and i would assume the same goes for the batsman, where he gets better at shotmaking/ timing?

One thing that does irk me is that every time you throw the ball back, it always goes to the wicket keeper, even though he might be at the 'far' stumps relative to you. I haven't had an encounter where i'm going to stump someone for a run out, but if the fielder decides to throw to the wicket keeper, instead to the person nearest fielder who is at the stumps nearer to you, then it could be a problem.

No manual replays = boo sticks.

[ukplumber]

My mate has the PS2 version and he complained of a very erractic camera. Jumping to the umpuire when you've struck a six so you don't get the full effect and the angles seem wrong. I'll get a rented copy (Xbox) from BB tonight and see how i get on. Just out of interest, have you played EA Cricket 2005 and if so, how does it compare? cheers.

[glazza]

I agree with most things geektanic weezmacht says and the comment about the camera jumping to the Umpire everytime you hit a six by ukplumber but i wouldnt say its a massive problem as ya get a nice couple of replays straight after.

I like the batting first off lots of good animation and you can realy time your shots well.Make sure to check field placement on every bowl as the cpu tends to change it around almost every bowl.

As for bowling again like geektanic weezmacht says the addition of swing can realy make a difference although ive not managed to take too many wickets with direct hits just yet but i have to say realy enjoying it at the mo and the way the light changes is also pretty cool.

Will report with more later as ive just made my first fifty with collingwood and nice to see they show the batsman celebrating and saluting the crowd.

[Shoju]

What's the bowling animation like? Ever since they switched to polygons the bowling animation in cricket games has looked really unrealistic.

[jimtendo]

I've clean bowled a couple of times, both of them were to left handers. What i did was to get the ball to (very late) swing back into them when i've pitched around just off stump, and about 3 quarters up the pitch. the ball was around 70+ overs at the time with Hoggard.

The bowlers celebrations are a bit pap as well.
When they do get someone out, all they do is raise one hand aloft :|
I was expecting them to do windmill style celebrations, or jumping up in the air pumping fists... but nothing like that.

Another thing that has irked me.
When playing a test match (this is on Village difficulty, if it makes any difference) my match was constantly interupted with rain delays. And yet we reach the 5th day and Australia are still batting - this is still the first innings.
I would've thought they might've tried to declare way before that and try to actually play a game of cricket.

In the end it ended up a draw since the match hadn't left the first innings.

[Abhisara]

I got the PS2 version in the post earlier today and have been playing it a bit. First cricket game I've enjoyed since Brian Lara 99. The game was very easy to get into, and on the whole I'm quite happy with it.

Had a go at one of the classic matches. I needed to score 85 with England to beat Australia in a replay of a famous old game. Managed it with WG Grace (complete with impressive beard) getting 57* including a 6 to win it. As a extra touch, this match was displayed in black & white - despite this game occurring in 1882, and the commentators spending more time discussing the merits of Lara and Tendulkar. Haven't tried the Test match option yet.

Batting seems similar to before, but I like the addition of the confidence meter and the other meter which tells you how well your last shot was timed. The bowling system seems pretty good. I'll need to play around with it a bit more. The fielders always throwing to the keeper's end is annoying. However, I like the little addition when you throw the ball back. A little meter appears, and hitting it in the centre results in a fast, flat throw whereas hitting it at the edge makes the throw slower and loopier. Makes all the difference when it comes to run outs.

The fake players for exhibition matches was a bit disappointing. The stats are all correct and the names are only slightly different WE-style, but all the faces are completely wrong. The only editing you can do to these is changng the names, and even then you don't have the option of inputting spaces or hyphens which is a minor problem for names like "Inzamam-ul-Haq". Didn't take me too long to fix all the names.

The actual squads are a bit of a mixed bag with some such as England being right up to date (Pietersen and all), and others such as Zimbabwe still including the likes of Henry Olonga and Andy Flower who fled the country 2? years ago.

There is an option to create your own squads with the players in the game e.g. a World XI of some sort. You can also pick from a bunch of classic players (WE-style again) who need to be unlocked first.

[PeteBrant]

There's now a 'confidence' meter for both bowler and batsman. Not quite sure what this has on the bowler. Probably the higher the meter the more accurate/ general better bowling he has, and i would assume the same goes for the batsman, where he gets better at shotmaking/ timing?

When the bowler confidence meter is full, he can perform one of two "special" deliveries, which vary according to the style of bowler - Yorkers, Googlys, Bouncers etc.