All over in time for tea.
Now I’ve only focused on the main gameplay point of Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, but there’s a hell of a lot more here to discuss. If I did that though, you’d be sat there longer than the time it takes for the entire Test Series to be played. Suffice to say that once you get into the game, there’s lots of little details essential to the gameplay that you’ll find yourself making use of. An example is the running, where you elect to run with a button press, and, if you feel like it, you have a chance to cancel the run and sprint back to the crease. There are loads of little tips like this that make the manual worth reading after you’ve had a few quick games to get the feel of it.
And speaking of games, there’s plenty of different types on offer here from Internationals, full Test Matches and my favourites, the Classic Matches where the game switches to grainy black and white and gives you a taste of modern cricket when it was first born all the way up to those matches regularly featured in a Channel Five “Greatest Sporting Moments” programme. For true cricket fans, you’ll notice that a lot of the players and their names aren’t accurate. That’s because Brian Lara only has the ICC license, so those players appear as they should, but non-ICC players are made all the more obvious as the names are wrong… ho hum, I guess you can’t have it all, eh?
So to sum it up, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 plays a damn good game of willow and leather, with a few graphical glitches and some minor gameplay issues. Neither of these stop the game being enjoyable and, most importantly, playable. The game mechanic itself has been designed so that should you miss that almighty drive for a four, you’ll know it’s because you miss-timed your stroke. Likewise, that wide that spoiled what would have been a maiden over is clearly shown as you not hitting the right button at the right time. This is important, as compared with EA Cricket 2005, Brian Lara is far more open and forgiving whereas EA’s game mechanics left you wondering just why the hell what seemed like the same button presses at the same time result in a boundary one shot and a shattered stump the next. As a choice between the two go for Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, it’s easy playability nudges it ahead of EA’s effort.
Pros
Easy control system
Game mechanic show where you fluff up
AI clever enough to take advantage of repetitive tactics
Batting, bowling and fielding all easy to pick up
Confidence system emulates real life
Cons
Dodgy animation in places
Not as polished as EA Cricket 2005
Fielding limited by only throwing to wicket keeper
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 hits a four while EA Cricket 2005 is walking back to the pavilion.
