Featuring official ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 content, Brian Lara International Cricket is set to return after a two-year absence. Also known as Ricky Ponting...
There’s a cricket world cup going on, you know. While it hasn’t exactly managed to reach the fever pitch of nation-stopping insanity that football inflicts on us, it does send marketing departments the nation over into overdrive in an attempt to find some way to make money out of it. The latest Brian Lara game may not be an official product of the world cup, but it is licensed with the one name in cricket that may actually be bigger than the tournament itself.
So, if this game is in any way accurate, the English team will manage one fluke series win, be considered world conquering heroes, go to meet the Queen, and then get their asses handed to them on a plate and be made to look like a bunch of mugs in the next series. Thankfully, whereas in real life the team is dependant on coaches and selectors who are so out of touch with reality they probably still think we’re a world cricket super power, at least in the game the developers have put you in control of decisions on and off pitch. No, not off pitch as in taking your players out and getting them so ruthlessly drunk they having to be rescued from drowning a few hours before a big match, because that would just be really unprofessional and stupid. Wouldn’t it? Yes.
Anyway, there are three aspects to the on-field action in Lara. Firstly, the bowling is pretty technical: after selecting your different types of bowlers, who each have several methods of delivery available to them, you use a combination of both analogue sticks and shoulder buttons to get the right aim, swing and direction on the ball. There’s a lot involved in getting it right – who would have thought that throwing a bit of leather at someone’s knackers would be so difficult. It will take some practice to get into the swing of it, so to speak, and become anything more than cannon fodder for some hotshot century-making batsmen.
Batting is slightly easier: just get yourself in the right position, keep an eye on the ball, and hope that you don’t pop it embarrassingly gently into some fielder’s hands. Batting is all about reactions, which depend on what fiendish delivery you are on the end of. Then it’s just the minor matter of making sure you don’t sprint off for that quick run when you clearly won’t make it. Which will happen. A lot.
As you would expect from a Codemasters’ sports game, there are a ton of different match options for different types of play depending on how much time you have. After all, in the real world games can last five days and still not produce a winner (unless, of course, England are playing).
What is surprising is that on the Xbox 360, the visuals don’t really scream next-gen at you. We know what the 360 can do and this sure as hell isn’t doing it. We don’t expect Gears of War from 20 odd men on a green field throwing some leather and swinging bits of wood around, but it does feel more like a port from the PS2 than a lead system title. Hopefully the developers will have their priorities right in time for the next big cricketing event.
Cricket is along drawn out game, so you will need plenty of time and concentration to be able to win all the different matches you will face in Brian Lara 2007. Does it reward your perseverance? Well, that depends on how much of a cricket fan you are. If you live, eat and breathe it then you would probably love it, but would get frustrated by the occasional fielder glitch that spoils the immersion somewhat. For the rest of it, it’s a brave attempt at trying to make a an unexciting sport exciting and it does a good job of that in some of the shorter match types.
Perhaps the only thing the game is missing are the corruption scandals, the betting and match fixing that is still rife in the game, and the odd murder of a team’s coach just after they’ve had one of the most shocking defeats in world cricket history.
Brian Lara is a neat combination of cool single player match options and a brave crack at doing cricket multiplayer that surprisingly works really well. As a sports simulation it does a respectable job of jazzing up a historically dull sport, but we doubt there will be long term appeal for anyone not already obsessed with it. With better visuals and faster gameplay, Brian Lara would at least have been more impressive to the non cricket-geeks.
Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/23362881/Brian.Lara.International.Cricket.2007_RELOADED.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/23362766/Brian.Lara.International.Cricket.2007_RELOADED.part02.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/23362853/Brian.Lara.International.Cricket.2007_RELOADED.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/23358493/Brian.Lara.International.Cricket.2007_RELOADED.part33.rar
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