| Brian Lara Cricket the first cricket game to appear on the playstation was the long-awaited Brian Lara Cricket from Codemasters. The game starts off with a well crafted intro sequence showing off the close-up graphics in the game and it plays a cool dance track to boot. The menu setup is clear with many options including: Practice mode where you test your skills in the nets, Match mode where you can enter tournaments and Archives where you can view your previous best scores on memory card. In the match mode you can play in various competitions which include world cup, world series and test series, and you can also play single matches too. There is plenty here to keep the average sports gamer occupied which is certainly a good thing and all of the top international teams are there to choose from, although they are outdated now. One great addition to this game is the Classic Match mode where you have to play in famous cricket matches from the past, if you reach your target you move up a level to the next match which becomes more difficult. The matches start off with the camera showing you all parts of the ground, most of which are packed full. It is worth noting that there are 46 stadium models from all over the world and every one looks very realistic. The commentary in the game comes from Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott, they talk through the conditions before the game then Boycott goes on to give his comments on who will win, during the game the commentary flows well but it soon gets repetitive and irritating. The graphics in BLC are superb, the 3D players are well created and they look almost life-like, the pitches look just as good and the colour of the grass changes depending on the weather conditions, in India the pitch will be hard and bouncy whereas in England it will be softer with a lower bounce. One downfall with the graphics is the way the crowd looks, they are far too blocky which makes them look rather silly. What the game does seem to offer is immense atmosphere, the home crowd chants and cheers through the match depending on what's happening and the players call to each other on the pitch, you can even hear the batsmen call for runs. Another nice touch to the game is the automatic TV replay which comes on for close run-out decisions and when wickets fall. The controls for batting are very simplistic with one push of the direction and one press of a button to play the shot, the bowling controls allow for a little more experimentation, especially with spin bowlers but for the more expert player the controls may not be quite challenging enough. Brian Lara Cricket has a few niggly faults but it offers plenty of action and it is much more playable than EA Cricket 2000. Cricket fans will definitely love this!Wolfie |
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