Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 Ps2 Game Download

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Magnhild Lachowicz

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Aug 3, 2024, 3:41:29 PM8/3/24

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Brian Lara Cricket is the first game in the series to be endorsed by Brian Lara. It was developed by Audiogenic and published by Codemasters in 1994 for DOS and then a year later in 1995 for the Mega Drive and Amiga systems.

Also known as Lara '96, this game is a new version of Brian Lara Cricket on the Mega Drive with updated player names and statistics. It is the final game in the series to be developed by Audiogenic and was published by Codemasters in 1996.

Released in 1999, this was the first 3D accelerated game in the series. It was the first fifth generation game in the series, developed and shipped by Codemasters for the Sony PlayStation and Windows platforms with commentary provided by Geoffrey Boycott and Jonathan Agnew. This game was also branded as Shane Warne Cricket '99 in Australia and New Zealand.

Developed by Swordfish Studios for Codemasters, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 is a 6th generation console game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows. It was released to coincide with the 2005 Ashes series. BLIC 2005 builds on the 3D environment that was first introduced in Brian Lara Cricket '99 and enhances it with rendered crowds and detailed stadia. It was released in Australia as Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2005.

Off the success of BLIC2005, Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 was developed. Using the same release date tactics as the previous game, it was shipped during the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The game was available for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles, as well as for Windows. This version includes many graphical as well as gameplay improvements. The Xbox 360 version is the first console port in the series to be in high definition widescreen. Gameplay improvements include analogue direction control when batting, this allows the player to attempt to hit the ball in any direction. In India, it was released as Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007. It was also the second game in the Ricky Ponting international series.

In 1985, Michael McLean at Audiogenic, a subsidiary of Supersoft wrote Graham Gooch's Test Cricket for the C64 computer system.[1] The game sold well and received high ratings, and so Audiogenic followed it up with Graham Gooch's All Star Cricket in 1987.[2] The game that was to become Graham Gooch World Class Cricket was scheduled to be released for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1991, but development was delayed to ensure quality. When it did eventually appear in 1993 it was a huge success,[3] reaching No.1 in the Amiga charts. A PC version followed a year later.

In 1994 Audiogenic identified an opportunity to capitalise on the success of Brian Lara, who had broken two long-standing world records, and rebranded World Class Cricket game as Brian Lara Cricket, initially for the DOS but also later for the Amiga. A year later Audiogenic licensed Brian Lara Cricket for the Sega Mega Drive to Codemasters. It was successful and spent 10 weeks at No.1 in the UK video games chart during the summer of 1995. Brian Lara Cricket '96 was released the following year in 1996 also by Codemasters, and it too got to No.1 in the charts. In late 1996 Codemasters acquired the Audiogenic development and Brian Lara Cricket '99 for the PlayStation console was released in 1998.

In 2005 Codemasters released Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 for the PlayStation 2 console, released on 21 July to coincide with the start of the 2005 Ashes series. The game received high ratings.[4] Off the back of this success, Codemasters has developed Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 which was released in March 2007, to coincide with the Cricket World Cup. Brian Lara Pressure Play followed in August for the PSP,[5] reaching No.1 in its first week on release.[6]

With Brian Lara's retirement from professional cricket in 2007 Codemasters moved away from using Lara in the title. The next cricket game released by the publisher was Ashes Cricket 2009 in August 2009, which continues with the same playing style as the Brian Lara series of cricket games.[7] Codemasters has released the latest International Cricket 2010 on in June 2010 as a sequel to the Ashes Cricket 2009. The Cricket series is moving on after Brian Lara's retirement and re-branding of the video games series.

Cricket is, and has always been, the red-headed stepchild of sports gaming. Lacking a sufficiently fervent fanbase (relative to, say, the global appeal of football, or massive following of most any US sport -- American Football et al.), digital recreations of the sport have seldom been anything more than perfunctory. 'Half-assed' would be something of a euphemism, in fact.

In the interim, EA Sports' attempts have grown increasingly sadistic, perhaps in a bizarre experiment to determine just how much pain and disappointment a desperate cricketing populace can endure before succumbing in disgust. Foisted upon a forgiving fanbase (beggars can't be choosers, after all), their bi-annual abominations have been everything from laughably ridiculous to just plain broken; infested with bugs to the point that were it a living creature, it would have to be taken out back and... well, 'euthanized.'

You can perhaps understand then, why this new iteration of Brian Lara Cricket is greatly anticipated; it remains the one viable source of hope for videogame fans of the sport. In terms of features, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 is about as comprehensive as a cricket videogame is ever likely to be: all major and minor international teams are represented, albeit with fake player names (bar Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, the cover athlete for the Australian release). Players can participate in one-day and test matches as well as World Cup and Champions Trophy tournaments. And everything from an exhibition match to a single test series to an entire world tour can be contested. There are even Challenge events that require players to compete in classic matches and attempt to rewrite the history books. The sheer depth of choice is staggering.

Of the many modes on offer, one that players will quickly become intimately familiar with is the Create/Edit Squad mode. Without the necessary licenses in place, all players, save for the abovementioned, feature mangled derivations of their real names. Likewise, the player models bear only minor resemblance to their real-life counterparts. That the developers opted for a decidedly less realistic take on player likenesses is not in itself a problem, that the players all resemble hideously malformed trolls, is.

While this can't be fixed quite as readily as player names, it is something we can endure. Hardened by years of abuse, cricket game enthusiasts are nothing if not a resilient bunch. What really chafes, is the game's inconsistent presentation. The Hawk-Eye-like analysis is a welcome, if frivolous touch. The canned interactions between bowler and batsman (when playing and missing a delivery, for example), however, are not. They're insipid and pointless and only serve to highlight the average animation. The camera angles employed are typical of contemporary TV coverage and were it not for the awkward segues, would serve the intended purpose well enough.

Commentary, arguably one of the most important facets of any sports game's presentation, is woeful. Cricket commentary is, by its very nature, difficult to emulate. The length of a typical cricket match demands the need for a proportionally significant amount of chatter between commentators, the range and depth (and banality) of which could never hope to be recreated properly in-game. Even so, the commentary, cobbled together with inane comments, 'insights', and canned banter grows overly tiresome rather rapidly. To their credit, Codemasters have at least gone to the lengths of securing the services of no fewer than five commentators -- Jonathan Agnew, Tony Greig, Bill Lawry, David Gower, and Ian Bishop. Kudos for that. But then, almost unbelievably so, their tone and delivery is even more soporific than in real-life.

Limitless patience too, is a trait found in your long-suffering cricket game enthusiast; the common view being that if the gameplay holds together, everything else can be tolerated. In this respect, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 is both hit and miss (pun not intended). Batting and bowling are handled well enough, offering just enough skill and variation to both aspects of the gameplay to make for matches that are fun, and at times even absorbing. The modicum of fielding interactivity (players must correctly time a button press to throw or catch effectively) does just enough to involve the player without making the whole concept needlessly complicated.

The vagaries of the sport are all present (inside edges, for example, do happen, though rarely) and a sweetly timed cover-drive will set the heart aflutter and fill you with just a touch of smug self-satisfaction. So there's something there. The gameplay is far from perfect, but it offers just enough to prove somewhat gratifying. That Swordfish Studios have managed to recreate much of the core gameplay, and still overlook so many seemingly obvious aspects of the sport, however, smacks of laziness, lack of ability, or apathy. Whatever the reason, it's unacceptable.

But why is it then that we must put up with all manner of oversights, omissions, and downright stupid design choices in order to glean just a touch of enjoyment from the game? Things like not being able to throw to the bowler's end. Ever. Things like watching the keeper idiotically break the stumps when the batsman has long since made his ground; fielders who always throw the ball back to the keeper (What, no-one holds onto the ball anymore?); wides that aren't called correctly in one-day matches. The list goes on. And though these may sound like nitpicked details, they could have easily been remedied, and their presence ultimately detracts from the game.